Economist Group

The Economist Newspaper Limited

File:The Economist Group logo.png
Trading name	The Economist Group
Type	Private limited company
Founded	1843 (London)
Founder	James Wilson
Headquarters	25 St James's Street, London, England
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Chris Stibbs (Group Chief Executive) Susan Clark (CMO)
Products	The Economist, magazines, newspapers
Services	Market Intelligence, Conferences
Revenue	£361.8 million (2012)
Operating income	£67.3 million (2012)
Net income	£47.23 million (2012)
Total assets	£66.16 million (at 31 March 2012)
Total equity	(£4.57 million) (at 31 March 2012)
Owner	Cadbury, Rothschild, Schroder and Agnelli families
Number of employees	1,414 (2012 average)
Divisions	Economist Intelligence Unit, CQ Roll Call, EuroFinance
Website	http://www.economistgroup.com/

The Economist Building, The Economist Group's headquarters in London

The Economist Newspaper Limited, trading as The Economist Group, is a British multinational media company headquartered in London and best known as publisher of The Economist. The Economist Group specialises in international business and world affairs information. Its principal activities are magazines, newspapers, conferences and market intelligence.

Ownership

The Economist Group is owned by the Cadbury, Rothschild, Schroder, Agnelli and other family interests as well as a number of staff and former staff shareholders.

Pearson PLC held a 50% shareholding via The Financial Times Limited until August 2015. At this time Pearson sold their share in the Economist. The Agnelli family's Exor paid £287m to raise their stake from 4.7% to 43.4%, while the Economist paid £182m for the balance of 5.04m shares which will be distributed to current shareholders.

History

The origins of The Economist Group date back to the foundation of The Economist: A Political, Commercial, Agricultural, & Free-Trade Journal by James Wilson in 1843.

In 1946, the Economist Intelligence Unit began providing business intelligence to both The Economist magazine and external clients. In the same year, the Economist bookshop was established as a 50:50 joint venture with the London School of Economics.

Economist Conferences was established as a division of Economist Intelligence Unit in 1956 to offer government roundtables.

In 1995 The Economist Group acquired the Journal of Commerce, a US-based provider of information for the shipping and transportation industries. In the same year the Group launched European Voice, the first pan-European Union weekly newspaper.

In July 2004, The Economist Group launched an upmarket lifestyle magazine called Intelligent Life, an annual publication. This magazine was redesigned as a quarterly in September 2007, and became a bi-monthly publication in August 2011. In March 2016, the magazine was renamed 1843.

Launched in 2010, the Ideas People Channel is a vertical online advertising network of around 50 sites defined by the mindset of the audience. The sites recruited for the network were identified by the readers of The Economist as their favourite online destinations for topics on business, globalisation, innovation and culture. The channel competes in the lower-cost, high-volume network advertising market, a category not previously served by The Economist online. Also recently launched is Economist Education, providing e-learning courses.

In March 2012, The Economist Group acquired the London-based marketing communications agency TVC Group for an undisclosed sum.

In April 2012, the Economist Intelligence Unit expanded in Asia with the acquisition of Clearstate, a market intelligence firm specialising in customised strategic advisory and primary research solutions in the healthcare and life sciences domains.

Operations

The Economist Group is headquartered in the City of Westminster, London, England, and has offices worldwide, including in Brussels, Belgium, Frankfurt, Germany, Geneva, Switzerland, Paris, France, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Johannesburg, South Africa, Hong Kong, mainland China, Singapore, Tokyo, Japan, India, New York and Washington, DC in the United States.

The Economist Group's principal activities are magazines, newspapers, conferences and market intelligence. Publications and services delivered under The Economist brand include The Economist magazine, The Economist online, Economist Intelligence Unit, Economist Conferences, Economist Corporate Network, The World In series and a bi-monthly lifestyle magazine, 1843. The Group’s other brands include CQ Roll Call (aimed at decision-makers on Capitol Hill), EuroFinance, a cash and treasury management event business, and a digital media agency, TVC. European Voice (Brussels), formerly a sister publication of CQ Roll Call, was sold to the French company Selectcom in 2013.

Corporate affairs

Governance

The current members of the board of directors of The Economist Group are: Rupert Pennant-Rea (Chairman), Philip Hoffman, Zanny Minton Beddoes (editor-in-chief of the Economist magazine), John Ridding, Eric Schmidt (of Alphabet, parent company of Google), Sir David Bell, John Elkann, John Micklethwait, Sir Simon Robertson, Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Chris Stibbs and Luke Swanson. Former board members include: Andrew Rashbass, Rona Fairhead, and Philip Mengel. The current trustees of the Group are: Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone, Lord O'Donnell, Tim Clark and Bryan Sanderson.

Financial data

	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Group turnover	248m	266m	313m	320m	347m
Group operating profit	36m	44m	56m	58m	63m

External links

• The Economist Group
• Economist Group companies grouped at OpenCorporates

2015 Ownership change

• http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21660919-only-second-time-our-history-ownership-economist-changes-new-chapter
• http://www.economistgroup.com/our_news/press_releases/2015/the_economist_group_strengthens_independence_through_share_buy-back_from_pearson.html
• http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-12/pearson-to-sell-economist-stake-for-731-million-to-exit-news
• http://qz.com/477743/the-economist-is-being-sold-to-rich-italian-investors-and-to-the-economist-itself/