9 posts and columns on Forbes Media

Former Forbes.com Publisher Jim Spanfeller Has VC Money; New Sites on the Way

in Media on June 29, 2010 at 3:00 am PT

Former Forbes.com publisher Jim Spanfeller has a new gig: A venture-backed Web publishing start-up. Spanfeller Media Group, which plans to launch a series of new sites, is close to finishing a funding round that I’m told will total around $2 million. Backers include RRE Ventures, Greenhill SAVP, SoftBank and Lerer Media Ventures.

Forbes Buys True/Slant

in Media on May 25, 2010 at 8:42 am PT

That was fast. And not that surprising: Forbes Media, which invested in digital news start-up True/Slant two years ago and brought on founder Lewis Dvorkin as a “consultant” this spring, has now bought the entire company. Dvorkin’s new title is chief product officer.

Back to the Future: True/Slant CEO Lewis DVorkin Moonlighting as Redesign Consultant at Forbes

in Media on April 15, 2010 at 9:39 am PT

Troubled Forbes Media has brought in Lewis DVorkin, a former editor at the business publisher, as a consultant for a redesign of the Forbes Web site “and other editorial areas.” That’s a bit weird, because DVorkin already has a day job: He’s the founder and CEO of True/Slant, a news network/aggregator/publisher he launched last year.

Steve Forbes: We’re Not Making More Cuts

in Media on May 15, 2009 at 12:49 pm PT

Just because Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners is stepping down from the Forbes Media board, to be replaced by a cost-cutting expert, doesn’t mean more cuts are coming, says CEO Steve Forbes: “Various media outlets today noted that Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners has stepped off the Forbes Media board and that this portends an imminent round of additional cuts. It does not.” Here’s the complete internal memo.
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Yet More Cost-Cutting Coming to Forbes?

in Media on May 15, 2009 at 4:54 am PT

My former co-workers at Forbes are convinced that another round of cuts–it would be the third since November–is coming to the publisher. This won’t assuage their fears: High-profile investor Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners is stepping down from Forbes board and giving his seat to a member of his company’s “cost-cutting team.”
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Forbes Cuts Pay, Condé Nast Cuts Jobs

in Media on April 1, 2009 at 12:50 pm PT

Layoffs at Forbes Media, which started yesterday, continued through today. And employees who kept their jobs are getting a pay cut in the form of a mandatory week-long furlough without pay; higher-paid employees will also get an additional cut in salary. Meanwhile fellow publisher Condé Nast continued its cost-cutting push: Yesterday it got rid of some of its secretaries; today it is losing 20 people from its digital team.

Forbes Starts a Second Round of Layoffs; Who Else Will Join It?

in Media on March 31, 2009 at 4:00 am PT

Forbes Media has begun a new round of layoffs and will let go of more than 50 people on its editorial and business teams, I’m told. The cuts are roughly proportional to the ones the business publication made in November and January when it consolidated its Web and magazine operations. The question for the rest of the industry: How many other publishers will have to make a second round of cuts themselves?
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The (Dubious) Bull Case for Magazines

in Media on January 26, 2009 at 7:13 am PT

Want a break from gloom and doom about the state of the magazine industry? The industry’s trade association is happy to help. Or at least, to try to help, with some sort-of-true but not-that-relevant happy talk.