William John Emmott (born 6 August 1956)[1] is an English journalist, author, and consultant best known as the editor-in-chief of The Economist newspaper from 1993 to 2006.

After graduation and after an uncompleted D-Phil on French politics at Nuffield College, Oxford, he worked for The Economist newspaper in Brussels, Tokyo, and London, and became the fifteenth editor of the publication in March 1993.

[2] During his tenure, The Economist editorialised in favour of the Iraq War, of legalising gay marriage, of abolishing the British monarchy, and of opposing Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister of Italy.

From 2006 to 2019 Emmott was also an adviser to Swiss Re and served as the chairman of the content board at Ofcom from January to July 2016 when the organisation's executive decided that the Brexit referendum result made it too uncomfortable to have a working journalist in that role.

[5] Emmott writes columns on current affairs for La Stampa in Italy, for Nikkei Business and the Mainichi Shimbun in Japan, and for Project Syndicate worldwide.

In October 2015, Emmott and Piras made the film freely available for public screenings and debates about the future of the European Union.

Emmott and Piras set up the Wake Up Foundation to use film, text, and data for public education about the decline of Western countries.

initiative, The Great European Disaster Movie, and a statistical indicator of the long-term health of western societies called 2050 Index.