The Economist, an iconic British magazine that reaches tens of millions of consumers, has announced that it plans on selling its front cover of its September 18, 2021 edition as an non-fungible token, or NFT.
About the NFT Cover
The cover of the September 18th edition was essentially a parody of a scene from Alice in Wonderland that put Alice and the white rabbit on the verge of a rabbit hole filled with Ether, Bitcoin, and several other tokens.
After converting the cover into an NFT using the Foundation platform, the company intends on selling it on October 25th, and the sale is expected to drive significant cash. In the press release surrounding the fact that the company would be selling its cover as a token, it explained that it aims to showcase the technology of decentralized technology through the art.
The artwork for the DeFi cover, which has been dubbed, “Down the rabbit hole: The promise and perils of decentralized finance,” was created by Justin Metz, a well-known British artist, with the help of Graeme James, a cover designer for The Economist.
History in the Making
This NFT will mark an important point in The Economist’s history as it will be the first time one has been put up for grabs by a British news organization. However, it’s not the first to be put up for grabs by a major news station.
Back in march, a column of the New York Times was auctioned off as an NFT, fetching a $560,000 price tag. Not to mention, several historic posts on Twitter have also been minted as tokens and sold for jaw dropping amounts of money.
What’s The Economist Doing With the Proceeds?
As we’ve seen with the sale of tokens from several major brands, The Economist has no intention of capitalizing on the sale themselves. In fact, it won’t be keeping any of the profits from the sale.
In the release, the company said that all proceeds from the sale will go to The Economist Educational Foundation, or TEEF. That is, of course, after fees, transaction costs, and taxes are deducted from the total proceeds.
Not only did the magazine intend for the sale to help its education foundation at first, it minted the NFT with royalties, maintaining a 10% stake in future sales. As sales take place, that 10% stake will also go to TEEF.
In a statement, Alice Fulwood, a finance correspondent at the magazine, had the following to offer:
“By selling our ‘Down the rabbit hole’ cover as an NFT we are now, in our own small way, journeying down the rabbit hole ourselves, in a fun experiment that will hopefully also raise money for a worthwhile cause.”
The Bottom Line
The bottom line here is two-fold. First and foremost, the fact that The Economist will be selling a cover as an NFT outlines the adoption of this technology among major brands. However, that’s not the only exciting bit of news here.
The reality is that several major brands have minted and sold NFTs, not to increase their own profits, but as a way to raise money for charity, as is the case with The Economist. Ultimately, this outlines one of the beautiful things about these tokens in the fact that they are the center of a community that cares about the wellbeing of others.
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