The Economist

The Economist is a British weekly print magazine that also publishes daily content on digital platforms. Though often called a magazine, it insists on being described as a newspaper.

Its coverage spans economics, business, geopolitics, technology, and culture. Most of its writing and editing happens in London, with additional editorial offices in the United States and across major cities in continental Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The publication is known for its heavy use of data journalism and leans toward interpretive analysis rather than original reporting, a choice that has drawn both praise and criticism.

It was founded in 1843 by Scottish economist James Wilson, who launched it to build support for repealing the British Corn Laws, a set of import tariffs. Over time, its focus broadened from political economy to include current events, finance, commerce, and British politics. During the mid-to-late 20th century, it expanded its layout and format, adding opinion columns, special reports, political cartoons, reader letters, cover stories, art reviews, book reviews, and technology features. The magazine is instantly recognizable by its bright red masthead and illustrated, topical covers.

Articles are published anonymously, without bylines, so the publication speaks with a single collective voice. It is complemented by a sister lifestyle magazine called 1843, along with podcasts, films, and books. In the UK, it is regarded as a newspaper of record.

Opinions and editorial stances

The Economist’s editorial stance is rooted in classical, social, and especially economic liberalism. It has supported radical centrism, favoring policies and governments that stay in the political center.

It consistently champions free markets, free trade, free immigration, deregulation, and globalization. Its frequent use of wordplay and high subscription price have linked it to a wealthy, elite readership, a connection that carries both positive and negative associations. The publication claims its audience includes influential business leaders and policymakers.

History

The newspaper was founded by James Wilson in 1843 to push for the repeal of the Corn Laws. A prospectus from 5 August 1843 listed thirteen areas of coverage: original leading articles applying free-trade principles; articles on practical commercial, agricultural, or foreign topics; an article on elementary political economy applied to real-world laws on prices, wages, rent, exchange, revenue, and taxes; parliamentary reports focused on commerce, agriculture, and free trade; reports on popular movements advocating free trade; general news from the Court of St James’s, London, the provinces, Scotland, and Ireland; commercial topics like fiscal changes, market conditions, imports and exports, foreign news, manufacturing, mechanical improvements, shipping, money markets, and railways; agricultural topics including geology, chemistry, new implements, crop conditions, and foreign market prices converted to English money; colonial and foreign topics covering trade, produce, political and fiscal changes, and critiques of protectionism; law reports limited to commerce, manufacturing, and agriculture; book reviews focused on commerce, manufacturing, agriculture, and political economy; a commercial gazette with weekly prices and statistics; and correspondence from readers. Wilson described the publication as part of “a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress,” a phrase still printed on its masthead as its mission. It has long been seen as one of the most competent Western periodicals on public affairs.

Karl Marx cited it in developing his socialist theory, believing it epitomized bourgeois interests, and wrote that “the London Economist, the European organ of the aristocracy of finance, described most strikingly the attitude of this class.” In 1915, Vladimir Lenin called it a “journal that speaks for British millionaires” and said it held a “bourgeois-pacifist” position, supporting peace out of fear of revolution. During the currency disputes of the mid-19th century, the journal sided with the Banking School against the Currency School. It criticized the Bank Charter Act of 1844, which limited bank note issuance based on Currency School policy promoted by Lord Overstone, a policy that later evolved into monetarism. It blamed the 1857 financial crisis in Britain on “a certain class of doctrinaires” who “refer every commercial crisis and its disastrous consequences to ‘excessive issues of bank notes,’” identifying the real causes as variations in interest rates and a buildup of excess financial capital.