Summary

Show Host introduces Malcolm Forbes as his guest on The Eleventh Hour. INTERVIEW INSERTED: Robert Lipsyte: Malcolm Forbes has two public faces as we have seen in the mass media, he offers the image of himself as a big jolly boy who likes parties and toys. But through Forbes magazine, he helps to shape policy and perception. Mr. Forbes welcome. The party let's get that out of the way. Were you surprised at all at the the kind of reaction almost a righteous reaction to the party, That wretched excess the... Malcolm Forbes: We were all surprised though. I say we, my kids and the whole family, was was amazed it turned out to be in a sense, an extra dividend. The reaction was bigger than the party and we thought the party was the Acme. And the moral indignation, I think really was highly misplaced. It cost $2 million. And you spent $2 million for 92 second commercial on the Superbowl. What happened with us is that the reaction and the talk shows and the argument about the morality of it totally missed the point we had probably $100 million worth of coverage, all of which had to emphasize Forbes magazine and why 300 chiefs of business would come to a birthday party in North Africa. So I think that the out cry that followed, and the pros and the cons ,eventually made everybody in the world aware of it and aware of Forbes magazine. So I think we got more than our money's worth. Robert Lipsyte: It was a dividend but it was also some sort of miscalculation of the public mood. Malcolm Forbes: No, no, not. That wasn't a miscalculation. It's simply that the public took the initial interpretation was that this was an ego trip and a big party just spend money. It was obviously it became even more so a tremendous creation of awareness of Forbes magazine and its influence. Robert Lipsyte: Would it be fair to say it was a public relations stunt, in a sense. Malcolm Forbes: Not a public relations stunt. It was it was, shall we say? a tremendously effective means of having, entertaining ,we thought this was really the value of it initially entertaining in a, an exotic place that most of them hadn't been, the makers and shakers of the business and political and glamour worlds, that would help. We are launching in cooperation with European publishers, at least three negotiation now going on for foreign editions of Forbes magazine. We wanted to create awareness and impress the world, of the rest of the world, that Forbes magazine mattered. And the result was certainly that it did. Robert Lipsyte: But those who chose to take the darker side of what they saw as a mixed message. Saw it as kind of the the ultimate party of the 80s, the age of greed, Malcolm Forbes: which was I say, totally misplaced. Some of the men like Sam Donaldson, poor guy's only on a million dollars a year, saw it as an extravagance. I don't think that he regards the several millions that are spent to promote the Primetime program as a waste of money, waste of money for us to promote Robert Lipsyte: The miscalculation, then, that the commentators made, you know, came out of what seemed to be for the last 10 years or so, the so called age of greed, of takeovers of bankruptcy, of living through debt, do you think that there was something in that? Malcolm Forbes : There is something in that, but the, the, the misconception was that this was an extravagant expenditure with no purpose. It isn't a business expense, but it has reaped great dividends for our business. And incidentally, for Morocco who's been a great friend of this country and where we had the headquarters of an Arabic edition that's been discontinued. In short, the moral outrage was fine if this was rich Joe Blow, retired, simply staging an extravaganza for an ego trip. There's seldom things that there's hardly anything we do, as far as I can, to the best of my knowledge that doesn't somehow relate to Forbes and Fortune magazine and our business. Robert Lipsyte: it's the purpose that we have to look at had had it been a $5 million Bar Mitzvah in the Meadowlands with some kid coming in and on an elephant, that would have been wretched excess. Malcolm Forbes: Sure, I've come in on an elephant when I was running for governor 35 years ago, from notable lack of success, I came into Madison Square Garden on an elephant. It was a fundraising night. It depends on the context, this was taken to be, oh, Malcolm Forbes is having an ego trip, he's spending $2 million, instead of feeding hungry people with $2 million.Well Forbes' magazine is going to have the best year we ever had. Because we know how to both get access to our sources by establishing relationships. And by promoting awareness of Forbes, we're gonna have the best year ever, we'll be in a position and we'll be contributing more than we ever have to charity. But if you don't, for 2 million bucks, as I say, we got $100 million worth of worldwide awareness of Forbes, that is a buy compared to the normal television rates, Robert Lipsyte: it made you richer, you have more income and more to pay in taxes and in philanthropy, your ultimate trickle down will be great.