May 19, 2008

Granta editor Jason Cowley gets New Statesman job

Jason Cowley, the editor of Granta, the quarterly magazine which showcases new writing, has been named as the editor of New Statesman.

Cowley replaces John Kampfner who abruptly departed from the left of centre current affairs weekly in February after just under three years in the job.

Kampfner initially presided over a successful relaunch of the title – but in the second half of 2007 sales dropped 12.7 per cent year on year to 26,208. Deputy editor Sue Matthias has been acting editor since Kampfner’s departure.

Cowley has only been editor of Granta since last September. He previously edited Observer Sport Monthly magazine and has also been literary editor for the New Statesman.

Cowley comes to the New Statesman as it looks to be on the brink of a major new injection of cash. In April, New Statesman owner Geoffrey Robinson sold 50 per cent of the business to Michael Danson, a businessman who made a fortune from the sale of Datamonitor, the firm he founded in 1990.

Others reportedly in the running for the New Statesman job included political editor Martin Bright and Mark Seddon, the former editor of the Tribune.