Has 'dumbing down' newspapers led to the weekly Economist's success?

Posted by John Burke on February 21, 2006 at 5:24 PM

After announcing his resignation from the respected news weekly, The Economist, Bill Emmott said that part of his newspaper's success could be attributed to the rise in daily newspapers' coverage of 'entertainment' journalism. Emmott was chief of the Economist for 13 years, during which time its circulation has doubled to over 1 million readers where the circulations of most daily newspapers continue a steady decline.

Emmott said that the Economist's growth over the years came from a "big niche" of "better educated than ever" readers interested in global affairs and international business.

"I think we have been left a bit of space," said Emmott. "(Dailies) have had a hard task of how to deal with and preserve a mass market in an age when their market has been eroded by television on the one hand and the internet on the other.

"But I think they have left us some space by continuing to play in the mass, almost entertainment market. Very few have come in our direction of analysis. There's a choice - more entertainment or more information, and the numbers that have taken the more information route are very few."

Source: The Guardian

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