Each year, Forbes publishes an growing number of lists...It is perhaps best known for the The Forbes 400, in which one billion dollars is no longer enough to get into America's most exclusive club. (I imagine those billionaires who have only -- only 1.1 billion are envious of those who came in at 398 and 399, and feel certain that next year they will be able to displace No. 400.)
Forbes also publishes
- The Celebrity 100:The world's most powerful and best-paid movie stars, musicians and athletes.
- The World's 100 Most Powerful Women: As more women now run corporations, nonprofits and entire countries, getting on our annual list has never been more challenging.
- The 200 Best Small Companies.
- The 400 Best Big Companies.
- Fastest-Growing Techs
- Asia's Best Under A Billion
- Asia's Fabulous 50 Companies
- The Largest Private Companies.
- The World's 2,000 Largest Companies.
- The Global High Performers.
- Australia & New Zealand's 40 Richest
- China's 40 Richest.
- Greater China's 40 Richest.
- India's 40 Richest.
- Israel's 40 Richest.
- Japan's 40 Richest.
- Korea's 40 Richest.
- Malaysia's 40 Richest.
- Midas 100: Tech's Top Dealmakers.
- Most Powerful Celebrities.
- Top-Earning Dead Celebrities.
- Singapore's 40 Richest.
- The 40 Richest Turks.
- Top-Earning CEOs.
- Wall Street's Top Analysts.
- World's Billionaires.
- World's Top-Earning Models.
Forbes also publishes:
- The Best Business Schools.
- The Best And Worst School Districts For The Buck.
- The Most Connected Campuses.
- The World's Most Decadent Cocktails.
- The World's Most Expensive Tasting Menus.
- The World's Most Expensive Whiskies.
- The World's Top Power Dining Spots.
- Best Cities For Singles.
- Best Places For Business.
- Best States For Business.
- Capital Hospitality.
- America's Fastest Growing Suburbs
- America's Most Expensive Commutes
- Best And Worst Home Improvements
- Best And Worst U.S. Housing Markets
- Inside The Homes Of The Celebrities
- Most Expensive Beachfront Homes
- Most Expensive Private Islands
- Most Expensive States To Insure A home
- Most Expensive ZIP Codes
- Priciest Penthouses 2007
- The Most Expensive Blocks In The U.S.
- Top Urban Enclaves
- What $1 Million Buys In Homes Across The U.S.
- World's Most Overpriced Real Estate Markets
- Best Cars For College Students
- Fastest Zero-To-60 Cars
- Least Expensive Cars To Drive
- Least Fuel-Efficient Hybrids
- Most Affordable Luxury Cars
- Most Coveted Cars
- Most Expensive Cars In The U.S.
- Most Expensive Cars To Drive
- Most Expensive Cars To Insure
- Most-Recalled Cars
- Most Stolen Luxury Cars
- Safest Cars 2007
- Sexiest Luxury Cars
- Top 20 Most Dangerous Vehicles
- Top 2007 Gas Guzzlers
- Value-Losing Cars
- Best New Business Hotels
- Most Dangerous Destinations 2007
- Most Expensive Airport Parking
- Most Expensive Cruises
- Most Expensive Restaurants In The U.S.
- Top Chefs Pick Meals Worth Traveling For
- Top Spots For First-Rate Room Service
- Top Tips For First-Class Upgrades
- World's Best Airlines
- World's Best Business Class
- World's Best First Class
- The World's Fastest Passenger Jets
- World's Most Expensive Hotel Suites
- World's Most Endangered Destinations
- World's Most Remote Destinations
- World's Most Romantic Hotels
- World's Ultimate Beach Bars
- Collecting
- Education
- Health
- Investing
- Look It Up
- Luxe Shopping
- Management
- Personal Finance and Careers
- The Good Life
- Travel
- Gadgets We Love
- The E-Gang
- MLB Team Valuations
- NASCAR Team Valuations
- NBA Team Valuations
- NFL Team Valuations
- NHL Team Valuations
- Richest Soccer Teams
Perhaps my favorite example of reporters and editors with too much time on their hands is the Forbes Fictional 15 -- Forbes' "annual listing of fiction's richest. This year's list boasts an aggregate net worth of $137 billion. (I also like Forbes' Top-Earning Dead Celebrities, and have written about them previously in a post entitled Dead Man Branding on Nov. 1 available at http://www.forbes.com/home/business/2007/10/29/dead-celebrity-earning-biz-media-deadcelebs07_cz_lg_1029celeb_land.html.)
How do you qualify for the Fictional 15? Forbes applies a rigorous standard:
- "We require that candidates be an authored fictional creation, a rule that excludes mythological and folkloric characters." (That knocked out Santa Claus, who had made the 2005 list. This is interesting because some on Forbes' editorial staff are convinced there is a "War Against Christmas" so why did they take Saint Nick of the list? The explanation: "We still estimate Claus' net worth as infinite, but we excluded him ... after being bombarded by letters from outraged children insisting that Claus is 'real.' We don't claim to have settled the ongoing controversy concerning Claus' existence, but after taking into account the physical evidence--toys delivered, milk and cookies devoured--we felt it was safer to remove him from consideration.")
- "They must star in a specific narrative work or series of works. And they must be known, both within their fictional universe and by their audience, for being rich.
- "Net worth estimates are based on an analysis of the fictional character's source material, and are valued against known real-world commodity and share price movements.
- In the case of privately held fictional concerns, we sought to identify comparable fictional public companies. All prices are as of market close, Dec. 10, 2007.
They also published for the first time this year, "the largest fictional companies in the universe. The task was a mammoth undertaking: Dozens of reporters spent countless hours poring over financial documents, a far-flung network of correspondents traveled much of the space-time continuum, and sophisticated algorithms were perfected to perform the tricky business of converting gold pieces, Zorkmids, other exotic currencies into 2007 U.S. dollars."
Yes, that's right. Forbes editorial staff may not have time to write about real companies because they are too busy tracking down the net worth of fictional characters and fictional companies. (Fill in your own Enron joke here.)
