![Former Forbes Headquarters, Manhattan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Former_Forbes_Headquarters%2C_Manhattan.jpg)
''Forbes'' () is an American
business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the
Forbes family
The Forbes family is one of the components of the Boston Brahmins—they are a wealthy extended American family long prominent in Boston, Massachusetts. The family's fortune originates from trading opium and tea between North America and China ...
. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also reports on related subjects such as technology, communications, science, politics, and law. It is based in
Jersey City, New Jersey. Competitors in the national business magazine category include ''
Fortune'' and ''
Bloomberg Businessweek
''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...
''. ''Forbes'' has an international edition in Asia as well as editions produced under license in 27 countries and regions worldwide.
The magazine is well known for its lists and rankings, including of the richest Americans (the
Forbes 400
The ''Forbes'' 400 or 400 Richest Americans is a list published by ''Forbes'' magazine of the wealthiest 400 American citizens who own assets in the U.S., ranked by net worth. The 400 was started by Malcolm Forbes in 1982 and the list is pub ...
), of the America's Wealthiest
Celebrities
Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group as a result of the attention given to them by mass media. An individual may attain a celebrity status from having great wealth, their participation in sports ...
, of the world's top companies (the
Forbes Global 2000),
Forbes list of the World's Most Powerful People
Between 2009 and 2018 (with absence in 2017) the business magazine ''Forbes'' had compiled an annual list of the world's most powerful people. The list had one slot for every 100 million people, meaning in 2009 there were 67 people on the list, ...
, and
The World's Billionaires
''The World's Billionaires'' is an annual ranking by documented net worth of the wealthiest billionaires in the world, compiled and published in March annually by the American business magazine ''Forbes''. The list was first published in March ...
. The motto of ''Forbes'' magazine is "Change the World". Its chair and editor-in-chief is
Steve Forbes
Malcolm Stevenson Forbes Jr. (; born July 18, 1947) is an American publishing executive and politician who is the editor-in-chief of ''Forbes'', a business magazine. He is the son of longtime ''Forbes'' publisher Malcolm Forbes and the grandso ...
, and its CEO is
Mike Federle.
In 2014, it was sold to a Hong Kong–based investment group, Integrated Whale Media Investments.
[
]
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 on September 15, 1917.[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, ] 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 Forbes
Malcolm Stevenson Forbes (August 19, 1919 – February 24, 1990) was an American entrepreneur most prominently known as the publisher of ''Forbes'' magazine, founded by his father B. C. Forbes. He was known as an avid promoter of capitalis ...
(1917–1990).
Bruce Forbes took over after 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.
On Bruce's death, his brother Malcolm Forbes
Malcolm Stevenson Forbes (August 19, 1919 – February 24, 1990) was an American entrepreneur most prominently known as the publisher of ''Forbes'' magazine, founded by his father B. C. Forbes. He was known as an avid promoter of capitalis ...
became president and chief executive of Forbes and editor-in-chief of ''Forbes'' magazine.['Forbes Announce Elevation Partners Investment in Family Held Company'](_blank)
Elevation Partners press release, August 6, 2006. Between 1961 and 1999 the magazine was edited by James Michaels
James Walker Michaels (June 17, 1921 – October 2, 2007) was an American journalist and magazine editor. Michaels served as the longtime editor of ''Forbes'' magazine from 1961 until his retirement in 1999.
Early life
James Michaels was bor ...
. In 1993, under Michaels, ''Forbes'' was a finalist for the National Magazine Award. In 2006, an investment group Elevation Partners
Elevation Partners was an American private equity firm that invested in intellectual property, technology and media companies. The firm had $1.9 billion of assets under management. The firm was founded in 2004 and was headquartered in New York C ...
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. 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." Three years later, Mark M. Edmiston of AdMedia Partners observed, "It's probably not worth half of that now."["Even Forbes is Pinching Pennies"](_blank)
by David Carr, ''The New York Times'', June 14, 2009 (June 15, 2009 on p. B1 of the NY ed.). Retrieved June 15, 2009. It was later revealed that the price had been US$264 million.
Sale of headquarters
In January 2010, ''Forbes'' reached an agreement to sell its headquarters building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
to New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
; terms of the deal were not publicly reported, but Forbes was to continue to occupy the space under a five-year sale-leaseback
Leaseback, short for "sale-and-leaseback", is a financial transaction in which one sells an asset and leases it back for the long term; therefore, one continues to be able to use the asset but no longer owns it. The transaction is generally done fo ...
arrangement. The company's headquarters moved to the Newport section of downtown Jersey City
Downtown is an area of Jersey City, New Jersey, which includes the Historic Downtown and the Waterfront.
Historic Downtown
Historic Downtown was an area of mostly low-rise buildings to the west of the waterfront, but by the 2000s a number of hi ...
, New Jersey, in 2014.
Sale to Integrated Whale Media (51% stake)
In November 2013, Forbes Media, which publishes ''Forbes'' magazine, was put up for sale. This was encouraged by minority shareholders Elevation Partners
Elevation Partners was an American private equity firm that invested in intellectual property, technology and media companies. The firm had $1.9 billion of assets under management. The firm was founded in 2004 and was headquartered in New York C ...
. Sale documents prepared by Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...
revealed that the publisher's 2012 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization
A company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (commonly abbreviated EBITDA, pronounced , , or ) is a measure of a company's profitability of the operating business only, thus before any effects of indebtedness, sta ...
was US$15 million. ''Forbes'' reportedly sought a price of US$400 million.[ In July 2014, the Forbes family bought out Elevation and then Hong Kong-based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments purchased a 51 percent majority of the company.]
Isaac Stone Fish wrote in ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', "Since that purchase, there have been several instances of editorial meddling on stories involving China that raise questions about Forbes magazine's commitment to editorial independence."
SPAC merger
On August 26, 2021, Forbes announced their plans to go public via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company called Magnum Opus Acquisition, and starting to trade at the New York Stock Exchange as FRBS. In February 2022, it was announced that Cryptocurrency exchange
A cryptocurrency exchange, or a digital currency exchange (DCE), is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies. Exchanges may acc ...
Binance
Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange which is the largest exchange in the world in terms of daily trading volume of cryptocurrencies. It was founded in 2017 and is registered in the Cayman Islands.
Binance was founded by Changpeng Zhao, a d ...
would acquire a $200 million stake in Forbes as a result of the SPAC floatation.
Other publications
Apart from ''Forbes'' and its lifestyle supplement, ''Forbes Life'', other titles include ''Forbes Asia'' and 45 local language editions, including:
*''Forbes Africa''
*''Forbes África Lusófona''
*''Forbes Afrique''
*''Forbes Argentina''
*''Forbes Austria''
*''Forbes Brazil''
*''Forbes Bulgaria''
*''Forbes Colombia''
*''Forbes Chile''
*''Forbes China''
*''Forbes Czech''
*''Forbes Ecuador''
*''Forbes France''
*''Forbes Georgia''
*
Forbes Greece
'
*''Forbes Hungary''
*'' Forbes India''
*''Forbes Indonesia''
*''Forbes Israel''
*''Forbes Italy''
*''Forbes Japan''
*''Forbes Kazakhstan''
*''Forbes Mexico''
*''Forbes Middle East''
*''Forbes Monaco''
*''Forbes New York''
*''Forbes Perú''
*''Forbes Poland''
*''Forbes Portugal''
*''Forbes Romania''
*''Forbes Russia''
*''Forbes Slovakia''
*'' Forbes Spain''
*''Forbes Thailand''
*''Forbes Ukraine''
*''Forbes Vietnam''
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's daughter, Moira Forbes, with a companion Web site.
The company formerly published ''American Legacy
''American Legacy'' is a quarterly magazine that covers the subjects of African-American history and culture. The magazine is headquartered in Mount Vernon, New York and was founded in 1995 by Rodney J. Reynolds as a joint venture with Forbes Inc. ...
'' magazine as a joint venture, although that magazine separated from Forbes on 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 17, 2007. Both magazines were purchased by the American Heritage Publishing Company and resumed publication as of the spring of 2008.
Forbes has published the ''Forbes Travel Guide
Forbes Travel Guide (formerly known as Mobil Guide or Mobil Travel Guide) is a star rating service and online travel guide for hotels, restaurants and spas. In 2011, Forbes Travel Guide published its last set of guidebooks and on November 15, 201 ...
'' since 2009.
In 2013, Forbes licensed its brand to Ashford University
The University of Arizona Global Campus, formerly Ashford University, is an online university "operated in affiliation with the University of Arizona." In 2020, Ashford University was acquired by the University of Arizona, becoming the Universit ...
, and assisted them to launch the Forbes School of Business & Technology. Forbes Media CEO Mike Federle justified the licensing in 2018, stating that "Our licensing business is almost a pure- profit business, because it's an annual annuity." Forbes would launch limited promotions for the school in limited issues. Forbes would never formally endorse the school.
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.
Forbes.com
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 claimed, in 2006, to be the world's most widely visited business web site. The 2009 ''Times'' report said that, while "one of the top five financial sites by traffic hrowingoff an estimated $70 million to $80 million a year in revenue, tnever yielded the hoped-for public offering
A public offering is the offering of securities of a company or a similar corporation to the public. Generally, the securities are to be listed on a stock exchange. In most jurisdictions, a public offering requires the issuing company to publish a ...
".
Forbes.com uses a " contributor model" in which a wide network of "contributors" writes and publishes articles directly on the website. Contributors are paid based on traffic to their respective 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. The contributor system has been criticized for enabling "pay-to-play journalism" and the repackaging of public relations
Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...
material as news. ''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 of its digital revenue. Forbes.com also publishes subscription investment newsletters, and an online guide to web sites, ''Best of the Web''. In July 2018 Forbes deleted an article by a contributor who argued that libraries should be closed, and Amazon should open bookstores in their place.
David Churbuck founded ''Forbes''s web site in 1996. The site uncovered Stephen Glass
Stephen Randall Glass (born September 15, 1972) is an American paralegal who previously worked as a journalist for ''The New Republic'' from 1995 to 1998, until it was revealed that many of his published articles were fabrications. An internal i ...
's journalistic fraud in ''The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
'' in 1998, an article that drew attention to internet journalism. At the peak of media coverage of alleged Toyota
is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...
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 Toyota's cars 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 popularity.
Currently, the website also blocks internet users using ad blocking
Ad blocking or ad filtering is a software capability for blocking or altering online advertising in a web browser, an application or a network. This may be done using browser extensions or other methods.
Technologies and native countermeasures
...
software from accessing articles, demanding that the website be put on the ad blocking software's whitelist
A whitelist, allowlist, or passlist is a mechanism which explicitly allows some identified entities to access a particular privilege, service, mobility, or recognition i.e. it is a list of things allowed when everything is denied by default. It is ...
before access is granted. Forbes argues that this is done because customers using ad blocking software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
...
do not contribute to the site's revenue. Malware attacks have been noted to occur from Forbes site.
Forbes won the 2020 Webby People's Voice Award for Business Blog/Website.
Forbes8
In November 2019, Forbes launched its streaming platform
Platform may refer to:
Technology
* Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run
* Platform game, a genre of video games
* Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models
* Weapons platform, a system or ...
Forbes8, an on-demand video network debuting a slate of original content aimed at entrepreneurs. The network currently features thousands of videos and according to Forbes is "a Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
for entrepreneurs". In 2020, the network announced the release of several documentary series including ''Forbes Rap Mentors'', ''Driven Against the Odds'', ''Indie Nation'' and ''Titans on the Rocks''.
Forbes Business Council
Launched as an invite-only platform, Forbes Business Council is open to SMEs and MSMEs across the globe. There is a fee to join the Councils. The platform helps entrepreneurs and founders connect with like-minded people, collaborate, as well as publish posts on Forbes.com.
See also
* Forbes 400
The ''Forbes'' 400 or 400 Richest Americans is a list published by ''Forbes'' magazine of the wealthiest 400 American citizens who own assets in the U.S., ranked by net worth. The 400 was started by Malcolm Forbes in 1982 and the list is pub ...
* Forbes 500
The ''Forbes'' 500 was an annual listing of the top 500 American companies, produced by ''Forbes'' magazine. The list was calculated by combining five factors: sales, profits, assets, market value, and employees. The list was last issued in March ...
* Forbes Global 2000
* The World's Billionaires
''The World's Billionaires'' is an annual ranking by documented net worth of the wealthiest billionaires in the world, compiled and published in March annually by the American business magazine ''Forbes''. The list was first published in March ...
* World's 100 Most Powerful Women
* World's Most Powerful People
* Forbes 30 Under 30
''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists of people under 30 years old issued annually by ''Forbes'' magazine and some of its regional editions. The American lists recognize 600 business and industry figures, with 30 selected in twenty industries ...
References
Further reading
* Forbes, Malcolm S. (1973). ''Fact and Comment''. Knopf, New York, ; twenty-five years of the editor's columns from ''Forbes''
* Grunwald, Edgar A. (1988). ''The Business Press Editor''. New York University Press, New York,
* Holliday, Karen Kahler (1987). ''A Content Analysis of ''Business Week'', ''Forbes'' and ''Fortune'' from 1966 to 1986''. Master's of Journalism thesis from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, 69 pages, , 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,
* Kurtz, Howard (2000). ''The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street's Game of Money, Media, and Manipulation''. Free Press, New York,
*
* Tebbel, John William and Zuckerman, Mary Ellen (1991). ''The Magazine in America, 1741–1990''. Oxford University Press, New York,
* Parsons, D. W. (1989). ''The Power of the Financial Press: Journalism and Economic Opinion in Britain and America''. Rutgers University Press, New Jersey,
External links
*
{{Authority control, state=expanded
1917 establishments in the United States
Business magazines published in the United States
Biweekly magazines published in the United States
Companies based in Jersey City, New Jersey
Magazines established in 1917
Magazines published in New Jersey
Mass media in Hudson County, New Jersey