Tag Archives: Fortune
Covering finance and learning on the job
by Chris Roush
Mina Kimes, a writer at Fortune, was interviewed by Aaron Lammer in a podcast about her career in business journalism.
Among Kimes’ comments in the podcast:
“I don’t know if I thought anything about business journalism. In high school, I was reading arts and music journalism.”
“It would be great if somewhere we could convince young people to pay more attention” to business journalism.
“I started reading The Journal on a regular basis…Gradually I acquired a working knowledge of how finance works.”
“A lot of editors encouraged me to be honest about my knowledge going into an interview.”
Listen to the interview here.
In 2009, she received the Nellie Bly Cub Reporter award from the New York Press Club for her story, “The End of Oil.”
Before joining Fortune in August 2008, Kimes was a reporter at Fortune Small Business. She graduated summa cum laude from Yale University, where she studied English.
Fortune publisher gets a promotion
by Chris Roush
Todd Larsen, the former Dow Jones & Co. president who now oversees Time’s magazine division, sent out the following announcement on Wednesday:
In order to best organize ourselves for success in the future, I believe we must find ways to work more strongly across our titles and across the company. The collective strength of our portfolio can be more powerful than any one brand, especially in the digital arena where we need to focus for much of our growth.
To move us toward those objectives, I’m delighted to let you know that I am naming Jed Hartman Group Publisher of News and Business, effective immediately.
In this newly-created position reporting to me, Jed will be responsible for all ad sales and marketing for TIME, TIME.com, FORTUNE, FORTUNE.com, Money and CNNMoney.com, allowing him to harness the collective power of these tremendous brands to provide smart, creative and scalable solutions for our advertising partners across every print and digital platform.
Jed is uniquely qualified for this role. In his current position as the Worldwide Publisher of FORTUNE and CNNMoney he has overseen the last two years of consecutive advertising growth at FORTUNE, expanded its booming conference business– which he will continue to manage and grow– by bringing in record sponsorship dollars, and has played a major role in taking CNNMoney international and launching its mobile products. He was the driving force of FORTUNE’s new iPad app, the first newsstand app to seamlessly integrate print and digital content, which has consistently been at the top of the “Business and Investing” category since it launched two weeks ago. Also, Jed is no stranger to the news business, having had a very successful run as Publisher of The Week for three years before returning to Time Inc. He will undoubtedly help us optimize the tremendous power of the TIME brand domestically and internationally.
Jed will have a senior ad sales executive at each title reporting to him; they will help him in this cross-title effort and will also continue to develop brand-specific programs for advertisers. The first appointment to the newly-created role of Vice President, Sales for FORTUNE is Brendan Ripp. Brendan has been a key performer across News and Business Group titles and he is a leader in the financial category. This new role will be a perfect fit for both Brendan and FORTUNE at a time the franchise has strong momentum. The plans for the lead sales executives for TIME and Money will be forthcoming. In the meantime, Brendan will keep a hand on Money and Jed will work with both teams in detail. In the coming days Jed will also aim to best align the marketing and events teams in the group to work across this new structure and to maximize their effectiveness at creating cross brand and multi-media programs. International will continue to be organized as it has been, with Andrew Butcher and Andy Bush both reporting to Jed with their cross-title hats on.
Jed’s appointment, and putting this new structure in place, are the first steps in taking our news and business titles to their best position for long-term growth. Each of our core brands is reaching more consumers than ever before on multiple platforms and we will be focusing on developing new digital products and approaches to increase those audiences exponentially. I look forward to working with all of you on these exciting efforts.
Welch stops contributing to Reuters, Fortune
by Chris Roush
Stephen Gandel of CNNMoney.com reports that former General Electric CEO Jack Welch has stopped writing commentary for Reuters and Fortune magazine in the wake of the controversy last week about him criticizing the federal government’s unemployment data.
Gandel writes, “Welch said he will no longer contribute to Fortune following critical coverage of the former CEO of General Electric, saying he would get better ‘traction’ elsewhere. On Friday, Welch suggested that the Obama administration, calling them ‘these Chicago guys,’ had manipulated the monthly jobs report in order to make the economy look better than it actually is just weeks before the election. Welch has been battered by criticism since making the suggestion on Twitter.
“Monday morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Fortune managing editor Andy Serwer said there were a number of things wrong with Welch’s tweet, the biggest of which was that the economy doesn’t back up the former executive’s claim that the numbers were faked.
“‘I think it’s exactly the opposite of what Jack Welch is saying,’ Serwer said. ‘Things are actually improving.’
“CNNMoney, which shares content with Fortune.com, ran a story on Friday covering Welch’s tweet. The piece said that even conservative economists thought Welch was wrong to question the jobs numbers. On Tuesday, Fortune.com ran a story detailing Welch’s record as a job destroyer. GE lost nearly 100,000 jobs during the 20 years in which Welch ran the company. ‘I never put myself out there as an employment agency,’ Welch told Fortune.
“Following the story, Welch sent an e-mail to Reuters’ Steve Adler and Serwer saying that he and his wife Suzy, who have jointly written for Reuters and Fortune in the past, were ‘terminating our contract’ and will no longer be sending our ‘material to Fortune.’ Reuters’ story about Welch’s tweet quoted money manager and blogger Barry Ritholtz, who said Welch’s comments were laughable. Reuters wrote that Ritholtz comments were referring to allegations that Welch regularly manipulated GE’s earnings during his tenure as CEO in order to best Wall Street profit estimates.”
Read more here.
Fortune changes its iPad strategy
by Chris Roush
Fortune is introducing Monday a new iPad edition that presents readers with a visually appealing mix of free and paid content, an effort to make the app worth swiping through even if you’re not a subscriber, reports Nat Ives of Advertising Age.
Ives writes, “Fortune’s iPad app, like those of most magazines, had previously opened to a storefront — offering nothing to see until you open your wallet or show that you already subscribe.
“‘Most of the industry has little or no contact with the consumers who have downloaded the shell but have elected not to become regular issue buyers or subscribers,’ said Jed Hartman, group publisher for Fortune and CNNMoney.com. ‘This creates a dialogue and relationship with them.’
“Exceptions to the storefront-first approach, such as The Atlantic, are rare. And Fortune, part of Time Inc., is trying to better integrate the paid and unpaid content than others that have tried something similar.
“Fortune hopes people who spend time with the app under its ‘freemium’ strategy will convert into paying subscribers. But nonpaying readers also create a new opportunity for Fortune to serve up ads. The initial sponsors are Credit Suisse, Ally Bank and Brocade.
“The app will continue to include all the ads from the print edition as well.”
Read more here.
Ex-Dow Jones president to join Time Inc.
by Chris Roush
Todd Larsen, who left the role of president of Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, earlier this year, will take a job at Time Inc. overseeing its magazine unit, according to a story in The Journal.
Keach Hagey writes, “In his new role, Mr. Larsen will oversee some of Time Inc.’s high-profile titles, including Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated. His hiring comes nine months after digital-advertising veteran Laura Lang took the reins of Time Inc.
“The creation of the news and sports group reverses a decision by Ms. Lang’s predecessor, Jack Griffin, who separated the groups. At the time, Mark Ford was placed in charge of the Sports Group, while John Q. Griffin—no relation—was placed in charge of the News Group. John Q. Griffin left Time Inc. in May 2011 and wasn’t replaced.
“Mr. Ford will report to Mr. Larsen, according to the people.
“Time Inc.’s news and sports titles face significant challenges. Sales of Time magazine, the company’s most prominent news title, were down 31% on the newsstand in the first half of the year, compared with the same period last year, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The number of advertising pages was down 19.1 % in the first half of the year, compared with a year earlier, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. Time Worldwide Publisher Kim Kelleher left in July, and hasn’t yet been replaced.”
Read more here.
The importance of CNNMoney.com
by Chris Roush
Douglas McIntyre of 24/7WallSt.com writes about why CNNMoney.com’s success is tied to its partnerships.
McIntyre writes, “CNNMoney’s success almost certainly draws from its arrangement as a three-legged stool. It can relay on the traditional business reporting from Fortune, and its company lists that include the Fortune 500. It can rely on Money for personal finance. Both Money and Fortune have relatively large editorial staffs because of their print products. These staffs and their production allow CNNMoney to have a lean staff of its own. And the CNNMoney audience and the advertising its draws helps to offset the financial trouble of the print versions of Money and Fortune. The relationships build a clever and effective balancing act.
“CNNMoney may end up being the best model for future success in the financial website industry. CNBC and Yahoo! already have begun to move toward that set-up. News service sites that have their own huge staffs — Reuters and Bloomberg (which did buy BusinessWeek for almost nothing) — may never to do this. Their trading terminal bases financially support their news organizations.
“Still left without partners are Forbes, which has traditionally competed with Fortune, TheStreet and IBTimes. None of these three is based on the alliances that other business sites have forged over recent years that create more efficiency in news gathering, infrastructure and sales.
“The online finance website business is crowded enough as it is. Independence has become a disadvantage. A look at the benefits of the CNNMoney, Fortune and Money alliance is a proof of that.”
Read more here.
Big three biz magazines outperforming industry
by Chris Roush
TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE
The three largest business magazine titles — Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes and Fortune — outperformed the overall glossy industry during the first six months of the year, according to data released by the Publisher’s Information Bureau.
Forbes reported as 16.4 percent increase in ad revenue and a 13 percent rise in ad pages for the first six months, while Fortune magazine reported a 10.5 percent increase in ad revenue and a 4 percent rise in ad pages. Bloomberg Businessweek posted a 7.8 percent increase in ad revenue and a 6.4 percent increase in ad pages during the same time period.
In comparison, the overall industry posted a 3.6 percent drop in ad revenue and an 8.8 percent drop in ad pages, according to the data that can be found here.
The best performing business magazine during the first six months of the year was Fast Company, which posted a 24.8 percent increase in ad revenue to $26.5 million and a 19.5 percent increase in ad pages to 294.76.
The worst performing business title during the first half of the year was Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, which recorded a 25.2 percent drop in ad revenue to $8.7 million and a 27.9 percent decline in ad pages to 127.12.
SmartMoney, which Dow Jones & Co. announced last month would be closed, posted a 4.7 percent decline in ad revenue to $16.6 million during the first six months of the year and an 8.6 percent decline in ad pages to 164.03.
In comparison, rival Money magazine posted a 2.1 percent increase in ad revenue to $52 million and a 3.3 percent decline in ad pages to 228.69
Reuters, WSJ, Milwaukee and Detroit papers among Loeb winners
by Chris Roush
Felix Salmon of Reuters and The Wall Street Journal are winners of Gerald Loeb Awards, considered the Pulitzer Prizes of business journalism.
Salmon won in the blogging category. Reuters also won in the news service category for “Shell Games” by Brian Grow, Kelly Carr, Laurence Fletcher, Nanette Byrnes, Matthew Bigg, Joshua Schneyer, Cynthia Johnston and Sara Ledwith.
Mark Maremont, Tom McGinty, Jon Keegan, Palani Kumanan, Sarah Slobin and Neil King Jr. were the team at the Journal who won for “Jet Tracker” in the online enterprise category.
Walter Isaacson won in the book category for his Steve Jobs biography. Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo received an honorable mention in the book category for “Poor Economics.”
Brent Snavely, Greg Gardner and Chrissie Thompson for “GM-UAW Contract Negotiations” in Detroit Free Press won in the breaking news category.
In medium and small newspapers, there were two winners: Raquel Rutledge, Rick Barrett, John Diedrich, Ben Poston and Mike de Sisti for “Shattered Trust” in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Spencer Soper and Scott Kraus for “Inside Amazon’s Warehouse” in The Morning Call of Allentown, Pa.
The Journal Sentinel’s John Fauber won in the beat reporting category for “‘Side Effects’ Beat Reporting.“
Peter Elkind, Jennifer Reingold and Doris Burke won the Loeb in the magazine category for “Inside Pfizer’s Palace Coup” in Fortune.
Penelope Wang, Kim Clark and Lisa Gibbs won the Loeb in the personal finance category for “‘Protecting Your Parents’ Series“ in Money.
Zanny Minton Beddoes, Edward Carr, John Peet, Patrick Foulis and John O’Sullivan won the Loeb in the commentary category for “Euro Zone” in The Economist.
In the broadcast enterprise category, the winner is Laura Sydell and Alex Blumberg for “When Patents Attack,” a collaboration between NPR and This American Life.
“60 Minutes” won in the explanatory category, while Ken Bensinger for “Wheels of Fortune” in the Los Angeles Times won in the large newspaper category.
The awards are being handed out at a dinner in New York, and this prestigious award program recognizes and honors journalists who have made significant contributions to the understanding of business, finance and the economy.
CNNMoney launches Fear & Greed Index, investing content
by Chris Roush
CNNMoney launched Wednesday the Fear & Greed Index, a new tool that tracks how emotion is driving the stock market on a daily basis.
The Fear and Greed Index goes live alongside CNNMoney’s new investing section, which offers financial analysis and commentary from a combination of CNNMoney and Fortune reporters including Dan Primack, Paul La Monica and Stephen Gandel.
“For our growing global investing audience, we’ll cover the hot money of private equity and VCs, big banks and capital markets as well as real-time market analysis all in one place,” says CNNMoney’s Executive Editor, Chris Peacock, in a statement. “Additionally, CNNMoney’s innovative Fear & Greed Index captures in an eye-blink the underlying forces driving investors’ money moves.”
The Fear and Greed Index serves as investing barometer for financial professionals, traders and consumers using seven market indicators to track investors’ appetite for risk on a scale of extreme fear (0) to extreme greed (100). The higher the reading, the greedier the investor with “50″ considered neutral.
CNNMoney then combines the indicators together for an equally weighted final index reading.
The seven indicators in the Fear and Greed Index are stock price strength, stock price momentum, stock price breadth, put and call options, junk bond demand, market volatility and safe haven demand.
Alongside the launch of the new investing section, La Monica’s “The Buzz” expands to include investing analysis from four more reporters.
Fantasy sports as business journalism
by Chris Roush
Stephanie Mehta of Fortune writes about how the business magazine is using a fantasy sports strategy to connect with readers.
The magazine has launched the Fortune Fantasy Sports Executive League, which allows readers to create their own “Executive Dream Team” and track how their choices measure up to other readers as well as experts. Readers will be able to see how their picks line up with Fortune’s annual Executive Dream Team announced July 26.
Mehta writes, “Executives like to compare business to sports. They use sports terminology to describe their strategies and they quote famous jocks…. And business journalists and investors love to debate corporate victories and foibles almost as much as sports writers and fans enjoy bickering about their favorite teams…. So it seemed natural for Fortune to find a way for readers to create their own imaginary rosters of real corporate executives — a sort of fantasy sports for avid followers of the business world.”
She goes on to write, “Participants can pick their dream C-Suites from more than 90 of the world’s top executives representing nine different corporate functions… The fantasy game is part of Fortune’s annual Executive Dream Team feature, in which the editors engage in a similar exercise. We ask the question: What would be the ultimate corporate management team? What group would be the business equivalent of the 1927 Yankees?”
Mehta says, ”Running a big company, like managing a professional sports franchise, is harder than it looks. The Fortune Fantasy Sports Executive League gives the rest of us a little bit of a glimpse of what it is like to build a strong corporate team—while having a little fun along the way. Play ball.”
Read more here.
