[netcan]

That's just it, that kind of writing is somewhat peripheral to the core of journalism, at least the definition of journalism which is an institution essential to democracy. It's more stylistically similar to an academic writing a public consumption book chronicling events of the last year than it is to reports from a journalist currently embedded with the propaganda arm of ISIS in Syria.

One can be done from your office at the university, perhaps making extensive use of skype and good contacts.

I have no problem with the economist, I read it. I just don't expect that this kind of writing will be in danger, regardless of the business environment.

[ghaff]

I agree up to a point. There is a lot of value in curating expertise and bringing it together in one quality place.

That said, for kicks I looked through The Economist's media directory and it is indeed pretty London-centric. While I have no doubt that its correspondents are quite knowledgable about their beats (and I assume have plenty of good contacts), it's not like The Economist has a lot of big foreign bureaus.