Scotland remembers the founder of Forbes

B.C. Forbes

Danny McKay of the Aberdeen Evening Express in Scotland writes about Bertie Charles Forbes, who founded Forbes magazine 100 years ago and was from Scotland.

McKay writes, “Bertie initially found work with the city’s Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin and his success there caught the eye of industry mogul William Randolph Hearst who hired him to breathe new life into the financial pages of the New York American.

“Although he was being paid handsomely, Forbes left the role in 1917 to pursue his desire of running his own publication.

“Using money from the columns he continued to write, and with the help of his many business contacts, he founded Forbes magazine, with its goal of covering the ‘doers and doings’ of the growing American business scene.

“Initially published once a fortnight, Forbes magazine cost a mere 15 cents and was written almost entirely by Bertie himself.”

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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.