In 1917, Scottish immigrant B. C. Forbes launched an eponymous business magazine. Yet the magazine did not gain fame - or its now prodigious amounts of advertising revenue - until 1949, when it published a list of the nation's top companies and businessmen. Since then, the company has capitalized on its "Forbes 400" and other special-issue lists to attract readers and increase revenue. In 1954, B. C. died, leaving his son Bruce to run the company. B.C.'s other son, Malcolm, ran for governor in New Jersey in 1957. He lost, but perhaps fate played a hand in the matter; when Bruce died in the 1960s, Malcolm was in place to take over the magazine.

Malcolm then turned the magazine into a top business publication, and his own high profile helped bolster the company name. The lineage of success continued: in 1990, Bruce Forbes died, leaving his son Steve in charge of the magazine and company. By that point, Forbes had expanded to include history magazine American Heritage and Forbes FYI, a magazine targeted to company CEOs.

Steve Forbes for Prez

In 1995, Forbes launched American Legacy, a magazine about black history. The same year, Steve Forbes ran for the GOP nomination for the 1996 Presidential campaign. He spent $38 million of his own money on campaign expenses. And while he didn't win, the publicity from his campaign certainly helped the magazine. Advertising revenues at Forbes rose, while those for competitors Business Week and Fortune fell.

In September 1998, the Federal Election Commission filed a suit against Forbes, accusing him of making illegal corporate contributions to his campaign. Their charge: that the essays he wrote and published in Forbes magazine during the campaign directly supported his campaign. The columns covered topics including abortion, the flat tax, and the gold standard, which were all part of his platform.

Too hot to handle

Forbes and his lawyers maintained their innocence, noting that the columns did not explicitly promote Forbes' campaign. Furthermore, they argued that the case represented a threat to the First Amendment. Months later, in February 1999, the case was dropped. Three new commissioners were appointed to the FEC, and as one commissioner stated, "several of us decided this wasn't a suit the commission should bring."

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