Forbes magazine up for sale

Forbes Media, which publishes Forbes magazine and has been making an extensive push into digital media and native advertising, is up for sale, the company confirmed in an email to the staff Friday morning.

In the email, Mike Perlis, CEO of Forbes Media and the first non-family member to run the 96-year-old business title, wrote: "We have received more than a few 'over the transom' indications of interest to buy Forbes Media." He added that the company would "test the waters" and had hired Deutsche Bank to represent the company in the sale.

One person with knowledge of the process said Forbes Media was expecting to generate at least $US400 million in the sale.

Forbes, once one of the most powerful news brands in business journalism, hired Mr Perlis in 2010 to help restructure the company after Steve Forbes' two presidential campaigns and the industry-wide shift to digital media wiped out much of the family's fortune.

Mr Perlis helped turn the company around by building a contributor network of 1200 bloggers and embracing native advertising, which involves using journalists to create marketing material. He also tried to build out other revenue streams, such as doubling the number of Forbes conferences and licensing its contributor network software. These moves helped Forbes Media attract attention from media executives on the business side.

In the email, Mr Perlis said Forbes.com now attracted 26 million visitors a month. Digital ad revenue has now surpassed print ad revenue, according to a person familiar with the company.