New Humanist

• 1. Introduction

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  New Humanist is a British current affairs magazine with a history stretching back to November 1885, when a man named C. A. Watts launched a modest publication called Watts's Literary Guide. That small journal had no idea it would still be circulating well into the twenty-first century, asking sharp questions about culture, philosophy, science, and the news from a sceptical point of view. What drove a publication to reinvent its name four times across nearly a century and a half? And how did a London-based magazine outlast the very organisation that gave it life for a hundred and thirty-nine years?

• 2. From Watts to New Humanist

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  C. A. Watts gave the publication its first identity in November 1885, rooting it firmly in a literary and rationalist tradition. By 1894 the title had shifted to The Literary Guide and Rationalist Review, a name it held until 1954. Then came Humanist, which ran from 1956 until 1971. In 1972 the magazine took the name it carries today: New Humanist. Each renaming tracked a broader cultural shift in how secular and humanist movements understood themselves and chose to speak to their readers. The jump from a literary guide to a magazine explicitly naming humanism was not a cosmetic change; it signalled a commitment to a distinct philosophical identity, one that the publication has carried under the banner of the Rationalist Association for most of its life.

• 3. The Editors Who Shaped It

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  Jim Herrick edited New Humanist from 1984 until 2002, a tenure of eighteen years that made him one of the most influential figures in the magazine's modern era. After stepping down as editor, he stayed on as literary editor until his retirement in 2005. Frank Jordans held the editor's chair from 2002 until 2005. Caspar Melville then took over as managing editor in 2005 while also serving as CEO of the Rationalist Association, combining editorial and organisational leadership in a single role. Daniel Trilling assumed the editorship in 2013, and Samira Shackle served from spring 2020 to spring 2023. Niki Seth-Smith is the current editor, overseeing the magazine during a period of significant institutional change.

• 4. Voices on the Page

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  Laurie Taylor, Simon Hoggart, Sally Feldman, Shaparak Khorsandi, Samira Ahmed, Marcus Chown, and Michael Rosen are among the notable columnists the magazine has attracted, past and present. The range runs from sociologists to comedians to science writers, reflecting the magazine's commitment to covering culture and ideas from multiple angles rather than a single disciplinary lane. That breadth has helped it speak to a wide readership without narrowing into a specialist journal. Shaparak Khorsandi would later join the new editorial board formed after the merger with Humanists UK, connecting the magazine's column history to its governance future.

• 5. Awards and Recognition

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  New Humanist was shortlisted for the Foreign Press Association awards in 2023, a recognition that placed it alongside publications reporting on international affairs. That same year it won the Piazza Grande Religion Journalism Award, and then won that award again in 2024. Back-to-back wins in a specialist category signal consistent editorial quality on a subject that many outlets approach cautiously. The Piazza Grande award, focused on religion journalism, is a pointed honour for a magazine built on sceptical inquiry; it suggests that rigorous, critical coverage of religion from a secular perspective is valued precisely in the spaces where such coverage is rare.

• 6. Merger and New Governance

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  In January 2025, the Rationalist Association merged with Humanists UK, ending the association's role as publisher after a hundred and thirty-nine years. Humanists UK, now the magazine's publisher, moved quickly to reshape its governance. In May 2025, it announced that Ian Dunt would chair a new editorial board. Then in February 2026, Humanists UK announced a full roster of additional board members: writer Shaparak Khorsandi, geneticist Adam Rutherford, AI expert Kate Devlin, physicist Jim Al-Khalili, author Natasha Walter, journalist Stephen Bush, sociologist Laurie Taylor, broadcaster Samira Ahmed, political scientist Brian Klaas, reporter Peter Geogheghan, columnist Polly Toynbee, and the philosophers AC Grayling and Jonathan Wolff. That board, spanning science, journalism, philosophy, and politics, points toward the range of conversations the magazine intends to host as it moves deeper into its second century and a half.