Indeed. This has nothing to do with hiding the authors. There are, traditionally, two sorts of newspaper articles: the quick, half-page max Who/What/When/Where

Indeed. This has nothing to do with hiding the authors. There are, traditionally, two sorts of newspaper articles: the quick, half-page max Who/What/When/Where, and the longer pieces based on weeks of reporting, being exclusive etc. The former are anonymous or have the author's initials only. It's considered an honour to get one of the latter published. Those are also written differently, allowing for more of a personal voice. As it happens, The Economist has a strong focus on the first kind of article–only the editors get to gave fun when they add the photo captions. Compare to The New Yorker, or Foreign Affairs, or the Rolling Stone where it just wouldn't make sense to publish articles without names.