Hard Copy

Fresh analysis

David Goodhart, the former Financial Times journalist, is pressing ahead with plans for a monthly magazine of "ideas and analysis that will be public-affairs based"; he expects to bring out the first issue in September. Prospect Publishing has raised more than two-thirds of the £450,000 needed to launch, with the FT prepared to distribute the first issue free with the paper. The lofty aim is to re-invent the essay-writing tradition, with lead pieces ranging from 3,000 to 6,000 words, much longer than the daily press or even the Economist aspires to. The prospectus says that if just 20,000 subscribers can be persuaded, it can break even.