Forbes Ukraine, focused on business and entrepreneurs since 2011, is about to cease publication, sources have told the Kyiv Post.
Earlier on Feb. 9, the magazine’s website put up an announcement saying that new stories won’t be published because of technical problems.
Sources inside the magazine told the Kyiv Post that the team is falling apart and many staffers are about to leave. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to talk to the press.
An official statement from the Forbes Ukraine is expected in several days, the source said.
Forbes Ukraine is published by Ukrainian Media Holding, the publishing house belonging to a fugitive Ukrainian businessman Serhiy Kurchenko, a crony of overthrown ex-President Viktor Yanukovych who fled Ukraine after the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2014 and is reportedly living in Russia.
The magazine lost its license in 2014 due to connection with Kurchenko, but continued publishing nonetheless.
The last print issue was published in January. Its official circulation was hitting 25,000 copies.
Forbes Ukraine chief editor Eugene Shpytko told the Kyiv Post that he can’t comment on the current state of the magazine. Ukrainian Media Holding said they are not ready to give an official comment yet.
Besides Forbes Ukraine, the holding owns Korrespondent magazine, Komsomolskaya Pravda in Ukraine, Vogue Ukraine and other media assets.
In 2014, Forbes Media revoked the licensing agreement, adding that the association with Forbes Ukraine under Kurchenko has damaged the goodwill of the Forbes brand and “has tarnished Forbes’ trademark both in the Ukraine and worldwide.”
In August 2015, Mia Carbonell, a spokeswoman for Forbes Media, said that Forbes “had undertaken all actions to deny Forbes Ukraine access to Forbes U.S. content and… no longer provides UMH authorized use of the Forbes brand and domain name services.”
In April, International Court of Arbitration in New York ruled to forbid UMH to use the trademark of the publication of Forbes, including Forbes Ukraine, or any other use of the trademark in print, online and on mobile applications.
In response, Forbes Ukraine announced they have all the legal grounds to publish the magazine and said that the court ruling was politically motivated as the owner of UMH – Kurchenko – is under the U.S. sanctions.
The Kyiv Post received a letter distributed by Forbes Media’s Chief Administrative Officer Terrence O’Connor on Feb. 15 in which he warned the advertising agencies in Ukraine that Forbes Ukraine and Forbes.net.ua website are not authorized by Forbes Media and don’t represent the brand.
“UMH is publishing both without a license or permission from Forbes Media,” reads the letter. “UMH’s continued publication violates an Award dated April 20, 2016 by an International Arbitration Tribunal that declared that the former license arrangement between Forbes Media and UMH be terminated and voided as a result of UMH’s editorial interference. The ruling also directly prohibits the use of Forbes trademarks.”
UMH responded by saying that “the arbitration process (in the U.S. court) had a number of violations.” They said that they appealed to New York District Court and it accepted the appeal, but Forbes Media filed an application to Obolon District Court in Kyiv for recognition of an arbitral award by International Court of Arbitration in New York on the territory of Ukraine. UMH still awaits the final decision on their appeal by New York District Court.
