In a research conducted by Karvy and compiled by the Business Standard, big magazine covers have called things wrong more than once.
By showcasing eight covers chosen from Businessweek, Time and The Economist, BS makes the point that magazines could well be trend-enders than trend-setters.
The Economist in Dec ’04 signalled the end of the dollar, after which it rallied 15.5% in 11 months. Time made Vladimir Putin its Person of the year in Dec ’07 after which the RTS index fell 80%. And Bloomberg Businessweek lauded Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein in May ’10, after which GS fell 55%.
Screengrab from Time site
This follows a Time cover earlier this month where 79-year-old Manmohan Singh was featured on the cover of its Asia edition, ‘The Underachiever – India needs a reboot’. The Congress and much of the Indian media, including Firstpost had called out the cover for a variety of reasons including, that he had achieved what he was truly capable of. We also wondered whether it had been a calculated marketing gimmick. Now we think, Time might have well done the PM a favour.
