Challenge (economics magazine)

• 1. Introduction

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  Challenge: The Magazine of Economic Affairs has been putting economics in front of general readers since 1952. That is a longer run than most journals manage, and it has not been a smooth one. The magazine died once, stayed dark for six years, then came back. What drove it to fold? What brought it back? And what does a bimonthly magazine dedicated to current economic affairs look like when it is still publishing decades later under a different house entirely?

• 2. Born at NYU

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  New York University's Institute of Economic Affairs launched Challenge in 1952, giving the publication an academic home from the start. The magazine was bimonthly from the beginning, a rhythm that suited a readership tracking policy and markets rather than daily news. NYU's institute provided institutional backing through the magazine's first decade and a half, during which Challenge carved out a niche covering economics as a matter of current public affairs, not just academic theory. That combination of scholarly grounding and topical focus shaped its identity in ways that would outlast its first incarnation.

• 3. The Gap Years

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  In 1967, Challenge stopped publishing. The reasons are not detailed in the record, but the silence lasted until 1973, a full six years. When the magazine returned, it came back under new management: M. E. Sharpe, a publisher with a strong track record in social science titles. The revival under Sharpe kept the original name and the bimonthly format, signaling that whoever relaunched it believed the core concept was sound. The 1967-1973 gap is the defining rupture in the magazine's history, a period long enough to lose an entire generation of subscribers.

• 4. Routledge and Today

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  M. E. Sharpe was eventually taken over by Routledge, and Challenge moved with it. Routledge is the current publisher. Jeff Madrick, affiliated with The Cooper Union, serves as editor-in-chief. The magazine continues to appear six times a year, covering current affairs in economics in the same broad-audience register it has maintained since the 1950s. Its long passage through three institutional homes, NYU, Sharpe, and now Routledge, makes it an unusual survivor in academic publishing, a title that outlasted the organization that created it.