The top editor of Forbes was fired last month after the company discovered that he had received a payment of about $6 million from the founder of a firm that does business with the magazine, according to three people familiar with the decision.
Randall Lane, the magazine’s chief content officer, was paid by RJ Shook, whose company, Shook Research, has partnered with Forbes since 2016 to publish rankings of wealth advisers. The payment was made after Shook sold a majority stake in Shook Research to PPC Enterprises, a private equity firm, last August, two of the people familiar with the transaction said.
It isn’t clear why Shook paid Lane. According to a person familiar with Lane’s thinking, he considered the payment a gift in recognition of the advice he had provided Shook over the years.
Forbes has policies requiring its employees to seek permission before conducting outside business activities and prohibiting them from gaining personally -- directly or indirectly -- from the company’s business dealings, according to a copy of the employee handbook obtained by The New York Times. Traditional newsrooms usually forbid journalists from accepting payments from sources or business partners to avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance of a conflict.
“I made a mistake, and I take responsibility for it,” Lane, 58, said in a statement to the Times. “I should have disclosed the gift, and failing to was a serious error in judgment. I deeply regret that and I lost the job and team I love because of it. None of this changes how I feel about Forbes and the amazing people there,” Lane added.
A Forbes spokesperson confirmed that Lane was no longer with the magazine but declined to comment on the payment. A spokesperson for Shook Research declined to comment. Shook did not respond to calls or messages seeking comment.
Lane and Shook bonded in 2013 during a humanitarian trip to Liberia organized by Forbes, according to a person with knowledge of their relationship. Since then, Lane has served as an unofficial sounding board for Shook, the person said. Lane didn’t disclose the payment to Forbes because he saw it as a personal gift from a friend, the person said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.