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Forbes history
Forbes company history timeline
Both of them founded the Magazine on September 15th, 1917.
1917 Forbes is launched in New York by business reporter B.C. Forbes.
William Randolph Hearst, the media mogul who was the model for Orson Welles’ classic film Citizen Kane, offered to buy B.C.’s creation in 1928 for what today would be the equivalent of tens of millions of dollars.
Forbes thus escaped the terrifying free-fall in stock prices in the fall of 1929, but he mistakenly assumed the worst was over and prematurely bought stocks at their new bargain-basement prices.
By 1930, however, two business magazines had joined the market: Business Week and Fortune.
He published books with titles such as The Salesman's Diary for 1938 and Daily Pep Pellets, hired and fired a series of managing editors, and shifted the magazine's focus from financial and stock market stories to a more nuts-and-bolts industrial beat.
Although by 1943 B.C. could still claim an income of $50,000 and holdings of half a million dollars, his longtime safety valve, his column for the New York American, disappeared when Hearst canceled it.
1945 Malcolm Forbes, son of the company founder, begins to revitalize the namesake magazine.
In 1947 Forbes marked its 30th anniversary and nascent revival with a major dinner at New York’s Waldorf Astoria.
In January 1949 Forbes introduced what would become its annual report card on industries and companies, thereby starting the buildup of its statistical muscle.
When B.C. died in May 1954, Forbes's postwar bloom had begun to fade, and with the magazine's ownership divided between Malcolm, Bruce, and two other brothers (who shared one-third of the company's equity) it was unclear who would lead Forbes back to battle against Business Week and Fortune.
MSF had always been interested in sailing, and so the company bought the first of The Highlanders in 1955--and then over the years had a succession of ever more lavish and exquisitely designed vessels built.
In 1964, when MSF succeeded his brother Bruce, who had died of cancer at age 48, the company accelerated moves that would make Forbes synonymous worldwide with entrepreneurial achievement, success and the good life.
But Humphrey won over the crowd with humor and the theme that government and business need not be enemies. (Malcolm had come to know Humphrey several years before and had written a glowing Fact & Comment editorial about him in early 1964.
By the year 1972, Forbes’ magazine circulation had 625,000 way more than that of Fortune.
The subscriptions alone generated $4.5 million and the advertising brought in $20 million by the year 1976.
In the year 1978, Fortune magazine applied a twice-monthly format which tripled its revenues for the next 6 years.
With this, The Magazine launched its popular “Forbes Richest 400” in 1982, which was a list of 400 wealthiest Americans.
The magazine’s growing fame was accelerated in 1982 with the introduction of a special annual issue that ranked the 400 richest Americans.
In 1982 Malcolm undertook the first of several international "Friendship Tours," in which an army of "Capitalist Tool" motorcyclists and hot-air balloonists descended on countries such as China, Pakistan, Japan, Germany, Turkey, and Spain spreading goodwill and the Forbes name.
By 1984, Forbes's circulation of 770,000 trailed Business Week by 120,000 and led Fortune by only 22,000 readers.
1984 Forbes is the second most profitable magazine in the United States.
After the death of his father in 1990, Forbes became the chief executive officer of the company as well as editor in chief of the magazine, and under his leadership the company expanded its publishing ventures.
A German edition, Forbes von Burda, had been co-launched with Germany's Burda Publications the month Malcolm died, and plans continued to launch a four-issue-per-year "lifestyle" magazine, Forbes FYI, in the fall of 1990.
1990 Steve Forbes inherits control of the company following the death of his father, Malcolm.
Randall began his career at Forbes in 1991 and served as reporter, staff writer and Washington bureau chief.
Only Egg, a self-styled "hip, urban" lifestyle magazine launched just before Malcolm's death failed to pan out and was shut down in early 1991.
In 1992 Forbes observed its 75th anniversary with a major event at Radio City Music Hall.
In 1993, with Jack Kemp, a former congressman and fellow proponent of free-market economics, he founded Empower America, a group advocating so-called supply-side policies, including low taxes and deregulation, as the best means of stimulating growth.
1995 Steve Forbes makes the first of two consecutive bids for the United States presidency.
Criticized for spending $37 million of his own money on the campaign, he withdrew in March 1996 after having had only mixed results in state primaries.
In the 1996 campaign for the Republican nomination, Forbes emphasized his economic policies, prominent among them a drastically simplified income tax code that would include a single tax rate.
1996 Former Reagan defense secretary Caspar Weinberger is named chairman of Forbes Inc.
One example: a cover story in 1998 exposing the obscure and outrageous fees charged by most annuities, which made this popular vehicle a decidedly poor investment for customers.
He joined Forbes in 1999 and established Forbes’ Asia headquarters.
Poor showings in several state primaries, however, led Forbes to drop out of the presidential race in February 2000.
Jim Spanfeller was named CEO of Forbes.com in January 2001.
In 2001 Forbes joined the board of trustees of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Forbes revenues fell 26 percent in 2001 to $363 million, according to Advertising Age, as the recession cut into ad sales.
Forbes was getting into media other than print and the Internet. It launched a show with cable television's Fox News Channel in 2001.
In September 2002, Forbes.com introduced its Brand Increase Guarantee for its larger advertising customers.
York is a veteran of Forbes Media, starting as a financial analyst in 2002 and most recently serving as the company's SVP of Finance.
2003 Local languages editions are being established in China and other countries.
Advertising Age's 2004 listing of 100 leading media companies pegged Forbes Inc.'s sales at $370 million a year.
Forbes Global was closed in July 2005 as the company restructured its international offerings through more local titles.
In 2005 it began developing a syndicated weekly radio program in collaboration with TRN Enterprises.
Advertising Age's 2004 listing of 100 leading media companies pegged Forbes Inc.'s sales at $370 million a year. Its advertising revenues were down slightly in 2005 to $323 million, placing it between rivals Business Week (13) and Fortune (15) on the list.
Its president, Jim Spanfeller, said at a media conference that the site would pass the print product's revenues by the end of 2006, reported B to B.
Moira also serves as the President and Publisher of ForbesWomen, a multi-media content channel dedicated to successful women in business and leadership which she founded in 2007.
Its flagship publication is Forbes, oldest of the nation's major business magazines, which will celebrate its 90th Anniversary in 2007.
Big changes came in 2010 at Forbes with the arrival of Lewis D’Vorkin as chief product officer.
Also helping make the company’s evolution to Forbes Media possible during this exciting time was the arrival in 2010 of Mike Perlis as CEO. Mike, who came from outside of Forbes, has a lifetime of publishing and startup experience.
Prior to joining Forbes in 2011, he was a Co-Founder, President and Chief Operating Officer of Techonomy Media Inc, a multimedia company based in New York, in which Forbes acquired an equity interest in July 2011.
The company plans to launch ForbesLife.com in September 2014.
At MarketShare, which was acquired by Neustar in December 2015, Schlesinger led Global Strategic Marketing and Events.
Since he was appointed to CEO in December 2017, Mike has successfully completed Forbes’ digital transformation efforts and led the company to four of its most successful years on record.
Randall was promoted to Chief Content Officer in 2017.
Techonomy was sold in 2018 to Clarim Holdings, a private holding company established by Jim McCann, founder of 1-800-Flowers.
Sherry led the events team since 2018, including programming, logistics and production and was recently elevated to Forbes’ Chief Sales & Marketing Officer.
Schlesinger, who joined Forbes as Group Vice President of Brand & Demand Marketing in March 2019, was instrumental in reimagining the company’s go-to-market operations, adopting new CRM tools and best-in-class practices to deeply connect marketing partners with Forbes’ coveted audiences.
The business media giant leveraged technology to create seamless experiences during its virtual events for both its audiences and speakers, hosting over 60 virtual events with 50,000+ attendees from 188 countries in 2020 alone.
In 2020, Sibley established Forbes Virtual, which in six months hosted more than 100 virtual events built around 300 world-renowned speakers and which attracted over 50,000 attendees from 188 countries.
Lynn Schlesinger was named Chief Customer Experience Officer of Forbes in July 2021.
Our diverse employee population in 2021 grew by 17% through the efforts of recruitment and retention.
In 2021, the world’s largest business media brand unveiled the inaugural 50 Over 50 list, celebrating 50 distinguished women over 50 years of age at the height of their powers.
June 14, 2022 – Forbes today released its eighth annual list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women, which spotlights America’s most successful women entrepreneurs, executives and entertainers.
Amid a slow economic recovery, the collective wealth of tycoons on the 2022 Forbes list of Thailand’s 50 richest fell nearly 6% to US$151 billion as compared to a year ago.
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| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Death & Co | 2006 | $5.8M | 375 | - |
| Tourism Holdings Limited | 1984 | - | 500 | - |
| Sports Management Worldwide | 2003 | $18.0M | 533 | - |
| San Diego | 1889 | $8.5M | 150 | 57 |
| Off the Grid | 2010 | $22.0M | 350 | 1 |
| Explore Charleston | 2002 | $50.0M | 30 | 236 |
| Let's Go | 1960 | $240.0M | 1,000 | - |
| Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce | 1867 | $10.0M | 50 | 3 |
| EAGLE Certification Group | 1994 | $4.4M | 51 | 7 |
| Lyric | 2014 | $8.5M | 150 | 15 |
Forbes history FAQs
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