The Economist Magazine - Research Paper Example

 The Economist magazine edited in London came into existence in 1843. A Scottish hat manufacturer, James Wilson, with an intention to advance the concept of unrestricted trade established the newspaper. At that time, the magazine majored on political, agricultural, commercial and free trade. Through the years, the magazine has progressed to a global media company for informing the intelligently curious individuals on weekly international and business news (The Economist Group 1). Particular target readers The Economist being an all-around magazine mainly focuses intellectuals with a desire for information concerning topics such as politics, economics, lifestyle, social, culture, entertainment and even sports. Most individuals who read the magazine range from young to adult, politicians to civilians, male and female and, above all, the youth. Background information Digging back into the history of The Economist magazine, it only began with consumers not more than 1,969. As at present, a global record of March 2014 listed The Economist as the most read magazine by the world’s business and political leaders with a standing circulation of over 1.5 million. Launching of The Economist first edition in Spanish in 1967 helped a great deal in increasing its readers mainly aimed at Latin America. It boosted the sales to 100,000 by 1970. Almost at the same time in 1974, Andrew Knight, the new editor of The Economist at that time introduced pages on science and technology (The Economist Group 1). The magazine further advanced with editor, Rupert Pennant-Rea, in 1986 innovating the Asian section, the Bagehot, and a page outlining sport in addition to the Lexington columns. Later in 1991, the Economist group took over Public Network Europe (PNE) that enabled them to publish the monthly magazine for the European executives in telecommunication network corporations”. By this time, 500,000 magazines were in circulation. Most changes in The Economist Group occurred in 1993 with Marjorie Scardino as the chief executive and Bill Emmott as the editor. He introduced the column for American. The sections included obituary page, Technology Quarterly, emerging market indicators and Charlemagne. At this point, foreign sales added up to about 80% of the total sales. It is this year that The Economist marked 150th anniversary (The Economist Group 1). With a steady progress, in 1995, the group acquired a journal on commerce that was the primary source of information on shipping and transportation industries that were in the US. They also launched the only weekly newspaper on independent views directed to the European Union, European Voice. Statistics as at 1996 stated that The Economist circulation exceeded 600,000 in more than 180 countries across the world preceding its publication in 11 county marketing editions (The Economist Group 14). Description and Content of the Economist The Economist comes in different sizes, with the lifestyle version, which is 14cm by 21 cm while the weekly edition of The Economist is 8cm by 10 cm. At the top left of the magazine is the magazine's logo in Red. The magazine contains different sections that include world politics, business and finance, economics science and technology, culture, blogs, debate, and multimedia. Obituary comes on the last page with sports. Copies sold per year and number of readers In 2001, the group launched the redesigned Economist that for the first time, took the paper from full color. Over 2 million individuals read The Economist daily with an average global circulation of more than 760,000 copies. Later in 2003, the publication won “Association of Business Press Editor” and an award Magazine of the year. Folio: ’s Eddie also emerged as the top finance and business magazine” (The Economist Group 1). Later in 2005, The Economist circulates beyond the one million mark. The “Audit Bureau of Circulation”, with an average of 1,009,759 copies per week between the periods of July to December (The Economist Group 1). In the following year, The Economist became Campaign publications of the year. The circulation of the paper rises to 1.3m in the next year with over 2.6 million online visitors to its website Economist.com. Today, the Economist sales over 2 million copies per week. Achievements and different versions available Advancing with Technology, The Economist goes digital with applications availed in Kindle, iPhone, and iPads. Later, the group launches applications for Android smartphones. Over 1 million individuals read The Economist online on a monthly basis. Change in publication occurred in 2011 with The Economist’s life magazine and Intelligent life moving from four-time publication to twice a month (The Economist Group 1). The Economist magazine is the most preferred by most companies to advertising their products. Globally, it is one of the most read hence the advert reaching the target groups. Politicians, such as Obama, present campaign articles in the paper to reach the people of America. The newspaper subsections especially for the youths and entertainment increased the number of online readers mainly those using mobile phones. The economist explores different topics with target groups from young to old, male to female and even across every race. With the current trend on the cover page, the paper appeals many with different sections containing different topics. Political comes first while obituary and sports published on the last pages (The Economist Group 1). Articles Summary Most of the articles in The Economist written by different authors appeal to readers ranging from current to past issues. An example of such an article is the article of “an atrocity in Kenya” on April 11, 2015/Nairobi/from the print edition. The author talks about mass murder by terrorist in Kenya and its impact on the government of the country. The writer mentions a female student, Daisy Onyango, 20 years old who witnessed terrorists killing her fellow students of Garrisa University located in the North Easter province of Kenya, for 12 hours. From where she hid, she claims that she could see Kenyan soldiers and wondered why they could not rescue the situation. The terrorist, who were members of the Shabab group from Somalia, stormed the place on 2nd of April and within minutes shot dead quite a good number of students (An atrocity in Kenya 1). The girls and her friends who were hiding witnessed the torture and overheard one of the terrorist saying that the Shabab mission was to “kill and to be killed” (An atrocity in Kenya 1). They tried most of the students’ knowledge of Koran and killed those who failed. Some were shot while others were beheaded. They tricked some female students out of their hiding places claiming that Koran did not allow them to kill women while others ordered to call their parents and blame the Kenyan government for their death. At the end of it, all 142 students lay dead, together with six police officers and soldiers. Another example of an eye-catching article is Paywalls open doors published on March 27, 2014 by B.C./Bratislava. He states how the Piano Media begun as a small idea that based on the business model of television cable subscriptions. Since people could pay for TV channels bundles, they could also do the same when it came to online media. The piano media came into existence three year back from the publication date by constructing a paywall system. The article finally mentions, Piano Media proprietor as a founder allies of Monogram, NextBig, ETarget, and venture capital firm 3TS Partners (Bratisilva 8). In conclusion, The Economist has lived up to its mission of offering acumen, inquiry and services valued by its customers. The state of independence, integrity and high-quality labor of the Group predicts a bright future for the magazine. With the standing statistics of circulation of over 1.5 million copies, The Economist looks forward to creating a self-sustain reading paper to quench all intellectuals’ curiosity in all fields possible in the world with door-to-door delivery. Watch out! Works Cited The Economist Group. 2015. Online. 12 April 2015. . Bratisilva, B., C, “Startups in Slovakia: Paywalls open doors.” The Economist 27 March 2014. online. . “An atrocity in Kenya.” The Economist 8 April 2015. Online. . The Economist Group. Annual report 2014. Annual report. London, 2014. print. Read More