While most news publications seem to be facing financially touch times, the Economist is sailing on remarkably smooth waters. The publication has posted record profits over the last four years, Reuters reported, and contrary to the trend at most papers, its circulation kept growing during the second half of 2011.

As the Editors Weblog noted last November, more than 100,000 of the Economist's subscribers are digital readers - a notable achievement in convincing online readers to pay, although still dwarfed by the 1.49 million print readers.

But what is perhaps most remarkable about the magazine's growth is its rapid speed. Reuters noted that it took 161 years for the Economist to break the 1 million subscribers milestone, in 2004 (the paper was founded in 1843). Andrew Rashbass, Chief Executive of the Economist Group, told Reuters that he expected the Economist to reach 2 million readers within five years.

How has the magazine succeeded in maintaining such an impressive growth? Simply put, by having solid revenue model and offering content that is seemingly non-commercial by nature but for which people are willing to pay.

Here are three seemingly unrelated things you notice this only-in-America week. One is the rise and rise of the Wall Street Journal, up 1.2% (to 2,117,796 average copies a day) on the latest US ABC figures. Another is the impressive run of newspaper front pages posted outside the plush new Newseum in Washington DC, proclaiming Osama's death. And the third is yet another brooding prophecy of the demise of printed newspapers (this time from Ken Doctor, one of the leading US media analysts).

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News International, it seems, has been working up some sort of idea for a printed title; a new newspaper in short. A project team - believed to be headed by former Sun deputy editor Fergus Shanahan - has been busy over at the Murdoch company's Wapping skyscraper. And enough about their work has leaked out on to Fleet Street for rivals to believe that News Int is working on some sort of competitor to Alexander Lebedev's more successful than expected i.

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Billionaire Indu Jain's Bennett, Coleman & Co. plans to give stock options to employees in preparation for a potential initial public offering in India in the next two years, said three people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Some senior staff at the Mumbai-based publisher of the Times of India and Economic Times were told about the stock options last week, said two of the people, who declined to be identified because there hasn't been a formal announcement. Bennett, Coleman Chief Executive Officer Ravindra Dhariwal yesterday declined to comment.

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