Forbes on how Forbes has survived 100 years

Steve Forbes, chairman and editor in chief of Forbes Media, told attendees at FreedomFest about how his grandfather B.C. Forbes turned down tens of millions of dollars to sell the publication in 1927 before he nearly lost the company three years later in the Great Depression.

Paul Dykewicz of StockInvestor.com writes, “To respond to the proliferation of web traffic, Forbes Media initially separated its magazine staff from its online version to focus on pursuing their unique objectives. The company later combined those operations and touched off what became a ‘huge cultural bloodbath,’ Forbes said.

“The magazine staffers considered the web-focused journalists as ‘trash,’ while the latter employees regarded the former as ‘lazy,’ Forbes said.

“The transition and enhancements also have given Forbes a large number of experts and an editorial team that is ‘much more numerical’ than those of its rivals, Baldwin said.

“You can’t be a success in business journalism if you don’t have numerical skills,’ Baldwin said.

“When asked to give a prediction of what Forbes Media might be like 100 years from now, Steve Forbes said he expected it would be following the spirit of B.C. Forbes and still reporting about the ‘spirit of capitalism.'”

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