Fortune.com has record October, hires new staffers and columnists

Fortune magazine editor in chief Alan Murray sent out the following to the staff on Wednesday:

As you all know, we’ve made some major changes to Fortune.com in recent months, launching a number of new verticals, increasing staff, and increasing content volume and social promotion. Readers are responding. We’ve broken traffic records once again in October, hitting 13 million unique visitors and 50 million page views – huge growth over our record-breaking September.  We are also beefing up on the events front.  And we continue to publish the world’s greatest business magazine.  The Advice Issue, with its stories on Tony Robbins, Home Depot, Business in the Time of Ebola, and wisdom from a long list of the best in business, is a must-read.

There is much more to come, and part of that effort includes expanding and evolving staff roles. To that end, I’m delighted to announce a number of staff changes.

Michal Lev-Ram becomes a co-chair of Fortune Brainstorm Tech, joining Adam Lashinsky and Dan Primack in running our highly successful conference franchise in Aspen. In her four years at Fortune (her second stint, actually), Michal has distinguished herself with smart feature writing and prolific online coverage. To anyone who has caught her act onstage at Brainstorm Tech, MPW and other events, it will come as no surprise that she has become a leader in our live programming as well. She already is co-chair of the upcoming inaugural MPW Next Gen conference in San Francisco. She’ll get a short break before plunging into planning for Brainstorm Tech, which convenes in Aspen on July 13, 2015.

Polina Marinova joins Fortune.com as the associate editor of audience engagement. Polina will manage Fortune’s daily social media presence by strategically packaging and optimizing content for various social networks. She most recently worked as the social media editor at OZY.com, where she implemented and executed a new digital strategy. Previously, she worked as a community manager at USA Today and as a freelance producer at CNN. Originally from Bulgaria, Polina grew up in Atlanta, Ga., and graduated from the University of Georgia.

I’m also pleased to announce that we have three new regular contributing columnists to Fortune.com’s Leadership channel:

Bethany McLean returns to Fortune as a contributing columnist. Bethany is a longtime business journalist and the co-author of two books, The Smartest Guys in the Room and All the Devils are Here. A documentary based on the The Smartest Guys, her seminal book on the Enron scandal, was nominated for an Academy Award in 2006. McLean is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and a contributor at CNBC. Her column will combine deep reporting with a skeptic’s worldview.

Joshua Brown joins Fortune.com as a finance columnist. Brown is the CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management and is also the writing talent behind The Reformed Broker, the widely read markets and finance blog he launched in November 2008. Brown has published two books, Backstage Wall Street and Clash of the Financial Pundits.

Jeffrey Pfeffer has joined Fortune.com as a leadership columnist. Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, where he has taught since 1979. He is the author or co-author of 14 books including Power: Why Some People Have It–and Others Don’t and The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First.

Please join me in congratulating Michal and welcoming Polina, Bethany, Joshua and Jeffrey