[shoo]

re: Why are The Economist’s writers anonymous?, Frqy3 had a good take on this back in 2017:

> From an economic viewpoint, this also means that the brand value of the articles remains with the masthead rather than the individual authors. This commodifies the authors and makes then more fungible.

> Being The Economist, I am sure they are aware of this.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14016517

[cgh]

Quite a cynical perspective. The Economist’s writers have been anonymous since the magazine’s founding in 1843. In the 19th century, anonymity was normal in publications like this. Signing one’s name to articles was seen as pretentious.