About Human Events

Human Events

Human Events is an American conservative political news and analysis website based in Washington, D.C. — and the oldest conservative news and opinion platform in the country, dating to 1944. Founded as a print weekly by Felix Morley (editor of The Washington Post from 1933 to 1940), Frank Hanighen, and Henry Regnery, Human Events spent nearly seven decades as a print newsweekly — Ronald Reagan's favorite reading, the publication he credited with helping him "stop being a liberal Democrat" — before becoming a digital-only publication in 2013. Taking its name from the opening words of the Declaration of Independence ("When in the course of human events..."), the site publishes the day's top news stories alongside opinion and analysis from a conservative perspective. Under owner Jeff Webb's Human Events Media Group, which also acquired The Post Millennial, the brand has expanded into a multi-platform conservative media enterprise.

Founding in 1944

Human Events was founded in 1944 by Felix Morley, William Henry Chamberlin, Frank Hanighen, and Henry Regnery. Morley brought establishment credibility as the former editor of The Washington Post; Regnery — a former New Deal agency staffer turned conservative publisher — would go on to found the influential Regnery Publishing house. In its early years, the publication was, as historian George H. Nash wrote in The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945, "a small-circulation weekly news sheet concentrating on foreign policy" — with only 127 subscribers in its first year. The founders soon split over Cold War strategy: returning from Europe in 1949, Morley criticized the Cold War, clashing with Hanighen and Regnery over anti-communism; denied sole editorial control, Morley resigned as editor in 1950 — "another product of the friction between Old Right and New Right," in Nash's phrase. In 1951, Frank Chodorov, former director of the Henry George School of Social Science, replaced Morley as editor, merging his newsletter analysis into Human Events.

Ronald Reagan's Favorite Reading

Human Events' most famous reader was Ronald Reagan. Biographer Richard Reeves called it Reagan's "favorite reading for years"; a loyal subscriber from 1961, Reagan said it "helped me stop being a liberal Democrat" and called it "must reading for conservatives who want to know what is really going on in Washington, D.C." Reagan contributed articles to Human Events in the 1970s, and throughout his presidency he received the first issue each week hot off the presses. In a 2012 tribute entered into the Congressional Record, Representative Todd Rokita noted that "conservatives have long depended upon Human Events" to analyze events through eyes favoring "limited constitutional government, local self-government, free enterprise, and individual freedom." For the conservative movement, Human Events was more than a publication — it was a formative institution, shaping the ideas of the man who would define modern conservatism.

The Print Newsweekly Era

For nearly 70 years, Human Events published as a print weekly news magazine in Washington, D.C. — most recently under Eagle Publishing, owner of Regnery Publishing and a subsidiary of Phillips Publishing, with Thomas S. Winter as editor-in-chief and Cathy Taylor as editorial director. Its regular writers included some of conservatism's biggest names: columnist Robert Novak, Ann Coulter, Pat Buchanan, Terence P. Jeffrey, and chief political editor John Gizzi; occasional contributors included Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich, Paul Craig Roberts, and Cliff Kincaid. The print edition combined Washington reporting with movement commentary, serving as the conservative counter-establishment's paper of record. In 2005, the publication drew wide attention for its list of the "Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries" — topped by The Communist Manifesto, Mein Kampf, and Mao's Quotations — a characteristically provocative Human Events gesture.

Digital Transition in 2013

In 2013, Human Events ceased its print edition and became a digital-only publication — ending 69 years of weekly print and joining the broader migration of political journalism online. The transition preserved the brand's Washington focus and conservative perspective while adapting to digital economics: faster publishing, broader reach, lower costs. What started as a weekly newsprint publication evolved, in the company's words, into "a digital platform that features the day's top news stories along with intelligent opinion pieces offering fresh, bold ideas." The digital Human Events kept the name, the mission, and the attitude — but traded the weekly rhythm for the internet's continuous churn.

The Jeff Webb Era and Media Group Expansion

Human Events entered a new phase under owner Jeff Webb and the Human Events Media Group. In 2022, the group acquired The Post Millennial — the Canadian-founded conservative outlet described as "a clear rising star" featuring quick breaking news and first-to-market investigative reporting. "We are building a media enterprise that reaches the entire spectrum of the conservative world, in all demographics, and across all platforms," Webb said, calling The Post Millennial "a critical part of this effort because it reaches an important younger demographic and can break stories faster than any newsroom I've come across." The acquisition paired Human Events' heritage brand with The Post Millennial's youth appeal — a classic media-group strategy of combining legacy credibility with digital-native energy.

Content and Editorial Voice

Human Events publishes conservative news and analysis: breaking political news, Washington coverage, opinion columns, and cultural commentary. Its voice reflects the populist-nationalist conservatism ascendant in recent years — skeptical of progressive institutions, supportive of the America First agenda, engaged in the culture wars. The site also produces podcasts and video content extending the brand beyond text. Its opinion roster draws from across the conservative movement, continuing the tradition of giving platform to movement figures that defined the print era. The through-line from 1944 to the present is the mission articulated in that Congressional Record tribute: analyzing events through the lens of limited constitutional government, free enterprise, and individual freedom.

Legacy: Eight Decades of Conservatism

Few publications can claim to have shaped American conservatism across eight decades. Human Events was there at the movement's intellectual founding in the 1940s and 1950s; it chronicled the Goldwater revolt, the Reagan revolution, the Gingrich era, the Bush years, the Tea Party, and the Trump transformation. Its pages hosted the debates — Old Right vs. New Right, libertarians vs. traditionalists, establishment vs. populists — that defined the right's evolution. The publication's survival through print's collapse, its digital reinvention, and its expansion under new ownership testify to the durability of its brand: the oldest name in conservative journalism, still publishing.

Eight Decades of Influence

Few publications can claim the longevity of Human Events: founded in 1944 by Felix Morley, Frank Hanighen, and Henry Regnery, it published as a print newsweekly for nearly 70 years before its 2013 digital transition. Ronald Reagan called it his favorite reading — the publication that shaped the conservative movement's ideas from the New Deal era through the Cold War. The Jeff Webb era brought new ownership and media group expansion, including the acquisition of The Post Millennial. Through eight decades, Human Events has remained committed to its founding perspective: conservative, combative, and convinced that ideas matter. Its survival across the print-to-digital divide makes it a living link between the Old Right and the new.

Human Events Today

Today, Human Events publishes at humanevents.com as the digital flagship of the Human Events Media Group — alongside The Post Millennial — covering politics, culture, and current events from a conservative perspective. From its 1944 founding as a 127-subscriber foreign policy sheet to its status as a multi-platform conservative media brand, the publication has remained what it always was: the conservative movement's hometown paper, analyzing the course of human events through the eyes of limited government and individual freedom. Its official website is https://humanevents.com.