New Statesman editor Jason Cowley took to the airwaves today on PoliticsLive to denounce Corbyn and stand by his paper’s decision to endorse no party during the election, encouraging tactical voting favouring female anti-Tory candidates instead. After flirting with Corbynism, the New Statesman is keen to reassert itself as a mainstream publication…

Nowhere is this more clear than in the case of Grace Blakeley – Corbyn outrider, television regular, and until recently the New Statesman’s economics commentator. Blakeley has, in the last few days, been appointed as a staff writer for the far left Tribune magazine instead. She was purged by Cowley…

Earlier this year, before he was demoted following a hatchet job on Roger Scruton, the then joint deputy editor of the New Statesman George Eaton hired Blakeley in a move Guido hears was designed to spite Cowley. Now it seems the tables have turned…

The New Statesman’s editor Jason Cowley has made George Eaton joint deputy editor with Tom Gatti. Congratulations to Stephen Bush who is promoted to political editor. Cowley says: “These appointments are to prepare for a planned expansion of the New Statesman in 2019. We have had another successful year…” Losses last year were £477,271.

New Statesman editor Jason Cowley has been boasting to anyone who’ll listen about how his magazine’s print circulation is at a four decade high. Last week Cowley crowed to the BBC’s Amol Rajan:

“In an era of fake news, people are realising that good journalism is worth spending money on. While much of the liberal media has been struggling to survive in a declining market dominated by powerful media groups, the New Statesman has not merely held its position but expanded dramatically”

Delve into the Statesman’s ABC certificate, however, and it becomes clear they are cooking the books…

Only 68.6% of the Statesman’s circulation is “actively purchased” – this is remarkably low and well below its competitors. Put another way, the Statesman gives away 31.4% of its copies for free. They might have their highest circulation for 40 years, but they are giving one in three copies away for no charge…

Compared to their rivals, the Statesman is significantly fiddling its figures. The Spectator gives away just 11.9% of its circulation for free – fewer than 1 in 8 copies. 15% of the Economist’s circulation is given away for free. The Week gives a quarter of its copies away for free. 0.1% of Private Eye’s circulation are freebies. The Statesman’s addiction to giveaways stands out – and helps them massively manipulate their headline circulation figure.

Cowley’s boast last week claimed “In an era of fake news, people are realising that good journalism is worth spending money on”. This itself is fake – a third of the Statesman’s print readers don’t spend any money – not counting that it is also free online, whereas rivals like The Economist and The Spectator have online paywalls. “In an era of fake news”, surely the Statesman should be more honest…

New Statesman editor Jason Cowley buries humourless former Miliband aide Tom Baldwin:

Boris Johnson is a jumped-up newspaper columnist with intellectual pretensions whose idiocies are indulged by a confederacy of dunces

— Jason Cowley (@JasonCowleyNS) April 22, 2016

@TomBaldwin66 ah Baldwin … Whatever happened to your campaign for No 10!?

— Jason Cowley (@JasonCowleyNS) April 22, 2016

@TomBaldwin66 I wrote in the @NewStatesman in Nov 2014 that you were heading for defeat and you continued on in your blithe, deluded way

— Jason Cowley (@JasonCowleyNS) April 22, 2016

@TomBaldwin66 Such hauteur … but, of course, I forgot you prefer your wealth inherited and your mansions to be in north London.

— Jason Cowley (@JasonCowleyNS) April 22, 2016

@TomBaldwin66 circulation at a 30 year high, web traffic at record levels, business profitable. Goodbye

— Jason Cowley (@JasonCowleyNS) April 22, 2016

“Stop, stop, he’s already dead.“