Job-to-be-done by the Economist

It's worth reading the entire interview of Economist deputy editor Tom Standage, but this really stuck out:

...what we actually sell is what I like to call the feeling of being informed when you get to the very end. So we sell the antidote to information overload — we sell a finite, finishable, very tightly curated bundle of content.

I have to believe that this came out of some deep customer insight work, because it is not normally how media organizations present what they do, or more precisely, what role they play in their readers' lives.

This level of understanding what job your product does, in the Economist's case, giving the reader all they need to know in 90 minutes a week, with a clear finish line, is very specific and insightful. As the Economist continues to move to move to digital, the question will become, is this job important on the phone? And if not, what new job takes its place?