Randall Lane (journalist)

Randall Lane
Speaking at the 2021 World Economic Forum
Born1968 (age 56–57)
EducationUniversity of Pennsylvania
Occupation(s)Chief Content Officer and Editor-in-chief, Forbes
Notable credit(s)Forbes, P.O.V., Trader Monthly, Dealmaker, Daily Beast
Children2

Randall Lane (born 1968) is an American journalist and author who serves as the chief content officer[1][2] and editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine.[3][4][5] In 2011, Lane created the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.[6] Lane is a former editor-at-large for both Newsweek and The Daily Beast.[7][8][9]

Early life

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While attending Briarcliff High School in 1985, Lane wrote an article for the New York Times detailing his ordeal of getting tickets for a Bruce Springsteen concert. He served as co-editor of his high school's newspaper during this time.[10]

Career

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Lane edited his college newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian at the University of Pennsylvania[where?] before interning with The Wall Street Journal.[11] Lane received the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s top non-fiction prize for a 1988 profile he wrote on former Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo.[12]

After leaving college, he was hired as a fact checker for Forbes, and thereafter was promoted to be a staff writer.[11][6] In 1995, when he was 27, he was promoted to Washington Bureau Chief,[11][6] before leaving to edit three publications, P.O.V., Trader Monthly,[13] and Dealmaker.[6]

He founded P.O.V. with a Forbes colleague and the publication was considered by AdWeek as its start-up of the year in 1998.[14]

At Trader Monthly, a bimonthly lifestyle magazine where Lane was the editor-in-chief, Lane created a 30 Under 30 list featuring what his magazine considered the 30 best financial traders at the time.[13]

2010s

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When Lane rejoined Forbes in 2011, he created the annual Forbes 30 Under 30 list of up and coming figures in multiple business sectors.[6][11] He then partnered with Warren Buffett to create the Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy, which he and Buffett have co-chaired for more than a decade.[15]

Lane wrote a book titled The Zeroes: My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane.[16] In the book, Lane laid out similarities of some Wall Street traders and Major League Baseball players in their views on the ethics of cheating.[17] He interviewed Lenny Dykstra, about his use of steroids while playing with the New York Mets, for the book.[17] The New York Daily News stated of the book that "Lane does a terrific job ... putting things in context".[17] In a review for Inc, Jack Covert stated "What Michael Lewis did for ’80s traders in Liar’s Poker, Randall Lane has now done for trader rock stars of The Zeroes."[18]

Lane was responsible for the reorganization of Forbes' contributor network. The restructure saw it shift from a model where most writers volunteered their time to an all-paid platform with a guaranteed minimum pay.[19]

2020s

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, Lane took part in a multi-part virtual innovation summit hosted by the University of Waterloo.[20][21] In 2020, The New York Times identified him as one of the 922 most powerful people in the United States of America.[22] Lane won an Emmy award as executive producer of the documentary WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn.[23]

Personal life

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Lane was born in 1968.[24][25] He is divorced and has two daughters, Sabrina and Chloe.[24] During the COVID-19 pandemic, he organized and hosted a four-week summer camp for his daughters and their friends, hiring teachers out of work due to the pandemic to instruct them in core subjects.[24]

Kanye West incident

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On September 16, 2020, Lane was doxxed in a Twitter rant by American musician Kanye West. West tweeted a screenshot of a phone number labeled "Randall Forbes" and wrote "if any of my fans want to call a white supremacist... this is the editor of Forbes".[26] Twitter deleted West's tweet after 30 minutes and suspended his account for violating Twitter's private information policy.[27] Lane had previously interviewed West about his 2020 presidential ambitions which Forbes published in July 2020.[28]

References

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  1. ^ Releases, Forbes Press. "Forbes Announces Inaugural Next 1000 Initiative To Spotlight And Accelerate Rising Entrepreneurs Forging The Path Forward To Redefine The American Dream". Forbes. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  2. ^ Hsu, Tiffany (July 21, 2019). "Jeffrey Epstein Pitched a New Narrative. These Sites Published It". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  3. ^ "Bloomberg - Randall Lane". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  4. ^ "Randall Lane". Columbia University. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  5. ^ "Forbes Editor Offers Non-Apology For Leaving Women Off Innovators List". HuffPost Canada. September 8, 2019. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  6. ^ a b c d e Kelly, Keith J. (December 6, 2017). "Forbes promotes its top magazine editor to content chief". New York Post. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  7. ^ "Randall Lane". The Daily Beast. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  8. ^ "Congressional Economic Agenda | C-SPAN.org". www.c-span.org. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  9. ^ "Randall Lane". www.c-span.org. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  10. ^ Lane, Randall (September 1, 1985). "SPEAKING PERSONALLY; SURVIVING A BATTLE FOR SPRINGSTEEN'S TICKETS". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 28, 2025.
  11. ^ a b c d Leavitt, Mollie (June 24, 2019). "Q&A: Randall Lane, Chief Content Officer @ Forbes". Medium. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  12. ^ Family, Cheryl (April 12, 1988). "'DP' wins 13 national awards". The Daily Pennsylvanian. Retrieved February 28, 2025.
  13. ^ a b Schmidt, Michael (August 16, 2006). "Traders' Night Out". The New York Times. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  14. ^ Lonkevich, Susan (May 1, 1998). "Start Me Up". The Pennsylvania Gazette. Retrieved February 28, 2025.
  15. ^ Lane, Randall. "On Warren Buffett's 90th Birthday, Private Wisdom From The Oracle—Delivered In 90 Seconds Flat". Forbes. Retrieved February 28, 2025.
  16. ^ Task, Aaron (October 11, 2011). "Randall Lane: Wall St. Protestors Don't Hate Success, They Hate Big Rewards for Failure". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  17. ^ a b c Martino, MICHAEL O'KEEFE, Andy. "Randall Lane not breaking any news about Lenny Dykstra and steroids in new tome about Wall Street". nydailynews.com. Retrieved September 3, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ Covert, Jack (July 26, 2010). "Review: The Zeroes". Inc.com. Archived from the original on February 19, 2024. Retrieved February 28, 2025.
  19. ^ Mullin, Benjamin (February 14, 2018). "Forbes Will Pay All of Its Contributors, but Purge the Worst". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved February 28, 2025.
  20. ^ "Virtual Summit 2020". University of Waterloo. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  21. ^ "Speakers". University of Waterloo. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  22. ^ Lu, Denise; Huang, Jon; Seshagiri, Ashwin; Park, Haeyoun; Griggs, Troy (September 9, 2020). "Faces of Power: 80% Are White, Even as U.S. Becomes More Diverse". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  23. ^ "43rd Annual Documentaries - 9-29-22" (PDF). The Emmys TV. Retrieved September 29, 2022.
  24. ^ a b c Weiss, Suzy (August 19, 2020). "NYC dad creates summer camp for bored daughter, her friends". New York Post. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  25. ^ Schmidt, Lucinda (October 5, 2010). "Profile: Randall Lane". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  26. ^ Leskin, Paige. "Twitter took 30 minutes to remove Kanye West's tweet doxxing a top magazine editor". Business Insider. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  27. ^ Kemp, Dylan (September 17, 2020). "Kanye West's Twitter Suspended After Leaking Journalist's Phone Number". The Source. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  28. ^ Lane, Randall. "Kanye West Says He's Done With Trump—Opens Up About White House Bid, Damaging Biden And Everything In Between". Forbes. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
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