Bloomberg to go after Forbes with coverage of wealthy

Robert Frank and Russell Adams of The Wall Street Journal write Tuesday about how Bloomberg News is going after one of Forbes magazine’s iconic coverage areas — the wealthy.

Frank and Adams write, “Until recently, Forbes has been the king of the rich lists, with its 29-year-old Forbes 400 list of Richest Americans and its World’s Billionaires list. It has tried to extend its success with the Celebrity 100 list of the richest celebrities and Forbes Fictional 15 of richest fictional characters.

“The lists remain the lifeblood of Forbes, which has been beset by layoffs, management changes and declining ad revenue. The publication of lists of global billionaires, the richest Americans and the most powerful celebrities typically are the highest-trafficked periods of the year on Forbes.com, a person familiar with the matter said. Forbes also sells sponsorship packages around those lists to capitalize on the traffic spike. Its lucrative conference business draws in part on the access to billionaires provided by the rich lists.

“The 2009 print issue of the richest Americans sold 54,524 copies on the newsstand, making it one of the best-selling issues of the year. However, that is a 40% drop-off from the 90,623 copies sold just two years earlier, according to the most recent statistics from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.”

Read more here.