Perfectly pitched
Luckily, there doesn't seem to be anyone he knows. "Hmm, that's surprising," he says, as we sit down in front of the teppanyaki grill.
The 163-year-old Economist, which insists on calling itself a newspaper, holds a unique place in weekly news journalism. At a time when many of its rivals are facing plummeting sales and pressure to dumb down, it has remained in rude financial health by offering pungent analyses of global politics and business, all while remaining true to the internationalist, free-trade ideals of the Scottish hat maker who founded it, James Wilson. It is read by some of the world's most influential leaders, yet its writers (who have included the spy Kim Philby and prime minister H.H. Asquith) have remained shrouded behind its famously unsigned articles.
The magazine is not without its critics. Some say its assertive prose is too smug. Others think that its global outlook has made it more superficial and less influential, especially at home in the UK. But under Emmott its global circulation has grown from around 500,000, when he became editor, to the psychologically important one million mark, about four-fifths of that outside Britain. Whoever takes over from him has a difficult act to follow, which makes one wonder why he decided to go.
As we order some beer, he says that everyone on the magazine had been speculating about his departure for at least three years. Ten years is always regarded as a good time to go, he says, but staff were still shocked when the announcement came, because he had given no sign that he might leave. "It was utterly predictable and a complete surprise," he says.
The timing of his announcement was complicated by the departure of David Hanger, the magazine's publisher, who retired last year. Emmott says that to avoid leaving at the same time and creating instability, he would have had to retire either a year before or a year after Hanger. "I didn't want to leave a year before him because that felt too soon. So I stayed on a year after him, also to help his successor so it wasn't 'all change' at the same time."
He brushes aside speculation that his hand was forced by one of his rumoured successors, US editor John Micklethwait, being offered the editorship of The Spectator magazine. "I made my decision over Christmas that I would leave in the spring. It was actually very well planned," he says.
The teppanyaki grill starts to sizzle loudly, and Emmott, who reported for the magazine in Brussels and Japan, thoughtfully moves my tape recorder closer to him. Then, to my embarrassment, he sees the state of my shorthand, raises his eyebrows and moves the tape recorder even closer.
The Economist is 50 per cent owned by the Pearson media group, which also owns the Financial Times. Emmott's path to The Economist was not a smooth one. He got an interview there as he was about to graduate from Magdalen College, Oxford, but was turned down. The only other publication to offer him an interview was the financial magazine Investors Chronicle, where he was shortlisted with the eventual editor of The Observer newspaper, Will Hutton. Neither got a job.
Emmott, who has a Lenin-esque beard, then embarked on a PhD on the French Communist Party, in what he says was a cunning plan to combine an academic career with freelance writing. Just before he was due to go to Paris in 1980, The Economist rang to offer him a job - his Magdalen tutor had recommended him - and he joined the magazine that year. By 1993, at the age of 36, he became editor.
I tell him it was ironic that in the week he announces his retirement, The Economist's cover story is about how to manage an ageing workforce. "I was away last week, so that wasn't my cover," he laughs. He says it does not feel all that strange to be retiring before 50: his two predecessors - Rupert Pennant-Rea and Andrew Knight - were both appointed editor in their mid-thirties, and also retired in their late forties.
When I ask him if he has any regrets over a story or a cover, he pauses and smiles: "I tend to blank them out." But he says he thinks it was a mistake to have backed John Major in 1997 instead of Tony Blair. "I wrote those leaders, but I was wrong." He had argued that the Labour Party had not made a convincing case that it would continue Margaret Thatcher's reforms. "But the genuine article [Major] had lost credibility and wasn't able to do it anyway."
He says the most controversial position he ever took, which polarised people both inside and outside the magazine, was supporting the invasion of Iraq. "We were pretty quick to switch to criticism," he says, "but nevertheless we underestimated the capacity of the Bush administration to screw it up."
One of his most embarrassing covers, according to Emmott, was in March 1999, about a subject that should have been simple Economist territory: the price of oil. It had its roots in a lunch with an oil company executive, where everybody started musing that, with the oil price at $10, what would happen if it fell to $5? A cover saying that the world was drowning in oil, and noting the possibility of a fall in the oil price, duly appeared. But before the end of the year the price had more than doubled. "It was most embarrassing," he says candidly.
Emmott adds that the magazine was too slow to call for intervention in the Balkan wars. "We left it for too long. In hindsight, I think it was wrong."
Emmott says his main job at the magazine was "to get readers and make them addicted to the paper".
One of the best decisions he took, he says, was to argue against a regular e-business supplement during the dotcom boom. "It was one of the few times the pressure [from the commercial department] was quite high. But I argued that we needed to launch something sustainable, so instead we launched a technology quarterly." There were commercial objections, too, when he introduced an obituary page - because "it was about dead people".
He says that there are at least five internal candidates for the editorship. (They are rumoured to include Micklethwait, deputy editor Emma Duncan and business affairs editor Ed Carr.) Traditionally, the magazine's journalists are invited to write confidential letters to the chairman about the candidates, and he expects this to happen on this occasion.
Other traditions likely to survive his departure include the Monday morning news conference, for which the magazine's 45 London journalists crowd into the editor's office. The absence of bylines will also stay, he says, for good reason. It has helped The Economist maintain a coherent and distinctive voice, which is critical: "In a crowded marketplace, you give up your marks of distinction at your peril."
One of the challenges his successor will face is translating the magazine on to the internet. Although most readers still prefer to read the paper version of the weekly, an eventual move online will affect the style, approach and voice - which could, he says, prove "tricky" for the future editor.
What is important, however, is for The Economist to stick to analysis. The temptation of an online presence is to move into news and data, and that would be suicide, he says. "We should be celebrating the fact that the internet is commoditising news and it makes us more valuable."
I wonder out loud whether the rosy predictions for the weekly's future makes him want to stay a bit longer. Every departing editor writes a valedictory leader, and his will be in The Economist's April 1 edition. "Maybe I'll say it was all a big joke," he laughs.
Emmott has already received a few job offers, but says that he will probably take a part-time job so he can write books.
He is probably better known in Japan than anywhere else, having spent three years there during the 1980s. His book The Sun Also Sets correctly called the burst of the country's stock and property-market bubble in the late 1980s, at a time when US commentators were still worrying about the growing power of Japan. Later this year he will publish another book for the Japanese market, based on columns that he writes for a Buddhist newspaper.
He holds his chopsticks perfectly, and lifts his rice bowl when eating from it - as the Japanese do. He also does not make the common gaijin faux pas of pouring soy sauce on his rice.
We order coffee and discuss cricket - his favourite sport. "I'm very keen on cricket," he says, adding that he was captain of The Economist's cricket team when it played The Spectator magazine team last year. "Yes [we won], otherwise I wouldn't mention it," he says. He used to keep wicket, but his knees have forced him to reinvent himself as a spin bowler.
As we get up to leave the restaurant Emmott looks around again, noting the absence of Economist journalists: "Maybe they're gossiped out."
Emiko Terazono is the FT's media correspondent.
Matsuri St James's, London
2 x Sapporo beer
1 x Tempura set lunch
1 x Sashimi set lunch
2 x Coffee
Total: ￡41.74
与彼尔?埃莫特共进午餐
当比尔?埃莫特(Bill Emmott)走进Matsuri St James's日式餐厅的时候，他谨慎地环顾四周。这家忙碌的日式餐厅就位于《经济学家》(The Economist)杂志社伦敦办公室的马路对面。埃莫特在这家杂志社当了13年的主编，但就在最近，他突然宣布辞职，准备改行写书。他不希望在这家餐厅看到手下的员工坐满桌前，吃着寿司低声议论谁将接替他的位置。（该杂志董事会希望在本月底之前任命一位继任者。）
幸运的是，这儿似乎没有任何他认识的人。当我们在日式铁板烧烤架前落座时，他说：“嗬，有点儿怪啊。”
已有163年历史的《经济学家》一直坚称自己是一份报纸，但却在新闻周刊领域占据独特地位。当它的很多竞争者面临销量急转直下的局面、迫于压力而沉默的时候，该杂志的财政状况仍然非常健康，坚持对全球政治经济问题进行尖锐分析，同时，始终忠于其创始人、苏格兰制帽商詹姆斯?威尔逊(James Wilson)提倡的国际主义、自由贸易理想。它的读者群包括一些全球最具影响力的领导人，而它的作者却总是隐身于其出色的匿名文章背后，其中包括英国间谍金?菲尔比(Kim Philby)和英国前首相赫伯特?亨利?阿斯奎斯(H.H. Asquith)。
当然，该杂志也不乏批评者。一些人表示，它的文章过于自信，太自以为是了。另外一些人认为，这份杂志的全球性观点令其更加肤浅，并导致影响力下降，特别是在英国本土。但在埃莫特的领导下，杂志的全球发行量已经从他开始做主编时的约50万，提高到重要的心理大关100万，其中在英国以外的发行量约占五分之四。要延续这一趋势，任何一个接替他的人都任务艰巨，这未免让人怀疑他离开的原因。
我们要了一些啤酒。埃莫特说道，杂志社里的人至少3年前就开始猜测他离开的问题。他说，10年通常被认为是离开的好时间，但当他正式宣布辞职的时候，员工们还是大吃一惊，因为他没有给出任何要走的迹象。他表示：“这绝对预见得到，却完全是个意外。”
由于发行人大卫?汉格(David Hanger)去年宣布退休，埃莫特宣布离开的时机变得复杂了。埃莫特称，为了避免两人同时辞职给公司带来不稳定，他得选择比汉格早一年或晚一年退休。他说：“我没想在他之前离开，因为感觉太早了。因此，我在他走后又呆了一年，同时也可以帮助汉格的继任者。这样，才没有发生同时‘大换血’的情况。”
有人猜测他是被迫让位，原因是传言中的继任者之一、美国籍编辑约翰?米克勒斯维特(John Micklethwait)接到《旁观者》(The Spectator)杂志邀请，聘请其担任后者的主编一职。对此，埃莫特矢口否认。他说：“我是圣诞期间决定今年春天离开的。这真的是计划好的。”
铁板烧架子开始烧得咝咝作响。曾担任《经济学家》杂志驻布鲁塞尔和日本记者的埃莫特细心地将我的采访录音机朝自己移近了一些。接着，让我颇为尴尬的是，他看见我速记水平欠佳，扬了扬眉毛，将录音机移得更近了。
英国培生(Pearson)传媒集团持有《经济学家》50%的股份。该集团也是英国《金融时报》的东家。埃莫特的《经济学家》从业生涯并不平坦。当年，他即将从牛津摩德林学院(Magdalen College)毕业时，曾得到一个面试机会，但最终没有被录用。另外就只有一家财经杂志Investors Chronicle给了他面试的机会。当时，他与后来担任《观察家报》(The Observer)主编的威尔?赫顿(Will Hutton)都进入了最后一批候选人名单。不过他们两人都未应聘成功。
于是，留有列宁式胡须的埃莫特准备攻读有关法国共产党方面的博士学位。他说那是颇为巧妙的计划，可以将读学位与自由撰稿结合起来。就在他行将前往巴黎的1980年，《经济学家》给他打电话说可以提供给他一份工作――他在摩德林学院的导师为他做了推荐。然后，他在那一年进入该杂志社工作。到1993年，当他36岁时，他当上了主编。
我对他说，他宣布退休的那一周，《经济学家》的封面故事是关于如何应对劳动力老化问题的，这可颇为讽刺。他笑道：“我之前一周就离开了，所以那并不是我负责的封面。” 50岁之前退休并不那么奇怪，他说，他的两位前任鲁珀特?潘内特-雷(Rupert Pennant-Rea)和安德鲁?奈特(Andrew Knight)都是在35岁左右时被任命为主编，而且也都是在将近50岁的时候退休的。
我问他是否曾为一篇封面文章或者一个报道后悔过。埃莫特停顿了一下，然后笑笑说：“我倾向于忘记那些东西。”但他认为在1997年支持约翰?梅杰(John Major)而没有支持托尼?布莱尔(Tony Blair)是一个错误。他说：“我写了那些社论，但我那时的主张是错误的。” 埃莫特曾经辩称，英国工党(Labour party)没有拿出有力证据，表明他们将继续撒切尔夫人(Margaret Thatcher)的改革。 “但那篇用词诚挚的《梅杰》已经丧失了可信性，无法鼓励人们支持保守党。”
埃莫特说，他曾采取的最具争议的立场，就是支持英美入侵伊拉克，这也使得该杂志的编辑记者和读者分化为两大阵营。“我们非常快地转向反对伊战，”他说，“但我们仍然低估了布什政府发动战争的能力。”
据埃莫特称，令他最感尴尬的封面文章之一，是1999年3月关于石油价格的文章――这本该是《经济学家》最简单的领域。那篇文章源自与一家石油公司高管的午餐。那时所有人都在思考这样的问题：当石油处在10美元的时候，如果跌到5美元，会发生什么？于是，一篇声称世界浸泡在石油中、并讨论油价下跌可能性的封面文章就应运而生了。但在那年年底到来之前，油价就已经上涨了一倍多。他坦言：“那是最令人尴尬的事情了。”
埃莫特补充说，该杂志当年对巴尔干战争的反应过慢。“我们在相关报道中落后得太多。事后看来，那是我们的失误。”
埃莫特说，他在该杂志所负责的主要工作就是“吸引读者，并且牢牢抓住他们。”
埃莫特称，他在该杂志期间所做过的最棒的决定之一，就是在互联网热潮期间反对推出定期的电子商务增刊。“那次，来自经营部门的压力非常大。他们很少给我们施加这么大的压力。但是，我主张开办一些可以长久的东西。最后，我们办了一份科技季刊。”而当他们为这份季刊发布“讣告”的时候，也曾受到经营部门的反对，因为“那是关于死人的”。
埃莫特表示，这个主编职位至少有5位内部候选人。（据传闻，候选人包括米克勒斯维特、副主编艾玛?邓肯(Emma Duncan)和商业事务编辑埃德?卡尔(Ed Carr)）。按照惯例，《经济学家》会邀请自己的记者秘密致函董事长，发表对候选人的看法。他估计，这次也会采取这种做法。
该杂志还有一些传统也可能不会因他的离职而改变，其中包括周一早上的新闻例会，届时该杂志45位驻伦敦记者都会挤在主编办公室里。他表示，该杂志作者署名一栏仍将空缺，这样做的理由很充分。这种做法帮助《经济学家》保持了连贯与独特的声音，这一点十分关键：“在一个竞争激烈的市场上，放弃自己的个性标志将是一种冒险的做法。”
他的继任者将面临的挑战之一，是推出这本杂志的网络版。尽管多数读者还是更愿意阅读印刷版的《经济学家》周刊，但最终的网络化将影响其风格、方式和论调。他表示，对于未来的主编而言，这点可能“颇为棘手”。
不过，重要的是，《经济学家》要坚持突出分析性文章。他表示，网络业务的诱惑之处，在于进军新闻和数据业务，这可能无异于自杀。“互联网正在将新闻商品化，这让我们更有价值，我们应该为此庆幸。”
我大声问他，《经济学家》未来的光明前景是否会让他愿意多干些时间。每位即将离职的主编，都会撰写一篇告别社评，他的社评将刊载在4月1日出版的《经济学家》上。他笑道：“到时候我可能会说，这整个就是开了一个大玩笑。”
埃莫特目前已接到几份工作邀请，但他表示，自己可能会从事兼职工作，以便（有时间）著书。
埃莫特在日本的知名度可能比其它地方高，因为20世纪80年代期间，他曾在那里呆了3年。他的《太阳也西沉》(The Sun Also Sets)一书正确地预言了20世纪80年代末日本股票和地产市场泡沫的破裂，而当时，美国的评论人士还在担心日本的国力不断增强。今年晚些时候，他将出版另一本有关日本市场的书，其素材来自于他为一份佛教报纸撰写的专栏文章。
他能够熟练地用筷子，并在吃饭的时候端起自己的饭碗――与日本人一样。他也不会作出把酱倒在米饭上这种外国人常见的失礼行为。
我们点了咖啡，聊起了板球――这是他最喜爱的运动。他表示：“我酷爱板球。”并补充道，在去年与《旁观者》杂志的板球队比赛时，他是《经济学家》板球队的队长。他说道：“没错（我们是赢了），否则我就不会提这事。”他惯于守门，但由于膝盖有伤，被迫将自己彻底改造成一名旋转球投手。
当我们起身准备离开餐馆时，埃莫特再次环顾四周，解释了餐馆里为何没有《经济学家》的记者：“可能他们出去闲聊了。”
地点：伦敦Matsuri St James's
菜单：
札幌啤酒 x 2
天麸罗套餐 x 1
生鱼片套餐x 1
咖啡x 2
总价：41.74英镑
