Sober Analysis: The Economist: Profiting in the Digital Revolution

Note: Unfortunately, most of the graphs at the end of the article didn't come through. I can forward on the original article to whomever is interested.

“The Economist is the magazine I spend most of my days reading.”

- Bill Gates, Founder and Former CEO of Microsoft

“I used to think. Now, I just read the Economist.”

- Larry Ellison, Founder and CEO of Oracle[i]

In 2008, newspaper sales were falling, hitting revenues and in several cases, causing bankruptcy among newspaper publishers. A website called NewspaperDeathwatch.com had been set up in March of the previous year and seemed to capture the mood. The Newspaper Association of America (NAA), said that total print advertising revenue fell 9.4% in 2007 compared to the previous year. This was the sharpest percentage decline since advertising revenue was first measured in 1950. The figures for advertising revenue had been falling for years and all the indications were that the change was not temporary.

Newspapers and magazines faced a new reality. The economics of media were changing quite dramatically. People could now access news for free online. The Economist wasn’t immune to the changes facing newspapers and magazines. When the departing CEO, Helen Alexander was asked in July 2008 what challenges awaited her successor, Andrew Rashbass, her answer was firm: “Development on the internet, no question. There are all sorts of exciting opportunities impossible to imagine today, let alone what the technological changes will bring.”[ii]

The Economist: Taking it to the Next Generation, even with its adverts.

The new CEO, Andrew Rashbass, inherited a thriving media brand from Helen Alexander. She had overseen growth of annual circulation from 264,000 to 1.3 million copies in her eleven years in charge. In fact, the Economist had increased its sales every year for forty consecutive years. It was the envy of most newspapers and magazines. However, Rashbass could see that it was unlikely to stay that way if the status quo was maintained. In order to continue prospering, he believed the Economist would have to respond to changes in how people were consuming media.

The Economist

The Economist was first published as a newspaper in 1843, “to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress.” Despite adopting the glossy format of a magazine since the 1960´s, it continues to refer to itself as a newspaper. Its content focuses on current affairs, politics and economics and its editorial takes a firm stance behind free trade and free markets.

By the time Andrew Rashbass became its CEO in 2008, the Economist had moved from a print newspaper to include a portfolio of products, operating under the Economist Group umbrella. These included the Economist.com, the website of the newspaper, the Economist Intelligence Unit (“EIU”), a think-tank, Intelligent Life, a cultural magazine published quarterly and CFO Magazine, a magazine aimed at Chief Financial Officers.

Its results for 2007/2008, immediately before Rashbass’ promotion to CEO, were strong (see Exhibit 1). Operating profit was up 23% to a record £44.3 and operating margin had increased from 15% to just under 17%. The Economist.com had increased its unique users by 39% to 3 million, the EIU had hosted 34 government round-tables and the Group had just opened its first offices in India. The company was a phenomenon in an industry which was being badly affected by the global economic crisis.

The Print and Online News Industry

The newspapers industry has traditionally relied on circulation and advertising for its revenue. The well-documented decline in revenue for the industry coincided with the mass take-up of the internet across the developed world. As consumers went online, the advertising revenue began to follow them. But not quickly enough to compensate for the loss of revenues in print media. In 2008, total print and online revenues in the industry[iii] were about $38 billion (see Exhibit 2), approximately a 23% fall from just two years previously.

Despite the fall-off in revenue, large numbers of people were still purchasing newspapers. A breakdown of where industry’s money was being generated (see Exhibit 3) illustrates that revenues from newspaper circulation had stayed more or less consistent. So, despite the advent of free news on the internet, around-the-clock televised news and an economic crisis, newspapers sales were more or less holding their own. In addition, advertising as a proportion of GDP was consistent with its historical trend of around 2% of GDP[iv]. (see Exhibit 4) The news industry just wasn’t retaining its traditional share.

Advertisers go digital

There was a time when newspapers were able to generate a large proportion of their advertising from the classifieds pages. This type of advert was usually bought by individuals or small businesses and the newspaper could charge by the word. The internet, and in particular, Google, EBay and Craigslist, turned this business model on its head. These online firms had business models which simply made rendered classifieds outdated: they reached larger audiences for cheaper. In fact, Craigslist was free (outside of big cities).

The jobs pages that once occupied print had likewise moved online. Monster.com, the job search engine, was one of the top 20 websites by popularity in the world in 2008[v]. Again, the business model they offered was both cheaper and more sophisticated than that provided by print advertising. Their search engine also matched jobseekers with employers more efficiently than print could. Finally, with one of the most popular websites in the world, advertisers could reach more people than they ever had with newspapers advertising.

The list of classifieds which have found space online makes grim reading for newspaper owners. Real estate and auto ads also have moved online. In total, it is estimated that classified ads brought newspapers about $10.2 billion in 2008. While this wasn’t an insignificant sum, when compared to the $19.6 billion that they earned from classifieds in 2000, it seemed to be a sector of advertising that newspapers could no longer rely on for revenue. As one report put it, “the most important fact about the internet is that it has in some significant way decoupled advertising from news.”[vi]

Developing Digital Strategies

Gradually, the newspaper industry was developing new digital strategies to offset the fall in revenues generated by print. A few of the more commonly-used strategies are broadly outlined below:

Strategy	Description	Examples
Paywall	Readers cannot access any content without payment.	News Corporation (The Times, The Sun, Wall Street Journal).
Metered paywall	Readers can access up to 10 articles per month free of charge before payment is required.	Financial Times, The Economist.
Freemium	Readers can access up to 10 articles per month as long as the articles are current. Archived content requires readers to subscribe.	New York Times.
Free content	No restrictions on access to content.	Daily Mirror, The Guardian (both UK).
Bundling	Readers pay a monthly fee for content, which includes newspapers websites and cable television. Newspapers are paid for on the basis of time spent on their site.	Piano Media (Slovakia).
Content Farms	Content is generated through internet algorithms which tell the publisher how much can be generated by adverts from each topic. All access is free.	Demand Media, Associated Content.
Reductive	Bare minimum internet content.	The Independent (UK).

Source: Company websites.

There were various advantages and drawbacks to each of the models used. By giving away too much for free, newspapers risked commoditising their content; by giving away too little, they risked missing out on the millions of casual internet browsers that could attract extra advertising revenue (see Exhibit 5). Most newspapers seemed to be moving towards at least some limits on content. In 2008, however, only the content-farm model was completely self-sustaining and this was aimed at a broader market than newspaper content. Thus, it was unlikely to make a viable model for any newspapers in the short term.

E-Readers and Tablet Computers

Andrew Rashbass’ entry to the position of CEO came just eight months after the launch of the Amazon Kindle. It was another potential shift in the industry that he would have to digest. At the launch of the product on November 19^th, 2007, Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos outlined the benefits of his new product as he saw them: “We have 90,000 books you can buy right from the device. And these are the books people want to read. Included on are 101 of 112 New York Times best sellers. And guess what, they are all $9.99. And guess what? they all get delivered wirelessly in less than minute. You can also get newspapers delivered to the device: New York times, Wall Street Journal, San Jose Mercury News. Magazines. And blogs. This is not an RSS feed. this is the full content of the post pushed to your device.”[vii]

There were already e-readers in the consumer marketplace which were generally seen as niche products, so there was no guarantee that the Kindle would be a success. The device was priced at $399, which put it close to the price of a lower-end laptop computer but Bezos explained that the Kindle provided a different user experience to the laptop computer: “We studied how people hold books. You change your posture and grip on the book. It is one of the things that keeps you from getting fatigued and stay in that author´s world.” The Kindle had no wires, a constant free Wi-Fi connection and 20 hours of battery life. It also had possessed at least one other advantage that previous e-readers didn’t: it was being marketed by the largest bookseller in the world.

The Economist Kindle Edition

Amazon refused to release sales figures for the Kindle. Without at least a ballpark figure for units sold, there was little point in newspaper publishers rushing ahead to make editions for the Kindle. However, estimates showed that sales were strong. Shortly after Andrew Rushbass arrived as CEO of the Economist, one industry insider estimated total sales of the device to be 240,000 units since its official launch in November 2007.[viii] In the year that followed, it was predicted that they would sell between 500,000 and 750,000 more units. Newspapers were slowly beginning to take note. The Kindle was moving from a niche product into the mainstream. In 2008, an app was developed which allowed owners to read books on the iPhone.

In August 2008, the Financial Times, a sister publication of the Economist, launched an edition for the Kindle. There were now over 20 newspapers, which had launched editions in Kindle format. Economist readers were blogging about their desire to see it follow suit. Underneath one article from February 12^th, 2009, a reader commented: “I hope the Economist will soon be available for the Kindle. In fact, it’s the one thing that would push me over the edge to finally buy one. Are there any plans?”[ix] As it happens, there were plans. The Economist was launched for Kindle in the United States market on June 30^th, 2009. A subscription cost just over $125, the same price as that of a print subscription.

Kindle Follow-Ups and Competitors

In 2009, Amazon released the Kindle 2 and the Kindle DX. On the new devices, media such as graphs and videos could be included as part of a newspaper´s Kindle edition. Crucially, adverts, which were forbidden on the original Kindle, could now be included. This meant potential extra revenue, which would make the Kindle an even more attractive proposition to newspaper publishers. New e-readers were released as competitors to the Kindle. In 2009, bookstore chain Barnes and Noble released the Nook and in April 2010, Apple released its tablet computer, the iPad. In its first six months, the iPad sold 7 million units.

Sensing a shift, Rashbass was much quicker in developing an edition for the iPad than he had been with the Kindle. In November 2010, the Economist launched its iPad, iPhone and iPod editions. They aimed for 1 million digital subscribers within 3 years. It wasn’t an unrealistic ambition given the growth forecasts for sales of tablets and e-readers (see Exhibit 6). A new market for newspapers in terms of subscriptions and advertising revenues was fast emerging in the form of e-readers and tablet computers. In fact, all evidence showed that growth in the time spent on these devices was so fast that advertisers were weren’t yet diverting a proportionate amount of revenue to them (see Exhibit 7). Only three years before, the e-reader was hardly thought of as part of a newspapers digital strategy; now, they had a firm place on the agenda.

Lean Back 2.0

In a previous role, Andrew Rashbass had conducted some research into where the Economist would fit in the digital world. As with many newspapers, the Economist wasn’t sure what its online strategy should be: “we were struggling in many of the ways that you can imagine, with exactly what we should be doing online. We went out to do research because we had the following thought… people’s media consumption is shifting online; if we can do the same thing online as we do in print, we can then carry on with our business in an uninterrupted way. We found out that in fact, that wasn’t shifting online, and that regardless of age and regardless of geography, people still read the Economist and things like the Economist in what we came to see as this lean-back way.”

“Lean Back” versus “Lean Forward”

The research showed that people had a ritual around how they read their print copy of the Economist. It was, as Rashbass describes it, an “immersive” process and probably hadn’t changed much since people first started reading it in 1843. In contrast, when the same readers were online, Rashbass says the research showed that their behaviour changed somewhat: “when they were on the web, it was all about lean-forward, all about sharing and interactivity, all about snacking. So we realized there was this distinction and that led us to realize that we had a different opportunity online.” Readers acted differently online. Aware of this difference, Rashbass and his team had emphasized the interactive element on the Economist.com website. But with the arrival of the Kindle and its competitors, a new opportunity emerged. “Now I believe we’re moving into a world of “lean back again”. They called it Lean Back 2.0.

Economist Readers 2.0

If his hypothesis on Lean Back 2.0 was true, the Economist was looking at a future where e-readers and tablet computers were a central part of its business model. In July 2011, they conducted a survey on Economist readers that were using iPads. Rashbass points out, if a user spends 10-15 minutes on a website, “that’s a pretty good session.”[x] But what the iPad survey showed was that people were spending far more time reading the Economist, now that they were accessing through their iPad (see Exhibit 8).

Further research into how readers were using their e-readers and tablet computers revealed even better news for Rashbass. 59% of those surveyed by the Economist revealed that they wanted the ability to buy directly from ads on their device, 70% wanted to be able to purchase products and services directly from editorial features and 73% said that they typically engaged with digial magazine ads. [xi]

Advantages of Lean-Back 2.0

The advantages of the adaption to e-readers and tablets for newspaper subscribers and newspaper publishers alike were becoming evident. This was particularly the case for the Economist, which possessed a worldwide readership. When the latest edition was printed on a Thursday evening, it reached newsagents in London on Friday mornings. But for people in distant locations, the wait could be more than a week, at which time the news was less relevant. Now, people in these locations could receive the latest editions on a Thursday night, straight after release.

The transition was not only working, it appeared to be necessary. A survey of regular Economist readers aged over 40, asked how they read the Economist compared to how they would be reading it two years later. 95% of the over-40s were reading it in print, but when asked how they expected to be consuming the Economist two years later, only 35% expected to be still reading it in print.[xii] Rashbass admitted that he had “never a statistic like it.[xiii]”

One survey showed that the increase in tablet and e-reader usage was part of a wider trend in digital media consumption that even encompassed so-called “smart” cell phones,such as the iPhone and Blackberry(see Exhibit 9). The same survey indicated that the younger generation spent a weekly average of 49 hours consuming media, 12 hours more than the older generation. The Wall Street Journal noted that consumers were purchasing 3.3 times more books on their Kindle than they had done with traditional printed books[xiv]. The industry now appeared to be moving so quickly into the digital arena that the Economist could take advantage of further opportunities.

The Ideas People Network

Despite the good news surrounding e-readers and “lean back 2.0,”Andrew Rashbass knew like everybody else that advertising was leaving the newspaper industry, regardless of whether it was online or in print. He commented: “our solution to that is to find other ways to get marketing-related dollars into our business.”[xv] What the Economist had in its favour was an audience of highly-educated and well-paid individuals. However, their circulation wasn’t high enough to attract the attention of bigger brands, so they needed a network of brands with similar audiences. That was the idea behind the Ideas People Network.

The Ideas People Network is an ad-network created by the Economist and CQ Roll Call, which seeks to provide advertisers with an “elite audience, who are intellectually curious, opinionated and influential.”[xvi] It is therefore an ad network, which is psychographic rather than demographic, as is the case with most advertising networks. Now large corporate advertisers could target their online adverts at this group of people through one advertising network. A similar idea had been used by several lifestyle brands some years before, but this was the first time that it had been attempted with an “intellectual class” in mind.

Member Companies of the Ideas People Network

Research of the Economist´s readers’ online reading behaviour yielded a number of websites, of which 70 are now members of the Ideas People Network (see Exhibit 10). Aside from fitting in with Andrew Rashbass’ perception of being publications read by an elite audience, the websites were all niche players in online media and could benefit from the economies of scale provided by such a network. Jonathon Wells, the Managing Publisher of the Christian Science Monitor explained the rationale for joining the Ideas People Network: “While we have a large number of people in our audience, we don’t always have the scale advertisers are looking for, especially those involved in corporate image and advertising campaigns. In the aggregate, we can provide a useful audience for advertisers.”[xvii]

Harnessing the Power of the Network

At the outset, the Ideas People Network would launch with 11 million monthly unique visitors in the U.S., with a goal of reaching 21 million globally. By October 2011, it was already reaching 37 million unique visitors every month in the United States, as well as nearly 60 million globally[xviii]. These audience numbers could give the Economist.com far more pull with advertisers than it could achieve on its own, even with its increasing subscription base. Arguably even more attractive to advertisers is the type of reader the network claims to attract. In June 2012, the network attracted an audience of more than 15 million political activists, lobbyists and elected officials across the United States[xix]. This figure dwarfed the next largest competitor in the category, CNN Politics (see Exhibit 11).

Acquisition of the TVC Group

On March 14^th 2012, it was announced that the Economist had acquired the TVC Group, a marketing agency based in London.[xx] TVC branded itself as a “full service agency with content at its heart,”[xxi] which seemed to place it ideally within the Economist digital strategy. In addition, they possessed a portfolio of large international clients including Coca-Cola, Louis Vuitton and Jaguar, with whom they had worked across a number of digital platforms. Now the Economist could offer clients a range of services including digital and print advertising across a range of publications and event sponsorship.

Advertisers had never had so many choices on which to reach consumers through the Economist. The UK managing director of the Economist group, Nigel Ludlow summed it up by saying: “This is a great move for the Economist Group. In a rapidly-changing media landscape, one consistent factor is our clients’ desire to communicate across a range of platforms and reach audiences in innovative ways. With TVC on board we will further advance the conversation with our partners and build relationships that reflect diverse and evolving requirements.”[xxii] The Economist hoped it had found another complementary revenue channel in an industry crying out for revenue.

The Future of the Economist

It says everything about the future of the Economist, that it now has a managing director of digital editions, Oscar Grut. When asked about the newspaper’s future, he says: “"It took us 160 years to reach the first million of our one and a half million print readers and we expect to reach a million in digital in three years. With the growing popularity of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, like the iPhone and the iPad, which offer an immersive reading experience, we are seeing strong demand and as a result a big opportunity for a publication like ours is emerging."[xxiii]

The changes occurring in the newspaper industry are unlikely to ever be reversed. Digital media will be an integral part of the future of all successful newspapers in the future. Andrew Rashbass and his colleagues were quick to recognize the potential for developing digital media at the Economist. He notes: “Print sales are holding up but I expect them to go backwards; I'm relaxed about that because I am convinced we will end up with a bigger paid circulation in the end." The Economist’s long-term strategy is to separate print and online subscriptions altogether (the Economist.com is currently free to access on a print subscription), in order to emphasize the value of digital content to subscribers.[xxiv]

Rashbass continues: “The profit from print advertising is going to go down a lot. And the profit from print circulation is going to go down a bit as well. But we’re going to make it back up…with digital advertising and with these other marketing services , but particularly with extra profit that was going to grow from digital circulation. So in five years’ time, the plan is that the Economist is going to be materially more profitable than it is today. And today the Economist is one of the most profitable media publications and assets in the world.”

Moving Forward with Lean Back

There is no telling what further changes technological advancement will bring to the newspaper industry. Tech giants constantly look to outperform each other with new digital gadgets, forcing newspapers everywhere to play catch-up. At least for them, the cost of running a digital publication is lower than that of the traditional model. There are no distribution costs (which can soar in times of high oil prices) and likewise, there are no paper costs.

So far, the Economist has done well to keep pace with changes but the process won’t be static. Inevitably, revenues at the Economist will stall at some stage but the steps that Andrew Rashbass have lessened the future impact of a fall in subscriptions at the group. He says: “Lean Back 2.0 is a real phenomenon, I believe. It’s not the end. The fact is that we’re in an industry - across the whole of media - that is highly disruptive. That disruption will continue, hopefully to our benefit.”

Exhibit 1 Economist Group Financial Results, Julky 2004 – July 2008

Column1	2008	2007	2006	2005	2004
Profit and Loss	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m
Turnover	266	248	218	197	191
Operating Profit	44	36	28	24	24
Non-operating exceptional items	1	11	1	1	-
Profit on ordinary activities before finance income	45	47	29	25	24
Net finance income	2	2	2	2	-
Profit before taxation	47	49	31	27	24
Profi after taxation	32	34	22	27	18

Balance sheet and cashflow
Fixed assets	38	41	38	24	25
Net cash balance	20	31	55	73	69
Net current (liabilities)/assets	-48	-36	-5	27	18
Long-term creditors and provisions	2	-13	-29	-27	-32
Net (liabilities)/assets	-8	-8	4	24	11
Net cash inflow from operating activities	46	33	29	24	31

Margin and earnings per share
Operating profit to turnover	16.6%	14.6%	13.1%	12.4%	12.6%
Basic earnings per share	128.7p	134.9p	88.4p	109.1p	71.0p
Earnings per share before-non operating exceptional items	126.7p	105.2p	87.1p	84.9p	69.5p

Dividends and shares
Final and interim dividends per share	79.7p	64.8p	59.0p	57.5p	43.3p
Special dividend per share	91.3p	139.0p	79.4p	-	-
Total dividends per share	171.0p	203.8p	138.4p	57.5p	43.3p
Times covered	0.7	0.5	0.6	1.5	1.6
Indicative share value	£21.50	£20.50	£16.00	£14.00	£12.50

Source: Economist Annual Report, 2008

Exhibit 2 Combined Print and Online Advertising Revenue, 2003 - 2008

In millions of US dollars

Source: Newspaper Association of America.

Exhibit 3 Newspaper Ad Revenue vs. Circulation Revenue, 1980 - 2008

In millions of US dollars

Source: Newspaper Association of America.

Exhibit 4 Total Advertising Expenditure as a % of GDP, 1919 - 2008

In millions of US dollars

Adapted from http://www.galbithink.org/ad-spending.htm

Exhibit 5 Average visits per user per month to 25 most popular US news websites

(Average of March, June and September, 2010)

Source: Pew Research Centre, Nielsen.

Exhibit 6 Tablet Sales Forecast, 2010 - 2015

Source: Gartner E-marketer

Exhibit 7 “I spend more day each day on tablet than I…”

Source: ADMOB Survey, July 2011.

Exhibit 8 Results of Economist iPad Survey.

Q: “How much time will you spend reading the Economist iPad app this week?”

Source: The Economist iPad app survey, July 2011.

Exhibit 9 Media Consumption Among Different Generations, 2007

% time spent consuming various media

Source: E-Forrester Research.

Exhibit 10 Members of Ideas People Advocacy Network.

Ideas People Advocacy Network Member List	Description		Column1	Column2
aldaily.com		News, reviews and latest trends in arts and culture.
allafrica.com		African news and information for a global audience.
alternet.org		News stories and web publications.
americanthinker.com		National security, the middle east, business and social.
calitreview.com		Reviews on the latest literature from North America and Europe.
CFO.com		Daily stories geared specifically for finance executives.
chronicle.com		Weekly news and information source for college students and faculty members.
commentarymagazine.com		Highly variegated with a unifying perspective.
Congress.org		Provides information on congress and news about federal advocacy and activism.
CQ.com		The only service that covers every legislative action in congress.
csmonitor.com		International news organization that delivers global coverage.
dailycaller.com		News and opinion with a focus on politics and breaking news.
dailykos.com		Political analysis on US current events from a liberal perspective.
economist.com		Authoritative weekly newspaper focusing on international politics and business news and opinion.
euobserver.com		Supports the debate on and development of EU affairs.
fora.tv		Web's largest collection of video drawn from live events, lectures on politics, science, technology and environment.
globalpost.com		News reporting with a team of world news correspondents.
goodreads.com		Social site for book enthusiasts.
grist.org		Environmental news, commentary and advice with humor.
ibtimes.com		Online provider of international business news.
inc.om		Advice, tools and services for small business leaders.
inthesetimes.com		Politically progress monthly magazine of news and opinion published by the institute for public affairs in Chicago.
kiplinger.com		Trusted personal finance advice, business forecasting and financial management tools.
livestation.com		Provides a range of television and radio stations over the internet.
livestream.com		A live-streaming video platform that allows users to view and broadcast video content.
moreintelligentlife.com		Bi-monthly culture magazine produced by the Economist.
motherjones.com		Investigative and breaking news.
nationalreview.com		Conservative commentary on American politics, news and culture.
nybooks.com		Articles on literature, culture and current affairs.
nymag.com		A weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture and politics of New York city.
outsidethebeltway.com		Analysis of US politics, world affairs, and public.
philanthropy.com		News source for all those involved in philanthropic enterprises.
pjmedia.com		Conservative opinion and commentary website.
policymic.com		A social platform for the politically influential.

(Continued on following page)

Ideas People Advocacy Network Member List (continued)	Description
politicalwire.com	US Political debate.
powerlineblog.com	Covering income taxes, campaign finance and welfare reform and affirmative action in the criminal justice system.
pri.org	A producer of content for public radio, generated in many locations.
project-syndicate.org	Expert analysis and commentary on current issues.
prospect.org	Monthly magazine covering politics, culture and policy from a liberal perspective.
prospectmagazine.co.uk	Cultural affairs, debate, economics and politics.
rawstory.com	Progressive news and political commentary.
reason.com	Political journal advocating the gamut of libertarian causes.
redorbit.com	Space, science, technology and health news.
ricochet.com	Right-of-centre online journal.
rollcall.com	Covering Capital Hill since 1955.
sciencedaily.com	Topical science articles.
seedmagazine.com	Relevant, entertaining and original science magazine.
springwise.com	New business ideas and innovation.
strategy-business.com	Business strategy news articles for business executives.
studio360.org	Guide to what's happening in pop culture and the arts.
takimag.com	A libertarian webzine.
talkingpointsmemo.com	Commentary on political events from a leftist perspective.
technologyreview.com	MIT Publication on technology and progress.
theamericanconservative.com	A journal of opinion published by the American ideas institute.
the-american-interest.com	An independent non-partisan quarterly review devoted to the broad theme of "America in the world."
thebrowser.com	"A 21st century library of writing worth reading."
the-diplomat.com	The premier current affairs magazine in the Asia-Pacific region.
thenation.com	News and analysis of politics and culture from the left.
thetakeaway.org	An online radio show that takes part in the "American conversation."
theworld.org	Radio show produced by PRI offering a mixture of global news and features.
thinkprogress.org	Seeks to provide a forum that advances progressive ideas and policies.
tnr.com	Politics, culture and the arts with a focus on national politics, foreign policy, congress and Capitol Hill.
venturebeat.com	Innovation and technology news.
volokh.com	Academic and legal commentary.
washingtonexaminer.com	covers a variety of both local and national topics.
washingtonmonthly.com	Non-profit magazine of U.S. politics and government.
weeklystandard.com	An American conservative opinion magazine.
wonkette.com	American online magazine of topical satire and political gossip.
worldcrunch.com	Top global journalism translated to English.