By Michael Ha
Staff Reporter
``If Fortune Korea, as I’m sure it will, seeks the truth and publishes it in a way that truly engages the reader, it will be a tremendous success,” Fortune’s global editor, Brian Dumaine, said Monday.
The Hankook Ilbo, the parent daily of The Korea Times, has signed a licensing agreement with the U.S. business magazine to publish a Korean-language version of the magazine. Called ``Fortune Korea,’’ the monthly publication is expected to become a major competitor on the local business magazine market.
In an interview, Dumaine spoke about the 78-year-old magazine and the vast potential for the new transcontinental venture.
He explained that ever since its founding, it has nurtured a long tradition of covering business personalities, ideas and trends on a global basis.
``Ever since it launched in 1930 during the onset of America’s Great Depression, the magazine has acted as a guidepost for top managers, politicians and entrepreneurs,’’ he noted, ``helping them sort through complicated issues and to find new ways to think about the world of business.’’
When asked what makes it different from other leading business magazines including Forbes and Business Week, he said that Fortune stands apart from its competitors in two major ways.
``First, while Forbes focuses on investing and Business Week chases the news, Fortune spends the time and resources to produce stories that go beyond daily headlines and give our readers a fresh understanding of the business world’s most important issues,” he said. ``The ideal of business journalism is to seek and publish the truth in the most balanced way possible, even if it means standing up to pressure from the powerful.’’
``Second, more than any other business magazine, Fortune invests in the kind of striking, award-winning, photography and design that truly brings a story to life.”
Dumaine added that for business magazines and journalists, the current economic crisis represents a unique opportunity to shine.
``The current financial crisis is an opportunity for Fortune to shine. The magazine has been and will continue to cover the market meltdown, explaining to our readers the business figures responsible for the debacle and introducing them to those who will help create solutions,’’ he said.
``Today business news is more popular than it has been in years, presenting a tremendous opportunity in an otherwise troubled time, to attract new readers and strengthen our bonds with our current subscribers.”
During these tough economic times, Dumaine noted, ``Fortune needs to analyze what went wrong with the economy and the markets in a way that allows our readers to clearly understand these complex problems. The magazine should also seek out the best minds in the world and ask them for ideas that will help us recover from this downturn.’’
For an example of Fortune’s leading coverage of the economic crisis, Dumaine pointed to its Dec. 8 cover story, ``GM: Death of An American Dream.’’
``Author Alex Taylor, who has been covering the auto industry for 40 years, gave us an insightful, analytical article about what really went wrong at America’s biggest car company,’’ he said. ``Only Fortune, which has on staff many seasoned journalists such as Taylor ― someone who since the 1970s has spent time with every one of GM’s CEOs ― could have written such an article.’’