Digital media consultant Mark Challinor continues the News Horizons series by talking to the people shaping tomorrow’s media. Today, it’s Sherry Phillips, CEO at Forbes Media.
Forbes is a global media brand that has symbolized prestige for more than a century. Under Sherry, Forbes is building new revenue streams, expanding key platforms and franchises like its Creators Community, exploring AI’s potential and strengthening relationships with leading tech partners and top brands.
A media executive with nearly 30 years of experience, Sherry has held various C-level roles at Forbes during her tenure.
Now, the brand is positioned as delivering journalism that “informs and inspires,” spotlighting the “doers and doings” shaping industries that are impacting the world.
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In a media landscape defined by chaos and clickbait, Forbes CEO Sherry Phillips believes the answer isn’t to join the noise. It’s to double down on what’s truly valuable: trust, community, and credible journalism. As Forbes ventures further into 2025 and 2026, Phillips’ vision is clear: the future belongs to media companies that can leverage the speed of new technology while retaining the gravitas of a century-old brand.
This is demonstrated by the Forbes brand reaching more than 140 million people monthly worldwide through its trusted journalism, signature ForbesLive events and 49 licensed local editions in 81 countries.
Phillips credits this strategic pivot for the dramatic growth seen in recent months. Audiences, she says, are “increasingly bombarded with information and content that prioritizes speed over accuracy.”
In response, it is actively seeking out “high quality, powerful and credible journalism” and turning to brands like Forbes. This flight to quality is having a tangible impact, most notably on the company’s newsletter subscriptions, which have surged over 40% since 2023 and are now surpassing two million.
But this is just one piece of a much larger, multi-faceted strategy.
Forbes has always been a brand that embraces new technology, and AI is no different. Phillips quickly frames it not as a threat, but as a “major opportunity for us to accelerate business growth and revenue.” To execute this vision, Forbes has created an AI & Strategic Platforms Group tasked with building the next generation of revenue streams.
Internally, the focus is on maximizing efficiency. Phillips says it is already seeing the benefits of “arming our team with the tools and knowledge to help enhance their work,” seeing AI as a force for “enhancing productivity, streamlining tasks, and making a strategic impact.”
Externally, the work is even more ambitious. Forbes is building a suite of consumer-facing AI products designed to deliver “deeply personalized experiences.” This isn’t just about simple recommendations; it’s about “giving people options for how they experience our platform—helping people deep-dive into things, broaden out to see a bigger picture, all of this sourced from Forbes content.”
Crucially, this AI-first future isn’t a free-for-all. Recognizing that AI and search are disrupting the industry in real-time, Phillips says the company is “actively exploring technological solutions that will guarantee we can continue to be fairly compensated for the trusted journalism produced by our team.”
To ensure a cohesive and ethical approach, Forbes is creating an ‘AI Manifesto’. This framework will act as the organization’s guiding philosophy, setting out its stance on implementation, ethics, risk, and compliance. It will give teams the “confidence and clarity they need to embrace AI tools that empower them to do their best work.”
While subscriptions remain a “valuable component,” Phillips says Forbes’ core focus has shifted to building a more connected community strategy. The brand is a master of convening influential networks through communities like 30 Under 30 and ForbesBLK, the latter of which boasts over 42,000 members and a newsletter following of 134,000. Phillips’s simple equation is: “If we succeed in always adding value to them, they add value for us.”
This community-first approach is the engine behind Forbes’s impressive revenue diversification. Phillips reveals that more than half of the company’s revenue now comes from non-traditional streams, a major shift from five years ago when traditional media accounted for over 70%.
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This strategic foresight has led to a booming live events business, with ForbesLive executing over 115 events across six countries in 2024 alone, attracting more than 20,000 registrations. Momentum hasn’t stopped in 2025 with three new events launched in Paris, Cannes, and San Francisco.
But the innovation doesn’t stop there. Forbes has successfully launched its e-commerce offering, Forbes Vetted, which Phillips hails as a “great success” in its direct-to-consumer strategy. And in a particularly forward-thinking move, the company has expanded its brand into physical spaces, opening its first private members’ club, Forbes House Madrid, with plans for further expansion into 2026. This is all supported by a unique licensee model that allows the brand to have a global reach in 69 countries.
For Phillips, the key to building and maintaining a strong media brand is a blend of heritage and constant evolution. She describes Forbes as a “brand with heritage, not a heritage brand,” which means it has the credibility of a 107-year history but is always innovating and adapting.
The foundation of this brand is its journalism, which Phillips says “sets the benchmark.” This is what has made Forbes one of the most trusted and nonpartisan media brands in America.
Reaching younger audiences is a critical part of this evolution. Forbes’s 30 Under 30 platform is a “powerful way” it connects with the next generation of leaders. The brand is also leveraging the power of the creator economy through its fast-growing Top Creators editorial offering, which has a potential readership of over 1.5 billion and has earned billions of impressions on social media.
Looking ahead to 2026, Phillips says the biggest challenge is keeping audiences engaged in a competitive and saturated landscape. But the opportunity lies in making “incremental yet meaningful improvements that bridge gaps and enhance the user experience.” For Forbes, this means a continued focus on “investing in AI and data-driven content in a very strategic and considered way” to deliver a highly personalized experience, while maintaining the integrity and quality of our journalism and brand.
Sherry Phillips is charting a course for the future of media that is built on a foundation of trust and powered by aggressive innovation. She believes audiences are increasingly turning to credible journalism, a trend that has driven a huge rise in Forbes’ newsletter subscriptions.
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It is making a strategic bet on AI, creating what it calls an “AI & Strategic Platforms Group” to drive new revenue streams. Internally, AI is enhancing productivity, while externally, it’s being used to create personalized customer experiences. Phillips stressed the need for a cohesive AI strategy, noting that the company is developing an “AI Manifesto” (I have not seen any other media company state this so far) to guide its ethical implementation and ensure fair compensation for its journalism. That can only be applauded.
Beyond AI, Forbes is focused on revenue diversification. Over half its income now comes from non-traditional sources, including a surging live events business and e-commerce offering. (I like the term, Forbes Vetted).
Phillips also highlighted a community-centric model, with powerful initiatives like 30 Under 30 and ForbesBLK driving engagement and value. Their key is to constantly be adapting to stay relevant and engaged with its audience.
A blueprint for all other media companies?