Forbes is in the image of brash editor Baldwin

MarketWatch columnist Jon Friedman interveiwed Forbes editor William Baldwin earlier this week and found him to be brash. One example: Baldwin immediately admitted that he didn’t read Friedman’s column on the media.

Friedman wrote that the business magazine is produced in the same image as Baldwin, full of competitive energy and wanting to beat others to the story. Friedman writes, “And God knows, he is even more enthusiastic about sticking it to his counterparts than he is about defending the honor of the home team’s magazine and its highly successful, well regarded Web site (which, Baldwin stressed, is much bigger than each of his competitors).

“Warming to the task of comparing Forbes to other business magazines, Baldwin snorted: ‘BusinessWeek has a predictable reaction to the past week…It is not in their nature to do opinionated stories.’

“Say, if you BusinessWeekers liked that one, you’ll love this salvo: Your business model is ‘irrelevant in the Internet age.’ And here’s the kicker from Baldwin: ‘I think I’d be pretty bored at BusinessWeek.'”

Friedman concluded: “Still, I found Baldwin’s chutzpah to be refreshing. The magazine industry is populated, all too often, by image-conscious editors who can make Colin Powell look glib. Maddeningly, they steadfastly decline to take a definitive point of view. (Just peruse a magazine rack and tally up all of the publications whose covers pose lame, hedging questions.)”

Read more here.