Categories: OLD Media Moves

Why the FT and the Economist have been successful in America

Jonathan Berr writes for 24/7WallSt.com about how two British business publications — the Financial Times and the Economist — have won over American readers.

Berr writes, “It’s smart, funny writing that flies in the face of the ‘just the facts ma’am’ style that American journalists have been taught for generations that it’s their duty to type. To this day, many blogs from U.S. media outlets are as dull as dishwater for that reason. Reporters from the U.K.-based publicaions never got that memo, and in the Internet age, it’s a good thing too because it means that their articles are not the same old stuff that you read everywhere else.

“‘The magazine consistently tackles complex subjects in a way that’s easy for readers to understand and with a humor that has become part of its trademark style,’ according to a statement from The Economist.

“Few media outside the U.S. consider themselves ‘objective’ in the way the American media defines the term. Readers in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East all assume that the news they are reading is biased in one way or another. Though that sort of attitude may horrify some conservatives in the U.S., it actually is what the people want as the FT and The Economist show.”

View Comments

Patrick Pierra says:
February 22, 2011 at 8:59 pm
This is certainly true about The Economist.
As for the Financial Times, one can argue that:
a) it is much duller, and its value proposition relies more on accuracy and comprehensiveness of facts, with some analysis thrown in, than on style and humor;
and
b) in the same biz daily category, the Wall Street Journal is - and has been for a long time (even before the Murdoch era) - much more fun and opinionated, for at least part of its content.