Fortune lost $10 million in 2020, sees light at the end of the tunnel

Fortune magazine lost $10 million in 2020, primarily due to the effects of the pandemic, writes Steven Perlberg of Business Insider.

Perlberg writes, “In October, the magazine also launched Fortune Connect, a community for mid-career professionals offering weekly programming.

“An annual membership costs $2,500, and Murray said the new venture has brought in about $5 million in revenue. (Fortune last year hired the MediaLink consultancy to help fine tune its digital strategy).

“Now publishing six print issues a year, Fortune currently has about 30,000 paying digital subscribers, Murray said. The paywall — which costs $6 a month or $9 a month for the premium tier — underperformed internal targets, according to one source with direct knowledge. Murray would not say what that target was, but this year, he said Fortune will aim to double its digital subscriber count, increase its audience by 50%, and reach profitability.

“Murray said he is confident about Fortune’s future. The company is hiring again after seeing ‘the light at the end of the tunnel,’ Leaf said.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.