Its editorial stances are generally fiscally conservative and socially liberal. Its writing has also been praised for its straightforward style, though it has also been criticized as simplistic and smug.

The Economist emphasizes its institutional voice over individual brands, publishing its articles without bylines.

Compared with other newsweeklies and global news outlets, the Economist has placed little emphasis on its website, and its web traffic ranks well behind that of the competing U.S. newsweeklies Time. In recent years, however, the magazine has placed a new emphasis on using social media and analytics to engage audiences and bring them to its site. The site has also used political bloggers to build buzz for its stories.

The site includes a combination of free and paid content, with the archives behind a paywall. It offers multi-platform online subscriptions, and anline subscribers can also browse an online version of the publication’s print edition. The Economist has tried other forms of paid content, including on-demand print delivery, special reports, books, and e-books, and research for hire. For more than a decade, the Economist has provided its subscribers with an online audio version of its print edition.

The magazine launched an edition for Android tablets in August 2011. It also has an app for Apple devices, which it had to re-issue in October 2011 in order to comply with Apple’s rules for app subscriptions. As of late 2011, it had 100,000 digital subscribers in total. In 2012, it reported 560,000 app downloads, with about 255,000 in the U.S.