In Europe, an awful lot of people you meet want to let you know that what they are doing is not what they would have chosen. Like their man in Manhattan, The Economist is bullish on America. Readers here return the compliment. From a paltry 20,000 in 1978, North American circulation has grown to nearly 221,000 fifteen years later, accounting for about 45 percent of worldwide circulation. If we didn't sell any advertising we would still make a profit.
Numbers tell only part of the story.
The cachet of simply being British doubtless helps. Economist writers are expected to have opinions. The magazine's tone, too, is distinctive. There is very little of the Oxford Union atmosphere in Ann Wroe's cramped office in The Economist's London headquarters. As editor of the American Survey, the six-page section in every issue devoted to the U.S., Wroe presides over a rather small network of five correspondents and a couple of dozen stringers.