Economist editor on what makes the publication a must-read

Last night, on the “Charlie Rose” show, host Charlie Rose interviewed John Micklethwait, editor in chief at The Economist, about the magazine business and reporting global stories.

Here is an excerpt:

On what differentiates The Economist from its competitors

“I think fundamentally what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to look at the world from a global perspective. And I think there’s two trends which help us. One is globalization. So in other words, if you’re sitting watching this in Milwaukee, it certainly makes a big difference what’s happening in Mumbai. It makes much bigger difference economically. And also politically you get affected by what’s happening miles and miles away. You look at what happens with Osama bin Laden, you look at what happens to the Chinese politics. Those things matter much, much more to you.”

On the advantage a magazine has in an online world

“What’s interesting to me about magazines is magazine, not just us, but a whole host of other ones tend to be ones where people, you read them leaning back. You read them on the sofa, you’re reading them at Starbucks. Newspapers tend to be things where you’re leaning forward. It’s like the Internet, stuff where you need to get news quickly. We’re a slightly more reflective, and it’s interesting in Britain — is that Sunday and Saturday papers are doing quite well because people have more time to read them.”

The interview will be shown again tonight on Bloomberg Television at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. EST.