[citation needed] The magazine contains topical features, often aligned with programmes being broadcast on BBC Radio or Television and written by academic historians, as well as historical analysis of news events and comparisons with similar previous events, reviews of new books and media, and features on significant locations in history.

In March 2010 BBC Historia was launched through a partnership with the Spanish publishers Ediciones Nobel.

In January 2006 the magazine's list of the "ten worst Britons" was widely reported, and in April 2006 its report of a poll in which the day Magna Carta was signed was chosen as a suitable day for a celebration of "Britishness" also attracted unusual attention, to the ire of some in Scotland.

In 2008 some newspapers picked up on a piece by Dave Musgrove asking whether it might be time to have the Bayeux Tapestry brought over from France for an exhibition.

In November 2009 the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 reported on a story in the magazine about when history ends and current affairs begin.