Michaels made Malcolm Forbes possible

Alex Ben Block of Hollywood Today writes about his two tours of duty at Forbes under former editor Jim Michaels, who died last week and, Block writes, made the success of Malcolm Forbes possible.

Block wrote, “His experience in India was not only a landmark in Michael’s career as a reporter; but it was also who he was. He was deeply affected by his years in Asia and on the Indian subcontinent, and brought what he had learned to business journalism in unique ways. That was his secret, he once told me. He had an eastern point of view about western business. He didn’t think like the rest of them. Michaels never looked at the parts alone; he also saw the bigger picture, how things operated as a kind of organism.

“To me he was like Yoda, a great wise friend always giving good advice and valuable counsel. He didn’t suffer fools but when he discovered I shared his interest in eastern philosophy; Michaels became a friend as well as my editor. Even when I no longer worked for Forbes, he would find time for dinners with me that provided me with education and insight.

“I wasn’t the only one he influenced. There are Jim Michaels ‘graduates’ all over the business and general media today, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Business Week and Fortune. They have all been influenced by Michaels thinking and his innovations. They have been trained to turn a critical eye not just on the news, but also on the process that brought it about.”

Read more here.