Forbes is an American
publishing and media company. Its flagship publication,
Forbes magazine, is published fortnightly. Its primary
competitors in the national business magazine category are
Fortune, which is also
published fortnightly, and
Business
Week. The magazine is well-known for its lists, including
its lists of the richest Americans (the
Forbes 400) and its
list
of billionaires. The
motto of
Forbes magazine is "The Capitalist Tool." Its
editor-in-chief is
Steve Forbes.
Company history
B. C.
Forbes, a financial columnist for the
Hearst papers, and his
partner Walter Drey, the general manager of the
Magazine of
Wall Street, founded
Forbes magazine in 1917. 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. Drey became vice-president of the
B.C. Forbes Publishing Company, 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. During his
tenure, 1954-1964, the magazine's circulation nearly doubled.
Although credit for increased circulation must also be given to the
magazine's increased outspokenness on the part of investors.
When Malcolm Forbes took over, he had a more hands-off approach on
operations, but did provide two strategic initiatives that changed
Forbes forever. He instituted an in-house editorial staff,
instead of the previous heavy reliance on
freelancers, and he started the first of the
rankings articles for which
Forbes became famous.
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. Between
1961 and 1999 the magazine was edited by
James Michaels. In 1993, under Michaels,
Forbes was a finalist for the National Magazine Award. In
2006, an investment group
Elevation
Partners that includes rock star
Bono
bought a minority interest in the company. 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.'"
The popularity of Forbes magazine has extended to mainstream and
Hip-Hop culture.
50 Cent has released the
official remix to his hit single, "I Get Money" off his September
11, 2008 album,
Curtis, entitled Forbes 1,2,3 (also known
as the "Billion Dollar Remix"). The title of the song comes from
the fact that
Jay-Z, 50 Cent, and
Diddy were listed as Forbes' Top 3 money-making
Kings of Hip-Hop, respectively. The unfinished video for Forbes
1,2,3 can be seen as the intro to 50 Cent's single, "I Still Kill"
featuring Akon, off his multi-platinum album
Curtis.
Other publications
Apart from
Forbes and its lifestyle supplement,
ForbesLife, other titles are published, including
Forbes Asia and eight 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, this year the company began publishing
ForbesWoman, a quarterly magazine with a companion Web
site."
The company formerly published
American Legacy magazine as a joint
venture, although that magazine separated from Forbes as of May 14,
2007.
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 14,
2007. Those magazines have since been purchased by the American
Heritage Publishing Company, and have resumed publication as of
Spring 2008 .
Forbes.com
David Churbuck founded
Forbes Web site in 1996. The site
uncovered
Stephen Glass'
journalistic fraud in
The New Republic in 1998,
an article that drew attention to
internet journalism. 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. See a list of lists below.
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. The current president and chief executive
officer is James J. Spanfeller; the current editor is Paul
Maidment; the current managing editor is Carl Lavin, who succeeded
founding managing editor
Michael Noer
and Dan Bigman.
According to Forbes.com, the Web site is among the most trusted
resources for senior business executives, providing them the
real-time reporting, uncompromising commentary, concise analysis,
relevant tools and community they need to succeed at work, profit
from investing and have fun with the rewards of winning.
Forbes.com also publishes subscription investment newsletters, a
luxury-vehicles site,
ForbesAutos edited by Matthew De Paula, and a luxury
travel site,
ForbesTraveler, edited by G. Barry Golson, the former
executive editor of
Playboy and TV Guide and
former editor-in-chief of
Yahoo! Internet Life, and an online guide to
web sites,
Best Of The Web.
Forbes.com is part of Forbes’ Digital, a division of Forbes Media
LLC. Forbes.com and affiliated properties include:
Together these sites reach more than 27 million business people
each month.
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."
ForbesAutos.com and ForbesTraveler.com
Launched in May 2005 by Forbes.com,
ForbesAutos.com is
a web site designed specifically for luxury car buyers and
enthusiasts. The editorial content is written specifically for
affluent consumers, with an emphasis on objectivity, comprehensive
analysis and intelligent insight.
ForbesTraveler.com is designed for the affluent,
discerning traveler. Launched in September 2006 by Forbes.com,
ForbesTraveler is dedicated to inspiring, planning and booking the
world’s most distinctive travel experiences.
Lists
Forbes creates many lists under various topics, the most
popular being perhaps the
list of
billionaires.
Companies
People
In popular culture
Forbes is perhaps best-known for its
many periodic lists of
net worth. As it
often takes considerable detective work to determine the actual
wealth of an individual,
Forbes' figures are widely cited
as nearly-definitive.
- Executive Pay
- Forbes 400, a
list of the richest people in the United States
- Midas List, an annual list of the top
dealmakers in technology and life sciences
- World's Richest People, a
list of the richest people in the world
- China Rich List, a list of the
richest people in mainland China
- India Rich
List, list of the richest people in India

- Forbes Fictional 15, a
self-parodying list of the richest movie, TV and literary
characters
- The
World's 100 Most Powerful Women
- The Celebrity 100, an annual list
of famous and financially influential celebrities (i.e.,
entertainers, musicians, producers, directors, and athletes)
- The China Celebrity 100
- Top-Earning Dead Celebrities, a list of deceased celebrities
that continue their revenue from posthumous
material
Fidel Castro conflict
In 2005,
Forbes listed
Fidel
Castro among the world's richest people, with an estimated net
worth of $550 million USD. In the 2006 article "Fortunes Of Kings,
Queens And Dictators",
Forbes increased their estimate to
$900 million USD. The article notes that estimating net worth for
government leaders is "more art than science", and points out that
in the case of Castro the authors used a discounted cash flow
method for several state-owned companies, and assumed a portion of
that profit stream went to Castro.
Castro responded that he has a net worth of less than $1 USD, and
challenged any one to prove that he has any money in overseas
accounts. Castro also stated that Forbes should place a bucket over
their head.
Places
- Best Cities For Singles
- Best Places For Business (e.g. 2008 list).
- Top Universities [37711]
- Most Expensive Zip Codes
- Most Expensive Rental Markets In The U.S.
Notes
- "Notes of a Business Quizzer: Forbes" (6 July
2007)
- 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
- Commerce and Industry Association of New York (18 November
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
- 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. 1376, ISBN 978-1-58765-327-8
- 'Forbes Announce Elevation Partners Investment in
Family Held Company' Elevation Partners press release, August
6, 2006.
- "Even Forbes is Pinching Pennies" by
David Carr,
The New York Times, June 14, 2009 (6/15/09 on p. B1 of the
NY ed.). Retrieved 6/15/09.
- With The May 14 Announced Separation:
Twelve-Year-Old "American Legacy"/"Forbes" Partnership Was Mutually
Beneficial. Industry & Business Article - Research, News,
Information, Contacts, Divisions, Subsidiaries, Business
Associations
- American Heritage - Magazines - New York
Times
- AmericanHeritage.com / Thank You for Your Feedback
on the American Heritage Winter 2008 Issue
- Cuba Keeps Forbes in Hot Seat. Radio Habana
Cuba. Retrieved on 2008-01-05.
Further reading
- 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
- 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