The World's Economy is NOT dead.
Insight and reports from The Economist will help you to survive and thrive. They target businesses, politicians, and people who want to have their head on straight when looking at the economy and making impactful decisions. As far as educated hypotheses go, this is the best source for economic knowledge. An "Economist Intelligence Unit" serves the magazine analysis, always using many resources from a global perspective. Here is the January-March 2012 issue is titled "The World in 2012":
All articles give information, but none of them seem to have this as their main objective. They predict; forecast and encourage you to smartly make your own. The Contents page lists the following sections: Leaders, United States, The Americas, Asia, China (which rightly has its own section), Middle East and Africa, International, Europe, Britain, The World in Figures, Business, Finance, Science, Culture, and a small section titled Obituary. Leaders is a very large section, and needs to be given that power is being exchanged in many countries during this year. "Democracy and its enemies: In the coming year the people who run the world will change- and so could the ideas, predicts John Micklethwait" is one article in this section. Notice that rather than the traditional bi-line, this article ends the subhead with "predicts", and the reporter's name. Asia is seperated from China- this is a really interesting aspect not because The Economist is being strange in doing this, but I think it should be discussed why Asia and China are given different sections. The answer lies in growing economy of China, and the changes and problems sweeping Pakistan and India. "Redback Rising: More moves to raise the yuan's status" is one example of an article under China's section. All parts of the world are listed, so why a seperate International section? Well, this calls into question the collaboration of nations, looking at hindsight, and questioning balance of power. This magazine is not to be read front to cover in one bedtime reading, I think your head might explode. To lighten things up, Science and Culture discuss new artforms, play productions, and the article titled "It's Still a Gas, Gas, Gas", which discusses rockers who won't stop rocking (Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond). Also, rather than a recap of last year's events, the Economist has a full, January through December "Calender of 2012".
Organization: Past the well-organized Contents Page, a section head is in each top right corner in bright red. Like so:
I love this. Easy navigation is fantastic and encourages me to read more. As the world has trained us, we are very visual learners. This is not lost on The Economist, and info-graphics are very common in articles to help give a visual concept of statistics. Statistics and economics at first glance are dry and boring. The Economist, for lack of a better idiom, breathes life into them. Every article has a picture or graphic, which adds to the story. When it's not a photograph or infographic, it's illustrated, and The Economist is very clever in doing this. Sometimes they even liken to a political cartoon.
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(above) From the article "Virgin Territory," the
top of this graphic reads The Battle of 2012,
as companies Square, Apple, Paypal and
more battle to reach the lands of Software
State, Mount Social, AR and Mobile
Payments.
(above) Infographic of World GDP Growth % in 2012.
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Advertisements: There didn't seem to be too many because the content is amazing, although the magazine really is packed with them. The few consumer material products advertised were Rolex, Hermes clothing from Paris, and Huawei Media Pad. The design was aimed towards sophistication, and advertising that it is a something worthy to add into your life. Environmental and Airlines were the next categories of advertisements, these included Qatar Airways, Emirates First Class, and Chevron advertising its promotion of "human energy". The majority of ads are intended for business and financial services; which makes sense as a majority of this magazine's readers care to manage their finances smartly, and all businesses could benefit from reading this. PNC offers financial services, and UBS offers assets management as well. Gluskin Sheff which offers wealth management has their ad in an eye-catching, simple orange with white and black print using several phrases like "balanced levels of risk and reward for the past 27 years."
For a mattress, go to a mattress store. There are certain things you only want to buy from a specilaty store, and I see news and advice the same way. For information on the economy, it can be nice to look through the New York Times, but the large group of experts at The Economist really can't be beat (that I know of). Editor-in-chief John Micklethwait has said this about The Economist;
"Our vision of the world, our style and our whole
philosophy are different from other publications...we are international,
we stress the links between politics and business, we are irreverent and we are
independent."
For content, this could be considered its competition. Although this is only a section and not an entire print, and concentrates more on personal finance as the title explains. The business section also holds similar content to the business section of The Economist, but the Wall Street reports after the event, and doesn't have the predictive nature of the former. The evidence is in their writing style; almost everything is present or future tense. An excerpt from an article titled "Back to Formality" in the business section:
"Companies, under increasing pressure to protect their profits, will focus more attention on white-collar productivity. As output is hard to measure in most professional jobs, managers will fall back on the oldest gauge of performance..."
Back to The Economist: The Economist online edition
Print vs. Online...Here is how I typically view this source, but in ways I do prefer the printed. I'm a sucker for glossy pictures, and layout and design. In the printed magazine, stories within sections may be highlighted, but there is not several stories being "promoted" as the top ones. In the online edition, there are main stories being displayed. Another difference is the added section of "debate" in the online edition, offering several sides to different topics. The debates may be added into the articles in the print edition, but not seperated like they are online. One memorable part of any journalistic publication is the Letter From the Editor, included in the print edition near the beginning. To find this in the online edition, you must click on print edition, and search for it within that page. For some this is an unnoticeable difference, but reading this can set the tone of the publication and help you to understand their goals.
How the print version sizes up...
As not all of their content can fit into the alloted pages of this magazine, much of what is printed are the "top" stories for each section. This is both a benefit and a downfall. It is nice to find quickly what you were looking to read up on; and this subject will most likely be in The Economist print edition. An example is the article "How to Run the Euro", which is a hot topic for 2012. The downside is many more stories, and more obscure ones which the people at The Economist have written are only available online. The layout of the print is just as a magazine should be; color is used precisely to code sections and distinguish information you are looking at. Pullquotes, sub-sections, and headlines are all very distinct. Another feature I like are the boxes which accompany every article, called 2012 in Brief, and Just Possibly.... The former offers factoids to come this year, the latter economic possibilities. One 2012 in Brief box tells of Yeosu, South Korea hosting the "Living Ocean and Coast" 2012 expo. Another downside is the limited number of sections compared to the online version. I feel like I'm getting a lot of content when holding the pages in my hands; but I know there is more, and this could be solved by pulling up the website.
And so the online edition...
They take advantage of the Internets ability for multi-media, with a section for podcasts and video. My only issue is that this could be integrated more into their other sections. Multimedia is its own section. An entire podcast is offered in this section which is a benefit of the online edition. However, they do not spread their videos out as much as they could. So once again, a benefit with some negatives. The access to past editions is inevitably how the online champions over the print. If you missed buying an issue, it is online anyways. Also, the graphics are interactive online. You can scan your mouse over a bubble map of the magazine's trending topics, click out the ones you don't want and the ones you. One current example is an interactive map with statistics of which countries would "short China now?". A downfall of the online is that navigation is more difficult. Information can seem mixed together, like stories in categories that may fit into multiple. One major benefit of scrolling through online is the economics debate library, with current, upcoming and past debates, always with a moderator. You only receive a dual-sided argument in print occasionally. Overall, the only complaint I have is that it could be more organized and have a better flow.
The version which is better depends more on your needs. If you want an indepth overview of the global economy, choose the magazine. If you study the information given in the current issues for business advice, it may be more helpful to study the past also, and then you go to the online edition. However, the online definitely offers more, and interactive graphics is just awesome. I personally read both editions. This is a magazine for a global audience- but I really hope more Americans read this magazine, helping to correctly inform them on the state of the economy, and hopefully lead to some better monetary and investment plans on a personal level.
I have just one problem...
It is not only multi-millionares who read this magazine. This information could be useful to anyone, whether you want advice or just want to know what's going on. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth that they appeal to the top 10%, and my proof for this statement is that all of their consumer ads are for Rolex, thousand-dollar clothing lines, and first class airlines. I'm a first year college student, and read this monthly. They are in no way targeting me with a diamond studded wristwatch. Theatre, film, photography, dance and more hidden gems past the headline stuff found here:
