Prospect

Prospect is a monthly current affairs publication title in the U.K. of news writing and debate. It is published in print ten times a year, including special issues in both the winter and the summer. It has a website, and app, and a group of newsletters with contributions from writers worldwide.

The principal owner and supporter of Prospect U.K. is the think tank Resolution Foundation, which describes its mission as improving living standards for those on low incomes. Prospect is a nonprofit publication stating as one of its goals fostering public interest activities. Prospect notes that it operates independently of the Resolution Foundation. 

Prospect’s CEO is Mark Beard, and editor-in-chief is Alan Rusbridger, a former editor at The Guardian newspaper. Prospect claims to be politically independent, with no party-political affiliation or agenda.

The Prospect Podcast is released each Wednesday, and Media Confidential, its most recent podcast, comes out each Thursday to an international audience. The journal has had a strong online presence since its inception, but there is no print-only option.

Prospect was launched in 1995 by David Goodhart, an ex-Financial Times journalist who became the magazine’s first editor; Derek Coombs, a former Conservative MP who would become its founding chairman; and Charles Seaford, Prospect’s first publisher.

Since its founding the magazine has grown and honors the words in its first editorial: “Standing back from the scrum, Prospect will offer a different rhythm, an alternative journalistic ‘time,’ and a home for those writers who can see further than the rest of us.”

Prospect attracts some 250,000 online readers per month and 50,000 podcast downloads. There is no print-only subscription option; users of the website can read three articles each month before being required to subscribe.

On May 2, 2014, Press Gazette reported that American magazine The Atlantic had become profitable after a history of financial troubles.

Beard said recently that the plan for the Prospect is to be funded by two-thirds reader revenue—subscriptions and newsstand—with the remaining third coming from advertising, sponsorship, and events, the same division as The Atlantic. An established news monthly, The Atlantic now has more than one million subscribers across print and digital, according to Press Gazette.

But CEO Beard told Press Gazette the title is now eyeing growth, like that of The Atlantic, having gone through a period he described as “fixing the plumbing.”

 “The Guardian was publishing 24/7 around the clock with 800 editorial staff and we were doing it in the middle of a digital revolution,” Rusbridger said. “So the amount of journalism you could do was quite limited. Here I have a newsroom of ten, so I’m involved in subbing, writing, and reporting. It’s rather nice to go back to getting your hands dirty.”

Editors of The Prospect have dubbed their style of writing and reporting as “slow journalism.”