I’ll never forget the night the BNP’s Nick Griffin appeared on the BBC’s Question Time in October 2009. Not because it was a watershed moment in British politics – although a far-right leader on mainstream TV debate almost certainly was – but because it always reminds me of becoming the editor of Political Insight.

Earlier that day I had interviewed for the role of Political Insight’s first editor. I could scarcely have designed a job I wanted more. Barely a year earlier, I had finished a PhD – in human geography – and made the quixotic decision to become a journalist, taking my chance as an arts reporter in Belfast. Then I saw the PSA advert. I applied, and was shortlisted for an interview, as fate would have it on the same day as the British National Party’s BBC appearance.

About an hour before I sat down to watch Question Time, I got a phone call. It was Professor Paul Whiteley, chairman of the PSA’s Publications Sub-committee, who I had met in the interview earlier that day. To my surprise – and delight – I was being offered the job.

More than a decade and a half later, my time as editor of Political Insight is coming to an end. The magazine will cease publication at the end of this year. But throughout my time at the helm it has been an experience filled with the same surprise and delight I felt all those years ago.

In my interview I had presented a mock-up front page of what I thought Political Insight might look like, complete with imaginary headlines about the forthcoming 2010 general election. Little did I realise that within days I would be writing to some of Britain’s best known politics academics, asking them if they would take a chance on writing for a new publication.

Starting a magazine is always an ambitious move. Starting a magazine dedicated to communicating politics to a broad audience even more so.

We had a rough outline from Wiley-Blackwell about what the magazine might look like, but beyond a page length and a thrice-yearly publication schedule, there was huge scope for creativity and new ideas. I quickly realised that I really enjoyed working with academics, especially early career scholars, to take a piece from a rough idea, through the editing process, to a finished article in print.

I was also seldom stuck for issues to cover. Indeed, it’s felt at times as if Political Insight’s creation was a harbinger of a much wider change in politics – and the need for new forums in which to communicate about it.

Our first ever issue, in the spring of 2010, led with an excellent piece from Paul Whiteley collating polls ahead of the then forthcoming general election. At the time, the Conservative leader David Cameron was widely predicted to win. But Paul perspicaciously argued that a hung parliament was the most likely outcome. (I was so convinced that, out of character, I went down to the bookmaker’s to place a bet. The odds, I recall, were a generous five-to-one. So at least somebody came out of the 2010 election smiling!)

The years that followed only grew more tumultuous. We covered the 2014 Scottish independence referendum in real depth, and looking through the archive as I write this piece I notice that our 2015 general election coverage included a piece on Ukip’s performance by a certain Matthew Goodwin. Whatever happened to him?

Then, of course, there was Brexit. John Curtice’s deep dive into that seismic referendum remains among the most popular articles Political Insight has ever published. I was particularly pleased to publish a piece on the definition and significance of ‘the Red Wall’ by the man who coined that term, James Kanagasooriam (writing with Elizabeth Simon).

What’s striking, too, is that many of Political Insight’s most popular pieces looked beyond the chaos of the electoral cycle to analyse – and explain – deeper trends and developments. Jane Suiter’s article on ‘post-truth’ politics has been downloaded more than 15,000 times.

I’m still tickled that Ealasaid Munro’s terrific piece on fourth wave feminism – published way back in issue four, when the term barely existed – is the most read piece ever, with almost 44,000 downloads. (I commissioned the piece at our kitchen table, and edited much of it on a holiday we took in Portugal.)

With remarkably few exceptions, the authors – you, the political studies community – have been a joy to work with. I was ably helped by the teams first at Wiley and then Sage. An extra special thanks to Mel Armstrong and Doug MacKay at Deeson, who made every issue special.

But from the outset, I was blown over by the enthusiasm within the PSA for Political Insight. Paul Whiteley was a great supporter, as were John Benyon, Richard Topf and many others from the early days. That support has continued right up to the present day.

It is with a heavy heart that I lay down my editor’s cap. I won’t be stuck for work – my career outside Political Insight has blossomed over the past 16 years. But Political Insight’s dedication to combining rigour and expertise with accessibility is certainly needed more now than ever. I know this is an ambition shared by the PSA. I look forward to seeing where all of your work goes next. And, for now, a huge thanks to everyone who made Political Insight such a rare and special place.

Access the top 50 Political Insight articles

Read the latest issue of Political Insight