{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/business/media/economist-magazine-videos.html","title":"Economist Adds Faces to Its Nameless Tradition","domain":"nytimes.com","imageUrl":"https://images.pexels.com/photos/33317197/pexels-photo-33317197.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&h=650&w=940","pexelsSearchTerm":"Economist journalists studio","category":"Business","language":"en","slug":"72573393","id":"72573393-31e7-4fba-832e-65b64e29391d","description":"The Economist magazine is launching video content featuring its normally anonymous writers and editors.","summary":"## TL;DR\n- The Economist magazine is launching video content featuring its normally anonymous writers and editors.\n- This summer it will roll out **Economist Play** in its mobile app with staff-hosted shows, interviews, and policy debates from New York and London studios.\n- The move adapts its tradition of unsigned articles to video demands while stressing substantive discussions over partisan talk shows.[[1]](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/business/media/economist-magazine-videos.html)\n\n## The story at a glance\nThe Economist, long known for anonymous bylines, is introducing videos that put names and faces of its staff front and center. Key figures include editor in chief **Zanny Minton Beddoes** and staff like **Nicolas Pelham**, **Charlotte Howard**, **Edward Carr**, and **Gregg Carlstrom**. The article covers the rollout of **Economist Play** in the app and early videos in a product called **Insider**. This comes as the publication expands multimedia to engage readers amid industry shifts toward personality-driven content.[[1]](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/business/media/economist-magazine-videos.html)\n\n## Key points\n- The Economist has traditionally published articles without bylines, making it an outlier in journalism.\n- Videos debuted in **Insider**, such as one where Pelham, Howard, and Carr in London interviewed Middle East correspondent Carlstrom.[[1]](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/business/media/economist-magazine-videos.html)\n- **Economist Play** launches this summer as a new app section with correspondent-hosted shows, newsmaker interviews, and staff policy debates.\n- Studios in New York and London will produce the content.\n- The videos aim to showcase expertise through conversations, not partisan commentary.[[1]](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/business/media/economist-magazine-videos.html)\n\n## Details and context\nThe Economist, founded in **1843**, built its brand on collective voice over individual stars, shunning bylines even as peers like the *New York Times* highlighted reporters. Video marks a step toward personalization, following earlier expansions into podcasts, newsletters, and vertical shorts in its app.[[2]](http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/journalism-media-and-technology-trends-and-predictions-2026)[[3]](https://www.economistgroup.com/pdfs/reports/TEG_Annual_Report_2025.pdf)\n\n**Insider** offers subscriber-exclusive videos like debates on geopolitics and tech, building on the publication's profitable growth—revenue hit **170 million pounds** in the six months to September 2025, up with operating profit rising 23%.[[4]](https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/economist-stake-draws-interest-deadline-approaches-sources-say-2025-11-28)\n\nThis fits broader media trends: publishers integrate video for younger audiences while preserving depth, as seen in The Economist's dense vertical clips over snackable social fare.[[5]](https://www.pugpig.com/2026/03/18/how-vertical-video-has-evolved)\n\n## Key quotes\n“It’s a million miles from Fox News or MSNBC,” **Zanny Minton Beddoes**, the publication’s editor in chief, said of the videos.[[1]](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/business/media/economist-magazine-videos.html)\n\n## Why it matters\nEven institutions like The Economist must adapt traditions to video and apps to stay relevant in a fragmented media landscape. Readers gain more ways to access its analysis through familiar voices, potentially deepening subscriptions for those seeking substance over spectacle. Watch for **Economist Play**'s summer rollout and viewer response, which could shape further personalization.[[1]](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/business/media/economist-magazine-videos.html)","hashtags":["#media","#business","#journalism","#video","#publishing","#economist"],"sources":[{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/business/media/economist-magazine-videos.html","title":"Original article"},{"url":"http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/journalism-media-and-technology-trends-and-predictions-2026","title":""},{"url":"https://www.economistgroup.com/pdfs/reports/TEG_Annual_Report_2025.pdf","title":""},{"url":"https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/economist-stake-draws-interest-deadline-approaches-sources-say-2025-11-28","title":""},{"url":"https://www.pugpig.com/2026/03/18/how-vertical-video-has-evolved","title":""}],"viewCount":2,"publishedAt":"2026-04-14T06:47:04.571Z","createdAt":"2026-04-14T06:47:04.571Z","articlePublishedAt":"2026-04-13T00:00:00.000Z"}