Categories: OLD Media Moves

Fortune makes its 500 list a full day of activities

Emma Bazilian of Adweek writes about how Fortune magazine is making its well-known list of the 500 biggest companies a full day of events.

Bazilian writes, “On May 7, the first Fortune 500 Day will kick off with a reveal of the list on CBS This Morning, followed by events including job fairs, the ringing of the closing bell on the New York Stock Exchange, and a Fortune 500 Day Dinner.

“‘The Fortune 500 has become, in some ways, bigger than Fortune,’ publisher Jed Hartman told Adweek. ‘It made some sense to really take it to the next level and seize the relevance of the conversation today.’

“The list is especially relevant when it comes to current political talking points, from the need for employment to the role of corporate America. ‘The big talk, especially with the election, is job creation, and the Fortune 500 employs 16 million U.S. workers,’ said Hartman. ‘Our slogan has been that although small business are the heart and soul of the American economy, Fortune 500 companies are the backbone—not only in job creation, but in the vendors they support and the products they buy.’

“The magazine is also hoping to change how the public views the companies on Fortune‘s list. ‘People bash big business these days, but there’s a lot of real benefits that accrue to our society,’ said Fortune managing editor Andy Serwer, who planned to spend his Fortune 500 Day passing out issues of the magazine to companies around New York City. ‘People talk about small companes creating jobs, but these are the jobs with benefits.'”

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.