Forbes China - produced in conjunction with Morningside Business Publishing, a unit of the Hong Kong-based Morningside International investment group - rolled out with an initial print run of 75,000. Forbes Korea, which is published by a joint-venture with Korea's second-largest newspaper Joong Ang Ilbo, has a circulation of 50,000.
William Adamopoulos, Forbes Asia vice-president and managing director, said the monthly local language editions complement the fortnightly English Forbes Global in the region as well as the Japanese edition. "We can drill down to business leaders and talk to them in their own language. At the same time, we can drive sales back to the English edition since we can tap into local budgets and do a network buy," he said, stressing that the monthlies would not cannablise Forbes Global's client base.
Forbes China is published in Hong Kong and distributed in the mainland through a designated Chinese government-owned publications import and export company. Its 120-page launch issue had bookings from 40 advertisers such as Intel, Vacheron Constantin and Peking University. The launch Korean edition had 240 pages - 80 ad pages that included bookings by BMW, Honda, Oracle and DHL.
Forbes now publishes four magazines in the region, giving it a total circulation of 272,000.