Eliot's active involvement with the New English Weekly (NEW) began when a cluster of the Chandos Group contacted him asking for guidance on how to run a journal. He acceded to their request for help and, as Kojecky notes, “agreed to make himself available on a regular basis for consultation.” Indeed, Eliot served intermittently on the NEW’s editorial committee, and his participation in their periodic meetings was noted in the issue of 18 April 1935: “the policy of the Editor is debated weekly with the Committee, which consists of Mrs. Orage, Mr. Maurice B. Reckitt, and ‘Pontifex’. They are sometimes assisted by the presence of Mr. Eliot.” Philip Mairet's recollection of Eliot's time as a member of the committee is especially apposite as it lends credence to the notion that he was closely affiliated with the magazine. Mairet noted that Eliot had a “lively interest in the New English Weekly” and delineated his role in the running of the publication:

Several years later, Mairet would also recall the acute observation that Eliot had displayed in these meetings: “he gave his complete attention to what was submitted to him; and you knew it, though his comments were usually brief, even laconic. His words were not subject to the usual discount for politeness or the desire to be encouraging.”

From Mairet's first-hand accounts it is apparent that Eliot was not merely a disinterested party who offered friendly advice but an attentive and engaged member of the NEW's inner circle. In fact, Eliot also met Mairet separately on regular occasions to discuss “points of editorial and publishing business.” There can be little doubt, then, that Eliot considered the NEW to be an important publication, and this is confirmed by his remark of 1934: “on Wednesday mornings I always read through the first part of the New English Weekly before attending to other work.”

Many of the prominent members of the organic movement regularly featured in the NEW, and the extent of the publication's immersion in predial topics has been made evident in recent years.