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File:The Economist logo.png
TypeWeekly newsmagazine
(in the UK, a registered newspaper)
FormatMagazine
Owner(s)The Economist Group
EditorJohn Micklethwait
FoundedSeptember 1843
Political alignmentClassical Liberalism[1][2][3]
Headquarters25 St James's Street
London
SW1A 1HG
England
Circulationover 1.3 million copies per week
ISSN0013-0613
Websitewww.economist.com

The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in London. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843. While The Economist calls itself a "newspaper", each issue appears on glossy paper, like a newsmagazine. In 2007, it reported an average circulation of just over 1.3 million copies per issue[4], about half of which are sold in North America.[5]

The Economist claims it "is not a chronicle of economics."[6] Rather, it aims "to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress."[7] It practices advocacy journalism in taking an editorial stance based on free trade and globalisation. It targets educated readers and boasts an audience containing many influential executives and policy-makers.[8]

The publication belongs to The Economist Group, half of which is owned by the Financial Times, a subsidiary of Pearson PLC. A group of independent shareholders, including many members of the staff and the Rothschild banking family of England,[9] owns the rest. A board of trustees formally appoints the editor, who cannot be removed without their permission. In addition, about two-thirds of the seventy-five staff journalists are based in London, despite the global emphasis.[10]

Features

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 publication adds an in-depth special report on a particular issue, business sector or geographical region. Every three months, it publishes a technology report called Technology Quarterly or TQ.

Articles often take a definite editorial stance and almost never carry a byline. 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 special reports; 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 media directory pages of the website.

The publication's writers adopt a tight style that seeks to include the maximum amount of information in a limited space.[11] Atlantic Monthly publisher David G. Bradley described the formula as "a consistent world view expressed, consistently, in tight and engaging prose."[12]

Since 1995, The Economist has published one obituary every week, of a significant person, not necessarily famous, from any field of endeavour. In addition, The Economist is known 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 the purchasing power of currencies.

The publication includes several opinion columns, whose names reflect the topic they concentrate on:

Two other regular columns are:

  • Face Value: about prominent people in the business world.
  • Economics Focus: a general economics column, frequently based on academic research.

The newspaper goes to press on Thursdays, is available online from Thursday between 6 and 7pm GMT, and is available on newsstands in many countries the next day. It is printed at seven sites around the world.

The Economist also produces the annual The World in [Year] publication. It also sponsors a writing award.

Innovation Awards

In addition, it sponsors yearly "The Economist 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.

History

Front page of The Economist, on 16 May 1846

The 5 August 1843 prospectus for the "newspaper," enumerated thirteen areas of coverage that its editors wanted the newspaper to focus on:[14]

  1. Original leading articles, in which free-trade principles will be most rigidly applied to all the important questions of the day.
  2. Articles relating to some practical, commercial, agricultural, or foreign topic of passing interest, such as foreign treaties.
  3. 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.
  4. Parliamentary reports, with particular focus on commerce, agriculture, and free trade.
  5. Reports and accounts of popular movements advocating free trade.
  6. General news from the Court, the Metropolis, the Provinces, Scotland, and Ireland.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. Law reports, confined chiefly to areas important to commerce, manufacturing, and agriculture.
  11. Books, confined chiefly, but not so exclusively, to commerce, manufacturing, and agriculture, and including all treatises on political economy, finance, or taxation.
  12. A commercial gazette, with prices and statistics of the week.
  13. 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.[15]

Opinions

Main article: The Economist editorial stance

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, globalisation, and free immigration, has been described as neo-liberal.[16] It also supports social liberalism, including legalised drugs and prostitution. This contrast is attributed to The Economist's roots in classical liberalism, disfavoring government interference in either social or economic activity,[citation needed] although the newspaper favors a carbon tax to fight global warming.[17] According to former editor Bill Emmott, "the Economist's philosophy has always been liberal, not conservative."[18] Individual contributors take diverse views.

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. Economist.com puts its stance 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, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, 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.[19]

The Economist frequently accuses figures and countries of corruption or dishonesty. In recent years, for example, it criticised former World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's Prime Minister (who dubbed it The Ecommunist[20]); Laurent Kabila, the late president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Robert Mugabe, the head of government in Zimbabwe and, recently, Cristina Kirchner, the president of Argentina.[21] The Economist also called for Bill Clinton's impeachment and later for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation after the emergence of the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse.[22] The Economist initially was a vocal supporter for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, but it has since called the operation "bungled from the start" and criticised the "almost criminal negligence" of the Bush Administration’s handling of the war, while maintaining, as of April 2008, that pulling out in the short term would be irresponsible.[23] In the 2004 U.S. election, the editors reluctantly backed John Kerry.[24][25] In the 2008 U.S. election, the newspaper endorsed Barack Obama.[26] The paper has also supported some left-wing issues[citation needed] such as progressive taxation, criticising the U.S. tax model in a recent issue, and seems to support some government regulation on health issues, such as smoking in public, as well as bans on spanking children.[27] The Economist consistently favours guest worker programs, parental choice of school, and amnesties[28] and once published an "obituary" of God.[29]

Tone and voice

The Economist does not print by-lines identifying the authors of articles other than surveys and special "by invitation" contribution. The editors say this is necessary because "collective voice and personality matter more than the identities of individual journalists."[30] Authors refer to themselves within articles as "your correspondent" or "this reviewer."

The editorial staff enforces a uniform voice throughout its pages,[31] as if most articles were written by a single author, displaying dry, understated wit, and precise use of language.[32][33] The paper's treatment of economics presumes a working familiarity with fundamental concepts of classical economics. For instance, 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. However, articles involving economics do not presume any formal training on the part of the reader and aim to be accessible to the educated layperson. The newspaper usually does not translate short French quotes or phrases, and sentences in Ancient Greek or Latin are not uncommon. It does, however, describe the business or nature of even well-known entities; writing, for example, "Goldman Sachs, an investment bank."[34]

Many articles include some witticism; image captions are often humorous and the letters section usually concludes with an odd or light-hearted letter. These efforts at humour have sometimes had a mixed reception. For example, the cover of the 20 September 2003 issue, headlined by a story on the Cancún WTO ministerial meeting, featured a cactus giving the middle finger.[35] Readers sent both positive and negative letters in response.[36]

Circulation

Each Economist issue's official date range is from Saturday to the next Friday. In the UK print copies are dispatched late Thursday, for Friday delivery to retail outlets. Elsewhere, retail outlets and subscribers receive their copies on Friday or (more often) Saturday, depending on their location. The Economist Web site posts each week's new content by Friday morning, ahead of the official publication date.

Circulation for the newspaper, audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), was over 1.2 million for the first half of 2007.[37] Sales inside North America were around 54 percent of the total, with sales in the UK making up 14 percent of the total and continental Europe 19 percent. The Economist claims sales, both by subscription and on newsstands, in over 200 countries. Global sales have doubled since 1997. Of its American readers, two out of three make more than $100,000 a year.[38]

The Economist once bragged about its limited circulation. In the early 1990s it used the slogan "The Economist - not read by millions of people." "Never in the history of journalism has so much been read for so long by so few," wrote Geoffrey Crowther, a former editor.[39]

The Economist Newspaper Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Economist Group. The publications of the group include the CFO brand family as well as the annual The World in..., the lifestyle quarterly Intelligent Life, European Voice, and Roll Call. Sir Evelyn de Rothschild was Chairman of the company from 1972 to 1989.

Letters

The Economist frequently receives letters from senior businesspeople, politicians and spokespeople for government departments, non-governmental organisations and lobbies, but well written or witty responses from anyone are considered, and controversial issues frequently produce a torrent of letters. For example, the survey of Corporate Social Responsibility, published January 2005, produced largely critical letters from Oxfam, the World Food Programme, United Nations Global Compact, the Chairman of BT, an ex-Director of Shell and the UK Institute of Directors.[40]

Many of the letters published are critical of its stance or commentary. After The Economist ran a critique of Amnesty International and human rights in general in its issue dated 24 March 2007, its letters page ran a vibrant reply from Amnesty, as well as several other letters in support of the organisation, including one from the head of the UN Human Rights Commission.[41] Rebuttals from officials within regimes such as the Singapore government are routinely printed, to comply with local right-of-reply laws without compromising editorial independence.[42] It is extremely rare for any comment by The Economist to appear alongside any published letter. Letters published in the newspaper are typically between 150 and 200 words long (and begin with the ritual salutation "Sir"). Previous to a change in procedure, all responses to online articles were usually published in "The Inbox". However, now comments can be made directly under each article.

Censorship

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 in Singapore, The Economist regularly has difficulties with the Lee family, which has successfully sued it for libel on a number of occasions.[43]

On 15 June 2006 Iran banned the sale of The Economist when it published a map mislabelling the Persian Gulf simply as "Gulf" — a choice that derives its political significance from the Persian Gulf naming dispute.[44]

Robert Mugabe's government in Zimbabwe went further, and imprisoned Andrew Meldrum, The Economist's correspondent there. The government charged him with violating a statute on "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.[45]

Special features

Roughly every two weeks, The Economist publishes special reports (previously called surveys) on a given topic. The five main categories are Countries and Regions, Business, Finance and Economics, Science and Technology, and Other. The reports are series of (bylined) summary and analysis articles. Every three months, it publishes a "Technology Quarterly," a special section focusing on recent trends and developments in science and technology.

Since July 2007,[46] there has also been a complete audio edition of the newspaper available 5pm London time on Fridays, the day after the print newspaper's publication. A group of British newsreaders records the full text of the newspaper in mp3 format, including the extra pages in the UK edition. The weekly 130 MB download is free for subscribers and available for a fee for non-subscribers.

Criticism

James Fallows argued in the Washington Post that The Economist suffers from British class snobbery, pretentiousness, and simplistic argumentation--and that the editorial line is often contradicted by actual news stories.[47] Andrew Sullivan complained in the New Republic that it uses “marketing genius” to make up for deficiencies in analysis and original reporting, resulting in “a kind of Reader's Digest”[48] for America’s corporate elite.[49] (However, criticism in the same 1999 article regarding as-yet-unfulfilled pronouncements by The Economist that the American stock market was overvalued was proven wrong a few months later when the Internet bubble burst.) He also said that The Economist is editorially constrained because so many scribes graduated from the same school, Magdalen College, Oxford. The Observer' wrote that "its writers rarely see a political or economic problem that cannot be solved by the trusted three-card trick of privatisation, deregulation and liberalisation."[50]

Newsweek editor Jon Meacham, although he still described himself as a "fan", criticises The Economist's focus on analysis over original reporting.[51] Elsewhere, the publication is said to have an “omniscient tone and pedantry."[47] Editorial anonymity, said by the editor to reflect “a collaborative effort,”[52] is said to hide the youth and inexperience of those writing articles. "The magazine is written by young people pretending to be old people," according to American author Michael Lewis.[47] “If American readers got a look at the pimply complexions of their economic gurus, they would cancel their subscriptions in droves."

The British Socialist Party described The Economist as a "mouthpiece of world financial capital".[53]

Editors

The editors of The Economist have been:

  • In The Simpsons episode "Catch 'Em If You Can", Homer is traveling by air in first class and says "Look at me, I'm reading The Economist. Did you know Indonesia is at a crossroads?" and when questioned by his wife, he simply replies "It is!" Four days later, with its customary dry wit, The Economist alluded to the quote, and published an article about Indonesia referring to the "crossroads". The title of the issue was "Indonesia's Gambit".[58][59] About seven months later, The Economist ran a cover headline reading "Indonesia at a Crossroads."[60]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Conversation with John Micklethwait". Institute of International Studies. 6 February 2007. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
  2. ^ "Classical liberalism on the ballot". economist.com. 7 November 2006. Retrieved 2008-09-16. {{cite web}}: Text "Democracy in America" ignored (help)
  3. ^ Manchester School Liberalism "The history of economic thought website". Retrieved 2008-09-16. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  4. ^ "Worldwide circulation vitality". economist.com. Retrieved 2008-05-20.
  5. ^ "E.M. O'Rorke subscription letter". NPR. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
  6. ^ "How our readers view The Economist". economist.com. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
  7. ^ Opinion | Economist.com
  8. ^ "How our readers view The Economist". economist.com. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
  9. ^ "Let the bad times roll accessdate=2008-09-16". The Guardian. 25 February 2008. {{cite web}}: Missing pipe in: |title= (help)
  10. ^ "So what's the secret of 'The Economist'?". independent.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
  11. ^ "The Economist style guide". economist.com. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
  12. ^ "A Seven Year Ambition". mediabistro.com.
  13. ^ "Journalist listing". economist.com. Retrieved 2008-11-30.
  14. ^ "Prospectus". economist.com. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
  15. ^ "The many paradoxes of broadband". firstmonday.org. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
  16. ^ George Monbiot, Punitive - and it works, The Guardian, 11 January 2005
  17. ^ Buttonwood, The Economist, 14 June 2008
  18. ^ Emmot, Bill (8 December 2000). "Time for a referendum on the monarchy". Comment. The Guardian. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
  19. ^ "About us". economist.com. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
  20. ^ "Report of Rome anti-war demo on Saturday 24th with photos". Indymedia. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
  21. ^ "Cristina in the land of make believe". The Economist. 1 May 2008.
  22. ^ "Resign Rumsfeld". economist.com. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
  23. ^ "Mugged by reality". economist.com. Retrieved 2007-04-09.
  24. ^ "Crunch time in America". economist.com. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
  25. ^ "The incompetent or the incoherent?". economist.com. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
  26. ^ http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?source=most_commented&story_id=12511171
  27. ^ Spare The Rod, Say Some, The Economist, 31 May 2008
  28. ^ Sense, not Sensenbrenner, The Economist, 30 March 2006
  29. ^ "Obituary: God". The Economist. 23 December 1999.
  30. ^ "The Economist — About us". economist.com. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
  31. ^ "The Economist — Style guide". economist.com. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
  32. ^ "The Economist — Tone". economist.com. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
  33. ^ "Johnson". economist.com. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
  34. ^ "A bank by any other name". economist.com. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
  35. ^ Issue Cover for Sep 20th 2003, economist.com
  36. ^ Letters: Pointing the Finger, The Economist, 2 October 2003
  37. ^ "Worldwide circulation". economist.com. Retrieved 2007-08-21.
  38. ^ "'Economist' Magazine Wins American Readers". NPR. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
  39. ^ "`Economist' aspires to influence, and many say it does" (pay archive). The Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2008-05-14.
  40. ^ "Compilation: Full text of responses to Economist survey on Corporate Social Responsibility (January-February 2005)". Business & Human Rights. Retrieved 2007-02-03.
  41. ^ "Letters: On Amnesty International and human rights, Iraq, tax breaks Apr 4 2007". Economist.com. Retrieved 2007-11-09.
  42. ^ The Media Enthralled, Francis T. Seow, 1998, pages 171-175
  43. ^ "Inconvenient truths in Singapore". Asia Times. Retrieved 2007-01-31.
  44. ^ "Iran bans The Economist over map". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2007-01-31.
  45. ^ "Guardian and RFI correspondent risks two years in jail". Reporters Without Borders. Retrieved 2007-01-31.
  46. ^ Allen, Katie (11 July 2007). "Economist launches audio magazine". Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 2007-08-16.
  47. ^ a b c "The Economics of the Colonial Cringe: Pseudonomics and the Sneer on the Face of The Economist". Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
  48. ^ "Not so groovy". The New Republic. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
  49. ^ "Nasty barbs fly between New Republic and Economist". Media Life. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
  50. ^ "Economist thrives on female intuition". The Observer. 2005-08-21.
  51. ^ "Jon Meacham Wants Newsweek to Be More Like Hayes' Esquire". New York Observer. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
  52. ^ "Economist Editor Micklethwait brings his global perspective to the Twin Cities". MinnPost.com. 29 April 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
  53. ^ 2001 - a year of Workers' reawakening, The Socialist, 5 January 2001
  54. ^ The Concise Dictionary of National Biography makes him assistant editor 1858-1860
  55. ^ He was Wilson's son-in-law
  56. ^ A journalist and biographer[1]
  57. ^ 'a solid Scots journalist, Edward Johnstone (1883–1907)'[2]
  58. ^ "The electoral week — On the trail". economist.com. Retrieved 2006-12-28.
  59. ^ "Investing in Indonesia". economist.com. Retrieved 2006-12-28.
  60. ^ The Economist, 11 December-17, 2004, cover

Further reading

  • Edwards, Ruth Dudley (1993) The Pursuit of Reason: The Economist 1843–1993, London: Hamish Hamilton, ISBN 0-241-12939-7
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