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Comment by jackconsidine | Hacker News Reader

I'd add one thing to this post: The Economist reliably lists counterpoints to its articles. It has a nuanced feel, rare for a news source. The weekly cycle also helps as sensationalized nonsense doesn't make the cut.

A trick someone told me was to read the sections in reverse (Obit, Books / Arts, Science etc); the writing quality is best towards the end!

PS this post reads a lot like the Johnson column on language, writing etc.

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Years ago I was making a pitch to USV... the startup I was pitching was publishing related, and out of the blue one of the partners (Brad) asked me what order I read my Economist in? I paused to think and answered that I read front to back and skipped sections if they didn’t look interesting. Then I asked him what order he read it in. He said back to front. The conversation moved on without the chance for me to ask why. Maybe the reason was writing quality.

The front part (the 'leaders') are opinion pieces. The international sections are usually more straight reporting on events.

The leaders are the only part of the magazine I skip these days.

Yeah, the obituaries are so well written. The recent one they wrote about Chick Corea made a great point about his influence while being extremely personal and delicate. Really made me want to explore more of his music.

I think the obits are all written by one person, Ann Wroe. I heard a really good interview with her a few years ago but I can't find it now. https://medium.economist.com/the-art-of-writing-an-obituary-... is reasonably interesting.

almost all are written by Ann, who is brilliant. the odd one is written by a subject matter expert, or by someone for whom the subject was a source

this one is a particularly good example, that HN may enjoy https://www.economist.com/obituary/2019/02/21/obituary-the-m...

Dennis Ritchie got 1.5 articles and John McCarthy 0.5, although it's a bit painful to read the Economist house style discussing programming languages.

https://www.economist.com/babbage/2011/10/20/printfgoodbye-d...

https://www.economist.com/obituary/2011/11/05/dennis-ritchie...

She is the one can’t-miss part of the magazine.

She was interviewed on February 4th 2021 as part of their digital events series ("An audience with Ann Wroe, obituaries editor"). Worth a listen: https://economist-subsevents.zoom.us/rec/play/5b6CntzRCPHSJz...

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