Press Release Please view in HTML Friday 13 November 2015 For Immediate Release The Economist’s Editor-in-Chief Zanny Minton Beddoes to co-host “On Background” on the BBC World Service (London) – The Economist is pleased to announce that its Editor-in-Chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes will co- host “On Background”, a new six-part series beginning today on the BBC World Service. “On Background” is a new radio programme for the BBC World Service presented by James Harding, Director of BBC News. The programme aims to “dig deeper into some of the big stories of the week” and will feature experts on the week’s topics from around the world. This week’s episode will cover a range of topics including the world economy and free speech on university campuses. The programme will air today, Friday November 13th at 20:06 GMT on the BBC World Service, online and in the Americas, Caribbean, Europe, Middle East and the UK (DA/Freeview only). It will air at 21:06 GMT in Australasia, East Asia, West and Central Africa. It will air at 5:06 GMT on Saturday November 14th in East and Southern Africa, East Asia, Europe, Middle East and South Asia. It will air again in Australasia at 11:06 GMT. To view the schedule and access online, please visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p037nnsr. An excerpt from the programme will also be published on The Economist’s audio feed at radio.economist.com. -ENDS- For more details, please contact Holly Donahue at [email protected] or +44 (0)20 7576 8379 About The Economist (www.economist.com) With a growing global circulation (1.5 million including both print* and digital) and a reputation for insightful analysis and perspective on every aspect of world events, The Economist is one of the most widely recognised and well-read current affairs publications. The paper covers politics, business, science and technology, and books and arts, concluding each week with the obituary. In addition to the web-only content such as blogs, debates and audio/video programmes available on the website, The Economist is now available to download for reading on Android, Blackberry PlayBook, iPhone or iPad devices. *Audit Bureau of Circulations Worldwide, Jan-Jun 2015 BBC World Service delivers news content around the world in English and 28 other language services, on radio, TV and digital, reaching a weekly audience of 210 million. As part of BBC World Service, BBC Learning English teaches English to global audiences. For more information, visit bbc.com/worldservice. The BBC attracts a weekly global news audience of 283 million people to its international news services including BBC World Service, BBC World News television channel and bbc.com/news. .