Forbes and the future of business journalism

Peter Kafka of Silicon Alley Insider writers Tuesday about the Future of Business Media conference session with Forbes.com publisher Jim Spanfeller and Forbes investor Roger McNamee.

Here is an excerpt:

Ancient Forbes Magazine in trouble? Rafat Ali asks Jim Spanfeller why the magazine hasn’t changed its look, but he’s asking the wrong guy, as Jim runs the Forbes website. So Roger McNamee jumps in. “The magazine will change when its readers need it to change.” He notes that it’s lightweight and you can read it on the toilet. Jim points out that the magazine is actually doing pretty well compared to peers…

Back to Forbes.com: It has a huge audience, but not all of it the “C Level” execs that Forbes says it wants to reach. How do you balance those two needs? Roger and Jim: We publish a lot of stuff and we reach a lot of people. Roger: My sense is that business journalism in ten years is going to look radically different than it does today.”  That doesn’t mean that magazines and newspapers are going away — but they will if they try to protect new business models.

Rafat pushes Roger to explain what’s changed at Forbes since Elevation invested. He demurs. How involved is Forbes with Fox Business Channel? Not involved.

Read more here.