 | |
| The Economist Group | |
| Company type | Private limited company |
| Founded | 1843; 182 years ago (1843) inLondon |
| Founder | James Wilson |
| Headquarters | London, England |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | |
| Products | Newspapers, magazines, books, films, podcasts |
| Services | Market intelligence, conferences |
| Revenue |  £367.0 million (2024) |
 £47.4 million (2024) | |
| £31.2 million (2023) | |
| Total assets | £187.5 million (2023) |
| Total equity |  £(76.1) million (2023) |
| Owners |
|
Number of employees | 1,641 (2023) |
| Divisions | Economist Intelligence Unit,EuroFinance |
| Website | economistgroup |
| Footnotes / references Financials as of 31 March 2023[update].[1] | |
The Economist Newspaper Limited (commonlyThe Economist Group) is a British media company headquartered inLondon, England. It is best known as publisher ofThe Economist newspaper and its sister lifestyle magazine,1843. The Economist Group specialises ininternational business and world affairs information. Its principal activities are in print anddigital media as well as in conferences andmarket intelligence.
After the death of its founderJames Wilson in 1860,The Economist was held intestamentary trust for his six daughters and their dependents. The eldest, Mrs Bagehot, whose husbandWalter was editor at the time of Wilson's death, maintained a close personal interest in the paper until her death in 1921. Subsequently, the Wilson trustees were concerned whether surviving beneficiaries would keep touch with the paper's direction, as further deaths formed subsidiary trusts over time. So in 1928 the Wilson Trust decided to sell the paper, whilst creating a structure intended to maintain its reputation for 'independent judgment and unfettered criticism'. A non-controlling 50% went to theFinancial Times, and the other half to an influential group of individual shareholders. A new board of independent trustees was created, with rights both to veto the transfer of voting shares and to choose or remove editors-in-chief, who in turn would have sole responsibility for the paper's policy.[2]
Ownership of the 50% shareholding passed toPearson plc when they bought The Financial Times Limited (FT) in 1957. Later, however, when Pearson plc was negotiating the sale of FT, The Economist's independent trustees vetoed 'complicated attempts at a deal'.[3] Finally, in August 2015, as part of their sale of the FT toNikkei, Inc., Pearson sold their share in The Economist.[4]
TheAgnelli family'sExor paid £287 million to raise their stake from 4.7% to 43.4%, while The Economist paid £182 million for the balance of 5.04 million shares which will be distributed to current shareholders.[5] Aside from the Agnelli family, smaller shareholders in the company includeCadbury,Rothschild (21%),Schroder, Layton and other family interests as well as a number of staff and former staff shareholders.[5][6]
The origins of The Economist Group date back to the foundation ofThe Economist: A Political, Commercial, Agricultural, & Free-Trade Journal by James Wilson in 1843.[7]
In 1946, theEconomist Intelligence Unit began providing business intelligence to bothThe Economist newspaper and external clients.[7] In the same year, the Economist bookshop was established as a 50:50 joint venture with the London School of Economics.[7]
Economist Conferences was established as a division of Economist Intelligence Unit in 1956 to offer governmentroundtables.[7]
In 1995, The Economist Group acquired theJournal of Commerce, a US-based provider of information for the shipping andtransportation industries.[7] In the same year the Group launchedEuropean Voice, the first pan-European Union weekly newspaper.[7]
In July 2004, The Economist Group launched an upmarketlifestyle magazine calledIntelligent Life, an annual publication. This magazine was redesigned as a quarterly in September 2007, and became a bi-monthly publication in August 2011. In March 2016, the magazine was renamed1843.
Launched in 2010, the Ideas People Channel is a vertical online advertising network of around 50 sites defined by the mindset of the audience. The sites recruited for the network were identified by the readers ofThe Economist as their favourite online destinations for topics on business, globalisation, innovation and culture. The channel competes in the lower-cost, high-volume network advertising market, a category not previously served by The Economist online.[8] Also recently launched is Economist Education, providing e-learning courses.
In March 2012, The Economist Group acquired the London-based marketing communications agency TVC Group for an undisclosed sum.[9]
In April 2012, the Economist Intelligence Unit expanded in Asia with the acquisition of Clearstate, a market intelligence firm specialising in customised strategic advisory and primary research in the healthcare and life sciences domains.[7]
In July 2015, Canback & Company, a strategy consulting firm operating in more than 70 countries was acquired.[10] It is now known as EIU Canback.
The Economist Group is headquartered in London,England, and has offices worldwide, including inBrussels, Belgium,Frankfurt, Germany,Geneva, Switzerland,Paris, France,Dubai, United Arab Emirates,Johannesburg, South Africa,Hong Kong, mainlandChina,Singapore,Tokyo, Japan,India,New York City andWashington, D.C. in theUnited States.[11]
The Economist Group's principal activities are newspapers, magazines, conferences and market intelligence. Publications and services delivered under The Economist brand includeThe Economist newspaper,The Economist online,Economist Intelligence Unit, Economist Conferences,Economist Corporate Network, The World In series and a bi-monthly lifestyle magazine,1843. The group's other brands include CQ Roll Call (aimed at decision-makers on Capitol Hill), EuroFinance, a cash and treasury management event business, and a digital media agency, TVC.European Voice (Brussels), formerly a sister publication of CQ Roll Call, was sold to the French company Selectcom in 2013.
The Economist Intelligence Corporate Network is a members-only service within The Economist Group providing global and regionalbusiness intelligence briefings, presentations and advice to its subscribers.[12] The Corporate Network relies on the "information, insight, and interaction" provided by regional experts in its parent organization.[13] 81% of its customers are business executives at the director or senior management levels. It has offices inDubai,Johannesburg,Beijing,Hong Kong,Shanghai,Singapore andTokyo.[14]
The current members of theboard of directors of The Economist Group are:Rupert Pennant-Rea (Chairman),Zanny Minton Beddoes (editor-in-chief ofThe Economist), LadySuzanne Heywood,Brent Hoberman,David Bell,John Elkann,Alex Karp, SirSimon Robertson, LadyLynn Forester de Rothschild, Chris Stibbs and Baroness Jowell,Mustafa Suleyman.[15]
Former board members include: Andrew Rashbass, Rona Fairhead, Philip Mengel[15] andEric Schmidt (of Alphabet, parent company of Google). The current trustees of the Group are:Virginia Bottomley,Gus O'Donnell, Tim Clark and Bryan Sanderson.[16]
| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group turnover (in £M) | 248 | 266 | 313 | 320 | 347 | 359 | 343 | 328 | 324 | 331 | 353 | 367 | 333 | 320 | 310 | 346 | 377 |
| Group operating profit (in £M) | 36 | 44 | 56 | 58 | 63 | 63 | 64 | 55 | 59 | 61 | 54 | 47 | 31 | 53 | 42 | 46 | 42 |
Source:[1]
with editorial independence protected by a four-person trust — another factor that complicated past attempts at a deal. The issue was taken off the table on Thursday when the stake was excluded from the Nikkei deal.
Pearson, the education and publishing giant that has held a non-controlling 50% stake since 1928, is selling the holding for £469m. The deal will make Italy's Agnelli family, founders of the Fiat car empire, the largest shareholder
| Publications |
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subsidiaries and divisions | |||||
| People | |||||
| Other | |||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
