The Economist - US Edition [Kindle Edition]

by The Economist

Editorial Reviews

The color Kindle edition of The Economist - US Edition is now available on the Kindle Reading App for your Android device. Download issues at no extra cost from Archived Items.

The Economist is the premier source for the analysis of world business and current affairs, providing authoritative insight and opinion on international news, world politics, business, finance, science and technology, as well as overviews of cultural trends and regular Special reports on industries and countries.

Established in 1843 to campaign against the protectionist corn laws, The Economist remains, in the second half of its second century, true to the liberal principles of its founder. James Wilson, a hat maker from the small Scottish town of Hawick, believed in free trade, internationalism and minimum interference by government, especially in the affairs of the market. The Economist also takes a fiercely independent stance on social issues, from gay marriage to the legalisation of drugs, but its main service to its readers is as a global newspaper: To uncover new ideas from all around the world.

The Kindle Edition of The Economist contains all of the articles and graphics found in the print edition, but will not include all photos. For your convenience, issues are auto-delivered wirelessly to your Kindle each Friday at the same time the print edition hits the newsstand.

Product Details

• Publisher: The Economist
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• ASIN: B0027VSU9S
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #151 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle Magazines > Business & Investing
• Your name, billing address and order information will be shared with the publisher.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

460 of 467 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Subscriptions: Kindle vs Digital vs Print July 24, 2012

By J. Civiletti

Format:Kindle Edition

There is a lot of confusion about the subscription benefits between the Kindle vs Digital vs Print offerings that need some serious clarification. The Economist is a fantastic publication so I'm writing this to make sure people aren't giving the magazine undeserved flak, and that people here understand what's going on behind the scenes...

Here is the issue: The Economist, like most other major publications, provides lots of value-added features to subscribers but make limited access to their website free for SEO and ad revenue generating purposes. These subscriber features include: full audio podcasts, full access to apps and commentary, and of course full digital access to the printed content. The digital subscriptions and authentication to access this content happens directly on the Economist's servers, so features served from the Economist's servers are easily matched and delivered to subscribers. AMAZON'S KINDLE DELIVERY INFRASTRUCTURE has a separate user database, separate servers, and a separate transfer protocol that is 100% independent of the Economist.

This wouldn't be a problem, except that AMAZON DOES NOT ALLOW PUBLICATIONS TO AUTHENTICATE AGAINST AMAZON USERS SUBSCRIBING TO THE PUBLICATIONS' OWN PRODUCT! This is technically easy to do by implementing an API for publishers. But without it The Economist has no way of knowing who is subscribing through Amazon, so they cannot offer the digital features to kindle subscribers.

This is how it SHOULD work (listen up Amazon):
1) You pay for the Kindle subscription
2) You then sign up with a free account at Economist.com that doesn't have any subscription rights to it (yet)
3) You add your amazon info to your Economist user account
4) The Economist's server pings the Amazon server, and the Amazon server says "Yup, this guy is definitely a paying subscriber, and he is paid up through XX/XX/XXXX"
5)You get the Kindle subscription every week, plus the ability to log in to the Economist.com with a newly subscriber-enhanced user account.

This doesn't work because Amazon does not allow step 4 in the above example. The Economist would LOVE to give Kindle subscribers digital access, but there's no practical way to do this because Amazon refuses to implement APIs to make Step 4 possible. The lack of digital subscriber features here is 100% AMAZON'S FAULT!

Why the same price? When you sign up as a digital subscriber directly at Economist.com, they get 100% of the $120, but from a Kindle subscription they only receive $84 out of $120 retail price on Amazon (bummer). If they charged less, they'd get only $70 or $60... and last I checked the newspaper industry isn't profitable enough to take deeper and deeper cuts into it's retail price. However, they are economists over there (just a hunch) and as a result I think they chose the CORRECT pricing strategy of $120 for the Kindle edition. Here's why: The Economist takes a 30% haircut and delivers a sub-par product via Amazon (because it doesn't include extra features), so they're subtly encouraging a reasonable person to just subscribe directly with Economist.com to receive the superior product. They make a subscription on kindle available simply to appease those few subscribers who must have a whispersynced copy formatted like the print edition on their Kindle and wouldn't subscribe under any other arrangement. In effect, kindlers are paying the "Amazon's Infrastructure Sucks For Publishers" tax by paying the same but getting less.

Unfortunately, most people's negative reviews blame the publisher for not getting the extra digital features, and interested parties are looking at these comments and writing off The Economist completely, instead of taking exception specifically to the service Amazon pigeon-holes publishers into. Of course The Economist can't really say this on Amazon, but I have no problem laying it down for them. So for my fellow Amazoners, don't just choose between subscribing or passing on the Economist, consider the kindle or (direct) digital option as well, and vote this comment up so others can see it.

1,118 of 1,158 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Economist on Kindle July 1, 2009

By John Hennelly

Format:Kindle Edition

I was very happy and interested in the Economist on Kindle despite the cost until I learned that the subscriber content on the Economist web site is not included. This content which includes archived articles and the audio edition is only available to print or web subscribers. More info is available from the Economist @ 1-800-456-6086. For the cost involved the Kindle subscription should at least equal the print subscription benefits.

334 of 344 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars This time, this version: definitely NOT worth the price July 26, 2009

By JDiver

Format:Kindle Edition

As a longtime subscriber of The Economist, I was quite enthusiastic at the opportunity to subscribe via Kindle: on time delivery, no more bypassing the magazine at airports and shops because I knew mine would be waiting at home, no more wrinkled torn copies from the Post Office, the ease and convenience of Kindle downloads. So, I tried the 14 day trial in spite of the reviews here.

After trying the Kindle version and experiencing its shortcomings, I think it's unconscionable and arrogant to ask the same price for the Kindle subscription, sans some of the satire / cartoons, etc. and particularly without the ability to use The Economist's website as allowed by the paper subscription. (Further, to add insult to injury, when I inquired if I could switch my subscription, as I still have months left on my paper sub, The Economist customer service replied there was no way to accomplish this.)

Kindle is brilliant, but Amazon needs to watch the offerings' quality, feature set and pricing, or they will in the end lose traction to other, alternative readers. The digital age is certainly here, but we will see rapid innovation and change, lots of competition and hopefully price competition as well. To this Kindle reader, it appears Amazon is trying to leverage its brilliant start a bit too heavily with some high prices and incomplete products: perhaps tactically productive, but in my opinion much poorer strategy for developing a longtime committed customer base - something I always thought Amazon was adept at.