The Social Economist

By Ian, on December 21st, 2009

The FT reports that The Economist plans to make headroads into social networks:

The Economist newspaper plans to acquire 500,000 fans on Facebook and 750,000 followers on Twitter within six months, in another sign that traditional publishers are looking to social media as a substantial source of web traffic and new readers.
via FT.com / UK — Economist eyes social network cash boost.

It may come as a surprise to some that the magazine is interested in such things. In many respects, The Economist is the great hope for paid-for printed magazine media. The title sells more than 180,000 copies of the UK edition alone, according to the latest ABC report. I do not have advertising figures, but the interim annual report posts profits of slightly over £20mn for the first half of 2009, under the toughest advertising conditions for years.

The reasons for The Economist’s success where other news media have failed and flailed are fairly clear: its content cannot be obtained elsewhere online; consequently it’s of high value; plus its target demographic is one that doesn’t resent the need to pay a cover price. That’s a reaadership that, fortuitously, is also of great value to premium brand advertisers.

But no reason there to ignore the rich pickings potentially available online. Paid Content reported earlier this year:

Economist.com [viz. the online magazine] increased its advertising revenue by 29 percent year-on-year, while page views increased 53 percent.

For me, the interesting part of this story is the magazine’s acknowledgement of social networks as a key part of its marketing strategy, but not by just advertising on those sites — though I am sure that in the case of Facebook, ads will also form a part of the plan. The interesting bit is their embrace of the social aspects. To gain the figures that they aspire to, the site will need to offer more and more free content and market it cleverly. Gaining followers and fans depends upon making people willing to share your content. And for that to happen, it needs to be good.

A far cry from the paywall route currently touted by Rupert Murdoch and the Johnson Press chain of local papers in the UK. Or the free-for-all route followed by competitors for that matter — The Economist magazine’s print content will remain subscribers-only.

Perhaps if other media owners were more able to offer uniquely valuable content, rather than paying their reporters peanuts and reprinting press releases, they might be equally bullish about the opportunies offered by the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

picture credit: Edgar Zuniga Jr.