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Recent Press Releases (U.S. and international) for magazine issues and staff changes may be found below. Please note that for many issues there exists only a highlights sheet, while for others there may also be a full press release. The cover of FORTUNE's current issue is pictured at right. Please contact the appropriate communications staff member with any questions.
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Highlights of the September 17, 2007 Issue of FORTUNE
SPECIAL REPORT: THE BUSINESS OF LUXURY IT'S RALPH'S WORLD, by John Brodie, page 64 This is classic Ralph Lauren. Not just the clothes, but the man. Anyone who assumed the Polo founder was a one-trick pony, a billionaire satisfied to license away his famous name and retire to his string of estates from Telluride, Colo., to Round Hill, Jamaica, doesn't know what makes Ralph run. At 67, after 40 years in the business, he is just getting started with his latest plan: making his name into an immortal brand, known to billions around the world. In February, J.C. Penney will debut American Living, a new, moderately priced apparel and home-furnishings line that Lauren's company has created for the resurgent department-store chain. Simultaneously, Polo Ralph Lauren Corp., as his company is called, has been going further upscale and farther afield, evolving its business model from a domestic apparel maker to a global luxury brand with the hope of seeing a third of its business come from Asia and another third from Europe in the next decade (double its current positions). Can Lauren really sell all things to all people? DOES BLING BEAT THE MARKET?, by Telis Demos, page 77 With global millionaires doubling since 1996, there's been a surge in demand for luxury goods. A new crop of investing vehicles focuses on the conspicuous-consumption sector. In February, French bank BNP Paribas and the Deutsche Borse launched the world luxury index, a collection of 20 luxury-goods purveyors from Hermes to LVMH. Merrill Lynch soon followed with the Merrill Lynch lifestyle index, which tracks 50 such stocks. In June, British money manager Dominion Group launched Chic, a mutual fund that invests in 61 makers of high-end goods. Are they a smart way to cash in on the global wealth boom — or is it too late? MASS VS. CLASS, by Peter Gumbel, page 82 "Luxury" used to mean: beautifully crafted, hideously expensive, and unashamedly elitist. Owning such items was not just a question of wealth; it was also a question of class. Today, for the most part, luxury is no longer reserved for the spoiled rich. Increasingly, it is the domain of the global middle-class on an ego trip — people from Indiana to India prepared to pay a premium for the thrill of owning something that makes them feel special. "We are not in the business of selling handbags. We are in the business of selling dreams," says Robert Polet, chief executive of the Gucci Group. Luxury sales have boomed along with the global economy — the world market for luxury goods has doubled in the past decade and now totals about $220 billion a year in retail value. That has encouraged many companies with less pedigree to try to muscle their way in. They call themselves purveyors of "accessible luxury" and claim to be both classy and good value. This jostling for position raises a fundamental question: What does luxury mean if everybody claims to be doing it? The question applies equally to the high and the low end. FORTUNE investigates to find out if the world's most exclusive brands can stretch that much and still keep their cachet. MANAGING MARC JACOBS, by Mark Borden, page 94 In the fashion world, it seems, behind every successful designer there's a Robert Duffy — a right-hand man who enables and goads the artist to create a viable business. Duffy is the longtime business partner of Marc Jacobs and his talents lie in multiple areas — as a retailer he has even moved more merchandise per square foot than Steve Jobs; as a corporate infighter he has proved adept at protecting his partner's vision; and as a facilitator he has made sure that every element of the corporate culture at their company is an extension of Jacobs. Jacobs is the engine that drives a $5 billion business. Since 1997 he has been the creative director of Louis Vuitton, the "LV" in the international luxury conglomerate LVMH. At Vuitton, Jacobs and Duffy have taken a brand that was stagnant when they arrived and quadrupled its sales from $1.2 billion to $4.8 billion, along the way maintaining profit margins above 40%. Jacobs and Duffy also have their own company — Marc Jacobs International. So when Jacobs goes missing, as he did before his London fashion show, there's a lot at stake. For all that Duffy has done for Marc Jacobs the company, it pales in comparison with what he has done for Jacobs the person. Jacobs puts it in starker terms: "If it weren't for Robert, I'm sure I'd be dead by now," he says. Jacobs told FORTUNE, "Marc Jacobs is not Marc Jacobs. Marc Jacobs is Marc Jacobs and Robert Duffy, or Robert Duffy and Marc Jacobs, whichever way you want to put it." THE STYLE COUNCIL, by Eugenia Levenson, page 106 From iconic designers to luxury group titans, power has never looked so good. FORTUNE traveled the world to photograph the men and women who personify the business. A FORTUNE portfolio. OH, THE PEOPLE YOU'LL BLAME!, by Peter Eavis, page 118 The crisis brought on by worries about shaky subprime mortgages continues to rattle Wall Street. Deals are on hold. Loans are scarce. The stock market swoons and recovers, only to swoon again. And worse may lie ahead. Even as the storm rages, the blame game has begun. Senators are blaming regulators. Bankers are blaming borrowers. Brokers are blaming banks. It's not all idle chatter. The arguments over who's at fault and who's a victim will play a big role as Congress, the Federal Reserve, and regulators debate what actions to take, if any, to restore calm in the markets. As an ordinary investor or homeowner watching while your net worth is buffeted by forces you can't control, you too may be looking for someone to blame. Well, take heart: FORTUNE is here to help you play the blame game. REMEMBERING BLACK MONDAY, by Corey Hajim and Jia Lynn Yang, page 127 Around lunchtime on October 19, 1987, the Dow suddenly dropped 200 points and then went into a tailspin that would last all afternoon. By the end of trading the market had lost 508 points, or 22.6% — the largest one-day drop since 1914 and the second largest of all time. It was a terrifying collapse that resonates anew in today's shaky market. FORTUNE asked ten veterans of the crash to share their memories of what it was like and the lessons they learned. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, by Barney Gimbel, page 138 Meet Paul Brinkley, a fast-talking 40-year-old deputy undersecretary of defense and onetime Silicon Valley executive, who has spent the past year trying to reopen parts of what he calls "Iraq Inc." — the nearly 200 state-owned factories that once manufactured everything from toilets to toothpaste to tractors. Brinkley says his strategy isn't rocket science: If you have a decent job, you're less likely to plant a roadside bomb. But the implementation of that strategy has proved far more complicated and controversial than anyone expected. Money to get the factories restarted has been hard to come by. Finding buyers in the U.S. for the goods has been even harder (only one company, a small Memphis retailer, has signed on so far). And that's on top of the Herculean challenges of doing business in a war zone where electricity is erratic, supplies are scarce, and employees can get blown up on the way to work. Even people in his own government snipe at him. Brinkley has been called a "Stalinist" hell-bent on fixing a broken system and a "well-intentioned guy on a fool's errand." FORTUNE's Barney Gimbel was on the ground reporting on Brinkley's fight to put Iraq back to work. THE OLD GUY SURE CAN PICK 'EM, by Oliver Ryan, page 152 The market for web ads jumped 35% in 2006 to almost $17 billion and has increased for ten consecutive quarters. The past two years saw a total of $7.3 billion in new spending, an ocean of cash that has given rise to a flood of web-media firms. Rich in dollars, but poor in media connections, many tech-oriented VCs have trouble fostering such businesses. Enter Alan Patricof, a New York venture capitalist who founded the $20 billion private equity colossus Apax Partners and VC firm Greycroft Partners, who is nothing if not well connected and loves placing small bets to big effect. Patricof may not have a Facebook profile, and he readily admits he's not the most tech-savvy guy in the room. But he's cherry-picked three partners from the media, tech, and venture capital worlds — Dana Settle from VSP Capital; Drew Lipsher, former head of M&A at IGA Records; and Ian Sigalow, once of Boston Millennia Partners — and together they've snapped up stakes in 15 startups over the past year or so. It's too soon to declare Greycroft's first fund a winner, but the early returns are promising. The firm scored its first big exit in June, selling music exchange Pump Audio to Getty Images for $42 million, a tidy seven-times return in just more than a year. This is not, however, the story of an old man freeloading off the work of his young, tech-savvy MBAs: Without Patricof as the glue, Pump might never have even taken venture money. SELLING P&G, by Geoff Colvin, page 163 In the vast world of marketing and advertising, James Stengel just may be the king. He is Procter & Gamble's global marketing officer, and thus commands the world's largest ad budget — about $6.7 billion. He recently sat down with FORTUNE's Geoff Colvin to talk about consumer power, the value of brands, the decline of mass media, and who needs chief marketing officers.
FORTUNE'S 100 FASTEST GROWING COMPANIES 7 STRONG STOCKS TO BUY NOW, by Yuval Rosenberg and Eugenia Levenson, page 171 FORTUNE combed the ranks of fastest-growing companies to find those recent highfliers poised to continue soaring. THE CLASS OF '07, page 185 This year's list of America's supercharged performers. DEPARTMENTS FIRST: Fidelity's Deafening Silence A string of high-profile exits. The rumored illness of his daughter. How long can Ned Johnson avoid publicly addressing the fund giant's future? The UAW's Latest Gamble The beleaguered auto worker's union is making a major effort to organize the nation's casino dealers. The Power Haircut Where do business titans Rupert Murdoch, Carl Icahn, and James Kilts regularly go for a trim? DISPATCHES: Curse of the Black Swan Greg Stemm's company found the richest trove of sunken treasure ever. Now comes the hard part: keeping it. COLUMNS: The Deal Don't believe the hype: The deficit is much bigger than you think. Technology Consumer content is driving the Internet's future. Books Government gets off easy in Bill Clinton's new book about giving. Questions for Shelly Lazarus The Ogilvy & Mather CEO responds to readers' queries. INVESTING: After the Storm Many stocks were bruised in the recent market tumble; we found ripe choices with bright prospects. Danger: Steep Drop Ahead Prices of stocks, bonds and real estate have a long way to fall. Tales of the Crash of 2007 Some people are losing their homes—and some their marriages.
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CONTACT: Susan Williams
Erin Clinton
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