About This Archive

The Weekly Standard was an American conservative opinion magazine published from September 1995 to December 2018. Over 23 years and 1,112 issues, it shaped the debates of the post–Cold War era — on foreign policy, domestic politics, and American culture.

The Magazine

Founded by William Kristol and Fred Barnes with backing from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, The Weekly Standard launched on September 18, 1995 — the first issue's cover story, "Going on Offense," set its combative tone. From its Washington, D.C. offices, it became one of the most widely-read and discussed political magazines in the country, with a circulation that at its peak exceeded 100,000.

The magazine was known for long-form reporting, literary essays, and pointed opinion — a combination that attracted some of the finest writers in American journalism. Its signature voices included Matt Labash, whose immersive features set a standard for narrative political writing; Christopher Caldwell, whose dispatches from Europe anticipated debates over immigration and sovereignty a decade before they went mainstream; Andrew Ferguson, whose cultural criticism combined erudition with wit; and P.J. O'Rourke, the irreverent libertarian-conservative humorist.

The magazine's editorial line was broadly neoconservative: hawkish on foreign policy, interventionist in its support for democracy promotion abroad, socially conservative but intellectually engaged with its critics. It was a fierce advocate for the Iraq War and the 2007 "surge" strategy that William Kristol and Fred Kagan championed — and, to its credit, one of the few conservative outlets to take a principled stand against Donald Trump in 2015 and 2016, even as doing so cost it readers and eventually contributed to its closure.

Key Figures

William Kristol (editor, 1995–2018) was the magazine's founding editor and its public face. Son of the neoconservative intellectual Irving Kristol, he had served as chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle before launching the magazine. His weekly column, his television appearances, and his political organizing made him one of the most influential conservatives of his generation — until his break with Trumpism put him at odds with much of the movement he had helped build.

Fred Barnes (executive editor, 1995–2018) was one of Washington's most prolific and well-sourced political reporters, known for his access to Republican officeholders and his enthusiastic boosterism for the Bush presidency. His political reporting was a backbone of the magazine's coverage.

Other notable contributors over the years included Robert Kagan, whose essay "The Case for American Empire" (October 2001) became one of the most debated pieces of the post-9/11 era; Joseph Bottum, the literary editor whose criticism ranged from poetry to theology; Irwin Stelzer, the economic commentator; Reuel Marc Gerecht, the intelligence and Middle East analyst; and Jonathan Last, whose pop-culture criticism and demographic reporting gave the magazine unexpected range.

The End

After News Corporation sold the magazine in 2009 to a group including Philip Anschutz, The Weekly Standard struggled financially while maintaining its editorial independence. The Trump era proved especially difficult: the magazine's consistent opposition to the president alienated much of the conservative base even as it earned respect from across the political spectrum.

In December 2018, the magazine's owner, MediaDC (a subsidiary of Clarity Media Group), announced it would cease publication. The final issue, dated December 17, 2018, appeared without warning or ceremony. The closure was mourned across the political spectrum — by liberals who respected the magazine's independence and by conservatives who recognized what they were losing even if they disagreed with its Trump coverage.

The last editor to sign off was Stephen Hayes, who had taken over as editor in 2016. In the years since, Hayes and Kristol have continued their journalistic work elsewhere, but The Weekly Standard itself exists now only in this archive.

This Archive

This site preserves the full text of The Weekly Standard's online article archive — more than 73,000 articles spanning the magazine's entire 23-year run, from September 1995 to December 2018. It also includes scanned PDFs and cover thumbnails for all 1,112 print issues.

The archive is fully searchable and browsable by author, topic, date, and print issue. It is maintained as a public resource for readers, researchers, and anyone interested in the history of American conservative thought in the post–Cold War era.