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The Surprising Business Model Behind Guinness World Records

The people behind the Guinness World Records used to make money by, well, selling books. But with the rise of the Internet came a decline in book sales, and so they had to create a new business model — selling publicity.

This is the story of how Guinness (yeah, like the brewery) got into the business of record-breaking, and how one Planet Money intern broke a world record involving the president of Georgia, the former Soviet republic.

Listen to the original Planet Money podcast episode here! And while you're at it, follow us on TikTok, and subscribe to our video series and podcast.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Bronson Arcuri is a Senior Producer on NPR’s visuals team. In that role, he focuses on developing new video formats and producing original documentary projects for the network's digital platforms and news programs.

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