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the economist
Teens' Economist Rap Less Uncomfortable Than One Might Suspect
Two American 17-year-olds sampled podcasts from The Economist to create a rap song about the starchy British business magazine, and the limeys are atwitter. Writes the Guardian: "The rap will be music to the ears of Economist senior executives who are trying to broaden the appeal of the title beyond its traditional business readership." The song will certainly be more effective marketing than the magazine's terrifying childrens' ads. It's not entirely uncomfortable to listen to! Probably because the teens, Ike Edgerton of Chicago and Chris Misa, had already released two albums as the group Psikotic, focused on nerdcore-ish themes like the rise of China and "The McDonald's Corporation." Excerpt of their Economist rap, and links to a full MP3, after the jump. More »
advertising
New Economist Ads Target Kindergarten Demographic
The Economist, the smartest magazine in the world, may not be the smartest magazine in the world any more. Oh, the articles are just fine (we assume. We haven't read it since that free trial subscription ran out). We're basing our judgment on the magazine's new ad campaign. Which is utterly baffling. What, exactly, is the message here? Is the clown-and-stuffed-animal motif too clever for me to comprehend? Quite possible, but the campaign still reeks of a weeded college student breaking into the ad agency one night and replacing the real ads with these. Disturbing. Two full-sized pics of the inexplicable things [via Copyranter], below. More »
comedy
Even Economist Trying To Make News Funny
Apparently no one can just deliver the damn news any more, straight, everyone has to try and be funny. First it was the Daily Show, then Colbert Report, then Fox's attempted conservative news satire and most recently CNN's planned comedy news show. Now the Economist, the starchy British magazine, has launched a site in collaboration with Chicago's Second City improv troupe. More »
smoking
Smoking Bans: The Silent Killer
The Economist—the most serious magazine in the world—argues today that America's smoking bans have killed untold numbers of innocent people. While bans on smoking in public places are in place theoretically to save us from ourselves, the piecemeal approach America has taken to instituting them has led to huge leaps in fatal accidents involving alcohol. More »
magazines
World's Best Magazine Can't Get Site Name Back From Lazy Maryland Guy
This is just the type of stupid internet thing that helps us keep the faith that the web is not yet a medium totally co-opted by corporate media powers such as Gawker: Highfalutin magazine of the gods The Economist lost a fight to gain control of the domain name TheEconomist.com, which for the past decade has been owned by some random IT guy in Maryland. And the best part is the guy does absolutely nothing worthwhile with the site. The magazine is stuck with Economist.com, even though they are a huge international media conglomerate with some of the most intellectual content in all of magazine publishing, and their opponent is a guy who says he wasn't even aware of the magazine's existence in 1996 when he registered the site (The Economist is 165 years old). That's what they get for only offering him $500 for the domain—the diverted web traffic is costing them lots more than that. So what does the proud owner of TheEconomist.com do with his valuable property? Below, an actual screengrab of the totally pointless thorn in the magazine's side. More »
the poors
How To Tell If You're Poor
Right in the heart of the Xmas-to-New Year's News Dead Zone, Mayor Bloomberg announced a sweeping change in the way New York City will measure poverty. The national standard remains tied, more or less, to the price of milk. Income and "annual cost of buying basic groceries" have determined who is poor in the US for four decades. Bloomberg would like to add other, more realistic standards—rent, utilities, child care—while taking into account "the value of financial assistance received, like housing vouchers or food stamps." Mike hopes this more exact method of defining who is the worst off compared to him will spread to the rest of the nation, and improve distribution of federal, state, and local aid. Also it will probably mean that there are a lot more poor people in New York than previously counted. Maybe you're one of them! More »
and the brand played on
When 'Time Out' Seemed Like A Lifeline
Rod Townsend records the gays in and around their natural environment of Fire Island and reports back. This is the time, and this is the record of the time. Put your hands over your eyes.
EXT. BAY BAR
The Sunday noon crowd at Bay Bar consists of those running in and out to get iced coffee products and those sitting at tables enjoying iced coffee products. VISORGAY, wearing olive drab cargo shorts and a navy mesh Nike visor, sits with TANKGAY, in olive drab cargo shorts and a robin's egg blue tank. They are at a prime table overlooking the harbor and the boardwalk that runs along it. Across the water, unidentifiable shrieks can be heard.
the future of print
Here Comes 'The Gayconomist'
Looking for work? Want to get in the ground floor of a can't-miss new idea? Your ticket may have already been stamped!Seeking full charge Editor for new high-end, affluent gay weekly focused on mainstream politics, business, science, art, and sports, and gay sports and local culture.More »
attacks from across the pond
'The Economist' to New York City: "You Are Neither Special Nor Good"
The latest issue of the most prestigious British rag this side of Hello! features a special report about cities, and guess what? They are more popular than ever. Turns out that starting around now (maybe a little while go, also maybe not yet) more than half the people on the planet live in cities for the first time in human history. More »
anna nicole smith
'The Economist' Salutes Anna Nicole Smith's Rack
There were only two of them, but they made a whole frontage: huge, compelling, pneumatic. They burst out of tight red dresses—preferably red—or teased among feather boas, or flanked a dizzying cleavage that plunged to tantalising depths. These were celebrated, American breasts, engineered by silicon to be as broad and bountiful as the prairie. With them, a girl from nowhere—or from Houston, Texas—could do anything. The body behind them waxed and waned, sometimes stout as a stevedore's and sometimes almost waif-like, matching the little-girl voice; but the Breasts remained.That's from Anna Nicole Smith's obituary in The Economist. Yes, you read that right: in The Economist. We don't even know why we bother. More »
media
Media Bubble: Also, Something's Happening At 'Time'
the economist
Breaking: John Micklethwait is New 'Economist' Editor
This report just in, from a source who assures us he knows of what he speaks: More »
american media inc.
• You can win, though, by appealing to the just-better-than-lowest denominator, as Jann Wenner — and his Us staff of the cool girls — has learned the fun way. [WP]
• OK! America has the Britney baby pix, allegedly. It's amazing what a little scratch can get you. [Access Hollywood via MSNBC]
• Oprah re-opens book club to works by contemporary authors. Jonathan Franzen is appalled. Then pleased. Then appalled again. [NYT]
• Economist gives free subscriptions to influential bloggers. We didn't get one, so take a guess who doesn't get a comments invitation. [Folio:]
• New weekend WSJ is a "spectacular bellyflop," says William Powers. Come on, tell us what you really think. [National Journal]
• "I'm a chiropodist," The Daily Show's Stephen Colbert tells his kids, according to the Times Mag. [E&P]
Media Bubble: The Death of the Lowbrow, the Rise of the Very-Lower-Middlebrow
• You can't even win in magazine publishing by appealing to the lowest common denominator, as tabloid king David Pecker is learning the hard way. [BusinessWeek]• You can win, though, by appealing to the just-better-than-lowest denominator, as Jann Wenner — and his Us staff of the cool girls — has learned the fun way. [WP]
• OK! America has the Britney baby pix, allegedly. It's amazing what a little scratch can get you. [Access Hollywood via MSNBC]
• Oprah re-opens book club to works by contemporary authors. Jonathan Franzen is appalled. Then pleased. Then appalled again. [NYT]
• Economist gives free subscriptions to influential bloggers. We didn't get one, so take a guess who doesn't get a comments invitation. [Folio:]
• New weekend WSJ is a "spectacular bellyflop," says William Powers. Come on, tell us what you really think. [National Journal]
• "I'm a chiropodist," The Daily Show's Stephen Colbert tells his kids, according to the Times Mag. [E&P]
