Forbes

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For other uses, see Forbes (disambiguation).
Forbes
Forbes logo.svg
border
Cover for December 20, 2010, featuring Julian Assange
Editor-in-chief Steve Forbes
Editor Randall Lane[1]
Categories Business magazine
Frequency Biweekly
Total circulation
(2013)		 931,558[2]
First issue September 15, 1917; 99 years ago (1917-09-15)
Company Forbes, Inc.
Country United States
Based in Jersey City, New Jersey
Language English
Website forbes.com
ISSN 0015-6914
Forbes's former headquarters on 5th Avenue in Manhattan (now owned by New York University)

Forbes (/fɔːrbz/) is an American business magazine. Published bi-weekly, it features original articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. Forbes also reports on related subjects such as technology, communications, science, politics, and law. Its headquarters is located in Jersey City, New Jersey. Primary competitors in the national business magazine category include Fortune and Bloomberg Businessweek. The magazine is well known for its lists and rankings, including its lists of the richest Americans (the Forbes 400) and rankings of world's top companies (the Forbes Global 2000). Another well-known list by the magazine is the The World's Billionaires list.

The motto of Forbes magazine is "The Capitalist Tool". Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes, and its CEO is Mike Perlis.

Company history[edit]

Forbes Building on Fifth Avenue in New York City (now owned by New York University)

B. C. Forbes, a financial columnist for the Hearst papers, and his partner Walter Drey, the general manager of the Magazine of Wall Street,[3] founded Forbes magazine on September 15, 1917.[4][5] Forbes provided the money and the name and Drey provided the publishing expertise. The original name of the magazine was Forbes: Devoted to Doers and Doings.[3] Drey became vice-president of the B.C. Forbes Publishing Company,[6] while B.C. Forbes became editor-in-chief, a post he held until his death in 1954. B.C. Forbes was assisted in his later years by his two eldest sons, Bruce Charles Forbes (1916–1964) and Malcolm Stevenson Forbes (1917–1990).

Bruce Forbes took over on his father's death, and his strengths lay in streamlining operations and developing marketing.[4] During his tenure, 1954–1964, the magazine's circulation nearly doubled.[4]

On Malcolm's death, his eldest son Malcolm Stevenson "Steve" Forbes Jr. (1947–) became President and Chief Executive of Forbes and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes magazine.[7] Between 1961 and 1999 the magazine was edited by James Michaels.[8] In 1993, under Michaels, Forbes was a finalist for the National Magazine Award.[9] In 2006, an investment group Elevation Partners that includes rock star Bono bought a minority interest in the company with a reorganization, through a new company, Forbes Media LLC, in which Forbes Magazine and Forbes.com, along with other media properties, is now a part.[7][10] A 2009 New York Times report said: "40 percent of the enterprise was sold ... for a reported $300 million, setting the value of the enterprise at $750 million. According to Mark M. Edmiston of AdMedia Partners, 'It's probably not worth half of that now.'"[11]

Sale of headquarters and relocation to Jersey City[edit]

In January 2010, Forbes reached an agreement to sell its headquarters building located on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan to New York University; terms of the deal were not publicly reported, but Forbes would continue to occupy the space under a sale-leaseback arrangement.[12] The company's headquarters subsequently moved to the Newport section of downtown Jersey City, New Jersey in 2014.[13][14]

Sale to Integrated Whale Media[edit]

In November 2013, Forbes Media, which publishes Forbes magazine, was put up for sale.[15] This was encouraged by Elevation Partners, of whom were minority shareholders. Sales documents prepared by Deutsche Bank revealed that the publisher's 2012 EBITDA was $15 million.[16] Forbes reportedly sought a price of $400 million.[16] In July 2014, Forbes sold a majority of itself to Integrated Whale Media Investments.[17][18]

Other publications[edit]

Apart from Forbes and its lifestyle supplement, Forbes Life, other titles include Forbes Asia and fifteen local language editions. Steve Forbes and his magazine's writers offer investment advice on the weekly Fox TV show Forbes on Fox and on Forbes On Radio. Other company groups include Forbes Conference Group, Forbes Investment Advisory Group and Forbes Custom Media. From the 2009 Times report: "Steve Forbes recently returned from opening up a Forbes magazine in India, bringing the number of foreign editions to 10." In addition, that year the company began publishing ForbesWoman, a quarterly magazine published by Steve Forbes' daughter, Moira Forbes, with a companion Web site.[11]

The company formerly published American Legacy magazine as a joint venture, although that magazine separated from Forbes as of May 14, 2007.[19]

The company also formerly published American Heritage and Invention & Technology magazines. After failing to find a buyer, Forbes suspended publication of these two magazines as of May 17, 2007.[20] Both magazines were purchased by the American Heritage Publishing Company and resumed publication as of the spring of 2008.[21]

Forbes has published the Forbes Travel Guide since 2009.

On January 6, 2014, Forbes Magazine announced that, in partnership with app creator Maz, it was launching a social networking app called "Stream". Stream allows Forbes readers to save and share visual content with other readers and discover content from Forbes magazine and Forbes.com within the app.[22]

Forbes.com[edit]

Forbes.com is part of Forbes Digital, a division of Forbes Media LLC. Forbes's holdings include a portion of RealClearPolitics. Together these sites reach more than 27 million unique visitors each month. Forbes.com employs the slogan "Home Page For The World's Business Leaders" and sometimes claims to be the world's most widely visited business web site.[23] The 2009 Times report said that, while "one of the top five financial sites by traffic [throwing] off an estimated $70 million to $80 million a year in revenue, [it] never yielded the hoped-for public offering".[11]

Forbes.com uses a "contributor model" in which a wide network of "contributors" writes and publishes articles directly on the website.[24] Contributors are paid based on traffic to their Forbes.com pages; the site has received contributions from over 2,500 individuals, and some contributors have earned over US$100,000, according to the company.[24] Forbes currently allows advertisers to publish blog posts on its website alongside regular editorial content through a program called BrandVoice, which accounts for more than 10 percent its digital revenue.[25] Forbes.com also publishes subscription investment newsletters, and an online guide to web sites, Best of the Web.

David Churbuck founded Forbes's web site in 1996. The company's current chief executive officer is Mike Perlis; the current chief product officer is Lewis D'vorkin; the current editor of the magazine is Randall Lane. The site uncovered Stephen Glass's journalistic fraud in The New Republic in 1998, an article that drew attention to internet journalism. At the peak of media coverage of alleged Toyota sudden unintended acceleration in 2010 it exposed the California "runaway Prius" as a hoax, as well as running five other articles by Michael Fumento challenging the entire media premise of Toyotas suddenly gone bad. The site, like the magazine, publishes many lists focusing on billionaires and their possessions, especially expensive homes, a critical aspect of the website's apparent popularity.[26]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Romenesko, Jim (August 9, 2011). "Randall Lane returns to Forbes as editor". Poynter.org. 
  2. ^ "Consumer Magazines". Alliance for Audited Media. Retrieved February 10, 2014. 
  3. ^ a b "Notes of a Business Quizzer: Forbes" (July 6, 2007)
  4. ^ a b c Gorman, Robert F. (ed.) (2007) "September 15, 1917: Forbes Magazine is founded" The Twentieth Century, 1901–1940 (Volume III) Salem Press, Pasadena, California, pp.1374–1376, p. 1375, ISBN 978-1-58765-327-8
  5. ^ "Media Kit 2013" (PDF). Forbes Middle East. Retrieved September 18, 2014. 
  6. ^ Commerce and Industry Association of New York (November 18, 1922) "The Association Prepares for New Demands: The Volunteer Workers" Greater New York: Bulletin of the Merchants' Association of New York Commerce and Industry Association of New York, New York, p. 6, OCLC 2447287
  7. ^ a b 'Forbes Announce Elevation Partners Investment in Family Held Company' Elevation Partners press release, August 6, 2006.
  8. ^ Pérez-Peña, Richard (October 4, 2007). "James Michaels, Longtime Forbes Editor, Dies at 86". The New York Times. Retrieved January 5, 2008. 
  9. ^ "National Magazine Awards Database". Retrieved January 5, 2008. 
  10. ^ "NussbaumOnDesign Bono Buys Into Forbes, Launches Product Red in US and Expands His Brand. – BusinessWeek". Retrieved January 5, 2008. 
  11. ^ a b c "Even Forbes is Pinching Pennies" by David Carr, The New York Times, June 14, 2009 (June 15, 2009 on p. B1 of the NY ed.). Retrieved June 15, 2009.
  12. ^ Forbes Sells Building to N.Y.U.. New York Timed Media Decoder. Retrieved on January 7, 2010.
  13. ^ Mike Schneider (December 18, 2014). "Forbes Moves Across the Hudson to Jersey City". WNET – NJTV. Retrieved June 14, 2015. 
  14. ^ "Forbes moving into Jersey City offices on Monday, report says". The Jersey Journal. December 12, 2014. Retrieved June 14, 2015. 
  15. ^ CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY and DAVID GELLES (November 15, 2013). "Forbes Says It Is for Sale". New York Times. Retrieved 25 November 2013. 
  16. ^ a b "The Newsonomics of Forbes' real performance and price potential". Ken Doctor. Retrieved February 10, 2014. 
  17. ^ Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg (July 19, 2014). "Forbes sold to Asian investors". Market Watch. 
  18. ^ "Forbes Media Agrees To Sell Majority Stake To A Group Of International Investors To Accelerate The Company's Global Growth". July 18, 2014. Retrieved July 24, 2015. 
  19. ^ With The May 14 Announced Separation: Twelve-Year-Old "American Legacy"/"Forbes" Partnership Was Mutually Beneficial
  20. ^ Charles McGrath (May 17, 2007). "Magazine Suspends Its Run in History". The New York Times. 
  21. ^ "Thank You for Your Feedback on the American Heritage Winter 2008 Issue". Archived from the original on December 30, 2010. 
  22. ^ "Forbes is the first magazine to launch its own social network site". Forbes. January 6, 2014. 
  23. ^ Edmonston, Peter (August 28, 2006). "At Forbes.com, Lots of Glitter but Maybe Not So Many Visitors". New York Times. Retrieved May 2, 2011. 
  24. ^ a b Bartlett, Rachel. "The Forbes contributor model: Technology, feedback and incentives". journalism.co.uk. Retrieved 13 October 2013. 
  25. ^ "Forbes gives advertisers an editorial voice". emedia. Archived from the original on 2013-11-09. 
  26. ^ "Jobs: Motley to Leave Time Inc., Plus More Job-Hopping Fun". Archived from the original on February 18, 2008. Retrieved January 5, 2008. 

Further reading[edit]

  • Forbes, Malcolm S. (1974) Fact and Comment Knopf, New York, ISBN 0-394-49187-4; twenty-five years of the editor's columns from Forbes
  • Grunwald, Edgar A. (1988) The Business Press Editor New York University Press, New York, ISBN 0-8147-3016-7
  • Holliday, Karen Kahler (1987)A Content Analysis of Business Week, Forbes and Fortune from 1966–1986 Masters of Journalism thesis from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, 69 pages, OCLC 18772376, available on microfilm
  • Kohlmeier, Louis M.; Udell, Jon G. and Anderson, Laird B. (eds.) (1981) Reporting on Business and the Economy Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, ISBN 0-13-773879-X
  • Kurtz, Howard (2000) The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street's Game of Money, Media, and Manipulation Free Press, New York, ISBN 0-684-86879-2
  • Pinkerson, Stewart (2011). The Fall of the House of Forbes: The Inside Story of the Collapse of a Media Empire. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312658591. 
  • Tebbel, John William and Zuckerman, Mary Ellen (1991) The Magazine in America, 1741–1990 Oxford University Press, New York, ISBN 0-19-505127-0
  • Parsons, D. W. (1989) The Power of the Financial Press: Journalism and Economic Opinion in Britain and America Rutgers University Press, New Jersey, ISBN 0-8135-1497-5

External links[edit]

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