| Type | Weekly Newsmagazine |
|---|---|
| Format | Magazine |
| Owner | The Economist Group |
| Founder | James Wilson |
| Editor | John Micklethwait |
| Founded | September 1843 |
| Political alignment | Economic liberalism |
| Headquarters |
25 St James's Street England |
| Circulation | over 1.6 million copies per week |
| ISSN | 0013-0613 |
| Official website | Economist.com |
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England.[1][2] Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843. For historical reasons The Economist refers to itself as a newspaper, but each print edition appears on small glossy paper, like a news magazine and its YouTube channel is called EconomistMagazine.[3] In 2009, it reported an average circulation of just over 1.6 million copies per issue,[4] above half of which are sold in North America and English speaking countries.[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 takes an editorial stance which is supportive of free trade, globalisation, government health and education spending , as well as other, more limited forms of governmental intervention. It targets highly educated readers and claims 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 its permission. In addition, about two thirds of the 75 staff journalists are based in London, despite the global emphasis.[10]
Contents |
The Economist was founded by the Scottish businessman and banker James Wilson in 1843, to advance the repeal of the corn laws, a system of import tariffs.[11] 5 August 1843 prospectus for the "newspaper," enumerated thirteen areas of coverage that its editors wanted the newspaper to focus on:[12]
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.[13]
It has long been respected as "one of the most competent and subtle Western periodicals on public affairs."[14]
When the newsmagazine was founded, the term "economism" denoted what would today be termed "economic liberalism". The Economist generally supports free markets, globalisation,[15] and free immigration, has been described as neo-liberal although occasionally accepting the propositions of Keynesian economics where deemed more "reasonable".[16] Furthermore, the Economist has also long supported government health and education spending . It also supports social liberalism, including legalised drugs and prostitution. The news magazine favours 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 (in 2005) and the Conservative Party (in 2010[19]) at general election time in Britain, 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 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.[20]
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[21]); Laurent-Désiré Kabila, the late president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Robert Mugabe, the head of government in Zimbabwe; and, recently, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the president of Argentina.[22] 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.[23] 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[update], that pulling out in the short term would be irresponsible.[24] In the 2004 U.S. election, the editors "reluctantly" backed John Kerry.[25][26] In the 2008 U.S. election the newsmagazine endorsed Barack Obama, while using the election eve issue's front cover to promote his candidacy.[27]
The paper has also supported some liberal causes such as recognition of gay marriages,[28] legalisation of drugs,[29] and 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.[30] The Economist consistently favours guest worker programs, parental choice of school, and amnesties[31] and once published an "obituary" of God.[32] The Economist also has a long record of supporting gun control.[33]
On the contents page of each newsmagazine, The Economist's mission statement is written in italics. It states that The Economist was 'First published in September 1843 to take part in "a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress".'[7]
The editorial staff enforces a uniform voice throughout its pages,[34] as if most articles were written by a single author, displaying dry, understated wit, and precise use of language.[35][36]
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 layman. The newsmagazine 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."[37]
Many articles include some witticism; image captions are often humorous puns 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 20 September 2003 issue, headlined by a story on the WTO ministerial meeting in Cancún, featured a cactus giving the middle finger.[38] Readers sent both positive and negative letters in response.[39]
The Economist does not print by-lines identifying the authors of articles, other than surveys and special "by invitation" contributions. The editors say this is necessary because "collective voice and personality matter more than the identities of individual journalists"[40] and reflects “a collaborative effort.”[41] In most articles authors refer to themselves as "your correspondent" or "this reviewer." The writers of the titled opinion columns tend to refer to themselves by the title (hence, a sentence in the "Lexington" column might read "Lexington was informed...").
Critics say editorial anonymity gives the publication an "omniscient tone and pedantry" and hides the youth and inexperience of those writing articles. “The magazine is written by young people pretending to be old people,” quipped American author Michael Lewis in 1991. “If American readers got a look at the pimply complexions of their economic gurus, they would cancel their subscriptions in droves.”[42] John Ralston Saul describes The Economist as a "magazine which hides the names of the journalists who write its articles in order to create the illusion that they dispense disinterested truth rather than opinion. This sales technique, reminiscent of pre-Reformation Catholicism, is not surprising in a publication named after the social science most given to wild guesses and imaginary facts presented in the guise of inevitability and exactitude. That it is the Bible of the corporate executive indicates to what extent received wisdom is the daily bread of a managerial civilization."[43]
Each Economist issue's official date range is from Saturday to the following 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 online posts each week's new content on Thursday afternoon, ahead of the official publication date.
Circulation for the news-magazine, audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), was over 1.2 million for the first half of 2007.[44] 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 at newsagents, 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.[45]
The Economist once boasted 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.[46]
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 bi-monthly Intelligent Life, European Voice, and Roll Call. Sir Evelyn Robert de Rothschild was Chairman of the company from 1972 to 1989.
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 Group, an ex-Director of Shell and the UK Institute of Directors.[47]
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 United Nations Commission on Human Rights.[48] 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.[49] It is extremely rare for any comment by The Economist to appear alongside any published letter. Letters published in the newsmagazine are typically between 150 and 200 words long (and begin with the ritual salutation "Sir"). Previous to a change in procedure, all responses to on-line articles were usually published in "The Inbox". However, now comments can be made directly under each article.
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. Approximately 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 long-standing 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 journalists of The Economist compile special reports; and to highlight a potential conflict of interest over a book review. The names of The 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.[50] Atlantic Monthly publisher David G. Bradley described the formula as "a consistent world view expressed, consistently, in tight and engaging prose."[51]
There is a section of economic statistics. Tables such as employment statistics are published each week and there are special statistical features too. It is unique among British weeklies in providing authoritative coverage of official statistics and its rankings of international statistics have been decisive.[52] In addition, The Economist is known for its Big Mac Index, which it first published in 1986, which uses the price of the hamburger in different countries as an informal measure of the purchasing power of currencies.[53][54]
The publication runs several opinion columns whose names reflect their topic:
Other regular features include:
The newsmagazine goes to press on Thursdays, 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. Known on their website as 'This week's print edition', it is available online, albeit with only the first 5 viewed articles being free (was only available to subscribers between mid-October 2009–2010)
The Economist also produces the annual The World in [Year] publication. It also sponsors a writing award.
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.
Notable winners include Niklas Zennström (2006).
Sections of The Economist criticising authoritarian regimes are frequently removed from the magazine by the authorities in those countries. The Economist regularly has difficulties with the ruling party of Singapore (the People's Action Party), which had successfully sued it, in a Singaporean court, for libel.[55]
The Economist, like many other publications, is subjected to censorship in India whenever it depicts a map of Kashmir. The maps are stamped by Indian Customs officials as being "neither correct, nor authentic". Issues are sometimes delayed, but not stopped or seized.[56]
On 15 June 2006 Iran banned the sale of The Economist when it published a map labelling the Persian Gulf simply as "Gulf"—a choice that derives its political significance from the Persian Gulf naming dispute.[57]
In a separate incident, Robert Mugabe's government in Zimbabwe went further and imprisoned The Economist's correspondent there, Andrew Meldrum. 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.[58]
Roughly every two weeks, The Economist publishes special reports (previously called surveys) on a given topic (list of special reports). 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,[59] there has also been a complete audio edition of the news-magazine available 5pm London time on Fridays, the day after the print news-magazine's publication. A group of British newsreaders records the full text of the news-magazine 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.
The editors of The Economist have been:
During the 1970s, the Economist's reports on South Africa were written by South African journalist Allister Sparks. Business reports were written by Graham Hatton and other reports by Benjamin Pogrund. All articles were edited (but not rewritten) by an Africa editor in London. This was John Grimond during the first half of the 1970s. The magazine's "Foreign Report", also published during the 1970s, was edited by Robert Moss.[64]
Shapur Kharegat was the Asia director from the creation of the office until 1992.
In 1991, James Fallows argued in The Washington Post that The Economist suffers from British class snobbery, pretentiousness, and simplistic argumentation, and "unwholesomely purveys smarty-pants English attitudes on our [US] shores". He also accused it of an editorial line often contradicted by the news stories.[42] 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”[65] for America’s corporate elite.[66] While Sullivan did acknowledge that the magazine's claim about the dotcom bursting would probably be accurate in the long run,[65] the bubble would not burst in the US market until 2001.[67] Sullivan also pointed out that the magazine greatly exaggerated the danger the US economy was in after the Dow Jones fell to 7,400 during the 1998 Labor Day weekend and noted that the magazine's claim that the US economy was at a high risk of entering a recession was far from clear.[65] He also said that The Economist is editorially constrained because so many scribes graduated from the same college at Oxford University, Magdalen College,[65] which he described as "a somewhat ineffective system for correcting internal flaws in a global magazine."[65] 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."[68]
The former editor of Newsweek Jon Meacham, although he still described himself as a "fan", criticises The Economist's focus on analysis over original reporting.[69]
The Simpsons episode "Catch 'Em If You Can" alluded to the snob appeal of The Economist in an exchange between Homer and Marge Simpson while they are travelling first-class aboard an airplane:
Homer: "Look at me, I'm reading The Economist! Did you know Indonesia is at a crossroads?"
Marge: "No!"
Homer: "It is!"
Four days later, 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", as in The Simpsons' episode.[70][71] About seven months later, The Economist ran a cover headline reading "Indonesia at a Crossroads."[72] In April 2009, The Economist published an article on Indonesian democracy with the title "Beyond the crossroads".[73] The show returned to the joke in a much later episode, "Million Dollar Maybe". In return for a favour Homer offers another character, Barney Gumble, the contents of a tree containing his stash of "adult magazines". These turn out to be issues of The Economist, one of which features the headline "New challenges for Indonesia".
In 2006, Indian actor Abhishek Bachchan starred in a Motorola KRZR advertisement where one flight attendant asked if he wanted anything to read. He said "The Economist, please", which resulted in the young lady sitting next to him rolling her eyes and his mirror image called him a "fraud". He settles for Stardust instead.[74]
In the 2011 film, The Muppets (film), the character of Tex Richman, an oil tycoon, is reading an issue of The Economist in one of the scenes.
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