In Asia-Pacific, rates will rise 5.5 per cent, bucking the general trend to maintain rates at current levels in a still uncertain climate.
Worldwide publisher David Hanger said: "People accept that we don't go for rate increases unless we're giving something better. We have moved our market position, we've taken our circulation up and the research is endorsing where we've got to."
The Economist's ABC-audited, first half circulation for Asia-Pacific edged past the 100,000 mark for the first time this year. In that same period, its global circulation hit 900,000. "Virtually every country (in Asia) has improved. No one country dominates; that's the nice thing about Asia - you're never caught out by a single economy." Hanger expected the weekly's global circulation to climb to one million by 2005, with Asia-Pacific contributing 110,000 by then.
He attributed the circulation gains to The Economist writing "about the geopolitical, global and business aspects more deeply than anybody else" at a time when "the world is so interested in what's happening to the world".
To keep regional circulation growth on track, Hanger said he was looking at extending Christopher Kirk's stint in the region. Kirk, the worldwide promotions director, is filling in until a replacement is found for Peter Bakker, and is also "undertaking a complete re-assessment of what we need to do and how to take us forward a little faster".
On the sales front, Hanger said Asia-Pacific was on course for a second strong year. Despite the blows delivered by Sars and the Iraq war, regional ad revenue is about nine per cent higher than last year, with four months left to the title's financial year.
Korea, on the back of domestic conglomerates going global; Malaysia and Australia have delivered significant growth this year.
Looking ahead, Hanger said the business-to-business (B2B) sector needed to recover to complement consumer-targeted advertising, which has kept the industry afloat in the past two years. "If companies decide they don't need to renew their inventories, then they may find they need to lay off jobs or not create anymore. It's the B2B side that has got to pick up. Otherwise, we will find it will begin to impact the consumer side even more than it has done."