The Economist names first woman editor to lead the newsroom

Open Forum: Eurozone - Solidarity or Domination?: Zanny Minton Beddoes, Guido Westerwelle

DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, 25JAN13 - Zanny Minton Beddoes (L), Economics Editor, The Economist, United Kingdom; Global Agenda Council on Fiscal Sustainability and Guido Westerwelle (R), Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany are seen during the session 'Open forum: Eurozone - Solidarity or Domination?' at the Annual Meeting 2013 of the World Economic Forum at the Swiss alpine high school in Davos, Switzerland, January 25, 2013. Copyright by World Economic Forum swiss-image.ch/Photo Michael Wuertenberg

Photograph by Michael Wuertenberg — World Economic Forum

The Economist Group on Thursday named Zanny Minton Beddoes as the editor of its eponymous newspaper.

Beddoes, 47, is the first woman to serve in the role of the 172 year-old publication and succeeds John Micklethwait, who was named head of Bloomberg news earlier this month.

Most recently, Beddoes served as the Economist’s business affairs editor. She joined the newspaper, which is half owned by Pearson’s Financial Times media group, in 1994 after spending two years as an economist at the International Monetary Fund.

For more on Pearson, read the recent article on the company by Fortune’s Jennifer Reingold: Everybody hates Pearson.

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