The Spectator is now Europe’s fastest-growing current affairs magazine

As we reach the end of an incredible year, we at The Spectator are delighted to announce our latest sales figures: 81,900 for the third quarter of this year. That means we close this decade with sales up 43 per cent, in a magazine market that has declined by 63 per cent. Not bad for the world’s oldest weekly. And while we have a lot of digital-only sales, our print sales are also at all-time high: so digital is driving the success of print.

There has been an avalanche of political news in Britain, but the same is true all over Europe. So we looked at 36 European current affairs magazines over the last five full years (2013-18) using the standard industry figures. Of those 36, only eight are selling more than they were four years ago; six of them British: the Economist, Prospect, Private Eye, the Oldie and the New Statesman (going through a renaissance under Jason Cowley).