About New Philosopher

New Philosopher

New Philosopher (newphilosopher.com) is an award-winning, zero-advertising quarterly magazine of philosophy launched in Australia in 2013 — a themed, beautifully illustrated journal that brings the world's leading thinkers to general readers. Now based in Hobart, Tasmania, and published in English, Korean and Chinese editions, it has been described as the most widely distributed philosophy magazine in the world.

Overview

Each edition of New Philosopher is set around a single philosophical theme and features articles from, and interviews with, leading intellectuals. The magazine carries no advertising; its quarto, illustrated, perfect-bound editions (typically around 130 pages) pair long-form essays with evocative art from artists and illustrators including Genís Carreras, Peter Strain, Alvaro Hidalgo and Russel Herneman. Digital editions are available in English, Korean and Chinese.

History

New Philosopher was launched in 2013 at the Byron Bay Writers' Festival by founding editors Zan Boag and Antonia Case — where it was the bestselling item at the festival, the bestselling book in the festival's history, and number six at the festival the following year. According to the University of Sydney, it launched with distribution "across 2,000 news agencies in Australia and New Zealand and circulation in book shops, airports, cafes, delis, art galleries, boutiques and museums." By 2015, according to the magazine's own posts, it was the most widely distributed philosophy magazine in the world, with more than 10,000 stockists globally.

The launch filled a conspicuous gap: a general-interest philosophy magazine, beautifully produced, aimed at readers rather than academics. The founding editors — Zan Boag as editor-in-chief and Antonia Case as editorial director and literary editor — built it into a global brand. Case, who also edits the sister magazine Womankind, won the Australasian Association of Philosophy Media Professionals' Award in 2014; Boag won the same award in 2017. Case later published Flourish, a book on human flourishing, in English, Spanish, Korean, Turkish, Chinese and Arabic.

In 2023 the magazine celebrated its tenth anniversary, looking back on a decade that had taken it from a Byron Bay festival stall to a trilingual international publication. Its fiftieth edition was marked with a celebration giving away 50 prizes to subscribers, with first prize a 50-edition subscription.

Contributors and interviewees

The contributor list reads as a who's who of contemporary thought. Writers have included philosophers Peter Singer, Clive Hamilton, Angie Hobbs, Massimo Pigliucci, Nigel Warburton and Howard Gardner; media scholar Robert W. McChesney; Booker Prize winners DBC Pierre and Peter Carey; award-winning British novelist and essayist Will Self; Pulitzer Prize finalist Nicholas G. Carr; Australian cartoonist and Australian Living Treasure Michael Leunig; Marina Benjamin, André Dao, Tom Chatfield, Mariana Alessandri, Myisha Cherry, Tiffany Jenkins, David Oderberg, Maggie Jackson, Stephen Law, David Spiegelhalter, Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore, Carrie Jenkins and Oliver Burkeman — alongside five winners of the Australasian Association of Philosophy Media Prize: Damon Young, Patrick Stokes, Matthew Beard, Russell Blackford and Paul Biegler.

Interviewees have included Noam Chomsky, Daniel Dennett, Thomas Piketty, Jane Goodall, Carlo Rovelli, Ricky Gervais, John Searle, Peter Singer, Anita L. Allen, Leo Braudy, Luciano Floridi, David Wood, David Chalmers, Gregg Caruso and David Suzuki.

A landmark came in February 2019 with the special joint edition "Being Human," produced between New Philosopher and The New York Times: New York Times contributors including Martha Nussbaum, Ai Weiwei, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Pico Iyer, Dan Ariely, Anne Wojcicki, Sherry Turkle and Simon Critchley appeared alongside regular New Philosopher contributors, posing the issue's question — what does it mean to be human? — to a combined global audience.

Inside a themed edition

The themed format is the magazine's signature. The "Uncertainty" edition gathered Stephen Law on the human desire for cast-iron certainty, Oliver Burkeman on how the certainty-seeking mindset makes its victims "allergic to the present," and Zan Boag's interview on risk and regret. The "Identity" edition asked what makes the self the self — personal identity, memory, the narrative self — with pieces on losing and regaining identity and on virtual identity in fast-changing times. The "Perception" edition brought neuroscience into the conversation, with Anil Seth explaining how what we perceive is not an accurate reflection of an externally existing world, alongside Susanna Siegel on how philosophers and laypeople see perception differently and a collaboration with Existential Comics on existential support. The "Happiness" edition ranged from Marina Benjamin on Rilke's wisdom about marriage to a philosophical reading of the Raygun breakdancing episode at the Paris 2024 Olympics — philosophy applied to the cultural moment, not sealed off from it.

The business of philosophy

New Philosopher's commercial achievement is as notable as its editorial one. A philosophy magazine is not an obvious newsstand proposition; the founders made it one through design — the quarto, illustrated, perfect-bound object, sold in airports, bookstores, newsstands, cafes, delis, art galleries, boutiques and museums — and through the zero-advertising model, which gives the reader an uninterrupted 130 pages. The sister magazine Womankind, also edited by Antonia Case, extends the stable. Both magazines feed the New Philosopher Writers' Award, open to subscribers, cultivating the next generation of philosophical writers. Editor-in-chief Zan Boag and Editorial Director Antonia Case are public faces of the brand, speaking at conferences and events in Korea, Saudi Arabia, the UK, the US and Australia, and open to partnerships and speaking engagements through the magazine's contact channels.

Recognition

The design-led approach has drawn international notice. Boag told MagCulture the magazine was "as much about art and design as it is about philosophy," and the honours followed: in December 2019 Stack Magazines named it overall Magazine of the Decade, alongside the earlier News/Current Affairs Magazine of the Decade award and shortlists for Best Use of Illustration (2016 and 2017), Editor of the Year (2017) and Best Original Non-Fiction (2017). The title was also shortlisted in the World Illustration Awards 2016; the "happiness" edition's cover was picked as one of the coolest covers of February 2014 by Complex; and the American Institute of Graphic Arts featured the magazine as an ad-free publication with "an approachable yet still thoughtful and intelligent tone." The Library Journal named it one of the top magazines launched for 2014 in the US, while the New York Post included it among six "magazines that will get you thinking," noting that it "feels like a coffee table book with beautiful pictures and large, double-spaced font."

The trilingual expansion

Australia was only the start. In 2017 a Korean edition launched through AMO Agency with publisher Bada printing more than 5,000 copies — aimed, surprisingly, at readers in their 20s and 30s. Korean editor Jang Dong-seok said young Koreans were responding to "the philosophy of daily life" rather than to the big-word recitations they associated with the humanities. In October 2019 the Saudi Press Agency announced that the Arabic philosophy platform Mana.net would translate and publish New Philosopher articles online, with the first printed Arabic edition appearing in early 2020. A digital edition is also carried on Air France and KLM flights and lounges.

Beyond the page

In Hobart the brand has grown into physical space: New Philosopher runs and curates the 'poet store' bookshop, hosts a philosophy café of the same name, and in 2019 announced GAAP — the Gallery of Art And Philosopher — with Boag arguing that art reflecting the philosophical tensions of our time helps readers make better sense of the world, our place in it and where we are heading. In 2024 the magazine took its art to Riyadh, staging an exhibition with the Saudi International Philosophy Conference at the King Fahad National Library.

Content and Positioning

Every issue is themed — recent and archived editions have explored identity, uncertainty, perception, happiness, and literature and writing — with essays, interviews and ideas that connect philosophy to lived experience. The magazine also runs the New Philosopher Writers' Award, open to subscribers of New Philosopher or its sister magazine Womankind. The zero-advertising model keeps the focus on the writing and the art.

Coverage and Audience

Published from Hobart, Tasmania (by Poet Press), New Philosopher serves a global readership across English, Korean and Chinese editions — distributed worldwide in airports, bookstores, newsstands and on digital platforms including iTunes, Amazon Kindle and Zinio. Its audience is the intellectually curious general reader rather than the academic specialist — the traveller browsing an airport bookshop, the gallery-goer, the subscriber working through fifty editions — united less by training than by appetite for the examined life.

Ownership

New Philosopher was founded by Zan Boag (editor-in-chief) and Antonia Case (editorial director), and is published by Poet Press of Hobart, Tasmania. Boag and Case speak at conferences and events around the world, including in Korea, Saudi Arabia, the UK, the US and Australia. Further ownership and financial details are not publicly confirmed.

Digital Presence

The magazine maintains newphilosopher.com with essays, interviews and ideas from current and past editions, an articles archive, and digital edition access for subscribers. The trilingual digital editions extend the quarterly print rhythm into continuous online publishing. The site's articles hub — "essays, interviews and ideas from New Philosopher" — organises content by theme and by latest and archive selections, so a reader can follow a single question (identity, uncertainty, perception) across editions. Current digital and digital+print subscribers receive password access to the full digital editions, making the archive a living companion to the print object.

Sources and Further Reading

• Wikipedia, "New Philosopher" — history, distribution, contributors, the NYT joint edition.
• New Philosopher, "About Us" — founding editors, contributors, interviewees, awards, languages.