The chief content officer at Forbes magazine was fired from his top editorial position after the company learned he had received around $6 million as an undisclosed payment from a man that does business with the publication, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
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Randall Lane was fired last month, the Times reported.
In an unrelated connection to Philadelphia, Lane was the cowriter of a musical, The Sound of America, that debuted this summer at FringeArts.
The Times, citing unnamed sources, reported that Lane was paid by RJ Shook, the founder of Shook Research, which has partnered with the magazine for about a decade to publish rankings of wealth advisers.
Shook made the payment after he sold a majority stake in Shook Research to a private equity firm last August, the Times reported.
To avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, newsrooms often prohibit payments from sources or other people who have a financial incentive to curry favor with a journalist.
The Times said it was unclear why Shook paid Lane, though at least one unnamed source said Lane considered the money as a gift for advice he had provided to Shook over the years.
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The 58-year-old Lane, in a statement to the Times, said: “I made a mistake, and I take responsibility for it.”
He added: “I should have disclosed the gift, and failing to was a serious error in judgment. I deeply regret that and I lost the job and team I love because of it. None of this changes how I feel about Forbes and the amazing people there.”
A Forbes spokesperson confirmed to the Times that Lane was no longer with the magazine, but declined to talk about the payment. The Times reported that Shook did not respond to requests for comment.
The Sound of America, the musical that Lane co-wrote, was promoted on the Forbes website and the magazine’s YouTube channel.
The musical imagines Franklin as a young rock star who finds fame after discovering electric rock and roll from the power of a lightning strike.
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The musical ended its run at FringeArts on Aug. 1.