Forbes Inc, through its new Forbes Digital Media division, has launched a daily online business magazine, Forbes Digital Tool. Located at www.forbes.com, the new magazine is free to users. It aims to cover technology-related news and trends in wireless communications, investing, journalism, international technology, and digital entertainment. Forbes is optimistic about a design that runs a single sponsor advertisement in the right-hand column of every screen, rather than the more common button or banner ads. It expects the new product to turn a profit sometime in 1998. The company has seven-month advertising deals with Teleport Communications Group Inc, Fidelity Investments Inc, BMW of North America Inc, Oracle Corp, Intel Corp and Stolichnaya Vodka. Each of the sponsors is the exclusive advertiser in one of the magazine’s six editorial departments. Among features offered in Forbes Digital Tool are Forbes 40 Index – an index tracking the stocks of 40 companies generating the most individual wealth, and Tool Tech 101 – listing 101 top technology companies, with information on quarterly and annual sales and profits, spending and key financial ratios. The magazine will also include a directory of traditional and new media journalists.
