I find it slightly ironic that when I view that imgur image to see how much screen the economist takes away, ~30% of the window is obscured by a cookie warning and the content is dimmed.
Did you make it worse on purpose by clicking the little "up" arrow that opens the bottom panel? (on my computer, it's collapsed - but I don't know whether it's the default setting or it was remembered from a previous visit).
Though I agree the cookie banner + "free special report" popup + the bottom subscription banner takes an absurd amount of space.
Not to mention these "please subscribe" and "you have no free articles left" popovers and alerts. Whats even worse is that Google News now includes paywalled publications with these spammy dark patterns. I don't mind paying for Quanta or Nautilus and other high quality publications. But sorry [Generic Copypasta News.] Most of the time all you do is copy the PR off Associated Press - I am not going to pay for freely available current events or your shitty OP-eds.
The Economist should be held up as the pinnacle of quality writing worth paying for. Very few ads (maybe a full pager for lear jets and some classifieds). It may cover some of the same current events as AP or other news services, but their content isn't available anywhere else.
Not a critique of the thecatspaw.