Forbes publisher resigns

Lisa Granatstein of Mediaweek reports Friday that Forbes publisher Jim Berrien is stepping down after nine years on the job.

Granatstein writes, “Berrien will leave his post at the end of the of the year and will become chairman of Forbes magazine. The publisher was responsible for the launch last month of luxe titles ForbesLife Executive Woman and ForbesLife Mountain Time.

“The Forbes family ‘will be considering a variety of scenarios,’ said a Forbes spokeswoman.

“On the advertising front, the year has has been tough going for all magazine categories, and that includes the personal finance/business genre. The category is down 2.4 percent year to date to 1,462 ad pages, per the Mediaweek Monitor. Forbes, through Aug. 11, is down 17.8 percent compared to the same period the year prior. Rival Fortune is actually up 4.5 percent to 1,379, although the Time Inc. biweekly has had its own troubles of late, shifting Fortune Small Business to the company’s custom publishing unit.”

Read more here.