Forbes expansion on web comes with pain

Lauren Indvik of Mashable writes about the growing pains at Forbes being experienced by allowing online contributors without first vetting their content.

Indvik writes, “The system allows Forbes.com to produce more content more quickly. It also saves the publication the cost of hiring and maintaining editors.

“But it comes with other costs. Take a post Ironfire Capital’s Eric Jackson posted to Forbes.com late last month titled, ‘Sheryl Sandberg is the Valley’s ‘It’ Girl – Just like Kim Polese once was.’ The post provoked angry reactions from many in the tech and media industries, who found it ‘sexist’ and ‘ridiculous.’

“In our interview, D’Vorkin said that Forbes vets its contributors ‘very carefully,’ but that contributors are ultimately accountable for the content they publish. ‘If they do a good job, they build a following. If they don’t do a good job being accountable for their content, people aren’t going to trust them,’ he said.

“But, I would argue, posts like Jackson’s don’t just reflect badly on Jackson. They reflect badly on the whole Forbes brand. When some complained about the article, they didn’t mention Jackson — they mentioned Forbes.”

Read more here.