Forbes Fires Top Editor After Undisclosed $6 Million Payment From Rankings Partner; Pet Insurance Rankings Was Subject Of 2022 TCR Report

Four years after TCR reported unexplained flaws in Forbes’s pet insurance rankings, a separate controversy has emerged at the top of the publication’s rankings operations

In 2022, The Canine Review reported that Forbes had removed its inaugural pet insurance ranking from its website amid unanswered questions posed by TCR about its methodology and commercial licensing.

TCR's report on Forbes's pet insurance rankings

TCR's 2022 investigative story about Forbes's pet insurance rankings

Now, a separate conflict with similar underpinnings has emerged. at the top of the publication’s rankings operations. Forbes is confronting a new controversy involving Randall Lane, its chief content officer, who was dismissed in July because of his relationship with the research firm Shook that produces Forbes-branded rankings related to investment advisers, as first reported in The New York Times.

This week, The New York Times reported Forbes’s dismissal of Mr. Lane, the editor responsible for overseeing all of its journalism, after learning that he had received an undisclosed payment of approximately $6 million from R.J. Shook, founder of SHOOK Research. SHOOK has partnered with Forbes since 2016 to produce rankings of financial advisers and wealth-management firms.