Forbes’ top editor quit his position last month after he was fired for accepting 6 million dollars from a company that did business with Forbes.
The New York Times revealed this week that Randall Lane had been paid by RJ Shook whose firm, Shook research, has worked with Forbes to rank wealth advisors since 2016. Payment was made after Shook had sold the majority of its stake to private equity a year earlier.
The Associated Press reviewed an internal email dated 23 July that confirmed Lane’s departure. The email did not provide any other information about his departure. Lane worked at Forbes for almost 16 years, and has been its editor-in-chief since 2017.
According to a person working at Forbes who spoke under condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the matter, the Times article revealed the reasons for the dismissal. In an email that was sent this week, the company said it could not provide any further comment.
A former editor was quoted saying that he “made a mistake”
The Times reported that a source familiar with Lane’s thoughts said he viewed the payment as a gift for the advice Shook had received over the years.
In a written statement, Mr. Lane told The Times: “I admit that I made a bad mistake. It was an error of judgment that I failed to disclose the gift. “I deeply regret it, and as a result I lost my job and the team that I loved.”
Lane, as well as a representative of Forbes, did not reply to comment requests.
Why Shook paid Lane is unclear. The company had an apparent close relationship with Forbes. Shook Research, for instance, lists on its website 12 ranking of wealth advisors and management team in partnership with Forbes.
It is also unclear why Lane believed that disclosing this payment would solve any ethical concerns it might have raised. To avoid conflict of interest, traditional newsrooms usually prohibit journalists from taking payments from business partners or sources.
Forbes’ editorial standards and values statement states that “all staff and contributors are prohibited from accepting any compensation, benefits or favors” from the people, groups or companies featured in its coverage.
Any real or perceived conflict of interest (financial or professional, legal, personal, or other) or relationship must be avoided or discussed with the relevant managing editor. It reads: “If approved, the conflict must be disclosed explicitly in the article to maintain readers’ trust.” Any attempt to avoid or fail to fulfill these solemn obligations is a serious offence and will be reviewed and subject to swift disciplinary actions.
The public’s trust in the media has declined
The Times’ report is released at a time when public confidence in media has been low. According to Pew Research Centre analysis from February, 57% of Americans have little confidence that journalists will act in the interests of the people.
Forbes, founded in 1917, has evolved into an influential and biweekly corporate America account. Its covers feature Steve Jobs and Warren Buffett.
Lane seemed to be aware that trust was a problem in the media. He published in 2024 a piece titled “How Forbes Delivers journalism You Can Trust.”
Thomas Jefferson wrote that “we get the government which we deserve.” It’s also true for our media.
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Hannah Schoenbaum, a journalist with Associated Press, contributed to the report.

Freddie Mac, a mortgage lender, said that Thursday the rates on mortgages fell for first time in 6 weeks.
Freddie Mac released its latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey on Thursday. The average rate for the benchmark 30-year Fixed Mortgage fell from 6.69% last week to 6.67%.
A year ago, the average interest rate for a 30-year mortgage was 6.58 percent.
First-time homebuyers facing affordability squeeze face a new hurdle as the labor market slows.
Sam Khater is Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist. He said that “housing affordability has improved since a year earlier, and the recent increase in refinancing and purchase applications suggests that borrowers are still responding to modest changes in rates.”
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Average rate for a fixed 15-year mortgage dropped to 5,96%, from 6.01% last week.
The Federal Reserve, geopolitics and other factors can affect mortgage rates. Mortgage rates may not be directly affected by Fed interest rate decisions but they are closely tied to the yield on the 10-year Treasury. As of Thursday, the 10-year Treasury yield was hovering around 4.64 percent.
These American cities are trending towards a buyer’s market
Joel Berner, Realtor.com’s senior economist said that the 10-year Treasury yield only increased slightly in this past week due to the escalating conflict with Iran. This has put pressure on oil and thus expectations for future inflation. The CPI report yesterday was in line with market expectations and had little effect on the markets. It’s good to know that the inflation rate did not exceed expectations, but a lower reading could have made the Federal Reserve rethink its plans for a possible hike in rates before 2026.
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This conflict has affected the borrowing rate.
Berner stated that “there is very little downward pressure” on mortgage rates due to the Middle East conflict, which keeps inflation at a high level and Federal Reserve’s focus on lowering inflation. In the coming months, current mortgage rates may be familiar to many.

OpenAI replaced Denise Dresser, Frontier Lab’s chief revenue officer after only nine months in the position. Wiz President and Chief Operating Officer Dali Rajic has taken on this top sales role.
This move is part of an organization-wide shakeup that has taken place in the past month. COO Brad Lightcap, and the No. 2 executive of the company Fidji Simo have both left. Fidji SIMO, the CEO of AGI Deployment.
Greg Brockman, co-founder of OpenAI and its president, has assumed a greater role in the management team following Simo’s departure. He announced Rajic’s arrival in today’s blog. Google acquired Wiz in this year’s biggest acquisition.
Brockman said: “Denise led our sales organization during a period of rapid growth for the company and worked tirelessly to bring the team where they are today.” The way in which we deploy this technology changes rapidly. Dali’s job is to turn our learnings into repeatable actions as we develop the entire system.
OpenAI claims that its products are used by more than one million companies and over one billion active weekly users. Although the company’s models are powerful and it has experienced incredible growth, some executives privately and publically have said that they still believe the company is not meeting its full revenue targets.
It is not yet clear when the company will file a confidential filing with SEC in anticipation of a possible IPO. Before a debut on the public market, private firms will often look to fill out executive positions. OpenAI bought $7 billion in shares this week from its employees in a tender that enabled them to take advantage of some equity compensation. This may indicate a delay of the initial public offering.
Bloomberg News coverage on the new change used a blog entry from OpenAI that stated the company should have “relentless” focus on “measurable impact.” However, these comments have now been taken out of the version published.
This year, CEO Sam Altman spoke about the need to focus on enterprise deployment. He also said that technology projects and experimentation were not encouraged as they are seen as a distraction from this goal.

Nine pharmacy benefit managers announced on Thursday they would work with an industry-group to increase transparency in prescription drug prices through the TrumpRx platform.
FOX Business learned exclusively that the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association and PBMs have reached an agreement which will allow them to display the cash prices of prescriptions coming from TrumpRx in their benefits tools. This agreement is designed to provide patients with a better understanding of how much medication costs and ways they can save.
CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said to FOX Business that President Trump made the goal of reducing prescription drug prices for Americans his top priority. This commitment was a positive step.
Oz said that the agreement would give TrumpRx users a better idea of what they are paying for their drugs by displaying negotiated prices alongside cash prices. This will help patients find the best deal. This transparency is what we need in order to increase competition, lower costs and provide better value to American patients.
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CarelonRx is one of nine PBMs participating in the initiative. The others are CVS Health Express Scripts Humana MedImpact Healthcare Systems Navitus Health Solutions OptumRx Prime Therapeutics WellDyne. VytlOne is another PBM that has joined the initiative.
If patients are enrolled with plans offered by these PBMs (commercial, Medicare, Medicaid), they will have access to TrumpRx pricing. This arrangement covers all TrumpRx prices, whether they are presidential deals or standard rates.
PRESIDENT LAUNCHES WEBSITE TRUMPRX.GOV OFFERING AMERICANS DISCOUNTED PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICES : ‘HISTORIC”
David Marin, CEO of the PCMA said that consumers and patients benefit from having more choices and an accurate view of costs. Patients should be aware of times when products are cheaper on TrumpRx. The Trump administration is embracing the use of tools that provide real-time information to patients. We strongly support this technology.
This commitment allows consumers to make informed decisions about where and how they can access their prescription medications. Marin said that it’s an easy decision for both our industry and American families.
Two major drug companies are the latest to join TRUMPRX
PCMA stated that nine PBMs who are participating in the announcement will be expected to offer price transparency for their benefits platforms. However, some PBMs may choose to do this in another way.
Some PBMs use the Real Time Benefit Tools in their Real Time Benefit Tools program to compare the TrumpRx cash price with their plans’ coverage benefits at network pharmacies, and others will pull the TrumpRx prices using another method.

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