Our Plan is entirely new, comprising – 1. The whole News of the Week: selected, sifted, condensed and arranged as to be readable throughout. 2. A full and impartial exhibition of all the leading Politics of the Day. 3. A separate Discussion of Interesting Topics of a general nature, with a view to instruction and entertainment at the same time. 4. A Department devoted to Literatures… 5. Dramatic and Musical Criticism. 6. Scientific and Miscellaneous information.
— R.S. Rintoul’s announcement of a new weekly, July 1828
In the history of publishing, no magazine has ever printed a 10,000th issue. Until now. The Spectator is unusual not only in that it is the world’s oldest weekly, but that it still follows the formula that R.S. Rintoul set out in 1828: art and literature and culture should command as much attention as politics, foreign affairs and economics. Rintoul feared that his project was too romantic — and expensive — to be a commercial success.
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