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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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APPLE TOPS FORTUNE'S 26th ANNUAL LIST OF AMERICA'S MOST ADMIRED COMPANIES;
UP SIX SPOTS FROM LAST YEAR'S LIST
NEW YORK — March 3, 2008 — FORTUNE magazine announced today that Apple tops its 26th annual list of America's Most Admired Companies®. The $24 billion software company, run by innovative pitchman Steve Jobs, rode the success of its portable jukebox and status-symbol cell phone to surge to the top of this year's list. Following Apple is Berkshire Hathaway at No. 2, up two spots from the No. 4 spot last year; and General Electric at No.3, dropping down two spots from the No. 1 spot on last year's list. The list and related stories appear in the March 17 issue of FORTUNE, on newsstands March 10, and are currently available online at www.fortune.com. In addition, the online component to America's Most Admired Companies includes: original video, photo galleries, interactive maps, blogs, games, polls and interactive rankings. Special features include interactive tools to find the companies you most admire and to find the most admired companies in your state. In an exclusive interview with FORTUNE Senior Editor Betsy Morris, Apple CEO Steve Jobs states, "We do no market research. We just want to make great products. When we created the iTunes Music Store, we did it because we thought it would be great to be able to buy music electronically, not because we had plans to redefine the music industry." Apple has demonstrated how to create real, breathtaking growth by dreaming up products so new and ingenious that they have disrupted one industry after another: consumer electronics, the record industry, the movie industry, video, and music production. The 2008 edition of the list includes two newcomers, BMW at No. 14, and Cisco Systems at No. 18. In addition, two companies on last year's list have dropped out of the top 20: PepsiCo and Wal-Mart Stores, who tied for the No. 19 spot on the 2007 list. FORTUNE's America's Most Admired Companies list is the definitive report card on corporate reputations and is the result of a vast corporate survey that questioned more than 3,700 people from 622 companies in 65 separate industries. It features a composite list of the 20 Most Admired Companies in corporate America, along with a separate breakout of where companies rank within their respective industries. Rounding out the list of America's Most Admired companies are: Google (No. 4); Toyota Motor (No. 5); Starbucks (No. 6); FedEx (No. 7); Procter & Gamble (No. 8); Johnson & Johnson (No. 9); Goldman Sachs Group (No. 10); Target (No. 11); Southwest Airlines (No. 12); American Express (No. 13); BMW (No. 14); Costco Wholesale (also No. 14); Microsoft (No. 16); United Parcel Service (No. 17); Cisco Systems (No. 18); 3M (No. 19); and Nordstrom (No. 20). Other facts about the 2008 America's Most Admired Companies list include:
How We Conduct the Most Admired Survey The America's Most Admired Companies list is the definitive report card on corporate reputations. Our survey partners at Hay Group started with the FORTUNE 1,000 — the 1,000 largest U.S. companies ranked by revenue — and the top foreign companies operating in the U.S. They sorted the companies by industry and selected the ten largest companies in each. To create the 64 industry lists, Hay Group asked executives, directors, and analysts to rate companies in their own industry on eight criteria, from investment value to social responsibility. This year only the best are listed: A company's score must rank in the top half of its industry survey. To create the top 20, an overall list of America's Most Admired Companies, Hay Group asked 3,721 executives, directors, and securities analysts who had responded to the industry surveys to select the ten companies they admired most. They chose from a list made up of the companies that ranked in the top 25% in last year's survey, plus those that finished in the top 20% of their industry. Anyone could vote for any company in any industry. The difference in the voting rolls is why some results can seem anomalous; for example, Johnson & Johnson is one of the top ten America's Most Admired Companies but only second in its own industry. A total of 622 companies in 65 industries were surveyed. Due to an insufficient response rate, the results of ten companies in the energy industry are not reported. In addition, for 46 companies, only the aggregate scores and ranks are published due to the distribution of responses in the following five industries: (1) Internet Services and Retailing, (2) Mortgage Services, (3) Oil and Gas Equipment, Services, (4) Wholesalers: Diversified, and (5) Wholesalers: Food and Grocery. America's Most Admired Companies and The World's Most Admired Companies are registered trademarks of FORTUNE magazine, a division of Time Inc.
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CONTACT: Katy Reitz Brett LeVecchio
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