UnHerd

''UnHerd'' is a British news and opinion website founded in July 2017 which describes itself as a platform for slow journalism.

History

''UnHerd'' was founded in 2017 by the hedge fund manager Paul Marshall as its owner and publisher and conservative British political activist Tim Montgomerie as its editor. Marshall has invested over £50m in GB News; ''UnHerds marketing describes it as a website for "people who dare to think for themselves."The website initially existed without a paywall, as it is funded by an endowment from Marshall. In 2017, ''New Statesman'' reported that the site intended to introduce paid services. In May 2020, the site said that it intended to switch to a subscription model later that year. , it offers readers a limited number of articles for free.

Following Montgomerie's departure in September 2018, journalist Sally Chatterton, who previously wrote for ''The Daily Telegraph'' and ''The Independent'', took over as editor.

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''.

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 ''UnHerds YouTube channel.

Content

''UnHerds columnists include Giles Fraser, Aris Roussinos, Kat Rosenfield, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, David Patrikarakos, Terry Eagleton, Bret Easton Ellis, Mary Gaitskill, Lionel Shriver, Matthew Crawford, Helen Thompson, Freddie deBoer, Tanya Gold, Julie Bindel and Kathleen Stock.

In 2018, the ''Press Gazette'' described the website as organised by seven themes: capitalism, flyover country, technology, news and media, religion, global affairs and groupthink.

In January 2023, former ''Politico'' and ''The Atlantic'' writer Tom McTague was hired as ''UnHerd''s political editor.

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." Earle also argued that "On issues such as the climate crisis, UnHerd invariably calls for calm and scepticism. But when it comes to trans issues, the alarm seemingly cannot be raised too often or too loudly." An article in '' Morning Star'' claims that "the website is keen to knock the left and promote a variety of right-wing bugbears". ''The Conversation'' described the site's editorial line as "generally right-of-centre", but "not consistently pro-Conservative arty.

Reception

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." 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."

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 hatis 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."

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.

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 right-wing interests, for which the site's 'heterodox' range of writers appear to offer convenient cover."

In a February 2022 ''UnHerd'' piece, ''Guardian'' journalist Hadley Freeman wrote that her paper was allowing itself to be bullied over transgender issues.

In July 2022, ''UnHerd'' reported that the Ukrainian government's Center for Countering Disinformation had compiled a list of politicians and intellectuals in multiple countries who they believed were promoting Russian propaganda. The list included US senator Rand Paul, former US congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, military analyst Edward Luttwak, political scientist John Mearsheimer, and journalist Glenn Greenwald, as well as the former chair of the Indian National Security Advisory Board. The ''UnHerd'' report included responses from Luttwak, Mearsheimer, and Greenwald.

In April 2024, the UK-based Global Disinformation Index placed ''UnHerd'' on its Dynamic Exclusion List, which is used by advertisers to identify undesirable websites for brands to appear on. This happened after ''UnHerd'' published three articles considered "anti-trans narratives". Sayers said ''UnHerd'' consequently could only achieve about 5% of expected advertising earnings.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://unherd.com

British political websites
British news websites
British political blogs
Conservative media in the United Kingdom
Internet properties established in 2017
Transphobia in the United Kingdom
2017 establishments in England
Conservative websites