NOW! was a British newsmagazine

Newsmagazine

A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published piece of paper, magazine or a radio or television program, usually weekly, featuring articles or segments on current events...

 founded by entrepreneur Sir James Goldsmith

James Goldsmith

Sir James Michael "Jimmy" Goldsmith was an Anglo-French billionaire financier and tycoon. Towards the end of his life, he became a magazine publisher and a politician. In 1994, he was elected to represent France as a Member of the European Parliament and he subsequently founded the short-lived...

, partly as a vehicle for his right-wing

Right-wing politics

In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...

 political opinions.

It was established in 1979, taking advantage of the market opportunity created by the closure of The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

and The Sunday Times

The Sunday Times (UK)

The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...

during a labour dispute. Despite good sales for the first issue, NOW! misjudged the market and the competition from Sunday newspapers and the newsmagazines The Economist

The Economist

The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...

, Time

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

and Newsweek

Newsweek

Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...

. It never met circulation targets and incurred heavy losses. After 84 issues, Goldsmith closed it in 1981.

Issue one featured on the cover a grainy black-and-white photograph of Brigadier Khalil al-Azzawi, Director of Iraqi Military Intelligence with the banner "Exclusive: How this man's agents spy on Britain..." and a tag for a "Special NOW! Enquiry" on "What the Young Generation really thinks". Its editor was Anthony Shrimsley and senior staff and contributors included, Frank Johnson

Frank Johnson (journalist)

Frank Robert Johnson was an English journalist.-Education:Johnson failed his Eleven Plus examination, and was educated at a state secondary school in Shoreditch in East London, which he left at the age of 16...

, Clive Barnes

Clive Barnes

Clive Alexander Barnes, CBE was a British-born American writer and critic. From 1965 to 1977 he was the dance and theater critic for the New York Times, the most powerful position he had held, since its theater critics' reviews historically have had great influence on the success or failure of...

, Art Buchwald

Art Buchwald

Arthur Buchwald was an American humorist best known for his long-running column in The Washington Post, which in turn was carried as a syndicated column in many other newspapers. His column focused on political satire and commentary...

and Patrick Hutber. This first issue was dated September 14-20 1979, ran to 142 pages and was priced at 50p.