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Forbes magazine is to launch a European edition
Forbes magazine is to launch a European edition

Forbes to launch European edition

This article is more than 12 years old
Global business magazine to be available bi-weekly in 11 countries across the continent

Global business magazine Forbes is to launch a European edition which will be available bi-weekly in 11 countries.

The English-language title will have an initial print run of 20,000 copies, which will be distributed to business executives. The magazine will also be available on newsstands.

Its cover price will vary from country to country but it will be sold at between €5 and €7.

An Asian version of the title is already available in 16 local-language editions and publisher Forbes Media said total worldwide circulation is now 6m copies, higher that it has ever been.

Steve Forbes, the US billionaire and former Republican presidential candidate who chairs Forbes Media, said the European launch "underscored the global nature of the economy".

The businessman, who is also editor-in-chief of Forbes Media, said the advertising market had recovered strongly in the US and globally, but added that the American economy as a whole should be expanding more rapidly following a prolonged recession.

"The US economy is going at 40mph when it should be going at 75mph or 80mph [at this stage of the recovery]. We face strong headwinds," Forbes said.

Forbes has nearly 20 million monthly visitors to its website, Forbes.com, and a European version of the site is now available. It will be hiring about 30 European contributors in the coming months.

The company was one of the first media groups to embrace the internet. Forbes said the digital arm of its business has been profitable in its own right since 2000.

Access to the site is free but the audience of executives and corporate decision-makers is highly coveted by advertisers, according to Mike Perlis, the president and chief executive of Forbes Media.

Perlis would not reveal how much money the group makes online but he said revenues were now split 50:50 between print and digital.

Forbes said the key to creating compelling online content was to avoid regurgitating the printed product on the internet. "You have to be able to write or create content for all sorts of platforms," he added.

He compared the advent of the internet to the invention of cinema. "Some people thought you just filmed stage plays," he said, rather than making distinct content for a new medium.

Forbes cautioned: "The tornado of the internet is going to hit everything before it's over. We [the media industry] got it first."

But he said he was an "optimist" when it came to the future of digital media. "It's not going to be one model fits all. It's going to be a lot of experimentation. What works for us may not work for others."

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