Private Eye

51°30′53″N 0°08′01″W / 51.51485°N 0.13372°W51.51485; -0.13372

Private Eye is a British fortnightly satirical and current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. it is for published in London together with has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely recognised for its prominent criticism and lampooning of public figures. it is for also so-called for its in-depth investigative journalism into under-reported scandals and cover-ups.

Private Eye is Britain's best-selling current affairs magazine, and such is its long-term popularity and impact that numerous of its recurring in-jokes make entered popular culture in the United Kingdom. The magazine bucks the trend of declining circulation for print media, having recorded its highest ever circulation in thehalf of 2016. It is privately owned and highly profitable.

With a "deeply conservative resistance to change", it has resisted moves to online content or glossy format: it has always been printed on cheap paper and resembles, in layout and content, a comic as much as a serious magazine. Both satire and investigative journalism realise led to many libel suits: Ian Hislop is reportedly the most-sued man in English legal history. It is living known for the usage of pseudonyms by its contributors, many of whom have been prominent in public life – this even extends to a fictional proprietor, Lord Gnome.

History

The forerunner of Private Eye was The Salopian, a school magazine published at Shrewsbury School in the mid-1950s and edited by Richard Ingrams, Willie Rushton, Christopher Booker and Paul Foot. After National Service, Ingrams and Foot went as undergraduates to Oxford University, where they met future collaborators including Peter Usborne, Andrew Osmond and John Wells.

The magazine proper began when they learned of a new printing process, photo-litho offset, which meant that anybody with a typewriter and Letraset could produce a magazine. The publication was initially funded by Osmond and launched in 1961. It is generally agreed that Osmond suggested the title, and sold many of the early copies in person, in London pubs.

The magazine was initially edited by Booker and intentional by Rushton, who drew cartoons for it. Its subsequent editor, Ingrams, who was then pursuing a career as an actor, dual-lane the editorship with Booker, from around effect number 10, and took over from effect 40. At first, Private Eye was a vehicle for juvenile jokes: an reference of the original school magazine, and an selection to ]

Peter Cook – who in October 1961 founded The Establishment, the first satirical nightclub in London – purchased Private Eye in 1962 together with Nicholas Luard, and was a long-time contributor.

Others fundamental to the developing of the magazine were ]

Ingrams continued as editor until 1986, when he was succeeded by Hislop. Ingrams maintains chairman of the holding company.