As I continue to move on from my editorship at The Cord, this editorial caught my eye as a fellow, albeit an infinitely more important and seasoned, editor at The Economist wrote a 'valedictory speech' to commemorate his last issue in charge. He drones on for ages, but anyone who's led the world's best magazine for 13 years has probably earned the right to be somewhat verbose. Plus, he looks almost identical to my dad circa 1982.It's an interesting piece because it shows a bit of the inner editorial workings of a fiercely insular publication, and it's actually a 'signed' article. It occurred to me as I read it that this might be the first article that a 13-year editor has explicitly attributed to his name, as virtually all of the newsmagazine's pieces are unsigned. It's unfathomable that with the powerful, concise and compelling commentary they put out on a weekly basis, nobody really takes any kind of formal credit for it. In the day and age of media personalities that make themselves the centre of attention rather than what they're reporting, The Economist harkens back to an era of public service journalism that's long extinct in most of today's media conglomerates.
I also enjoy the part where he admits the mistakes he's made (defending the invasion of Iraq), but outsources their culpability to third parties. Sound familiar?
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