The Economist
The Economist is a weekly news and international affairs publication of The Economist Newspaper Ltd edited in
London,
UK. It has been in continuous publication since September
1843. As of
2006, its average circulation topped one million copies a week, about half of which are sold in
North America.
According to its contents page, its goal is to "take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress." Subjects covered include international
news,
economics,
politics,
business,
finance,
science and
technology and the
arts, but not sports (though articles about the business of sports are occasionally published). The publication is targeted at the high-end "prestige" segment of the market and counts among its
audience influential business and
government decision-makers.
It takes a strongly argued editorial stance on many issues, especially its support for
free trade and
fiscal conservatism; it thus practises
advocacy journalism.
The Economist calls itself a
newspaper. This reflects its legal status under long-standing company registration laws in its home territory,
England. Unlike most newspapers it is printed in
magazine form on glossy
paper, like a
newsmagazine.
The Economist belongs to
The Economist Group. The publication interests of the group include the
CFO brand family as well as
European Voice [
1] and
Roll Call (known as "the Newspaper of
Capitol Hill"). Another part of the group is
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) , a research and advisory company providing country, industry and management analysis worldwide.
The Economist's primary focus is world
news,
politics and
business, but it also runs regular sections on
science and
technology as well as
books and the
arts. Every two weeks, the newspaper includes, as an additional section, an in-depth survey of a particular business issue, business sector or geographical region. Every three months,
The Economist publishes a quarterly technology survey.
Articles often take a definite editorial stance and almost never carry a
byline. This means that no specific person or persons can be named as the
author. Not even the name of the
editor (from 2006,
John Micklethwait) is printed in the issue. It is a longstanding tradition that an editor's only signed article during his tenure is written on the occasion of his departure from the position. The author of a piece is named in certain circumstances: when notable persons are invited to contribute opinion pieces; when
Economist writers compile surveys; and to highlight a potential
conflict of interest over a book review. The names of
Economist editors and correspondents can be located, however, via the staff pages of the website.
The newspaper has a trademark tight writing style [
2] that is famous for putting a maximum amount of information into a minimum of column inches. Since 1995,
The Economist has published one
obituary every week, of a famous (or infamous) person from any field of endeavour.
The Economist is famous for its
Big Mac index, which uses the price of a
Big Mac hamburger sold by
McDonald's in different
countries as an informal measure of
purchasing power parity between two currencies. It has turned out to be a whimsical but surprisingly accurate index for comparison. In January 2004, this index was joined by a
Starbucks "tall latte index".
The newspaper is also a co-sponsor of the
Copenhagen Consensus.
Each opinion column in the newspaper is devoted to a particular area of interest. The names of these columns reflect the topic they concentrate on:
*
Bagehot (
Britain) - named for
Walter Bagehot, nineteenth century British constitutional expert and early editor of
The Economist.
*
Charlemagne (
Europe) - named for
Charlemagne, founder of the
Frankish Empire.
*
Lexington (
United States) - named for
Lexington, Massachusetts, the site of the beginning of the
American War of Independence.
*
Buttonwood (
finance) - named for the
buttonwood tree where early
Wall Street traders gathered. This is an online column.
Two other regular columns are:
*
Face Value: about prominent people in the business world.
*
Economic Focus: a general economics column frequently based on academic research.
The magazine goes to press on Thursdays, is available online from Thursday evening GMT, and is available on
newsstands in many countries the next day. It is printed in seven sites around the world.
The Economist newspaper sponsors yearly "
Innovation Awards", in the categories of bioscience, computing and communications, energy and the environment, social and economic innovation, business-process innovation, consumer products, and a special "no boundaries" category.
The Economist also produces the annual
The World in [
Year] publication.
|
Front page of The Economist, on May 16, 1846 |
The
August 5,
1843 prospectus for the newspaper[
3], enumerated thirteen areas of coverage that its editors wanted the newspaper to focus on:#Original
leading articles, in which free-trade principles will be most rigidly applied to all the important questions of the day.#Articles relating to some practical, commercial, agricultural, or foreign topic of passing interest, such as foreign treaties.#An article on the elementary principles of
political economy, applied to practical experience, covering the laws related to prices, wages, rent, exchange, revenue, and taxes.#
Parliamentary reports, with particular focus on commerce, agriculture, and free trade.#Reports and accounts of popular movements advocating free trade.#General news from the
Court, the
Metropolis, the
Provinces,
Scotland, and
Ireland.#Commercial topics such as changes in fiscal regulations, the state and prospects of the markets, imports and exports, foreign news, the state of the manufacturing districts, notices of important new mechanical improvements, shipping news, the money market, and the progress of railways and public companies.#Agricultural topics, including the application of
geology and
chemistry; notices of new and improved
implements, state of crops, markets, prices, foreign markets and prices converted into English money; from time to time, in some detail, the plans pursued in Belgium, Switzerland, and other well-cultivated countries.#
Colonial and foreign topics, including trade, produce, political and fiscal changes, and other matters, including
exposés on the evils of restriction and protection, and the advantages of free intercourse and trade.#Law reports, confined chiefly to areas important to commerce, manufacturing, and agriculture.#Books, confined chiefly, but not so exclusively, to commerce, manufacturing, and agriculture, and including all treatises on political economy, finance, or taxation.#A commercial
gazette, with prices and statistics of the week.#
Correspondence and inquiries from the newspaper's readers.
In 1845 during
Railway Mania,
The Economist changed its name to
The Economist, Weekly Commercial Times, Bankers' Gazette, and Railway Monitor. A Political, Literary and General Newspaper.[
4]
Editors
The editors of the
Economist have been:
*
James Wilson 1843—1857 (
Herbert Spencer was sub-editor from
1848 to
1853)
*
Richard Hold Hutton 1857—1861
*
Walter Bagehot,
1861—1877. He was Wilson's son-in-law
*
Daniel Conner Lathbury,
1877—1881
*
R.H.I Palgrave,
1877—1883
*
Edward Johnstone,
1883—1907
*
F.W. Hirst,
1907—1916
*
Hartley Withers,
1916—1921
*
Sir Walter T. Layton,
1922—1938
*
Geoffrey Crowther,
1938—1956
*
Donald Tyerman,
1956—1965
*
Alistair Burnet,
1965—1974
*
Andrew Knight,
1974—1986
*
Rupert Pennant-Rea,
1986—1993
*
Bill Emmott,
1993—2006
*
John Micklethwait,
2006—present
When the newspaper was founded, the term "
economism" denoted what would today be termed
fiscal conservatism in the
United States, or
economic liberalism in the rest of the world (and historically in the United States as well).
The Economist generally supports
free markets, and opposes
socialism. It is in favour of
globalisation. Economic liberalism is generally associated with the right, but is now favoured by some traditionally left-wing parties. It also supports
social liberalism, which is often seen as left-wing, especially in the United States. This contrast derives in part from
The Economist's roots in
classical liberalism, disfavouring government interference in either social or economic activity. According to former editor Bill Emmott
"The Economist's
philosophy has always been liberal, not conservative"[
5] (this meant in the non-modern-American senses of those terms). However, the views taken by individual contributors are quite diverse.
The Economist has endorsed both the
Labour Party and the
Conservative Party in recent British elections, and both
Republican and
Democratic candidates in the United States.
A history of
The Economist by the editors of Economist.com puts it this way:
What, besides free trade and free markets, does
The Economist believe in? "It is to the Radicals that
The Economist still likes to think of itself as belonging. The extreme centre is the paper's historical position." That is as true today as when former
Economist editor Geoffrey Crowther said it in 1955.
The Economist considers itself the enemy of privilege, pomposity and predictability. It has backed conservatives such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. It has supported the Americans in Vietnam. But it has also endorsed Harold Wilson and Bill Clinton, and espoused a variety of liberal causes: opposing capital punishment from its earliest days, while favouring penal reform and decolonisation, as well as—more recently—gun control and gay marriage. [
6]
The Economist has frequently criticised figures and countries deemed corrupt or dishonest. For example, it gave editorial support for the impeachment of Bill Clinton. In recent years, for example, it has been critical of
Silvio Berlusconi,
Italy's former Prime Minister (who dubbed it
The Ecommunist [
7]);
Laurent Kabila, the late president of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo; and
Robert Mugabe, the head of government in
Zimbabwe.
The Economist also called for
Donald Rumsfeld's resignation [
8] after the emergence of the
Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse. Although
The Economist supported [
9] George W. Bush's election campaign in 2000 and vocally supported the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the editors backed [
10] John Kerry in the 2004 election and the editorial tone has since become increasingly critical of the Bush administration due to its general disagreement with the paper's classical liberalism.
The Economist does not print by-lines identifying the authors of articles. In their own words: "It is written anonymously, because it is a paper whose collective voice and personality matter more than the identities of individual journalists." [
11]
The editorial staff enforces a strictly uniform voice throughout the magazine. [
12] As a result, most articles read as though they were written by a single author, displaying dry, understated wit, and precise [
13] use of language. [
14]
It does not explain terms like
invisible hand,
macroeconomics, or
demand curve, and may take just six or seven words to explain the theory of
comparative advantage. The newspaper usually does not translate short French quotes or phrases, and sentences in Ancient Greek or Latin are not uncommon. Even phrases in languages as obscure as Basque have been included, relying on the above-average intelligence of its readers to glean meaning.
It strives to be well-rounded. As well as financial and economic issues, it reports on science, culture, language, literature, and art, and is careful to hire writers and editors who are well-versed in these subjects.
The publication is not without a sense of whimsy. Many articles include some witticism. Image captions are very often humorous. The Letters section usually concludes with an odd or light-hearted letter; one notable example simply asked, "What is the idiot's corner, and how can I get published there?"
Circulation for the newspaper, audited by
Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), was 1,038,552 for the first half of 2005. [
15]. Sales inside
North America were 51 per cent of the total, with sales in the UK making up 15 per cent of the total and continental Europe 20 per cent. The Economist claims sales, both by subscription and on newstands, in 201 countries.
The newspaper consciously adopts an
internationalist approach and notes that over 80% of its readership is from outside the UK, its country of publication.
The Economist Newspaper Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of
The Economist Group. One half of The Economist Group is owned by private shareholders, including members of the
Rothschild banking family of England, and the other half by the
Financial Times, a subsidiary of
The Pearson Group. The editorial independence of
The Economist is strictly upheld. An independent trust board, which has power to block any changes of the editor, exists to ensure this.
The Economist frequently receives letters from senior businesspeople, politicians and spokespeople for government departments, Non-Governmental Organisations and pressure-groups. While well-written or witty responses from anyone will be considered, controversial issues will frequently produce a torrent of letters. For example, the survey of
Corporate Social Responsibility, published January 2005, produced largely critical letters from
Oxfam, the
UN World Food Programme,
UN Global Compact, the Chairman of
BT, an ex-Director of
Shell and the UK
Institute of Directors.
Sections of
The Economist criticising authoritarian regimes, such as
China, are frequently removed from the newspaper by the authorities in those countries. Despite having its Asia-Pacific office there,
The Economist regularly has difficulties with the
Lee dynasty in
Singapore, having been sued successfully by them for
libel on a number of occasions.
The government of
Saudi Arabia (among others) censors the magazine, which often appears on newsstands with missing pages. Some issues (such as one covering
King Fahd's death in 2005) were banned from the kingdom. In June 15, 2006
Iran banned the sale of
The Economist due to a map incorrectly labeling the
Persian Gulf as the 'Gulf' [
16]. Iran's action can be put into context within the larger issue of the
Persian Gulf naming dispute.
Nelson Mandela stated that he used to receive
The Economist while imprisoned in
South Africa until the authorities there realised that it was not restricted to covering economic issues and was taking a very strong line against the
apartheid regime.
Robert Mugabe's government in
Zimbabwe went further, and imprisoned Andrew Meldrum,
The Economist's correspondent there. The government charged him with violating an infamous statute against "publishing untruth" for writing that a woman was decapitated by Mugabe supporters. The decapitation claim was retracted and allegedly fabricated by the woman's husband. The correspondent was later acquitted, only to receive a deportation order.
In one episode of
The Simpsons,
Homer is travelling by air in first class and says "Look at me, I'm reading
The Economist. Did you know Indonesia is at a crossroads?" Four days later, with their customary dry wit,
The Economist alluded to the quote, and published an article about Indonesia referring to the "crossroads". [
17] [
18]
* Edwards, Ruth Dudley.
The Pursuit of Reason: The Economist 1843â€"1993. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1993.
The SpectatorNew Statesman*
Economist.com homepage of
The Economist*
an article on the vocabulary of The Economist editorials*
The Economist Group website providing group information and links to all group publications such as
CFO,
Roll Call and
European Voice*
Economist 1993 Ruth Dudley Edwards' retrospective on
The Economist, written on the occasion of its 150th year of publication
*
ebusinessforum Part of the Economist Intelligence Unit. Has free articles from
The Economist**
Preliminary number and prospectus, Aug. 5th 1843*
Some issues from the inaugural volume in 1843, hosted at
ibiblio (copyright expired)
*
How The Economist made a million Christopher Collins,
The Economist's international circulation director, explains how the magazine achieved 1 million subscribers
