FiscalNote, a rapidly-growing five-year-old Washington DC company that uses technology to analyse global legislation, is acquiring the political journalism media CQ Roll Call from The Economist in return for an 18% share in FiscalNote. The deal comes after a period of rapid growth for FiscalNote whose prominent investors include: Mark Cuban, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Jerry Yang, and Steve Case. The Economist Group bought Congressional Quarterly (CQ) in 2009, reportedly for $100m, and merged it with RollCall which it had acquired 16 years before. CQ, which was launched in 1945, provides congressional news and legislative tracking tools through more than 40 print and online products. Roll Call, which was founded in 1955, covers breaking congressional news. Washington Post commented: “For CQ Roll Call, the deal offers a degree of financial stability by aligning it with a subscription-based data business similar to Bloomberg News’s terminal, as well as a set of data capabilities that could help it against rivals like Politico Pro.” The Economist Group had record 2017 revenue of £367m and operating profit of £47m (13%), with its research arm The Economist Intelligence Unit performing strongly. The global weekly magazine’s print and online paid circulation was up to 1.2m, and advertising decline slowed to just 2%. The Economist was formerly 50% owned by Pearson Plc, which sold its shareholding after selling the Financial Times to Nikkei in 2016. The company is now 42.5% owned by Exor (an Agnelli family company), but its independence is guaranteed by a shareholding trust controlled by employees.
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The Economist sells Roll Call
