Craig Forman is an American entrepreneur, media executive, and former foreign correspondent who served as chief executive officer of
The McClatchy Company
McClatchy Media Company, or simply McClatchy and MCC, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law. Originally based in Sacramento, California, United States, and known as The McClatchy Company, it b ...
. He previously worked at ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
''. He is currently a partner at NextNews Ventures, an early-stage private investment fund based in San Francisco. Forman has been a non-resident fellow at the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
Forman is also the author of ''Be Luckier in Life'', a career guide for business success, published by Iver Publishing.
Career
Forman has held senior positions at Yahoo!, Earthlink, Dow Jones, and Time Warner.
Forman worked at ''The Wall Street Journal'' as an editor in the London bureau and as Tokyo bureau chief, among other positions. While based in London as the Journal's Deputy Bureau Chief, Forman was a member of the 1991 Persian Gulf War reporting team which later became a finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
.
After leaving ''The Wall Street Journal'', Forman became a senior operating executive at Time Warner's CNN Group and Time Inc. divisions. He was also a member of the management team that took
Infoseek
Infoseek (also known as the "big yellow") was an American internet search engine founded in 1994 by Steve Kirsch.
Infoseek was originally operated by the Infoseek Corporation, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Infoseek was bought by The W ...
public. As a vice-president at ''CNN Financial News'', Forman led the team for CNNfn.com. As a vice president of worldwide development at Time Inc. New Media, Forman managed the internet businesses of ''Fortune'' and ''Money'' magazines while also serving as CEO of
Thrive, a joint venture with
AOL
AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc.
The service traces its history to an online ...
. He also played an influential role in helping
Time Warner
Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City.
It was established as Time Warne ...
develop an independent internet strategy before its combination with AOL in 2000.
Forman also served for four years as CEO and co-founder of Success Television LLP and MyPrimeTime Inc., a television production and venture-backed internet company. Forman and his team produced two business and lifestyle PBS television series, ''Great Entrepreneurs'' and ''Great Leaders'', as well as broadband programming and an award-winning internet site targeted at
baby boomers
Baby boomers, often shortened to boomers, are the demographic cohort preceded by the Silent Generation and followed by Generation X. The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964 during the mid-20th century baby boom that ...
.
In March 2006, Forman joined
EarthLink
EarthLink is an American Internet service provider.
Earthlink went public on NASDAQ in January 1997. Much of the company's growth was via acquisition. In 2000, ''The New York Times'' described it as the "second largest Internet service provider ...
as its executive vice president, as well as president of its Access and Audience division and chief product officer.
Forman has served on a variety of public and private company boards. He was executive chairman at mobile app advertising network Appia Inc. and an investor and board member at several other startups in telecom, technology, and media. Along with colleagues
Gordon Crovitz and
Jim Friedlich
James Friedlich (born February 2, 1957) is an American media and philanthropy executive. He is chief executive officer and executive director of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, a non-profit organization that supports innovative journalism i ...
, Forman co-founded and became a general partner at NextNews Ventures, an early-stage private investment fund which invests in media, technology and telecom startups. Forman was also executive chairman and a member of the board of directors of
Where.com, a leading location-based mobile commerce company that was acquired by
EBay
eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...
Inc. in April 2011. Forman joined the Where.com board in 2009. Since 2012, Forman has been on the board of directors and served as the governance and nominating committee chair of Montreal-based local advertising company
Yellow Pages Limited.
In October 2022, Forman joined the Council for Responsible Social Media project launched by
Issue One
Issue One is an American nonprofit organization that seeks to reduce the role of money in politics. It aims to increase public awareness of what it views as problems within the present campaign finance system, and to reduce the influence of money ...
to address the negative mental, civic, and public health impacts of
social media
Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...
in the United States co-chaired by former
House Democratic Caucus
The House Democratic Caucus is a congressional caucus composed of all Democratic representatives in the United States House of Representatives, voting and non-voting, and is responsible for nominating and electing the Democratic Party leadersh ...
Leader
Dick Gephardt
Richard Andrew Gephardt (; born January 31, 1941) is an American attorney, lobbyist, and politician who represented in the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 2005. A member of the Democratic Party, he was House majority lead ...
and former
Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey. In August 2023, Forman joined the Center for News, Technology & Innovation (CNTI), a global policy research center, as its Executive Chair.
References
External links
Innovation and New Media Speaker
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forman, Craig
American male journalists
Living people
The Wall Street Journal people
1961 births
McClatchy people