What drives The Economist’s circulation?

Our chief marketing officer shares his insights

For 173 years The Economist has been a trusted source for analysis of world events and insights into future trends. But the reality in 2016 is that free content is available everywhere and newspapers are facing turbulent times. We have seen The Independent stop its print edition and more recently, The Guardian losing millions over the last financial year. At The Economist, we are not immune to these industry headwinds, but through our product offering of trusted analysis and our marketing strategy of paying for content, we have been able to navigate through the tough times, increase our profits and learn lessons as we go along.

Let’s start with the journalism itself because it always starts with the product. One of the biggest reasons people turn to The Economist is because we deliver trusted analysis during uncertain times. We saw this in the years following 9/11 as more Americans wanted a global view. Between 2001 and 2008 our circulation doubled in the US, making it our biggest market. When uncertainty in Britain and Europe followed the EU referendum, traffic to our website increased by 80% as British voters looked to separate the facts from the emotion surrounding Brexit. This increased interest during challenging times has contributed to our overall circulation of 1,459,929 global readers and a rise in digital sales of 15% over the last year.*

But we don’t sit around waiting for bad news to happen. We use sophisticated digital marketing techniques to allow the “globally curious” (what we call our target audience) to read our journalism through targeted ads and move them along a prospect journey that will end with them, we hope, paying for a subscription. And we give new readers the option to read us digitally, in print only or both. With our digital edition, they also have the option to listen to our content in audio. Most importantly, people pay for it all. This has allowed us to boost our circulation profitability by 31% over the last year.

We don’t take our successes for granted, however, and we are constantly looking for new ways to acquire new readers whether it is through engagement on social platforms, live marketing campaigns on the streets of New York and London or content ads directing prospects to sample our journalism. We regularly optimise these marketing channels to make sure they are delivering paid subscribers, ensuring that The Economist keeps growing for the next 173 years and beyond.

Michael Brunt is the chief marketing officer and managing director of circulation at The Economist

*Source: ABC World Brand Report, JJ2016