Good morning.
Fortune has some news of its own this morning. Anastasia Nyrkovskaya, chief finance and strategy officer, will replace me as CEO when I step down at the end of this month. She is well prepared for the job, having been at my side for the last five years. She is the architect of our strategy to diversify revenues, which has enabled us to grow substantially since our independence and allowed us to record three straight years of profitability—pretty rare in this business. She is the right person to lead Fortune at this time.
For those of you who don’t know, running a media company is hard work these days. The advertising model that allowed us to thrive in the last century has been upended over the last two decades. Giant tech companies, which can reach massive audiences at a fraction of our cost, rule the industry. The ranks of journalists in professional newsrooms has dropped precipitously, and failed news organizations litter the landscape. Disruption is not just something we talk about, but something we’ve lived through.
But at Fortune, we’ve turned the corner. We have created a foundation of profitable growth, thanks in large part to Anastasia’s efforts. At the same time, we have invested in our journalism and expanded our reach, increasing our audiences by three-fold over the last few years, thanks to the great work led by our editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell. Our executive communities are widely regarded as without peer in the media world. We are hiring new people and incubating new businesses to power future growth. Building on that base, Anastasia and Alyson have the skills and the team they need to lead Fortune, established in 1929, successfully into its second century.
And it’s icing on the cake that the media brand that created the Most Powerful Women franchise back in 1998 will have women in its two top jobs for the first time.
So keep your eyes on this place. The team has big ambitions for the years ahead. And I will be wildly rooting for them. (More on my plans later this month.)
You can find more on the transition this morning in this New York Times article. Other news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
