Here’s a look at what FishbowlNY stories made the most buzz this week.

1. Bloomberg LP Getting Earful of Worker Complaints, August 3
2. Lolo Jones: Media ‘Ripped Me to Shreds’, August 8
3. Mayor Bloomberg Gets Confrontational with WPIX Reporter Mary Murphy, August 7
4. New York Native, Composing Great Marvin Hamlisch Succumbs to Short Illness, August 7
5. Magazines Suffer a Brutal First Half, August 7
6. Cover Battle: New York Times Magazine or The Economist, August 2

Keep up-to-date with the latest FishbowlNY news. Click here to sign-up for the FishbowlNY daily newsletter, bringing you our articles each afternoon directly to your inbox.

Welcome back to FishbowlNY’s weekly Cover Battle. Today we pit The New York Times Magazine versus The Economist. The Times went with a spectacular underground view of the fabled Second Avenue subway line, which is scheduled to be completed in 3017.

Read more

For the first time, The Economist has passed the 1.5 million circulation mark. The cause? An increase in digital subscribers.

The magazine achieved print circulation of 1,487,010 in the latest ABC period (ABC UK/US July-December 2011), combined with a digital-only paid circulation of more than 100,000 in December 2011.

Andrew Rashbass, CEO of The Economist Group, said:

“It took us 160 years to reach one million circulation, but only seven years to reach one and a half million. We now expect to reach two million within five years, fueled by rapid growth in digital circulation. By then we expect to have more digital than print readers.

Although our print circulation continues to rise, at some point in the near future it will go down as more and more of our customers choose to read us on a tablet or e-reader. We’re relaxed about that because we are discovering great opportunities in digital having already reached a digital-only circulation of more than 100,000. Over 75% of these readers are new to us and 12% had previously given up their print subscription. We are seeing that our digital readers are finding new times to read and immerse themselves in a truly lean-back reading experience.”

At least they’re relaxed about this whole digital transformation.

Is someone projecting the demise of print, though?

The Economist has added a section dedicated to China, the first new department dedicated to a single country since 1943, when the magazine added the United States. The debut of the feature will cover all aspects of the nation’s rise in power — be it social, political or economical.

Though China has always been covered by The Economist, John Micklethwait, the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, said the time had come for it to join other countries that have their own segment.

“I decided that China’s emergence as a global power justified giving it a section of its own,” said Micklethwait. ”It also allows us to devote more space each week to covering the deeper social, political and economic issues in the country, especially the China beyond Beijing and Shanghai. That is how we built up the reputation of the American Survey. We hope the China section becomes the starting point for anyone who wants to know more about this absorbing, complicated country.”

Looking to stay up-to-date on the ever-changing face of American politics?

This week, The Economist Group launched Electionism, a free HTML5 web app for tablets that focuses on the hottest subject around: the 2012 election.

The app promises insight and analysis from international, national, and beltway insider perspective; content from both The Economist and CQ Roll Call; reading lists from its journalists; and a collection of noteworthy tweets from candidates and pundits. Additional multimedia and interactive features will be added throughout the year.

Read more

Here’s a look at what FishbowlNY stories made the most buzz this week.

1. Breaking: Jim Watkins Fired From WPIX, September 30
2. Jill Nicolini Welcomed in Her WNYW Debut, October 3
3. With Jim Watkins Out at WPIX, Kaity Tong Takes Weekends, September 30
4. Fortune Lists 50 Most Popular Women in Business, September 30
5. WABC/Channel 7 Moves on Without Gil Noble, Like It Is, October 3
6. The Economist to Host a Trivia Night, October 3
7. Michael Wolff is Not Being Fired After All, October 4
8. An Addition to the WCBS/Channel 2 Weather Team, October 4

Keep up-to-date with the latest FishbowlNY news. Click here to sign-up for the FishbowlNY daily newsletter, bringing you our articles each afternoon directly to your inbox.

If you like trivia and alcohol — and who doesn’t? — you should check out The Economist’s Pub Quiz on Monday, October 17, at Brooklyn Winery in Williamsburg. The night is free and will be hosted by Lane Greene, the magazine’s Business Correspondent and language blogger.

To register, send an email to nypubquiz[at]economist[dot]com. We’re probably going to attend even though our trivia knowledge typically leans more Sports Illustrated than Economist, so maybe we’ll see you there. In the meantime, we’re making some flash cards. Yes, we take trivia that seriously.

The Economist isn’t the first place we go for sports analysis, but maybe, if its new sports blog Game Theory proves worthwhile, it’ll break into the top 10. Tom Standage, Digital Editor of the magazine, said that there is a natural space for the subject within the Economist’s realm.

“Sports are often discussed in The Economist’s offices, just as they are in other workplaces,” said Standage. “This new blog lets our journalists share their passion for sports more widely and extends our distinctive analytical approach into a new field.”

Standage might be on to something. While ESPN, Yahoo Sports, Sports Illustrated and The Daily News offer plenty of updates on how bad the Giants are and how Isiah Thomas is going to ruin the Knicks no matter what we do to try and stop — sorry, we got carried away. Where were we? Oh, right — there is definitely room out there for an Economist view of sports. Game Theory has much more than a puncher’s chance at being successful.

The Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism released its annual State of The News Media report today, and because FishbowlNY loves you, we sifted through the data on magazines.

Among the six magazines considered in the newsweekly category – Time, Newsweek, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Week, and The Economist – the niche titles did the best. The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Week and The Economist all saw circulation and ad pages increase. The Atlantic had the best year among those four, achieving a 24 percent increase in ad pages from 2009 to 2010.

That’s the good, now here’s the bad: Unsurprisingly, Newsweek had a horrible year, as its circulation fell by 31 percent, and ad pages plummeted by about 20 percent. Time didn’t do nearly as bad, but still lost one percent of its circulation and 3 percent of ad page sales.

As you can see, newsweekly magazines that appeal to a mass audience are going to have a tough time staying competitive, while ones that appeal to a small, loyal consumer base will thrive. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but the numbers – much like Shakira’s hips – don’t lie.

Thank you for putting up with a Shakira reference.

This week marked a big change for The Economist‘s Web site. For the first time in the paper’s 150+-year history, there were bylines of a sort attached to articles — although they will only appear on blog posts.

According to the Editor’s Note, initials of the blog writers will now appear next to their items, “to clear up any confusion about multiple correspondents in the same city.” The magazine itself will remain byline-less, since the blog “is a place for individual writers to offer brief thoughts, trial balloons, scratchings on the back of an envelope and the like, and showcases some of the diversity of thought we have on the staff. The magazine, by contrast, is what happens when we put all of our heads together, and so should be considered as carrying the full editorial weight of The Economist.”

Hey, we’d take a steady gig over a byline any day — they come cheap with all the CraigsList ads offering writers a chance to work for compensation in the form of seeing their name in print (or online).

Read More: Editor’s Note –The Ecoomist