6 FORTUNE FEBRUARY/MARCH 2021
IT IS SOMETIMES HARD to fathom, in
our era of instantaneity, how long the
timeline can be for putting together a print
magazine. Our story in this issue on the
striking SolarWinds hack (which begins on
page 62)—by David Z. Morris and Robert
Hackett, two of the most seasoned and
sophisticated writers on cybersecurity that
I’ve ever read—got its germination shortly
after this jaw-dropping breach was
reported in mid-December.Worth the Time
Viv Walt, our senior special correspon-
dent in Europe, began reporting on Elon
Musk’s controversial Gigafactory in Ger-
many (see “Cold-Blooded,” on page 42) in
the days before Thanksgiving, when she
heard the brouhaha building in Berlin. If
my email archive is to be believed, writer
Rey Mashayekhi first pitched his feature
on Wells Fargo (“Busted Stagecoach,”
page 70) way back in June, after gather-
ing string on the troubled bank in several
other stories. And Erika Fry’s simply mes-
merizing tale of her home state in crisis,
“Hawkeye Elegy” (page 80), got its start
shortly after she was born—or at least
that’s my guess based on the sheer depth
and expertise of the reporting.
That long, deliberate timeline is a fea-
ture, not a bug. To be sure, we are proudly
digital first at Fortune—eager as any flock
of ravenous reporters to take flight with a
breaking story. And I hope, dear reader,
you’ll return to Fortune.com again and
again to see what we’ve uncovered. Yet
for all of the virtue of speed in this end-
lessly streaming information age, there is
wisdom—perhaps even the irreplaceable
kind—to be found in the slow-but-steady
act of feature-writing.That’s what you’ll find, I believe, in the
collection of stories we’ve assigned for this
issue’s cover package. Together, they try to
answer a question that has taken several
patient weeks to figure out: What comes
next? As a new President presides at the
Resolute desk, as a new Congress dithers
and perhaps even begins to deliberate,
as a slate of challenges from COVID-
to climate change to the collapse of civic
kindness grow ever more urgent, what
lies in wait just over the horizon?
I’m happy to say that the answers, con-
scientiously reported by my colleagues, do
shed light. They offer thoughtful guid-
ance for anyone who hopes to navigate
an uncertain landscape for business, the
economy, and life during a pandemic
that won’t seem to fade. One extra note
of comfort, as political correspondent
Nicole Goodkind reveals, is that the U.S.
economy has a steady hand at the tiller in
new Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen—a
woman who has proved to be an assidu-
ous steward in every previous role she’s
held (page 52).
This issue also marks another change
in Fortune’s now-91-year history—and I
believe it is a welcome one. We are now
publishing our print magazine every
other month. That move will not only
free up our reporters to break more news
and offer urgent commentary on Fortune
.com, it will also help ensure that the sto-
ries you do read in these pages are always
worth your time.CLIFTON LEAF
Editor-in-Chief, Fortune
@CliftonLeafFOREWORDILLUSTRATION BY SAM KERR