the economist Unofficial review

the economist

Unofficial review

The Economist claims it "is not a chronicle of economics." Rather, it aims "to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress." 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.

he 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 boasts a tight writing style that seeks to include the maximum amount of information in a limited space. Atlantic Monthly publisher David G. Bradley described the formula as "a consistent world view expressed, consistently, in tight and engaging prose."

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. While whimsical, exchange rates in Western countries have been more likely to adjust to the Big Mac index than vice versa.

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

Bagehot (Britain) — named for Walter Bagehot (pronounced /?bæd??t/), nineteenth-century British constitutional expert and early editor of The Economist.
Charlemagne (Europe) — named for Charlemagne, founder of the Frankish Empire.
Lexington (United States) — named for Lexington, Massachusetts, the site of the beginning of the American War of Independence, it is written by Adrian Wooldridge.
Buttonwood (finance) — named for the buttonwood tree where early Wall Street traders gathered. Until September 2006 this was available only as an online column, but it is now included in the print edition.

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 magazine 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. In addition, it sponsors yearly "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. It also sponsors a writing award.

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 dynasty, which has successfully sued it for libel on a number of occasions.

On June 15, 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.

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.

History
Front page of The Economist, on May 16, 1846
Front page of The Economist, on May 16, 1846

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

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.

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, 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 are based in London, despite the global emphasis.

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