Changes underway at The Economist

Mark Sweney of The Guardian writes about changes at The Economist under editor Zanny Minton Beddoes.

Sweney writes, “Building the Economist brand on social media, bearing in mind that nearly all content is behind a paywall, has been a major preoccupation since Beddoes took the reins last February. When she arrived there was just a single social media staffer, now there are nine; seven in the UK and one each in North America and Asia.

“‘It became clear to us that we needed to have a real social media push,’ she says, citing more than 36 million social media ‘followers’, from Twitter and Facebook likes, to LinkedIn and Google+ circle members. ‘Much of that has happened in the last year. It’s a gift horse really,’ she enthuses. ‘It is a way of telling people what you are doing, drawing in new subscribers. We have to be ourselves in social media. What does it mean to be the Economist on social media? I think a lot of what is characteristic of the Economist, its brevity and analysis, works very well actually. A very small number of articles, including the cover leader, are in front of the paywall [but] we tweet a huge number of articles.’

“There has also been a bolstering of multimedia staff and output which includes Economist Radio, under Anne McElvoy, Economist TV and newly-minted Economist Film, which will produce 22 short documentary films this year, with titles including Drone Rangers and Drugs: War or Store?. ‘We are trying things editorially,’ she says. ‘We’re not turning into a video company but I’m a real believer that we need to try new stuff and measure how it works.'”

Read more here.