Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with words digital+web. 2 news.

The Economist is reaching out to readers in a digital way. The U.K.-based magazine is creating a social network, part of its efforts to beef up its Web site.

As long as there's been a Web, John Battelle has been near the center of it. Managing editor of Wired magazine and later CEO of the company that published the Industry Standard, Battelle was an essential figure at the digital world's two most iconic...