In conversation with Zanny Minton Beddoes
The Economist’s Editor-in-Chief Zanny Minton Beddoes and Executive Editor Helen Joyce meet in Zoom to look back on how the coronavirus pandemic altered the course of journalistic storytelling.
Photography by European Central Bank on Flickr
“A new human coronavirus has appeared in China,” was the title of a science article published by the Economist on January 16, back when the disease was confirmed in a total of 42 patients and caused one death in Wuhan, China. Seven months later, what was referred to as a “mini-panic” in the January article, has turned into a global crisis, while the virus breached the banks of the Science section and proliferated across all subdivisions of the newspaper.
Forced to retreat from a conference hall into Zoom, the Economist’s Editor-in-Chief Zanny Minton Beddoes, and Executive Editor Helen Joyce, held an online webinar for the newspaper’s subscribers on July 16. In it, the two journalists used a retrospective account of weekly cover stories as a backdrop for discussing consequences of COVID-19 for the global economy, the business environment, politics and people’s lifestyles.
“I don’t think there has been anything like this in any of our lifetimes, in terms of not only, of course, the scale of the pandemic, but also as a journalistic story… Every single element of the paper, every single specialty has been brought into this,” Minton Beddoes said.
As COVID-19 rippled across the world, the Economist monitored developments in its initial epicentre – China – to study effects of the economic shock caused by the virus. Goldman Sachs estimated that reopening the economy, as China did in April, is associated with a GDP decline of 10 per cent, due to a fall in discretionary spending by consumers who will continue to choose saving and self-isolation over non-essential activities, long after lockdown is lifted.
The fall in GDP will be disproportionately reflected in unemployment rates of immigrants and young people, who do not have strong professional networks or access to technology that would allow them to work and develop careers remotely. A study shows that women with young children are also more likely to experience a fall in productivity than men, as they tend to take on additional responsibility for housekeeping when working from home.
Thus, the newspaper coined the “90% economy” - an expression which seems hopeful given the circumstances, yet relates to the underlying lack of stability, innovation and equality that is to be expected in the post-pandemic world. “I heard that phrase from our colleagues in China, who were saying that although the worst of the pandemic was behind them and growth was returning again, the economy was not going back to normal… not quite all there,” Minton Beddoes explained.
“If you had asked me in January what would be the biggest story of 2020, I would have said the U.S. election,” she admitted. While coverage of the presidential race remains on the editor’s agenda, it seems as though COVID-19 is drowning out political headlines which would have otherwise been prioritised. According to the Economist, this is good news for autocratic leaders, who are taking advantage of the chaos spawned by the pandemic to grab more power for themselves without drawing too much attention.
New Hong Kong security laws imposed by China’s ruling Communist Party on July 1 came one year after protests erupted in the former British colony. The law authorises life imprisonment for crimes of separatism, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign governments, allowing mainland China's security agencies to investigate and prosecute crimes in the region.
In March, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán was vested with the power to rule by decree under a new coronavirus law, which critics described as creating the EU’s first dictatorship. While rule by decree has since been lifted, a new law allows the government to reintroduce it without a parliamentary vote, whenever they declare a state of public health emergency.
At the same time, Russia voted in favour of constitutional amendments proposed by the Kremlin, one of which allows President Vladimir Putin to stand for two more terms in office, which would extend his presidency to a total of 36 years if he is re-elected.
These are just a few examples; at least 84 governments have enacted emergency laws granting leaders additional executive power. In some cases, measures are temporary and targeted at fighting the pandemic, such as the active use of technology to track patterns of infection and enforce lockdowns. Yet “what [does] this mean for proponents of limited government and individual liberty? How could you make sure that this, one hopes, temporary grab of control by governments would be rolled back?” Minton Beddoes asked.
According to the editor-in-chief, one news story which remains relevant despite the focus on pandemic coverage is climate change: “Watching the pandemic is like watching climate change with your finger on the fast-forward button.” Drawing links between the two major crises of the 21st century, she pointed out that, much like coronavirus, “climate change is global, climate change is something that hurts the poor disproportionately, climate change is something that requires massive reorganisation to counter.”
There is good news in all of this too. Minton Beddoes suggested that the COVID-19 crisis might lead to a change in strategies for mitigating global temperature rise due to a growing political appetite to take action: “One of the things that we might see, is that because we are in a world where there is suddenly a much more activist government - much more dramatic use of government - that could shift towards a much more activist approach to climate change too.”
Moreover, as every editorial section down to Lifestyle has been adapted to the pandemic, Minton Beddoes “learned that you can watch YouTube videos of Bertrand Russel, learned that many of [her] colleagues are massive makers of sourdough.” While at the start of the outbreak, she was concerned that the newspaper would be struggling to fill its pages during lockdown, the opposite has happened. An outpour of productivity appeared despite the uncharted virtual setting in which the Economist now had to produce its content: “It was not just the print paper that went virtual. All of our podcasts were suddenly made from home; I heard stories of our podcasters recording their podcasts in their closet, with their children outside.”
Undoubtedly, newswriting today largely differs from the “B.C. (before Covid) era,” as the editor-in-chief called it. From production methods to content, every newspaper outlet is changing to accommodate for one of the largest journalistic stories told in decades. In a few months, the Economist will publish its annual forecast for the upcoming year. When asked “How do you feel about doing the ‘World in 2021’? … This must be one of the most uncertain moments that somebody could possibly ever have thought about,” Minton Beddoes replied: “But that makes it even more important, surely.”