British Mag The Spectator Launches US Edition With Party at Trump World Tower

Photo by Tom Regan | From Left to Right: Staff Writer Cole Carnick, Managing Editor Matt McDonald, US Editor Freddy Gray, Life and Arts Editor Dominic Green, Publisher Zack Christenson, and Chairman Andrew Neil.

Storied British mag The Spectator — sometimes referred to in the States as the London Spectator — officially launched its U.S. print edition with a party in New York Tuesday night.

The launch party — with a second set to take place in Washington, D.C. on Thursday — was held on the 78th floor of the Trump World Tower on United Nations Plaza. It was attended by Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff, Kellyanne Conway husband George Conway, Wall Street Journal editor-at-large Gerard Baker, media magnate Sir Harold Evans, New York Post reporter Jon Levine, New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz, Spectator chairman and BBC host Andrew Neil, Never Trump commentator Rick Wilson, reporter Davis Richardson, and Reason editor-at-large Nick Gillespie.

The inaugural issue of Spectator USA features pieces from as varied writers as radical feminist Julie Bindel, Harper’s Magazine Washington editor Andrew Cockburn, National Interest editor Jacob Heilbrunn, We Need to Talk About Kevin author Lionel Shriver, satirist and journalist P.J. O’Rourke, New Criterion publisher and editor Roger Kimball, localist writer Bill Kauffman, liberal writer Molly-Jong Fast, Washington Free Beacon assistant editor Emily Ferguson, Christoper Hitchens’ daughter Antonia Hitchens, Italian journalist Alessandra Bocchi, and Louise Linton, actress and wife of U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin.

Regulars from the world’s oldest magazine, like Rod Liddle, Toby Young, Taki Theodoracopulos, Jeremy Clarke, Daniel McCarthy, and Douglas Murray also feature.

“We waited 191 years for the right moment. We think that moment is now,” said Spectator USA editor Freddy Gray in an interview with Mediaite. “America is being polarized to madness — as is Britain —but out success in the UK is down to the fact we are heterodox. We aren’t part of any movement. We are the Spectator.”

“Readers can get the best or most US-apt stuff from the magazine. Plus a whole range of new American writers who know what we are about,” he said, adding, “We are sending our managing editor Matt McDonald to Washington with some purpose of causing trouble and upsetting people. He’s a specialist. We will start doing events and developing a US voice in DC.”

Gray also joked that Spectator USA plans “to publish just as many tits as Playboy, but not quite as many breasts.”

“It is great to be providing a joint offering of a magazine and a website,” commented Spectator USA managing editor Matt McDonald. “The magazine will give readers something thoughtful and contemplative, whereas the website lets us respond to fast-moving stories such as impeachment and Brexit.”

The magazine launched in digital-only format in early 2018, before finally coming to print this month, and online articles from the magazine have been penned by such eclectic names as Slovenian Marxist philosopher Slavoj Zizek, former OUT Magazine editor-at-large Chadwick Moore, Rick Wilson, Feminist Current founder Meghan Murphy, and Daily Caller deputy editor J. Arthur Bloom, leading Spectator USA to adopt the slogan: “You might disagree with half of it, but you’ll enjoy reading all of it.”

Disclaimer: This author has previously been published by Spectator USA.