New Scientist homepage on 29 September 2026. Picture: Press Gazette screenshot
Weekly magazine and website the New Scientist has launched a new business-focused advertising platform.
The B2B offering, called New Scientist Business, brings together advertising, commissioned research, events and branded content across print, digital, audio and video. It is designed to help science and technology companies engage with relevant audiences in areas including AI and quantum computing.
The platform is similar to The Economist’s bespoke partnerships arm, Economist Impact, and aim to use the New Scientist’s editorial expertise to spotlight technology brands “before they become market-changing”.
“There’s a huge explosion of new technologies that are going to change the way we live and work,” said Edward Glanville, editorial director of the New Scientist.
“We go a little bit earlier and look at the technologies that are in the lab, so we’re able to take that out and produce that in the public.”
He added that this could bridge the gap around emerging technologies by giving businesses a verified, specialist platform that audiences are familiar with.
“We see that trust gap being bridged by us being there as these technologies come online at a much more quicker pace than they have been in the past.”
New Scientist is exploring building out its advertising offering because “there’s a big opportunity in place, and it’s something that hasn’t been captured yet by the business”, said Glanville.
“We started working towards that with our Co-Lab offering, which has come before the brand, and that’s done incredibly well.”
Co-Lab is the title’s existing brand‑partnership and creative solutions division, which creates sponsored content and multimedia campaigns across print, podcast and events.
“It continues to grow, so we’re looking to try and expand that further by dedicating content, resources and individuals to help build that segment of the business out.”
In 2025, the New Scientist was selling 59,294 copies per week on average (down 8% year on year) – with a further 116,152 digital subscribers (of which 42,059 were via all you can read services like Apple News+.
New product offerings for partners
New Scientist Business has launched a range of products for commercial partners, including dedicated print sections, branded content, events and research.
One new product is an eight-page B2B section in its print and digital magazine, which can be booked by a single brand for 12 weeks in print or two years in digital. Others include a partnered podcast hosted by a New Scientist journalist, dedicated video content and a whitepaper to spotlight a particular brand.
Events will be ad-hoc and scheduled, such as monthly dinners and roundtables covering topics including agentic AI and health.
Some bespoke events will gather experts on a specific topic under Chatham House Rule, with discussions then packaged as editorial content. Major activations will also be available through sponsorship packages for events such as London Tech Week and New York Climate Week.
New Scientist Business will also offer research as a paid-for service, using its readership data, industry contacts and expertise to produce research packages.
“We can go out and make connections with people in the science world [that] we know, who are making progress in certain areas, and then collect that data and create it as a summarised data package, which then can go out with our brand associated with it because it’s our research,” said Glanville.
“So, it’s more trusted, more validated. There’s no bias to it because it’s also got an editorial oversight on it.”
The B2B platform will sit separately from Mail Metro Media, which handles advertising for newsbrands including New Scientist, Daily Mail and Metro. It will continue to handle advertising for New Scientist.
“We very much have that relationship still in place, but we’re supplementing it with tools that help provide the expertise to sell what we have,” said Glanville.
Mail Metro Media provides scale across the wider Associated Newspapers portfolio, while New Scientist Business will focus on the specialist knowledge required to sell science and technology-focused commercial opportunities.
Team expansion and targets
New Scientist is expanding its staff to accommodate the platform launch, which it will continue to do as the business develops, said Glanville.
He did not disclose the current size of the team or how many additional staff will be hired. However, he said New Scientist Business aims to partner with at least eight brands by the end of the year.
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