diff --git a/recipes/economist.recipe b/recipes/economist.recipe
index cf47a8fda1..2941338f4f 100644
--- a/recipes/economist.recipe
+++ b/recipes/economist.recipe
@@ -15,8 +15,6 @@ from calibre.web.feeds.news import BasicNewsRecipe
 from html5_parser import parse
 from lxml import etree
 
-# For past editions, set date to, for example, '2020-11-28'.
-edition_date = None
 use_archive = True
 
 
@@ -71,7 +69,7 @@ if use_archive:
         except Exception:
             date = data['datePublished']
         dt = datetime.fromisoformat(date[:-1]) + timedelta(seconds=time.timezone)
-        dt = dt.strftime('%b %d, %Y, %I:%M %p')
+        dt = dt.strftime('%b %d, %Y %I:%M %p')
         if data['dateline'] is None:
             E(article, 'p', dt, style='color: gray; font-size:small;')
         else:
@@ -199,6 +197,13 @@ class Economist(BasicNewsRecipe):
     # downloaded with connection reset by peer (104) errors.
     delay = 1
 
+    recipe_specific_options = {
+        'date': {
+            'short': 'The date of the edition to download (YYYY-MM-DD format)',
+            'long': 'For example, 2024-07-19\nThis seems to work only for a couple of past editions.'
+        }
+    }
+
     needs_subscription = False
 
     def get_browser(self, *args, **kwargs):
@@ -231,6 +236,7 @@ class Economist(BasicNewsRecipe):
 
     if use_archive:
         def parse_index(self):
+            edition_date = self.recipe_specific_options.get('date')
             # return self.economist_test_article()
             # url = 'https://www.economist.com/weeklyedition/archive'
             query = {
@@ -326,6 +332,7 @@ class Economist(BasicNewsRecipe):
                 self.log.warn('Kindle Output profile being used, reducing image quality to keep file size below amazon email threshold')
 
         def parse_index(self):
+            edition_date = self.recipe_specific_options.get('date')
             # return self.economist_test_article()
             if edition_date:
                 url = 'https://www.economist.com/weeklyedition/' + edition_date