Michael Noer (born March 21, 1969) is an American business writer and editor. He has worked for Forbes Magazine and Wired Magazine, and is currently the executive news editor for Forbes.com.

Career

Noer graduated cum laude from Rice University in 1992. In 1993, he became a Thomas J. Watson Fellow, and spent 15 months traveling in Europe and the Middle East studying the history of Santa Claus.

As a reporter for Forbes, Noer worked on the Forbes 400 list. In 1996, he was the founding managing editor of Forbes.com. Under his tenure, in a piece written by Adam Penenberg the site uncovered the journalistic fraud of New Republic reporter Stephen Glass, a scoop that is widely considered a landmark moment for internet journalism. The story was the basis for the 2003 film Shattered Glass, produced by Lions Gate Films. From 1999 to 2000 Noer served as Business editor of Wired, where he edited the Wired 40.

After returning to Forbes.com, he helped create the Forbes Fictional 15, for which he wrote a satiric look at the business practices of Santa Claus ^[1]. He has also edited a variety of features for the site, including a look at the greatest athletic achievements of all time ^[2], and special reports on Communicating ^[3], Money ^[4], and Work ^[5].

Sexism controversy

On August 22nd 2006, Forbes.com published an article written by Noer, "Don't Marry Career Women," ^[6] which included statistics used to defend a thesis that men were unhappier in marriages in which the women earned more than $30,000 a year, as opposed to marriages in which the women worked less. The article attracted controversy among readers and bloggershttp://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2006/08/24/career_women/index_np.html Due to the furor, it was taken down after one day. Hours later, it was republished with a counterpoint piece entitled "Don't Marry A Lazy Man," by Elizabeth Corcoran, a Forbes Senior Editor based in Silicon Valley. Forbes opened up a Reader Response forum http://forums.forbes.com/forbes/board?board.id=respond_marry_career_woman to discuss the issues raised by the two articles, and Steve Forbes, the magazine's editor-in-chief and leading shareholder, issued a public apology.

References