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  • The Economist, in print

    By Joshua Kim March 15, 2010 9:48 pm EDT

    "Inchmale, she guessed, was sitting up in business class, headed for New York, reading the Economist, a magazine he reads exclusively on airplanes, swearing that on arrival he promptly and invariably forgot every word."

    --Spook Country, by William Gibson - page 172.

    note: I found that quote in like 2 seconds in Amazon's Search Inside the Book feature - awesome.

    Do you still prefer to read anything by paper? The Economist is about it for me. I don't want paper anymore. I don't like the environmental load. I don't want paper cluttering up my house. I'm happy to get almost all of my books from the library. The books I buy are almost exclusively audio books.

    Sure, the daily local newspaper is good in paper - as I take joy in seeing the kids divide it up (and share the comics section). But the NYTimes I read on my iTouch or online. Same goes for almost all my news.

    But The Economist - I think I'll stick to paper. I like how they pile up, waiting for weekend windows and vacations. I read from back-to-front, lingering over articles on East Asian finance that I barely understand (and soon forget), but which never fail to relax the mind. In digital format I only read what I've searched for, sometimes browsed. But with The Economist I read almost everything on offer, perusing articles outside of my search patterns. It takes me a while to read an Economist. I page instead of skim, turn and absorb rather than click.

    I'm willing to let The Economist drive because I trust that the articles will be smart no matter what the topic. Perhaps I'll disagree with magazine's conclusions, but seldom am I suspicious of the analysis. The paper form factor changes the experience of reading - somewhere beyond consumption and just short of savoring.

    And The Economist is expensive. Even if I could read it full-text online I'd still subscribe to the paper version. Proof, at least in my economy of 1, that strong analysis and writing will continue to find a market.

    Will the iPad change all this? I wonder, as I could see the iPad being a really wonderful lean-back reading device. Will the iPad bring a little "creative destruction" to my Economist reading preferences?

    What do you love on paper? Are you also wondering if the iPad will change how you read? And will there be an iPad Economist app?

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Comments on The Economist, in print

  • The Economist
  • Posted by Brian Mulligan , Open Learning Coordinator at Institute of Technology Sligo on March 16, 2010 at 6:15am EDT

  • The Economist is very smart. They have been particularly useful to me in the last 30 years in pointing to technology trends from object oriented programming to Android. However, I don't have time to read it these days, and I seem to still have free access online form the days of my subscriptions. So for the moment I will continue to read it online.

  • Ditto NYRB
  • Posted by Eberg , prof at WU on March 16, 2010 at 7:00am EDT

  • Economist and NY Review of Books are similar reads in this respect. Which others?

  • Audio Books!
  • Posted by Phred on March 16, 2010 at 11:00am EDT

  • If you object to the "environmental load" of paper, which is at least recyclable, why are you using audio book, which are both inefficient ways of obtaining and retrieving information and environmental messes. I want any book I need to return to and read intensively in paper or use frequently, but maybe you don't read intensively any more. Many folks don't.

  • Economist is for planes
  • Posted by lcl on March 16, 2010 at 11:00am EDT

  • I also generally only read the Economist when traveling. I didn't realize that made me part of a larger phenomenon.

    That said, I have started listening to the Economist podcast more regularly. It's generally quite good.

  • Let it go
  • Posted by RonCo on March 16, 2010 at 11:15am EDT

  • There basically isn't anything I prefer on paper anymore. Books are a partial exception, not because of the format, but because the property and portability rules for commercial e-books remain unacceptable. I'm one of those hoping that the iPad or competing devices will permit me to shift magazine reading completely over to electronic formats. This is partly because I want to be liberated from the USPS, an absurd anachronism whose main purpose these days is to serve up junk for the direct marketing industry.

    I had to smile at the Gibson quote, which nails my Economist habits. It's too expensive to subscribe to, and I'm not often in the vicinity of a store that carries it, nor do I usually have a couple of hours to devote to it. Everything lines up perfectly when I'm traveling by air.

  • Posted by A. on March 16, 2010 at 11:45am EDT

  • I also want to be paperless as much as possible, and have donated or sold many of my books because, really, honestly, how many of them am I actually going to go be going back to? I can get them from the library if I want them, and can scan the pages I might want to refer to later. If I email them to myself, I can then have access to those pages wherever I have computer access (I use web-based email), and on my laptop where the original is stored. I find it's frustrating to realize that the article or material I want is at home when I'm in my office, or in my office when I'm at home.

    Besides, books are heavy, and I can only carry so many things during my commute.

    If I want to read something for fun, I get it from the library as well, and I take library books with me when I travel. I end up reading The Economist when I travel mostly because it's so much better than the other ridiculous offerings at the magazine stands, it's compact, and I feel no guilt about leaving it for the next person who comes along. If I'm lucky, there's a new copy for sale when it's time for my return flight! If there's no Economist, maybe I'll pick up the Atlantic, Harper's, or the New Yorker.

    When I can get free (or library-loaned) current ebooks for my netbook (I run the Kindle software, among other ebook readers) or for my Android phone, I will be a really happy camper.

    Of course, I'll still need something in paper for when I can't use anything electronic on the plane. Or I'll just nap.

  • "The Economist"
  • Posted by catullus on March 25, 2010 at 8:00pm EDT

  • Starting from the back of "The Economist" usually means coming upon the obituary early on. The staff at "The Economist" excel at writing that feature; sometimes, they describe the life of someone who has had a material impact on the lives of many yet whom I'd not heard of before. I need to keep reading.

  • Digital Economist
  • Posted by Joel , none at none on August 14, 2010 at 12:30pm EDT

  • It has been, perhaps, a year now that I have received The Economist on my Kindle. Well, all that is about to change as soon as I can get the mag on my iPad. What is missing, for me, is a clear picture of how it is adapted to the iPad and how I can test it out. If, by testing it out, I could try it for just one month instead of signing up for a whole year, I would be satisfied with that.

    But in general, I prefer the the magazines and newspapers as presented on my Kindle DX since I don't have to mess with re-sizing every story and browsing is enabled by allowing the reader to look at summarized sections. Equally important is the absence of advertising in the Kindle version.

    Still, the DX is slow and in black/white only with poorer resolution.

    So, I am looking forward to iPad's evolution into a stellar source for up to date information from newspapers and magazines and, like my DX, a means by which I can carry "my library" with me at all times--only the iPad has the potential to be much more complete, readable; more functional.

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