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The Economist is a weekly publication based in London that covers global news and issues.
The Economist refers to itself as a newspaper, but it holds more in common stylistically with magazines, particularly newsweeklies like Time and Newsweek.
The magazine was founded in 1843 and is the flagship publication of the Economist Group, which also publishes the U.S. congressional publications Congressional Quarterly and Roll Call. The British media conglomerate Pearson PLC, which owns the Financial Times, owns half of the Economist Group, and the other half is owned by a variety of investors.
The Economist had 1.6 million subscribers in 2012, about 900,000 of which are in the United States. As of 2009, it was the only newsweekly with a rising circulation in the United States.
Its global circulation is also increasing, and the Economist Group became more profitable in 2009, though its advertising revenue fell and it cut about 130 positions that year.
The Economist has a relatively high subscription price and is aimed at a wealthy, cosmopolitan audience. It is highly regarded for its extensive international coverage and analysis, a model that has been emulated by several American magazines.
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.
Press+ is a service that assists news organizations in charging for content online. The service was founded in April 2009 as part of the company Journalism Online by entrepreneur and CourtTV founder Steven Brill, former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz, and investment fund manager Leo Hindery. In March 2011, Journalism Online was acquired by RR Donnelley for about $35 million….
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