Remembering Jim Michaels of Forbes

Pranay Gupte writes for The Huffington Post about former Forbes editor Jim Michaels who died a decade ago.

Gupte writes, “When Malcolm Forbes asked him to join Forbes in 1954, it was a natural fit. Forbes was then a somewhat moribund family-owned business magazine. The magazine needed the sort of probity and probing approach that Jim brought to it. Jim found in Forbes a timely vehicle to make the transition from breaking news to cracking open puffed up reputations in the corporate world.

“That fit made for lively journalism, and it is no hyperbole to say that Jim re-invented newsmagazine journalism, at least as far as business and politics were concerned. He liked investigative stories. He liked to know where the smoking gun lay. He liked to find what people in public life – be it in business or politics – were really like when they weren’t touting their accomplishments. It wasn’t just the facts that Jim wanted, he sought the realities behind both facts and facades. The journalism that he created came to be widely imitated around the world, and it transformed Forbes into the pre-eminent business publication in the four decades that Jim edited it.

“Of course, every great editor’s greatness is enhanced by an enabling environment, and the Forbes family created that environment for Jim to flourish. He was a short-tempered man, not one who suffered fools gladly, nor one who was particularly forgiving of errant editors and reporters. He mentored at least two or three generations of journalists, many of whom rose to prominence in their professions and in other fields.”

Read more here.