Categories: OLD Media Moves

Betting on the next editor of The Economist

Apparently a booking agent in London had been taking bets on who would be the next editor of The Economist magazine, but the bookie shut down the business after receiving a large number of bets on a certain internal candidate.

The London Times reports, “SOMEONE at The Economist knows something we don’t. Paddy Power, the bookmaker, has been offering odds on the new editor, to replace the departing Bill Emmott. Several punters this week started to put large sums ranging up to £500 on Ed Carr, the business and financial editor, at 6-1.

“The bookie yesterday suspended all bets, after even more tried to open accounts. Any of them e-mails with “theeconomist” somewhere in the address? ‘We haven’t seen anything quite that unsubtle. They’re more intelligent at The Economist. Mind you, when we ran a book on the editor of The [Daily] Mirror . . .'”

Earlier, the Press-Gazette in London had reported, “Journalists with the inside track on who is to succeed Bill Emmott as editor of The Economist could cash-in at the bookies.

“Paddy Power has offered odds on what it sees as the ten front-runners. It has Economist US editor John Micklethwait as even-money favourite followed by the million-selling mag’s UK editor Emma Duncan.

“The runners are: even-money Micklethwait, 6/4 Emma Duncan, 6/1 Matthew Bishop, 7/1 Ed Carr, 8/1 Gideon Rachman, 10/1 Christopher Lockwood, 16/1 Clive Crook, 100/1 Boris Johnson.”

Betting on whether a business journalist will get a job. Now, that’s a new concept. I wonder if we can convince a Vegas casino to start accepting bets on who will replace Wall Street Journal managing editor Paul Steiger?

I also think it’s be very cool if the general public could place bets on other business journalism concepts, like how soon will it be before new Fed chief Ben Bernanke appears on the cover of BusinessWeek, Fortune or Forbes? I am setting the over/under on that one at four months.

Recent Posts

FT taps Foy to cover European banking

Financial Times reporter Simon Foy is now covering European banks. He has been covering accounting for the…

1 hour ago

Debtwire seeks a private credit reporter

Debtwire, the leading provider of global fixed income news, analysis and data for more than…

4 hours ago

BNN Bloomberg anchor Kanwar is departing

Amber Kanwar, an anchor for BNN Bloomberg in Canada, is departing at the end of…

5 hours ago

Moody’s promotes Kantrow to editor in chief

Moody's Ratings has promoted Yvette Kantrow to senior vice president and editor in chief. She has been…

5 hours ago

Politico reporter Fieseler departs

Politico reporter Clare Fieseler is leaving the news organization to take on some ocean reporting projects. She…

5 hours ago

WSJ’s Eisen to write book about the mortgage market

Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Eisen has signed a contract with Norton to write a book about…

7 hours ago