THE Forbes family, which more than a year ago sold a minority stake in its empire to U2 frontman Bono and his associates at Elevation Partners, continues to dismantle the non-media portion of its family owned empire.
The latest to go is the family’s 171,400-acre Colorado ranch known as the Forbes Trinchera Ranch.
It’s the largest ranch in the state and traces it roots to the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant of 1843. Malcolm Forbes, the late patriarch of the current generation of Forbes family members who run the company, took over the ranch in 1969.
Insiders say the family has also found a buyer for its Greenwich Village headquarters.
Our source said that the buyer is a developer who will allow Forbes Media LLC to stay put as a renter for two years while it searches for a new headquarters.
Calls to Forbes Media officials and to Cushman & Wakefield real estate broker Scott Latham were not returned.
One real estate source said the family would not quite be able to fetch the $145 million price tag that brokers first set for the building, but they could still get a nice pay day for the four Forbes sons – Steve, Timothy, Robert and Christopher – and one daughter, Moira, who are part of the third-generation ownership team.
While there may be a few loose ends to tie up on the headquarters sale, the Colorado land deal is done.
Shortly before the Thanksgiving break, Steve Forbes and his brothers sent a memo to staffers revealing they had sold the ranch.
The buyer is billionaire hedge fund manager Louis Moore Bacon, who is ranked No. 286 on the Forbes list of richest Americans with a net worth of $1.7 billion.
Bacon, the founder of Moore Capital, paid $175 million for the property and pledged to keep all 30 employees who work on the ranch employed.
The property, which Malcolm Forbes used primarily as a place of rest, has five homes and a Western-style lodge with 16 bedrooms, and has been used as a corporate retreat from time to time.
Meeks’ move
Fleming Meeks, editor of Smart Money, is going home to Barron’s.
Meeks had been a top editor at Barron’s when he was dispatched to be the editor of Smart Money.
But then four years ago Jonathan Dahl was brought in as Smart Money’s editor- in-chief above Meeks. Many had expected Meeks to exit at that time, but he stayed in place.
One source said he always chaffed under Dahl’s rule.
Meeks could not be reached, but Dahl insisted, “No, that’s not true at all.”
Dahl said that Meeks was going back to head up a new electronic newsletter division at Barron’s, which is owned by Dow Jones, the media company being acquired by News Corp., publisher of The Post.
Smart Money is owned in a 50-50 joint venture with Dow Jones and Hearst.
It is difficult to say how Smart Money is faring lately.
At one time, the numbers were publicly reported through Dow Jones, but a spokesman said that Dow Jones no longer breaks out figures for the joint venture.
In the last available report, found in a filing for the first half of 2006, Smart Money had revenue of nearly $30 million and operating income of $1.5 million. That’s a mighty slender profit margin, but it is a vast improvement over the measly $25,000 of operating income it made in the first six months of 2005.
Through November of this year, according to Media Industry Newsletter, Smart Money’s ad pages were 714, compared with 711 ad pages last year.
A Hearst spokesman said he expected Smart Money to limp over the finish line with a gain of two pages from a year ago.
“Being up two pages for the year means a lot in the personal finance and business categories, which, as you know, have been hit incredibly hard this year,” the spokesman said. “Every other title is down significantly – Smart Money is the exception and is the only title showing strength in a soft market.”
Out of step
Scott Donaton, the incoming publisher of Entertainment Weekly, might want to make the first task in his new job a tour of the printing plants.
Several copies of a double issue featuring cover girl and author J.K. Rowling as the entertainer of the year, have a number of internal pages out of order.
The copies in question jump from page 122 to page 140 and 142 before going back to page 123.
An EW spokeswoman insisted she knew nothing about the mix-up.
But just to make doubly sure, we checked a Rockefeller Center newsstand and found the same snafu.
Editor Rick Tetzeli could not be reached for comment.
The spokeswoman said, “We’re checking with our plant now, but we’ve had no other complaints since the issue hit stands last Friday. We’ll keep investigating.”
Oops
In our annual look at who’s hot and who’s not among Si Newhouse Jr.’s team of publishers and editors at Condé Nast, we inadvertently used a photo of actor Chris Klein instead of Details Editor-in-Chief Dan Peres.
We regret the mix-up – which won’t happen again.