# Fortune (magazine)

**Fortune** is an American business magazine founded by [Henry Luce](https://www.edgepedia.org/henry-luce), first published as a monthly in February 1930 and now a global business media company publishing six print issues a year alongside daily digital coverage of business, technology, finance, and crypto.<sup>[1](https://kids.britannica.com/scholars/article/Fortune/647899)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://www.sps.nyu.edu/about/news-and-ideas/articles/center-for-publishing-writing-and-media/2024/inside-fortune-a-media-brand-rich-with-business-news.html)</sup> It is best known for the [Fortune 500](https://www.edgepedia.org/fortune-500), the annual ranking of large United States companies that it launched in 1955.<sup>[3](https://fortune.com/2025/02/09/fortune-archive-95-year-anniversary/)</sup>

| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Founded | Prospectus September 1929; first issue dated February 1930, four months after the 1929 stock market crash<sup>[4](https://fortune.com/1929/09/01/fortune-prospectus-september-1929-volume-one-number-zero/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[5](https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2010/02/10/fortune-magazine-80th-anniversary/)</sup> |
| Founder's price | $1 a copy, $10 a year, set deliberately high to restrict readership to affluent customers; 30,000 subscribers at release<sup>[6](https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/nyhs/timeinc_ms3009_rg25/all/)</sup> |
| Flagship list | Fortune 500, first published 1955; manufacturing-only for its first four decades, merged with service-company lists in the mid-1990s<sup>[1](https://kids.britannica.com/scholars/article/Fortune/647899)</sup> |
| Ownership | Sold by Meredith in 2018 to the Thai billionaire Chatchaval Jiaravanon for $150 million<sup>[1](https://kids.britannica.com/scholars/article/Fortune/647899)</sup> |
| Audience (2024) | 2.3 million magazine audience globally and 28 million digital users; six print issues a year plus daily digital content<sup>[2](https://www.sps.nyu.edu/about/news-and-ideas/articles/center-for-publishing-writing-and-media/2024/inside-fortune-a-media-brand-rich-with-business-news.html)</sup> |
| Frequency history | Monthly until 1978, twice-monthly from 1978, tri-weekly from 2009, six issues a year as of 2025<sup>[6](https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/nyhs/timeinc_ms3009_rg25/all/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[1](https://kids.britannica.com/scholars/article/Fortune/647899)</sup> |
| Competitors | Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes, and Harvard Business Review, as named by Britannica<sup>[1](https://kids.britannica.com/scholars/article/Fortune/647899)</sup> |

## History

Henry Luce, who had already founded *[Time](https://www.edgepedia.org/time-magazine)*, circulated a prospectus for the new magazine in September 1929, in a prototype marked Volume One, Number 0. The letter to advertisers proposed a monthly named Fortune, to launch in January 1930, priced at $10 a year or $1 a copy, and stated its purpose: "To reflect Industrial Life in ink and paper and word and picture, as the finest skyscraper reflects it in stone and steel and architectural design."<sup>[4](https://fortune.com/1929/09/01/fortune-prospectus-september-1929-volume-one-number-zero/)</sup> The prospectus argued that [Big Business](https://www.edgepedia.org/big-business) needed "a distinguished and de luxe monthly magazine, vividly portraying, interpreting and recording the Industrial Civilization."<sup>[4](https://fortune.com/1929/09/01/fortune-prospectus-september-1929-volume-one-number-zero/)</sup>

The first official issue was dated February 1930, four months after the 1929 stock market crash.<sup>[4](https://fortune.com/1929/09/01/fortune-prospectus-september-1929-volume-one-number-zero/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[5](https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2010/02/10/fortune-magazine-80th-anniversary/)</sup> Fortune grew out of the business section of *Time* and was aimed at big executives and upper-level managers.<sup>[5](https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2010/02/10/fortune-magazine-80th-anniversary/)</sup> Luce's motive, according to Britannica, was dissatisfaction with existing business magazines such as *World's Work* and *System*, whose coverage he judged too deferential toward business leaders; corporations were gaining power, and he thought they needed to be held accountable.<sup>[1](https://kids.britannica.com/scholars/article/Fortune/647899)</sup>

**Staffing by writers, not economists.** Luce named himself Fortune's editor and decided to hire literary talent rather than business experts or economists. Writers who worked for the magazine in its early decades include [James Agee](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-agee), John Kenneth Galbraith, Ernest Hemingway, Alfred Kazin, Dwight Macdonald, Archibald MacLeish, and Miné Okubo.<sup>[6](https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/nyhs/timeinc_ms3009_rg25/all/)</sup> The pricing strategy worked as a barrier: the magazine had 30,000 subscribers at release, and the $1-per-copy, $10-per-year cost was meant to limit readership to the most passionate and well-off customers.<sup>[6](https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/nyhs/timeinc_ms3009_rg25/all/)</sup>

**The 1948 repositioning.** In 1948 Luce consciously reshaped Fortune into a more conventional business magazine. Its new mission, he wrote in a memo, would be to "assist in the successful development of American business enterprise at home and abroad."<sup>[1](https://kids.britannica.com/scholars/article/Fortune/647899)</sup> The magazine switched from monthly to twice-monthly publication in 1978 and to tri-weekly publication in 2009.<sup>[6](https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/nyhs/timeinc_ms3009_rg25/all/)</sup> Marshall Loeb became managing editor in 1986, adding charts, graphs, and coverage of social issues.<sup>[1](https://kids.britannica.com/scholars/article/Fortune/647899)</sup>

## Design, photography, and early editorial identity

Fortune's visual identity set it apart from its contemporaries. Luce hired a highly accomplished designer and chose unusually expensive paper so that photographs would reproduce at high quality, and he commissioned artists including [Diego Rivera](https://www.edgepedia.org/diego-rivera).<sup>[1](https://kids.britannica.com/scholars/article/Fortune/647899)</sup> The magazine recruited prominent photographers and artists including [Margaret Bourke-White](https://www.edgepedia.org/margaret-bourke-white), Walker Evans, Ansel Adams, Ben Shahn, and [Charles Sheeler](https://www.edgepedia.org/charles-sheeler), and emphasized color imagery over the black-and-white conventions of other business magazines.<sup>[6](https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/nyhs/timeinc_ms3009_rg25/all/)</sup> EBSCO's account of the archive draws the contrast bluntly: every issue offered richly colored artwork and photos alongside top-notch features, appearing in an era when the typical business magazine consisted only of monochrome collections of figures and statistics.<sup>[7](https://about.ebsco.com/products/magazine-archives/fortune-magazine-archive)</sup>

The inaugural February 1930 issue carried an illustration of the Roman goddess Fortuna and her wheel on the cover and weighed two pounds.<sup>[3](https://fortune.com/2025/02/09/fortune-archive-95-year-anniversary/)</sup> Its large format and richly printed cover art made Fortune an easily recognizable publication.<sup>[5](https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2010/02/10/fortune-magazine-80th-anniversary/)</sup>

One editorial innovation became a standard feature: an article examining a single corporation much like a biographical portrait, reflecting Luce's belief that all business was invested with a public interest.<sup>[5](https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2010/02/10/fortune-magazine-80th-anniversary/)</sup> Fortune's own 95th-anniversary retrospective credits the magazine with publishing Hemingway, Agee, and the longtime writer Carol Loomis, featuring Bourke-White's photography, coining the terms "hedge fund," "groupthink," and "HENRYs," and being among the first publications to uncover malfeasance at the energy company Enron.<sup>[3](https://fortune.com/2025/02/09/fortune-archive-95-year-anniversary/)</sup>

## Ownership, publication schedule, and corporate structure

Fortune was part of the [Time Inc.](https://www.edgepedia.org/time-inc) publishing empire from its founding.<sup>[5](https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2010/02/10/fortune-magazine-80th-anniversary/)</sup> In 2018, after Meredith acquired Time Inc., it sold Fortune to the Thai billionaire Chatchaval Jiaravanon for $150 million.<sup>[1](https://kids.britannica.com/scholars/article/Fortune/647899)</sup>

The publication schedule has contracted with the industry's shift to digital. Monthly until 1978, the magazine became twice-monthly that year and tri-weekly in 2009.<sup>[6](https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/nyhs/timeinc_ms3009_rg25/all/)</sup> As of 2025 it is published six times a year.<sup>[1](https://kids.britannica.com/scholars/article/Fortune/647899)</sup> The brand also tried television early: it hosted a short-lived CNBC show, *Fortune Week*, from 1993 to 1994.<sup>[6](https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/nyhs/timeinc_ms3009_rg25/all/)</sup>

## The Fortune lists

The Fortune 500 was first published in 1955 and became an annual feature. During its first four decades the list was limited to manufacturing companies; in the mid-1990s the separate service-company lists were merged into a single list.<sup>[1](https://kids.britannica.com/scholars/article/Fortune/647899)</sup> Fortune's own retrospective calls it "the still-definitive list of Big Business."<sup>[3](https://fortune.com/2025/02/09/fortune-archive-95-year-anniversary/)</sup>

## Fortune today: audience and digital strategy

As of 2024, Fortune publishes daily digital content and six print issues a year, and reports an audience of 2.3 million globally for the magazine and 28 million digital users. Its news team supplies coverage in four core areas: business, tech, finance, and crypto.<sup>[2](https://www.sps.nyu.edu/about/news-and-ideas/articles/center-for-publishing-writing-and-media/2024/inside-fortune-a-media-brand-rich-with-business-news.html)</sup> The company describes itself as a global business media company publishing primarily in America, with offices in Europe and Asia, targeting C-suite leaders, executive-level managers, and business and investment influencers.<sup>[2](https://www.sps.nyu.edu/about/news-and-ideas/articles/center-for-publishing-writing-and-media/2024/inside-fortune-a-media-brand-rich-with-business-news.html)</sup> In February 2025 Fortune marked the 95th anniversary of its first issue.<sup>[3](https://fortune.com/2025/02/09/fortune-archive-95-year-anniversary/)</sup>

## How it compares with Forbes and Businessweek

Britannica names Fortune's main competitors as [Bloomberg Businessweek](https://www.edgepedia.org/bloomberg-businessweek), Forbes, and [Harvard Business Review](https://www.edgepedia.org/harvard-business-review).<sup>[1](https://kids.britannica.com/scholars/article/Fortune/647899)</sup> The comparison can be drawn only in broad terms from the sourced record: Fortune positions itself around C-suite and executive-level readers and around accountability journalism, from Luce's founding intent that corporations be held accountable<sup>[1](https://kids.britannica.com/scholars/article/Fortune/647899)</sup> to its Enron malfeasance coverage.<sup>[3](https://fortune.com/2025/02/09/fortune-archive-95-year-anniversary/)</sup> Its scale, at 28 million digital users against six print issues a year, reflects a digital-first model with a reduced print schedule.<sup>[2](https://www.sps.nyu.edu/about/news-and-ideas/articles/center-for-publishing-writing-and-media/2024/inside-fortune-a-media-brand-rich-with-business-news.html)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[1](https://kids.britannica.com/scholars/article/Fortune/647899)</sup>

## References

1. [Fortune, Britannica (Scholars)](https://kids.britannica.com/scholars/article/Fortune/647899)
2. [Inside Fortune: A Media Brand Rich With Business News, NYU SPS (2024)](https://www.sps.nyu.edu/about/news-and-ideas/articles/center-for-publishing-writing-and-media/2024/inside-fortune-a-media-brand-rich-with-business-news.html)
3. [Fortune Archives: A reflection of 'Industrial Life in ink and paper', Fortune.com (February 2025)](https://fortune.com/2025/02/09/fortune-archive-95-year-anniversary/)
4. [Fortune Prospectus, September 1929, Volume One, Number Zero, Fortune.com](https://fortune.com/1929/09/01/fortune-prospectus-september-1929-volume-one-number-zero/)
5. [Fortune Magazine – 80th Anniversary, Smithsonian Libraries Unbound](https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2010/02/10/fortune-magazine-80th-anniversary/)
6. [Time Inc. Fortune Publishing and Business Records, NYU Special Collections Finding Aid](https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/nyhs/timeinc_ms3009_rg25/all/)
7. [Fortune Magazine Archive, EBSCO](https://about.ebsco.com/products/magazine-archives/fortune-magazine-archive)

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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Broadcasting and journalism › Periodicals and publishing › Magazines › Magazine titles by genre › Hobby, specialist, and trade magazines › Business, financial, and industry trade magazines*

*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*

*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*

License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license