Centrist Dad Mag
The Meaning of Prospect
By Josh White
Prospect is a great magazine for your centrist dad. Buy him a copy.
Watch him flick through its pages with pleasure, the experience gradually enlivening his dismal eyes after years of hardship.
This is the magazine of the New Labour era when things could only get better.
The first issue was published in October 1995, just a year after Tony Blair became Labour leader following John Smith’s death.
Much like The Spectator was the magazine of the Thatcher era, Prospect was the publication of the early Blair years.
Nearly thirty years later, the magazine lacks the raw vitality of new media. It’s no longer the magazine of today, let alone tomorrow.
Prospect’s politics have been described as ‘left-leaning’, but it’s really a liberal-centrist outfit, part of the post-historical, post-political zeitgeist of the mid-90s.
Financial Times journalist David Goodhart founded Prospect as a monthly general interest magazine. It would run essays rather than focus on news analysis. At the time, Prospect was a rare kind of magazine in the UK.
By the end of the New Labour government, Prospect was facing an uncertain future as a young publication not used to being on the losing side. Just a year into the Cameron era, Goodhart decided to leave the magazine he had founded.
A decade later, in 2021, Alan Rusbridger took over the editorship. Once in charge, the former The Guardian editor set out to revive Prospect during the dying years of the Tory government. He has certainly made it worth reading again.
Meanwhile, Goodhart has become better known for his work taking down multiculturalism and immigration. He even appeared at London’s hard-right National Conservatism 2023 conference last year.
According to its 2023 media pack, Prospect has more than 360,000 monthly readers online, including over 33,000 subscribers.
Before the 2024 general election, Prospect counted 646 members of Parliament among these readers. According to this data, only four MPs are not subscribers.
A new centre ground may be solidifying under the Starmer government.
Meet Mr. Prospect
You can learn a few things about a publication from its media pack. After all, this is the PDF circulated among advertisers. This information gives you an impression of what kind of person Mr. and Mrs. Prospect may be.
The average Prospect reader is middle class, though 54% of subscribers are company directors or executives. An estimated 60% of its subscribers are worth more than £750,000, while 74% use a wealth management company or a private bank.
Prospect has kindly highlighted some comments by its subscribers in its media pack. These include the words of Sharon White, chair of John Lewis.
“I value the broad range of viewpoints explored in Prospect,” she said. “It’s prepared to challenge business norms and open up the debate on kinder forms of capitalism.”
Around 90% of subscribers consider the environment when making investment decisions, according to the media pack. However, just 53% make daily decisions based on environmental issues.
Liberal environmentalist Bill McKibben called Prospect the “anti-Twitter”. “The world is running somewhat short of careful, thoughtful debate that takes its time and covers serious ground, while social media is only getting shoutier,” he said.
Debate for its own sake is usually a waste of time. Very few people change their minds as a result. But this liberal commitment to civil discussion appeals to the ‘evidence-based politics’ crowd. It’s an end in itself.
Another quote comes from Rory Stewart, known as ‘the last good Tory’ to anyone who never questioned the occupation of Afghanistan.
“Prospect proves that you can be compassionate, moderate, radical and realistic simultaneously,” said Stewart. “Its commitment to truth, persuasion and empathy is desperately needed in the age of populism.”
The data just keeps on giving. 51% of Prospect subscribers own a luxury car produced by household names like Tesla, while 61% of subscribers own expensive watches from brands like Rolex.
More importantly, 90% are wine drinkers, and just 45% are into whisky. Even fewer – just 43% – prefer champagne.
This raises the important question of what brandy connoisseurs and vodka fanatics are reading instead of Prospect.
But one quote stands out above all others in the media pack.
“My doctor prescribed me a once-monthly dose of Prospect,” said comedian Joe Lycett. “Now I am healthy, happy and fertile. Be sure to ask your doctor about Prospect.”
Unfortunately, the media pack does not offer data on its readers’ fertility, so we will have to take Lycett’s word for it.
Prospects Left
Magazines have long played a crucial part in British political and cultural life. Prospect was once a conduit for the Third Way paradigm, but those days are long gone.
This may partly explain why Rusbridger now hosts the Media Confidential podcast with former FT editor Lionel Barber. This is a must-listen for anyone who wants to keep up with the changing landscape of UK media.
Some of the best work Prospect has produced in the last year has been on media titans like Rupert Murdoch and those who want to succeed him. Few publications covered Paul Marshall, the man behind GB News, in such depth as Prospect.
There may be more space for media analysis and criticism in the age of Starmer. This is more welcome than ever, given that many liberals fear fake news, disinformation, and the alternative facts of post-truth politics.
This is one way forward since Starmer’s victory has not enthused many Britons. Even among the elite, there is a sense of foreboding about the future.
However, it would be a terrible move for Prospect to try and play the same role for Labour that it did in the 1990s.
The old mag of New Labour now faces rivals familiar and new. The New Statesman wants to be the magazine for the Starmer era, just as Prospect was the journal of the early Blair years.
Meanwhile, start-up organisations like The New European have sprung up to compete for the hard Remain audience. Even Tortoise is a challenger for liberal readers.
In this new era, Prospect faces more competition than ever before. It can’t just be another sophisticated publication for ‘sensible’ readers, nor can it be the magazine for the ‘grown-up’ government.
It’s hard to say what this magazine’s role should be since its 1990s paradigm was shattered.
This is partly the problem of fighting for the ideology of non-ideology. But Rusbridger is the journal’s best hope since the early days of Goodhart.
Prospect can still be the journal for bright ideas while keeping a convenient distance from the Labour administration.
However, Alan Rusbridger may want more for Prospect than offering readers a niche alternative to other liberal publications.
The next five years will be a test not just for Starmer but for all centrist media.
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Photograph courtesy of the International Journalism Festival. Published under a Creative Commons license.