Reason (magazine)

Reason is an American libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 50,000 and was named one of the 50 best magazines in 2003 and 2004 by the Chicago Tribune.

History

Reason was founded in 1968 by Lanny Friedlander (1947–2011) as a more-or-less monthly mimeographed publication. In 1970 it was purchased by Robert W. Poole, Jr., Manuel S. Klausner, and Tibor R. Machan, who set it on a more regular publishing schedule. As the monthly print magazine of "free minds and free markets", it covers politics, culture, and ideas with a mix of news, analysis, commentary, and reviews.

During the 1970s, the magazine's contributors included Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, Thomas Szasz and Thomas Sowell.

In 1978, Poole, Klausner, and Machan created the associated Reason Foundation, in order to expand the magazine's ideas into policy research.

Current incarnation

Matt Welch has been the magazine's editor in chief since 2008. Katherine Mangu-Ward is the managing editor. Other Reason editors include Jacob Sullum, Jesse Walker, Brian Doherty, Peter Suderman, and Damon Root; contributors include Ronald Bailey, Greg Beato, Cathy Young, and cartoonist Peter Bagge. Former editors in chief are Nick Gillespie, Marty Zupan, and Virginia Postrel.