UnHerd is a British news and opinion website founded in July 2017, which describes itself as a platform for slow journalism. Its writers include "heterodox" thinkers on both the left and right.
History
UnHerd was founded in 2017 by Sir Paul Marshall as owner and publisher, and conservative British political activist Tim Montgomerie as editor.[1][2] Marshall has invested over £50m in GB News; Unherd's marketing describes it as a website for "people who dare to think for themselves."[3]
The website initially existed without a paywall, as it is funded by an endowment from Marshall.[4][5][6] In 2017, New Statesman reported that the site intended to introduce paid services.[7] In May 2020, the site said that it intended to switch to a subscription model later that year.[5] As of October 2022[update], it offers readers a limited number of articles for free.[8]
Following Montgomerie's departure in September 2018,[9] journalist Sally Chatterton, who previously wrote for The Daily Telegraph and The Independent, took over as editor.[10][6]
Freddie Sayers joined the magazine in 2019 as executive editor, having previously been editor-in-chief of YouGov and co-founder of the British news and current affairs website Politics Home.[11]
In November 2022, UnHerd opened a private members' club and restaurant in Westminster, named the Old Queen Street Cafe. Talks and debates at the club are broadcast on UnHerd's YouTube channel.[1]
In January 2023, former Politico and The Atlantic writer Tom McTague was hired as UnHerd's political editor.[13]
Samuel Earle, writing in The Guardian, described UnHerd in 2023 as "drifting away from explicit concern for the Conservative party and the future of capitalism, and towards a focus on culture war topics: lockdowns, wokeness, cancel culture and the trans rights movement, as well as more general journalistic fare.".[14]
Reception
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When the site was launched in July 2017, Simon Childs in Vice was critical of the underlying premise, saying: "The social media news cycle can be a jading stream of ill-informed narcissists, but it's refreshing to be reminded that at least it offers a more diverse outlook than Tim Montgomerie funded by an oligarch publishing the kind of people who are generally 'unheard' because people edge away from them at parties."[15] Jasper Jackson writing for the New Statesman was also sceptical of UnHerd's promotion of slow journalism, saying "the idea UnHerd is offering a groundbreaking solution to information overload is faintly ludicrous."[7]
In 2020, Ian Burrell, writing in the i, noted that UnHerd pieces can be 2,000 words in length, presenting "nuance and context" in science articles and pursuing an "approach to digital journalism [that] is counter to the notion that only extreme views can generate traffic"; he compared the website to Tortoise Media, another "slower-paced news experiment that defies the catch-all notion of the media."[5]
Criticisms by mainstream outlets
In 2021, an UnHerd piece criticising the World Health Organization (WHO) for dismissing the COVID-19 lab leak theory in its investigation was marked by Facebook with a "false information" tag; Facebook apologised after UnHerd objected. In an opinion piece about the incident, Financial Times columnist Jemima Kelly noted that three days later the White House expressed "deep concerns" about the WHO investigation.[16]
According to Samuel Earle, although UnHerd attempts to present itself as a bipartisan outlet for "heterodox" thinkers, "beneath UnHerd’s claims to nonpartisanship lie Conservative-friendly foundations and a range of rightwing interests, for which the site’s “heterodox” range of writers appear to offer convenient cover.".[14]
In a February 2022 UnHerd piece, Guardian journalist Hadley Freeman wrote that her paper was allowing itself to be bullied over transgender issues.[17][18]
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