Forbes.com, Forbes magazine to merge operations

Owen Thomas of ValleyWag reports that the editorial operations of Forbes.com and the print business magazine of the same name are set to merge together soon.

Thomas writes, “In New York, Forbes is housed at 60 Fifth Avenue, while Forbes.com is at 90 Fifth Avenue. Now, the publisher is said to be taking a floor at 60 Fifth to house the dotcom reporters, while it clears out ‘deadwood long-timers.’ The new mandate: Everyone will write for both Web and print. Which sounds sensible — unless you work at Forbes.

“What Forbes is not planning to announce: What sounds like a merger is really a takeover — by Forbes.com. Jim Spanfeller, the publisher of Forbes.com, will run the combined operation. ‘It’s a massive coup, one that print people have long seen coming and long feared,’ says our tipster. As well they should: The editors of Forbes have long looked down on their Web brethren. Now they will be working for them.

Read more here.