Mehdi Hasan has joined the New Statesman as senior editor, politics.

In his new role, Hasan will be in charge of helping to write leaders and columns on politics and foreign affairs, blogging on the New Statesman website and commissioning features.

"The biggest challenge will be covering the next general election, which will be the most significant in over a decade. Another more personal challenge is writing for a weekly magazine, with a deadline, having never written before - my background is in television," he told Journalism.co.uk.

Hasan previously worked at Channel 4 as editor in the news and current affairs department.

He also worked as deputy executive producer for Sky's breakfast show Sunrise, as well as producing BBC1's The Politics Show and ITV1's Jonathan Dimbleby programme.

"Read the papers - you would be amazed by how many journalists fail to," said Hasan when asked for his advice to would-be editors.

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