Report updated Jun 14, 2026
The Economist - News, Podcasts
For professionals and globally-minded readers seeking in-depth analysis and fact-checked reporting on politics, business, and technology.
The Economist - News, Podcasts is a market-leading news app that is available. With a 4.9/5 rating from 261.9K reviews, it delivers strong user satisfaction. Users particularly appreciate high quality of editorial analysis, though pricing flexibility remains a common concern.
What is The Economist - News, Podcasts?
The Economist is a news and analysis app providing global reporting, podcasts, and video for professional readers on iOS and Android.
Users hire the app for curated, fact-checked intelligence that cuts through the noise of daily headlines, serving the need for high-level decision-making context.
Current Momentum
v4.83 · today
Intense- Shipped Insider premium video series.
- Ships regular performance and bug fixes.
Active Nemesis
WSJ: Exclusive News & Insights
By Dow Jones & Company, Inc., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.
Other Rivals
7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸
NewsRating Pulse 🇺🇸
Recent User MoodAI-powered deep analysis surfacing high-signal insights. Still in beta, accuracy improves daily. For informational purposes only.
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
How Is The App's Momentum Right Now?
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What Are The Key Features?
Premium video series featuring senior editors explaining current events and future implications
Interactive puzzles including mini crosswords and history quizzes
Customizable playlist creation for narrated articles and podcasts
How much does it cost?
- Annual plan at $2.78/week ($144.50 first year, then $289/year)
- 4-week plan at $7.25/week ($29 every 4 weeks)
Subscription-only model anchored by a 50% discount offer on annual billing to drive conversion.
Who Built It?
The Economist
Providing global professionals with independent, analytical journalism and daily briefings to navigate complex world events.
Portfolio
2
Apps
Who is The Economist?
The Economist has successfully transitioned its legacy editorial authority into a digital-first subscription engine, prioritizing analytical depth over the high-volume breaking news cycle. Their moat is built on a global correspondent network and a strategic shift toward multi-format delivery, specifically integrating high-fidelity audio to capture the professional commute use case. The current trajectory shows an intense technical update cadence, signaling a focus on mobile UX as the primary retention vehicle for their premium subscriber base.
Who is The Economist for?
- Global professionals
- Decision-makers
- Students seeking high-level political
- Economic analysis without the clutter of 24-hour news cycles
Portfolio momentum
Maintained an intense development pace with 12 updates across both active apps in the last 6 months, with the most recent major release occurring within the last 7 days.
What other apps does The Economist make?
What do users think recently?
High confidence · Latest 100 of 261.9K total reviews analyzed
How did the latest release land?
What is the recent mood?
Recent user voice shows a thrilled sentiment. Users appreciate high quality of editorial analysis, but report pricing flexibility.
What Users Love
What Frustrates Users
What Users Want
What is the competitive landscape for The Economist - News, Podcasts?
How's The News Market?
How does it evolve in the News market?
The Economist maintains a top-20 grossing position in the News category across major global markets, signaling high monetisation efficiency. The gap between its free-chart rank and grossing rank confirms the subscription-first strategy effectively filters for high-intent, high-LTV users.
| Country | Category | Chart | Rank | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇱🇹 Lithuania | News | iOSGrossing | #2 | ▼1 |
| 🇹🇭 Thailand | News | iOSGrossing | #3 | ▲9 |
The rivals identified
The Nemesis
Head to Head
The target app must double down on its unique podcast and audio-first value proposition to differentiate from the WSJ's high-volume, text-heavy market dominance.
What sets The Economist - News, Podcasts apart
Offers a more curated, podcast-forward experience that appeals to commuters and time-constrained global readers.
Maintains a higher average user rating, suggesting superior UI/UX satisfaction compared to the WSJ app.
What's WSJ: Exclusive News & Insights's Edge
Delivers a significantly higher volume of daily content updates, catering to the needs of active market participants.
Leverages a massive, established subscriber base that creates a strong network effect around its exclusive reporting.
Contenders
Integrates interactive games and lifestyle content directly into the news feed to boost daily retention.
Utilizes a sophisticated, personalized 'For You' algorithm that keeps users engaged across diverse news topics.
Provides real-time market data tickers and portfolio tracking that the target app currently lacks.
Offers a specialized 'Watchlist' feature that allows users to track specific assets alongside news coverage.
Financial Times: Business News
★4.5 (49.4K)Financial Times Ltd.
⚡A direct thematic rival in the premium global news space, specifically targeting the same intellectual, business-focused demographic.
Features a 'MyFT' personalized news feed that allows users to follow specific topics and industries.
Provides a distinct, minimalist design language that emphasizes readability for high-level executive decision-makers.
Peers
Operates on an open-access, reader-funded model that contrasts sharply with the target's subscription-gated approach.
Provides extensive live-blogging coverage for breaking news events, which is a core strength of their platform.
Offers a robust live-streaming video component that provides immediate visual coverage of global conflicts.
Maintains a strong focus on under-reported regions, providing a unique geographic coverage advantage.
Provides a localized, German-language experience that dominates the DACH region's premium news market.
Combines traditional news reporting with a 'Spiegel+' subscription model that mirrors the target's monetization strategy.
The Atlantic Magazine
★4.9 (118.8K)The Atlantic Monthly Group LLC
⚡Competes for the same 'smart takes' audience, focusing on long-form analysis rather than breaking news.
Prioritizes deep-dive, long-form investigative journalism over the rapid-fire news cycle of the target app.
Uses a highly distinct, essay-style editorial voice that fosters deep reader loyalty and community engagement.
The outtake for The Economist - News, Podcasts
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- Editorial brand authority sustains high-intent subscription conversion
- Audio-first narration creates habit-forming loops for commuters
Critical Frictions
- $289/year annual price point exceeds category median
- Lack of real-time financial tickers limits utility for active market participants
Growth Levers
- Untapped B2B education partnerships for distribution
- Integration of wearable-friendly audio controls
Market Threats
- Bloomberg's real-time market data tickers drain high-intent business users
- NYTimes' interactive games bundle siphons daily-active-user time
What are the next best moves?
Ship a modular audio-only subscription tier because users request more flexible pricing → capture price-sensitive segments
User sentiment data shows frequent requests for more granular pricing tiers.
Trade-off: Pause the development of the new history-quiz game mode — pricing flexibility has a higher conversion impact.
Integrate real-time market data tickers because Bloomberg's ticker feature is a key competitive gap → defend professional user base
Bloomberg's real-time data is a direct threat to the professional demographic.
Trade-off: Deprioritize the UI navigation audit — competitive parity in financial data is a higher priority for retention.
A counter-intuitive read
The Economist's high annual price is not a weakness but a deliberate filter that maintains a high-quality, low-churn user base that ad-supported competitors cannot replicate.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- Real-time market data tickers (available in Bloomberg but absent here)
- Interactive lifestyle/games bundle (available in NYTimes but absent here)
Key Takeaways
The Economist holds its category lead through high-value editorial content but faces churn risk from more agile, feature-rich business news rivals, so revenue growth hinges on diversifying the entry-level pricing tiers.
Where Is It Heading?
Stable
The premium news market is consolidating around bundled lifestyle and financial utility, putting pressure on standalone editorial apps. The Economist remains advantaged by its brand, but must evolve its feature set to include real-time data or risk losing the professional segment to more integrated rivals.
Consistent high-grossing chart performance across global markets confirms the subscription-first model effectively captures high-intent, high-LTV users.
The lack of real-time market data leaves a clear competitive gap that Bloomberg is actively exploiting to drain the professional user base.