Fortune has made its London-based editorial team focused on Europe redundant, as the business publisher said it is focusing on developing its events, print and rankings like Fortune 500 and moving away from a news and page views-based model.
Executive editor Alex Wood Morton, news editor Oliver Smith and Europe business reporters Ryan Hogg and Prarthana Prakash, all based in London, have been made redundant.
The job cuts took place before a new round of layoffs announced by Fortune this week to affect 10% of the global workforce.
However, several new editorial roles in London are being created.
Wood Morton joined Fortune from rival business magazine publisher Forbes, where he was managing director for Europe, at the start of 2024 to lead a major expansion of the brand’s coverage in the UK and Europe.
Previously Fortune had a Europe print edition and a small team based in London, but the magazine was largely the same as the US edition.
Press Gazette understands the remaining staff in Europe today report to the US and were not part of the team reporting to Wood Morton.
Last year, Wood Morton told Press Gazette he saw a “real gap in the market, particularly in the UK, for someone who is actually truly saying ‘this is what great business looks like and this is what we should aspire to’” and that he had been “given the freedom to truly make something relevant and different for the market here”.
Wood Morton posted on Linkedin this week: “I’m proud of what my team in Europe achieved in a short time: relaunching a European edition of the print magazine and crafting ambitious and market-moving exclusives covering Europe’s biggest companies.
“Despite the challenging economy, their hard work contributed to Fortune’s European revenues growing 3x in just 18 months.”
Global talent director Chandan Chowdhury also posted two weeks ago that Fortune’s UK operation has doubled its revenue in the past year.
Fortune UK team moving to ‘direct engagement model’
The ranking lists for European-based readers include the 100 Best Companies to Work For in Europe and Fortune 500 Europe, both last published in October. The brand is also planning multiple events for the C-suite community in Europe.
Fortune is advertising for new London-based editorial roles: an editorial director for UK and Europe, features writer for the Fortune 500 and editor for features and the Fortune 500 C-Suite are all listed on Linkedin as well as a community manager role focused on building a network of senior European leaders and two business development manager jobs.
The job adverts state that Fortune is “growing steadily in the UK and Europe – making this a great time to join us”.
Fortune managing director for Europe Jim Jacovides told London-based staff in a memo recently that changes were being made to the “business focus” and “how we structure our editorial resources in the UK and Europe”, with the roles made redundant reflecting “shifts in the market and in our commercial strategy”.
He added: “For my UK team, we are shifting from a web model driven by news and page views to a direct engagement model built on events, print and communities. As part of that, we are developing a Fortune C-Suite Community, an invitation-only network for C-suite executives at Europe’s largest companies.
“The model will centre on moderated peer-to-peer dinners and events by function, industry, topic or geography. It will combine curated gatherings with community insights, thought leadership and deeply reported editorial content. A new team will lead this effort and work closely with Lists, Sales and me.”
‘Editorial team was huge part of revenue growth’
One well-placed source told Press Gazette the changes “feel like smoke and mirrors for cost cutting” despite the new roles being created.
They said: “Revenue in London has seen huge growth over the last 18 months and the editorial team were a huge part of giving that sales operation more value and more creativity in the market.
“It’s a shame management didn’t appreciate that and think they can bring in salesperson-journalists,” referring to commercial targets that are believed to be part of the new editorial roles.
For example, the editorial director job advert states that they should “maintain clear documentation of outreach and engagement efforts via Salesforce or similar platform to ensure alignment between editorial and commercial teams”.
Fortune says changes reflect ‘greater focus on and investment in’ core audience
A Fortune spokesperson told Press Gazette: “We have received a number of questions about recent role changes at Fortune’s operation in the UK. These changes reflect a greater focus on and investment in reaching and servicing Fortune’s traditional core audience: Fortune 500 Europe C-suite and the close circle of leaders around them, including policymakers, founders and other key figures.
“We are focused on developing a more direct engagement model built on, but not limited to, expanding Fortune events and its print features and iconic lists. Fortune remains committed to the market as we refocus and expand events and editorial offerings, and as we adjust roles and priorities to better support this work.”
The source told Press Gazette however that staff had already pivoted towards a greater focus on covering Fortune 500 leaders and companies in Europe since late last year.
They added: “Strategically it’s very bizarre. Since I have been at Fortune, the strategy has changed at least twice, going from page views to the first Fortune 500 strategy and now seemingly this new Fortune 500 strategy, and as journalists we were left a bit confused about what we were meant to be doing.”
In a memo sent to staff this week, as Fortune announced its wider round of layoffs, chief executive Anastasia Nyrkovskaya said the publisher’s strategy moving forward would be “to cultivate our premium franchise communities and deliver premium editorial content to them. We will be leaning into premium coverage of key Fortune 500 industries and into events that serve business leaders, such as our Most Powerful Women franchise”.
“With these moves, we will be on strong financial footing to weather what’s ahead,” the memo continued. “We have incredible assets at our disposal: 71 years of ranking the Fortune 500, a significant number of loyal print, digital and newsletter subscribers, our best-in-class executive membership communities, and incredible talent in each of you.”
Nyrkovskaya cited trends like a decline in website traffic coming from search as people increasingly use Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT, and the rise of video and audio formats.
She said: “As a 95-year-old organisation that has always prioritised high-quality, trusted business journalism and convening top executives, we are well suited to meet this moment. But it also requires we act quickly and decisively in redirecting our organisation to be more efficient, exiting some processes and businesses so that we are prepared to build new ones.”
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