Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 320 posts

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#21

Post by jll29 »

Very timely question, I just purchased an issue of the Economist because I was toying with the idea of re-instating a previously held subscription. I share the disappointment.

In the past, even just the book reviews were so good that they "forced" me to buy 2-3 of the reviewed books; that issue didn't intrigue me. I don't have an answer whether it's a general trend or not, as I'm trained not to ascribe too much weight to a sample of size N=1.

There's probably nothing better regardless, but I, for one, would like to see an alternative that is at the same quality level as the Economist (but with more neutral reporting and individual author names given) and an even wider scope (health, science, society, technology, geopolitics, finance, law, ...).

I subscribed the Guardian for one year just to avoid that it goes down (I could read it for free at work), and of course it is excellent, but it has a tacit pro-UK bias that brits (esp. leftists) wouldn't even notice. On the other hand they have excellent reporting and do not refrain from the most challenging topics like the Snowdon revelation (first published by The Guardian's New York office, for legal - freedom of speech - reasons).

Germany has Der Spiegel, France has Le Monde Diplomatique, but I think only the latter is available in English (I read German).

I would also enjoy paying for a single subscription that gave me online access to several of these top-tier magazine for a single flat-rate monthly or annual subscription price.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#22

Post by jakozaur »

I am long-time fun of Economist, but unfortunately the quality decreases. E.g. last issue EU is frozen and claim so many people will die in Europe due to high energy prices.

First, I find they did not explain their model well. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Second, the correlation does not imply causation or whether extrapolations are solid. It looks like there might be mistakes on that front and there are many spurious correlations (e.g. high energy in the past might mean high unemployment).

Third, so far the country experiencing freezing is the Ukraine due to power outages. Just one sentence mentioning, whether in Ukraine for sure many people are going to die due to distrusted power, heating or water supplies.

So far on general economics, I love: https://noahpinion.substack.com/

Though, it is hard for me to find comprehensive Economist replacement.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#26

Post by axlee »

williamcotton wrote: post #8

What narrative manipulation have you seen from The Economist? I haven’t noticed it so perhaps I am being manipulated! I’d love to hear your insight!

Anything that they write about France (or southern europe in general) is utter crap and often disproven by reality a few years later. It reeks of anglosaxon exceptionalism.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#27

Post by williamcotton »

PedroBatista wrote: post #16
williamcotton wrote: post #8

What narrative manipulation have you seen from The Economist? I haven’t noticed it so perhaps I am being manipulated! I’d love to hear your insight!

From what I've casually noticed, in recent years they declared the EU dead at least 4 or 5 times and the bias towards some kind of Liberal US/UK lead/controlled World is clear. They are liberal and anglo, so of course the bias is there ( also smug, but that's pretty much since their beginnings) , but they try to pass their views as fact, meaning: "There's chat going around, this is what the reality is and will be.."…

You must be reading a different magazine than I have because The Economist has been writing a lot about the need for the US and the West to provide military and economic aid in support of Ukraine!

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#29

Post by matthewmacleod »

montgomery_r wrote: post #3

The Spectator has - generally high quality writing - a quirky (but data driven) approach - a longer history than any other magazine - a UK focus - a right wing bent, but with plenty of left wing ( or apolitical) writers for balance. Might be a solution? I gave up on the Economist after 20years 20 years ago, for much the same reasons you state!

If someone's complaint about The Economist includes that it is engaging in too much "narrative manipulation", suggesting The Spectator as an alternative is verging on performance art.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#30

Post by nerdawson »

jll29 wrote: post #21

Very timely question, I just purchased an issue of the Economist because I was toying with the idea of re-instating a previously held subscription. I share the disappointment. In the past, even just the book reviews were so good that they "forced" me to buy 2-3 of the reviewed books; that issue didn't intrigue me. I don't have an answer whether it's a general trend or not, as I'm trained not to ascribe too much weigh…

> …would like to see an alternative that is at the same quality level as the Economist (but with more neutral reporting and individual author names given)…

More publications should remove the byline. Individual attribution incentivises journalists to try and stand out which typically means making intentionally inflammatory statements.

Post reply on HN