BigShinyThing

MediaPost reports [via Gawker] that in the most recent ABCs for North America, The Economist saw a subscription increase of 14.2 percent over the first half of 2005, whilst fellow ’serious-minded publication’ The Week saw its subscriptions climb 43 percent. According to The Week’s president, Justin B Smith, “the traditional weeklies have become less news magazines and more popular culture magazines … But [these numbers] suggest that there is a growth market for serious, global minded journalism.”

We think that the success of The Economist and The Week has as much to do with fantastic editing. Way before blogs, rolling news and the plethora of sources that we now get our news from, both publications sought to inform on a ‘need to know’ basis, on a weekly basis. The Economist’s advertising affirms this - think of the “I never read The Economist” - management trainee aged 42 poster. The Week meanwhile cleverly offers to edit all the week’s essential stories down to handy bite-sized pieces. Savvy papers like The Guardian have already started to follow The Week’s lead, offering The Wrap, an edited version the best of all the British newspaper coverage daily. And why bother to read a newspaper every day when you can look smart reading The Economistand/or The Week and then supplement your news via the web or TV?

One quibble though - why hasn’t The Week got any kind of readable and searchable online presence?