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British magnate Lynn Forester de Rothschild is considering the sale of a long held family stake in The Economist magazine. Rothschild has hired advisers at Lazard to explore selling a 20% stake for as much as £400m, according to Bloomberg.
Any sale would represent the most dramatic change in ownership for the 182-year-old weekly since 2015, when British education publisher Pearson sold the majority of its 50% stake alongside its sale of The Financial Times. The magazine was founded in 1843 and has enjoyed Rothschild investment ever since.
However, overall readership has been in decline for at least a decade, which is the likely reason for the sale of shares by longtime benefactors. In 2015 The Economist maintained an audience of 1.6 million; that has fallen to 1.2 million in 2025, similar to reader numbers the outlet held in the early 2000s.
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I read The Economist in the 1980’s and 1990’s, but then they went woke, so I am not surprised that they may be going broke!