Economist

What explains the success of The Economist thus far? Why has it managed to succeed while so many other newspapers and magazines are struggling?

The success of The Economist can be attributed to several factors. Some of them are as follows:

Focus on quality content than on readers’ opinions

Economist publishes short 500-word articles which are uniform across all regions and does not tailor the articles for readers from different regions. As a result, The Economist was able to provide superior content to its readers thereby maintaining its brand image.

Smart marketing campaigns

The Economist marketed itself not on its superior content but rather on its brand. It marketed itself as a newspaper which the smart people subscribe to. This led to many people subscribing to The Economist to at least appear smart even though they did not read it as much. The smart advertising campaigns with the red posters created a premium brand image for The Economist compared to its peers.

Generalist model for its journalists

The journalists at The Economist do not specialize in a particular category, for instance, Asian business but rotate between categories every three years. Hence, the journalists asked even basic questions which a veteran in that category would ignore and thereby provide a new flavor to the article compared to a similar article at its competitors.

Anonymization of author’s name

The Economist does not publish the journalist’s name on the article as a byline even if it is special report or a small box article. This allows the journalist to put equal effort on every piece of the magazine and provide superior content for its readers

These are some factors which led to the success of The Economist while many other newspapers were struggling.