Welcome to the future (of Fortune, that is)
We’re bringing a new Fortune into a very different world.
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We are pausing our regular programming for an important announcement: A new Fortune is here, one that we believe is designed to meet the needs of the 21st century business person.
Fortune was born as a magazine in 1930, and its first-ever issue was, in retrospect, oddly irreverent: It featured Fortuna, the oft-blindfolded Roman goddess of luck and chance, spinning her wheel on the cover. I read it thusly: If you’re in these pages, you’re as lucky (also privileged) as you are good.
Historically, the goddess had been a capricious force in a superstitious world; random, fickle, ever ready to remind the powerful that their fortunes can change every time she used her wheel. “She is spoken of by nearly all the Roman writers as blind, inconstant, unjust, and delighting in mischief,” explains folklore blogger Icy Sedwick. Paying respect to her became a fraught form of uncertainty insurance for merchants, farmers, gamblers, and for the truly downtrodden, like the enslaved.
This year, as we celebrate our 90th birthday, we’re bringing the new Fortune into a very different world.
Here’s just some of what we’ve been working on:
- We’ve launched a new site—live today!—where you’ll find the best of what we do all in one place: strategic insights, deep-dive business stories, and exclusive access to what executives are thinking. To access all of our revamped stories, register for free.
- Later this month, we’re launching new newsletters: The Bull Sheet, a daily brief on finance news, and The Broadside, a monthly bulletin for career-oriented women. Sign up to stay up to date on their launches.
- We’ve launched a new hub for our exclusive videos. It brings together our rich collection of executive stories, insights—the latest and best from our interviews with business leaders, analysis series, and our ground-breaking conference sessions. Access hundreds of hours of content.
- Best of all, the team is diligently working on putting the entire Fortune archives online, from Fortuna to today, where diligent researchers, case-makers, and students of business can do deep dives into history. (I expect raceAhead readers will find this feature particularly useful.)
- Starting with the February 2020 issue, we’re substantially upgrading our print magazine. You will find more stories per issue, presented with higher quality covers and paper stock. To see for yourself, subscribe to the magazine.
With the pressing issues facing the world—and the unique opportunity business has to address them—it feels like a good time to retire Fortuna to her rightful place in business history.
I’d like to believe that the new Fortune is a better form of uncertainty insurance: When you have excellent business journalism, a mighty network, and a 90-year trove of world-class information at your fingertips, you don’t need to worry so much about luck.
(And let’s leave “privilege” in the past, too.)
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com