Economist to publish digital short books

The Economist has struck a deal with a division of Penguin Books to publish, in digital form, its long-form journalistic reports.

Lucy Tesseras of New Media Age reports, “The Economist will initially launch with five titles that were previously published within the magazine under the Penguin Economist Specials name. Penguin Specials is a sub-brand of Penguin Shorts, which focuses on contemporary journalism and essays.

“Tom Standage, The Economist’s digital editor, said, ‘We’re trying to encourage subscribers to think of themselves as subscribers to a weekly bundle of content, rather than subscribers to a print magazine. How they choose to consume content, which may change from week to week, or day to day, is up to them.’

“The Economist’s special reports tend to be around 15,000 words long and are self contained, so are well suited to the ebook format.”

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