The Economist adds China as first new country-specific section since WWII

The section, which joins existing sections on the US, the UK, The Americas, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, and Europe, will cover all aspects of China’s rising political, social, and economic power in order to provide readers with a better understanding of the vast country, according to John Micklethwait, the publication’s editor.

The Economist has always covered China, but the devoted section is appropriate given China’s importance and will afford more space for deeper coverage, especially of “the China beyond Beijing and Shanghai,” Micklethwait said in a statement.

Robert Ferguson, the publication’s sales director for the ASEAN, Hong Kong, Korea, and Pacific, told Campaign that in line with his company’s strict separation of ‘church and state,’ the decision is not commercially driven. The Economist isn’t in the business of adding new content to garner advertiser attention, he asserted.

“I suppose there are some clients who may want to be positioned around a China section,” he said. “But the decision is very much based on editorial justification.”

As one of the world’s elite media brands—it’s at the top of its competitive group for advertising market share in Asia and Europe, according to Ferguson—The Economist can afford to remain pure in its motives. The Economist counts The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, International Herald-Tribune, Time, Newsweek, Bloomberg Businessweek, Fortune, and Forbes as its competitors.

This group is doing quite well despite difficult times for media. “People need a primary information domain” to turn to and depend on amidst the time constraints of modern life, Ferguson said. “The trick of media today is to continue to be that.”

Asked about future plans for the region, Ferguson said that The Economist continues to evaluate the market and consider such offerings as local language editions—something competitors such as WSJ and Financial Times have offered for some time. “Given editorial and brand considerations, our team is not comfortable with that yet,” he said.