The first issue of the revived Magill monthly magazine, due on the news-stands next Thursday, will have a main report about political corruption. Its managing editor, Mr John Ryan, is unwilling to say what or whom the report concerns. Magill will be relaunched in Buswell's Hotel on Wednesday by the impresario, Mr Noel Pearson, who was one of those responsible for its birth in 1975.
The editor and publisher is Mr Vincent Browne, who founded Magill and was its first editor; Mr Ryan is managing editor, and the managing director of the company is Mr Michael O'Doherty, whose design company, Level 3, will be responsible for Magill's production. The demarcation between the duties of Mr Ryan and Mr Browne is unclear, but Mr Browne is the boss. As well as being editor and publisher, he will continue to host his programme on RTE Radio 1 and to contribute his weekly column to The Irish Times. He is also to present a new television programme on RTE in the autumn.
Mr Browne recently qualified as a barrister and will be devilling in the Law Library. Mr Ryan was coy about who would write for the magazine, but confirmed that he and Mr Browne would be major contributors and that Ms Helen Lucy Burke will write a restaurant column. As well as having a heavy emphasis on politics, Magill will cover books, property, business and sport.
Mr Ryan said it will "look modern and be very stylish". It will recall its past, however, with the return of the Wigmore column. The major report in every issue will be about 6,000 words long. Others will be 3,000 to 4,000 words. It will have 65 pages and will cost £1.95. There was some surprise at the choice of Mr Ryan as managing editor. He was considered to be more of a style journalist following his success as editor of In Dublin magazine. He worked on local newspapers in north London and in Bosnia and Rwanda, as well as for the Sunday Times and the Sunday Independent. His most recent appointment was in the features department of the Irish Independent.
Mr Ryan presents the Sunday Supplement programme on Radio Ireland.
Magill was founded in 1975 and published until 1991. It reached its circulation peak with about 80,000 copies for the Arms Trial issues. It settled down to a circulation of about 40,000, but by 1991 it was down to 20,000.
It was felt at the time that Mr Browne's other interests, including the Sunday Tribune and the short-lived freesheet, the Dublin Tribune, allowed Magill to founder. The Dublin Tribune is believed to have been a financial drain on both Magill and the Sunday Tribune.
Magill has had several editors, including Irish Times journalists John Waters and Fintan O'Toole, the writer Colm Toibin and Dublin City University journalism lecturer Brian Trench.
Magill has been financed from Mr Browne's own funds and loans from financial institutions. According to Mr Ryan, the circulation target is 20,000.