Back in 2009 the publisher of lefty snooze-fest vanity project Prospect had high hopes for his monthly magazine. David Hanger boasted of a new £500,000 investment from venture capitalists and hedge fund managers that he pledged would double Prospect’s circulation, saying he “hoped that by the end of the three years, the magazine’s circulation would almost double from its current total of about 27,000 to more than 50,000”. Now those three years are well and truly up, Guido has decided to see if the investment came good.

Prospect’s ABC figures for March 2009 put their net total circulation at 27,623. The magazine’s all-important goal of 50,000 has turned out to be a distant pipe dream. The latest available figures put its circulation at just 32,115 three years on, a rise of just 16%. The real cause for concern is the the UK paid-for number. In 2009 they sold 18,122 copies every six months, but last year that number fell to just 16,555. Not even the box office hire James Macintyre could turn things around as their Political Editor. And as for David Hanger? He has seemingly been demoted from publisher to “publishing consultant”. Half-a-million pounds down the drain and nothing to show for it. Those venture capitalists and hedge fund managers really should have known better…