NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Time Inc. (NYSE:TIME) has named Clifton Leaf Editor-in-Chief of Fortune, it was announced today by Rich Battista, President and CEO and Alan Murray, Chief Content Officer. Leaf, who most recently served as Fortune’s Deputy Editor, continues to report to Murray, who becomes President of Fortune in addition to his role as Chief Content Officer.
Fortune’s Adam Lashinsky has been promoted to Executive Editor and reports to Leaf. These three appointments are effective immediately.
Leaf is the 18th editor since Fortune was founded in 1930 by Henry R. Luce. He leads the global business journalism brand across its editorial platforms, with a reach of 25 million.
Murray, who had been the Editor-in-Chief of Fortune since 2014, was named Time Inc.’s Chief Content Officer in 2016 and retains this role. As President of Fortune, he oversees all operations for the brand, including its robust live events business, brand extensions and more. He continues to report to Battista.
“Cliff Leaf has proven himself to be the perfect person to lead Fortune’s editorial efforts, in print, digital, and live events,” said Murray. "He has a fine eye for great stories, an effusive leadership style, and I’m sure he’ll do great things in this new assignment.”
“I am incredibly excited by the opportunity to lead Fortune, one of the most respected and authoritative voices in journalism,” said Leaf. “I've had the privilege of working for—and learning from—five great top Fortune editors, from John Huey to Alan Murray, and I am honored to get the chance to shepherd this brand into the next decade."
Since 2014, Leaf had been Fortune’s Deputy Editor, where he oversaw the editorial staff and directed the print magazine. He is the Founding Co-Chair of the Fortune Brainstorm Health conference, now in its second year, and is the author of one of the brand’s eight newsletters, Brainstorm Health Daily.
Previously, Leaf served as a guest editor for the New York Times op-ed page and Sunday Review, and was Executive Editor at the Wall Street Journal’s SmartMoney magazine and at Fortune, where he worked as an editor for seven years (2000-2007) before returning to the brand in 2013.
He is the author of the critically acclaimed book The Truth in Small Doses: Why We’re Losing the War on Cancer—and How to Win It, which earned him a Lifetime Achievement Award for cancer reporting from the European School of Oncology. Leaf has received numerous honors both for his reporting and his efforts in the cancer fight, including a Loeb Award and the NIHCM’s Health Care Journalism Award. A member of the Board of Fellows at Stanford University School of Medicine and a regular keynote speaker at scientific conferences around the world, Leaf delivered “Grand Rounds” at the National Cancer Institute in 2006 and is the only journalist to have ever received that honor. Leaf, a graduate of Williams College who received a Master of Fine Arts from Sarah Lawrence College, is married to filmmaker Alicia Slimmer. They are parents of a 12 year-old daughter and live in Brooklyn, NY.
As Fortune Editor-in-Chief, Murray fully integrated the print and digital editorial staffs, established new franchises and platforms for the brand and expanded its profitable conference business. During his tenure, traffic to Fortune.com significantly increased and its social media audience more than doubled. Fortune accelerated its video production and the number of streams on the site have increased to more than 3 million per month (comScore). Murray is also the author of the CEO Daily newsletter, which covers the day’s essential business news and has become a must-read for business leaders.
In his new role as Executive Editor and in addition to his other editorial duties, Lashinsky oversees content and programming for the conference division, including events such as Fortune Brainstorm Tech. He is also pursuing new opportunities for the brand. Based in San Francisco, Lashinsky joined Fortune in 2001 and has written numerous cover stories on the most important companies and people in Silicon Valley and beyond. He is the author of the 2012 bestseller Inside Apple and Wild Ride: Inside Uber’s Quest for World Domination, to be published in May. He previously was Assistant Managing Editor at Fortune, and he is Editorial Director of the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference, as well as a Co-Chair of the Fortune Global Forum. Lashinsky also writes a daily column for Fortune’s Data Sheet newsletter, and he appears regularly on the Fox News Channel.
The Fortune Global Forum convenes world leaders and the heads of global business—the chairmen, presidents and CEOs of many of the world’s largest companies—on the dynamic frontiers of international commerce. The 2017 Fortune Global Forum will take place in Guangzhou, China from December 6-8. Expected participants include multinational CEOs and the heads of some of China’s most important companies, along with world leaders.
Fortune’s total conference revenue is expected to be strong in 2017, in part because of the success of the Global Forum. In addition, the Most Powerful Women events and Brainstorm Tech increased in revenue year-over-year from 2015 to 2016. The 2016 Global Forum was held in Rome in December 2016 and included the participation of His Holiness Pope Francis.
About Time Inc.
Time Inc. (NYSE:TIME) is a leading content company that engages over 150 million consumers every month through our portfolio of premium brands across platforms. By combining our distinctive content with our proprietary data and people-based targeting, we offer highly differentiated end-to-end solutions to marketers across the multimedia landscape. Our influential brands include People, Time, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, InStyle, Real Simple and Southern Living, as well as approximately 50 diverse titles in the United Kingdom. Time Inc. has been extending the power of our brands through various acquisitions and investments, including Viant, an advertising technology firm with a specialized people-based marketing platform; The Foundry, Time Inc.’s creative lab and content studio; and the People Entertainment Weekly Network (PEN). The company is also home to celebrated events, such as the Time 100, Fortune Most Powerful Women, People’s Sexiest Man Alive, Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year, the Essence Festival and the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen.
