The Economist

The magazine was first published in September 1843 by James Wilson, to take part in "a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress."

The Economist focuses on world politics and business, although they also have regular sections on science and technology, as well as books and arts. In addition to the news articles, every other week the magazine includes a more in-depth survey of a region or a field of business. Unusually for a modern magazine, articles are generally written anonymously. When works written by contributors to the magazine are reviewed, though, the connection is made explicit. The magazine articles generally take both an economically and socially liberal position (in the sense it disfavours government interference in either social or economic activity), though views taken by individual contributors are quite diverse. The one uniting feature almost all articles in the magazine have in common is the concluding witticism. Some have joked that as long as the writer can deliver that; their political or other opinions do not matter.

ABC circulation for the magazine is approximately 880,000 (July-December 2002 figures) with just less than half the readership based in North America, approximately 20% in continental Europe, 15% in the UK and 10% in Asia. The magazine conciously adopts an internationalist approach and notes that over 80% of its readership is from outside the UK, it's country of publication. The current editor (as at April 2003) Bill Emmott[?] assumed his role in 1993.

The Economist Newspaper Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Economist Group. One half of The Economist Group is owned by private shareholders, and the other half by Financial Times, a subsidiary of The Pearson Group. In 2002, the Economist Group turnover was £227m in 2002 resulting in an operating profit of £15m (down from £21m in 2001 and £32m in 1998, the decrease attributed to a sharp decline in advertising). Income streams are split roughly 50-50 between advertising and other areas, such as subscriptions.

See also

• Time
• Newsweek

• Newspaper
• Magazine

External link

• Homepage of The Economist Online (http://www.economist.com/)