Requiem For An Age : Far Eastern Economic Review

The tumultuous era that made Far Eastern Economic Review so relevant, is gone

Launched soon after World War II, the Review was a quirky magazine of record, documenting and explaining the region’s amazing transformation over the next half century

Fri, Jan 29, 2010
By Arun Subramaniam
Source: Forbes India

Dow Jones’ announcement last September that it was closing down the Far Eastern Economic Review didn’t exactly come as a surprise. The 64-year-old publication had been limping along since October 2004 when the entire staff was let go and the weekly news magazine was converted into a monthly (if that) contributor-based commentary on the region’s public affairs.

Several recent articles, mostly by former Review journalists, have attributed the passing of the region’s most influential current affairs magazine to the steady erosion of its independence and unique journalistic style as Dow Jones steadily tightened its grip. That’s an overstatement.

Launched soon after World War II, the Review was a quirky magazine of record, documenting and explaining the region’s amazing transformation over the next half century. The Review was driven almost entirely by the enterprise and vision of its reporters in the field. It was a grassroots magazine compiled and edited in Hong Kong from the contributions of writers who knew their subject first hand and wrote solely about what they considered relevant.

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