Hanging up his Economist hat

In 1968, David Hanger walked into the offices of a specialist UK paper -- one with little real brand value beyond its core audience and just a hint of an overseas circulation. Thirty-six years later, he's about to walk out the door, leaving behind a globally respected publication -- The Economist -- renowned for its hard-hitting and asute take on world markets and politics, written in an irreverent tone that extends to its brand advertising. "I always said that if we could make a million circulation, it would be time to go," says Hanger. Uncanny, then, that six months to his retirement, the title is just shy of hitting a million (of which nearly 110,000 copies go to readers in Asia, where circulation has risen by 10 per cent on newsstands and five per cent on subscriptions). Hanger's successor, Andrew Rashbass, will be inheriting a business that's also about to launch its first foreign-language product, The World In, in China. It's fair to say that, in terms of publishing, Hanger has seen it all. He travelled the world in the '70s doing presentations in what he calls "wild frontiers" -- the Middle East, Tokyo, Hong Kong and the US -- long before many of these economies had established infrastructures. When the group opened its first Hong Kong office in 1984, the paper was largely an expat read, with just two per cent of its readers female (now at 20 per cent). It was an era when rival publications (Time, Newsweek and the Far Eastern Economic Review) fought to "create markets" and Japan was revered as the pinnacle of advertising. Hanger's decision two decades ago to name UK-based Abbott Mead Vickers The Economist's advertising agency also marked a major shift in consumers' perception of the brand. The Economist became known for its award-winning, inventive print and poster advertising, that ran with words and no pictures. Hanger has unquestionably chalked up a few milestones for the title, but that is not the only reason this seasoned publisher enjoys a solid industry profile. As the immediate past world president of the International Advertising Association, he saw it start to play a bigger role in Asia and set the structure for Asian chapters to gain more financial support. And, while most Western publications chose to create a product to editorially fit local Asian markets, Hanger -- whether from an evangelical belief in the product or simple stubbornness -- stood his ground. Which is perhaps why the suggestion of local language versions of The Economist brings a wry smile to his face. "We've looked at local languages so often... (In 1968) we had a Latin American version, published out of Mexico, but it was probably too soon in the history of The Economist to try to do it then and we closed after three years. " Three decades later, The Economist continues to ponder local language editions. Indeed, few decisions made under Hanger's leadership have been swift. But, like it or not, things are about to change. Some 20 years younger than his predecessor, Rashbass will take up the publisher role in January. He's likely to craft a new strategy to tackle the magazine's challenges, not least of which are tackling technology for news delivery and, of course, China's publishing minefield. So is Rashbass' appointment an indication of the title's future direction? After all, the former Daily Mail executive comes with an IT background, having previously managed Economist.com. "IT is just one of the things he does. When you meet Andrew you'll realise that there's a good, broad person there," Hanger says. For him, retirement brings new prospects. "I expect to stay in the industry in some way or another. When you've gained so much from an industry you need to keep putting things back into it."