The Economist Appoints First Female Editor in Its 172-Year History

This is Zanny Minton Beddoes laughing at all the haters: she just became The Economist‘s seventeenth editor, as well as its first female editor in the publication’s history. In a fascinating press release, she said:

I am delighted to be given the opportunity to edit The Economist. It is one of journalism’s great institutions, with an extraordinarily talented staff.

That’s heady stuff. Previous to this new appointment, Beddoes was the magazine’s business editor; she’s been at The Economist since 1994. Via the Financial Times: “Unlike the two other shortlisted candidates, digital editor Tom Standage and foreign editor Edward Carr, she is also a trained economist.” (Beddoes spent two years at the International Monetary Fund.)

I look forward to continuing to use The Economist during layovers as a way to confirm what I have known, ultimately, for a decade: that my brain is full of gummy bears and loose MP3 files, and has no room for detailed geopolitical information.