New Statesman editor-in-chief Jason Cowley has announced he will step down at the end of December after 16 years at the title.

Cowley will continue to write for the New Statesman as a columnist and essayist.

He became editor after the acquisition of the New Statesman by Datamonitor founder Mike Danson in 2008 and has led its transformation from a weekly political and cultural magazine to a multimedia brand.

The New Statesman today has a paywalled website and a raft of award-winning podcasts, newsletters and video journalism strands in addition to the flagship weekly magazine.

New Statesman Ltd managing director Will Crocker said: “I would like to thank Jason for his tremendous work over the last 16 years.

“He took the New Statesman to a 40-year high in circulation, he is a multiple winner of the British Society of Magazine Editors’ editor of the year award (politics and current affairs), and he has always championed good writing and independent journalism.

“Above all else, he has been a brilliant talent-spotter: a new generation of political journalists and writers rose to prominence under his leadership. We will be very sorry to see him step down but are delighted he will continue to contribute to the New Statesman through his elegant and intelligent writing.”

Journalists recruited by Cowley who have gone on to success elsewhere in the media have included: Helen Lewis, Mehdi Hasan, Stephen Bush, Laurie Penny, Patrick Maguire, Sophie Elmhirst, Rafael Behr, Johanna Thomas-Corr and Will Lloyd.

‘Home-grown’ writers still with the NS who were recruited by Cowley include senior editor (politics) George Eaton, Britain editor Anoosh Chakelian and senior commissioning editor Anna Leszkiewicz.

Cowley told Press Gazette: “I’ve loved editing the New Statesman for so long, it’s been hard work but also great fun.

“Most rewarding has been helping to develop and nurture a new generation of talented political and cultural writers, bringing them on to the team and giving them an opportunity to write and broadcast and it is fantastic to see them flourish and go on to have big careers in the media.

“As well as having significant writers on the team, the New Statesman should be nurturing new writers and encouraging new talent. I think that’s the thing the Statesman does best and should continue to do.

“I’ve also been proud of the New Statesman having sceptical politics, trying to keep an open mind and championing what I would call a kind of independent liberalism whilst also growing the brand and making it the multi-platform digital title that it is today.

“I’m also delighted that I will continue to have a relationship with the magazine and write for it.

“I’d like to thank all my colleagues for their dedication, support and hard work and I expect the title to go from strength to strength.”

The Christmas special will be Cowley’s last as editor.

He said: “I became editor during the last days of a Labour government, and it now feels appropriate, after all these years, to move on with Labour in power once more.”

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An editorial reshuffle at the New Statesman has seen special correspondent Stephen Bush become political editor at the current affairs magazine.

Bush moved to the New Statesman from his assistant comment editor role at The Telegraph in February 2015.

He previously spent a year as editor of the New Statesman’s rolling political blog, The Staggers.

Other senior editorial changes at the title include City Metric editor Jonn Elledge taking on the role of assistant digital editor.

Former books and features editor Tom Gatti and ex-political editor George Eaton will become joint-deputy editors of the title.

Eleanor Peake, formerly of Wired UK, has joined the online team as its new social media editor.

In a statement on the reshuffle, New Statesman editor-in-chief Jason Cowley said: “These appointments are to prepare for a planned expansion of the New Statesman in 2019.

“We have had another successful year and we will be hiring more journalists in the months ahead as we continue to grow both in print and online.”

It comes a month after the magazine announced it was hiring writer Grace Blakeley as its economics commentator.

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The New Statesman has announced record website traffic with more than 2.5 million 'users' visiting the magazine’s website newstatesman.com in October.

This follows an earlier record of 1.84 million unique users in August, the magazine said in a statement (which quoted Google Analytics figures).

Editor Jason Cowley said: “These bumper figures are yet another cause for celebration as we draw near to the end of our centenary year. But these figures are not an outlier: they follow strong growth all year.

“Since the successful redesign of newstatesman.com two years ago, our in-house team – led by our web editor, Caroline Crampton, and George Eaton, editor of our rolling politics blog, The Staggers – have made sure more and more online readers turn to us to find the very best writing about politics, ideas, current affairs, philosophy, religion and culture. I am delighted that the website has developed its own distinctive identity. Its success mirrors that of the print magazine, which has just expanded to 72 pages this week as a result of buoyant advertising revenues and a significant increase in paid-for circulation. Indeed, subscriptions are more than 20 per cent up [on last year] in 2013.”

Helen Lewis, deputy editor of the New Statesman, said: “Russell Brand’s essay was a huge success for us, with more than half a million hits, nearly 90,000 Facebook interactions and 1,000 tweets. But in the same weekend, we had other, more low-key successes: a piece from our new blogger Ian Steadman which made the front page of Reddit, for example, and a great take on Educating Yorkshire which went viral on Facebook. It’s clear that this is no fluke: our traffic has grown by more than 400% since the site was relaunched in April last year.”

The New Statesman, which like Press Gazette is part of the Progressive Media group, currently publishes all its online content free of charge. Print content appears online one week after the magazine goes to press.

The magazine launched its iPad and iPhone app two weeks ago and says these have been downloaded by thousands of users.

Cowley said: “Our digital subscriptions, including those on Kindle, are growing rapidly and we are now being read all over the world by people who are interested in good writing, original thinking and progressive ideas. We are especially committed to the essay and to long-form journalism.

“The New Statesman continues to reduce its losses and, because of the success of our centenary year, will be profitable in 2014. It’s a remarkable transformation in the fortunes of this great magazine.”

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