According to distributors COMAG: “Launched in October 1961, Private Eye has somehow managed to survive for half a century during which it has consistently entertained, informed and irritated its readers!
Private Eye is the best-selling News & Current Affairs magazine in the UK, with its mix of ground-breaking news stories, cartoons, spoofs and jokes. As famous for its comment and investigative journalism as it is for its parodies and sketches, Private Eye is that rare thing, both an icon and an iconoclast!
Not only does Private Eye mark its 50th ‘birthday’ on 25 October 2011, but editor Ian Hislop celebrates 25 years as editor this autumn. To commemorate these momentous milestones, issue No.1300 will be a bumper special edition, looking back at half a century of stories about scandal, sleaze, spoofs and spin, told with style and satire.
As relevant today as it has ever been, the recent Gotcha! issue of Private Eye parodying the infamous 1982 front cover of The Sun about the sinking of the General Belgrano during the Falklands Conflict, sold more than 140,000 copies on the newsstand.
Speaking of this issue and the anniversary Ian Hislop has said: “I do not want anyone to think that this is all just a huge celebration of ourselves. Our 50th year is a chance to look back and take a dispassionate view of how marvellous we are.”
As part of the anniversary, Private Eye has an exhibition at the V&A museum featuring 50 of its best front covers as chosen by Ian Hislop, a hardback book called ‘Private Eye: The First 50 Years, an A-Z’ and the ‘2011 Private Eye Annual’.
Supported with extensive press coverage, the events of this anniversary period will reflect on the unique contribution that Britain’s first, most successful and indeed only fortnightly satirical magazine has made to the country’s cultural life over the past 50 years.”
