Business journalism giant Loeb dies at 88

Marshall R. Loeb, a business journalist who turned a floundering Money magazine into one of the nation’s most successful publications in the 1980s and then led a similar revival at Fortune, died on Saturday in Manhattan. He was 88.

Robert D. Hershey Jr. of The New York Times reports, “He joined Money in 1980 as managing editor, the magazine’s top editorial post, after 14 years at Time magazine. Inheriting a magazine that was barely profitable, Mr. Loeb set about expanding its coverage of personal finance, among other things.

“‘Loeb wanted to make investing and spending money fun at a time when a lot of young people were having fun making a lot of money, but not necessarily knowing what to do with it,’ Folio’s Publishing News said in 1991. ‘He created a voyeuristic publication that enabled readers to peek into the finances of their neighbors.’

“According to that 1991 article, Circulation soon climbed to 1.4 million in 1984, from 825,000 in 1980, making Money the fastest-growing magazine in the country.

“Fortune recruited Mr. Loeb in 1986, and under his watch the magazine became must reading in executive suites and among those who aspired to occupy them. Mr. Loeb is credited with reviving the magazine’s profitability and expanding its traditionally tight focus on corporate management and the economy to embrace broader topics, like executive life, and social issues, like homelessness and public education.”

Read more here. (My 2009 interview with Loeb can be found here. Click on “History Q&A.”)