Thursday, May 21, 2020

Media: "The Economist Group Lays Off 90 Staffers and Shuts Down Print Edition of 1843"

From AdWeek< May 15:

It's the latest of a slew of media publications to see layoffs this week
The Economist Group will fire 90 non-editorial employees and shut down the print edition of its lifestyle magazine 1843. The magazine will become digital-only, executives said Friday.

“We have made the difficult decision to restructure and reduce roles in the parts of our business most affected by Covid-19,” Lauren Hackett, svp, global communications for The Economist Group told Adweek in a statement. “Each one of our departing colleagues has been instrumental in helping us build the business we have today and leaves with our heartfelt thanks and our promise to build on the legacy they leave behind.”

The layoffs represent a nearly 7% decrease in staff from The Economist Group’s previous 1,300-person workforce.

Editorial staffers have not been affected by the layoffs. The events team, client solutions group and TVC, the company’s marketing and communications agency did see cuts. Additionally, CEO Lara Boro, editor in chief Zanny Minton Beddoes and the rest of The Economist Group’s leadership team will take a pay cut.

Its magazine 1843 debuted as Intelligent Life in 2007 before rebranding in 2016. The bimonthly will end its print run and move to the web starting with the August/September issue. The shift to digital was discussed prior to the pandemic but was accelerated due to the economic turmoil....
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We don't link to The Economist as much as we once did. They seem less incisive and thus less actionable. They don't stand out as much from the crowd. Still agenda-driven after all these years but that is what it is; one of our most popular posts was on connections and how politics in Britain affected business in the U.S. and the fortunes of a family from Virginia and Chicago.
The Corn Laws story, it was in all the papers:

Photo


Over there, on the left of the broadsheet, the Political Economist column.
Remember the date May, 1846.

Back in 2007 we posted some articles on investing based on politics, using McCormick's reaper as an example.
Although the reaper had been commercially available in 1840 sales didn't really get going until England repealed the Corn Laws. Here's a snip from "Global Warming, Politics, Laws and Opportunity".

It would be a shame to lose them.