Media / Talk of the Trade: On your Marx

RED PEPPER, a new left-of-centre political and cultural monthly magazine, launches on 19 May in an attempt to find a market in the gap left by the demise of Marxism Today. Denise Searle, the editor, who edited the Socialist paper until it was crushed by debt in September 1992, says that experience taught her the need to run a businesslike publication.

One of her aims with Red Pepper is to strike out in green directions, to fuse left thinking with environmental issues - an opportunity which has not been taken up by the more traditional New Statesman.

The launch has been backed by pounds 135,000 from 170 shareholders, including Harold Pinter and Ruth Rendell (donations range from pounds 10,000 to pounds 50). The magazine is looking for 6,500 initial subscribers, rising to 15,000 in its third year. Details from 3 Gunthorpe Street, London E1 7RP (071-247 1702).

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