Fortune
was founded by
Time
magazine co-founder Henry Luce in 1929, who declared it as "the Ideal Super-Class Magazine", a "distinguished and de luxe" publication "vividly portraying, interpreting and recording the Industrial Civilization".
[6]
Briton Hadden
, Luce's business partner, was not enthusiastic about the idea ? which Luce originally thought to title
Power
? but Luce went forward with it after Hadden's sudden death on February 27, 1929.
[7]
In late October 1929, the
Wall Street Crash of 1929
occurred, marking the onset of the
Great Depression
. In a memo to the
Time Inc.
board in November 1929, Luce wrote: "We will not be over-optimistic. We will recognize that this business slump may last as long as an entire year."
[8]
The publication made its official debut in February 1930. Its editor was Luce, managing editor Parker Lloyd-Smith, and art director
Thomas Maitland Cleland
.
[9]
Single copies of the first issue cost US$1 (equivalent to $18 in 2023).
[8]
An urban legend says that Cleland mocked up the cover of the first issue with the $1 price because no one had yet decided how much to charge; the magazine was printed before anyone realized it, and when people saw it for sale, they thought that the magazine must really have worthwhile content. In fact, there were 30,000 subscribers who had already signed up to receive that initial 184-page issue. By 1937, the number of subscribers had grown to 460,000, and the magazine had turned half million dollars in annual profit.
[10]
At a time when business publications were little more than numbers and statistics printed in black and white,
Fortune
was an oversized 11"?× 14", using creamy heavy paper, and art on a cover printed by a special process.
[11]
Fortune
was also noted for its photography, featuring the work of
Margaret Bourke-White
,
Ansel Adams
, and others.
Walker Evans
served as its photography editor from 1945 to 1965.
During the Great Depression, the magazine developed a reputation for its
social conscience
, for
Walker Evans
and
Margaret Bourke-White
's color photographs, and for a team of writers including
James Agee
,
Archibald MacLeish
,
John Kenneth Galbraith
, and
Alfred Kazin
, hired specifically for their writing abilities. The magazine became an important leg of Luce's media empire;
[
citation needed
]
after the successful launch of
Time
in 1923 and
Fortune
in 1930, Luce went on to launch
Life
in 1936 and
Sports Illustrated
in 1954.
From its launch in 1930 to 1978,
Fortune
was published monthly. In January 1978, it began publishing biweekly. In October 2009, citing declining
advertising
revenue and
circulation
,
Fortune
began publishing every three weeks.
[12]
[13]
As of 2018,
Fortune
is published 14 times a year.
[14]
Marshall Loeb
was named managing editor in 1986. During his tenure at
Fortune
, Loeb was credited
[
by whom?
]
with expanding the traditional focus on business and the economy with added graphs, charts, and tables, as well as the addition of articles on topics such as executive life and social issues connected to the world of business, including the effectiveness of public schools and on homelessness.
[3]
During the years
[
when?
]
when
Time Warner
owned Time Inc.,
Fortune
articles (as well as those from
Money
magazine) were hosted at
CNNMoney.com
.
[15]
In June 2014, after Time Inc. spun off from its corporate parent,
[16]
Fortune
launched its own website at Fortune.com.
[17]
On November 26, 2017, it was announced that
Meredith Corporation
would acquire Time Inc. in a $2.8 billion deal. The acquisition was completed on January 31, 2018.
[18]
[19]
[20]
On November 9, 2018, it was announced that
Meredith Corporation
was selling
Fortune
to Thai billionaire Chatchaval Jiaravanon for $150 million.
[21]
Jiaravanon is affiliated with the Thailand-based conglomerate
Charoen Pokphand Group
, which has holdings in agriculture, telecommunications, retail, pharmaceutical, and finance.
[22]
Since March 4, 2020, access to Fortune.com has been restricted by a
paywall
.
[23]
Fortune Indonesia
is an American global business magazine headquartered in
New York City
and published for the Indonesian region. It is published by Fortune Media Group Holdings, a
global business
media company. FORTUNE Indonesia is available in print version every month as well as an online news portal. Currently, Fortune Indonesia is led by Editor-in-Chief Hendra Soeprajitno.
[24]
[25]