Forbes giving advertisers an editorial voice

Rob O’Regan, the editor of emediavitals.com, writes about how Forbes magazine is allowing advertisers to publish content on its website.

O’Regan writes, “Forbes has adopted the latter strategy with its 2-year-old AdVoice program. AdVoice allows marketers to publish blog posts directly to Forbes.com, where they compete for eyeballs with all other staff-written and third-party content. To date, 13 brands have participated in AdVoice (all as part of a larger media buy). Four more will launch within the next six weeks, and Forbes expects to have more than two dozen partners by year-end.  Forbes plans to extend the program to video content in the fourth quarter.

“More than 10% of Forbes digital revenue comes from partners using the AdVoice platform, and Forbes expects that share to rise to 15% by the end of the year. (Overall, Forbes digital revenues have increased 28% through the first seven months of the year.)

“AdVoice is a way for Forbes to extend its evolving publishing model to advertising partners, who use the same platform and tools as Forbes’ editorial staff and other third-party contributors to publish their posts, said Lewis D’Vorkin, Forbes Media’s chief product officer.

“‘Just as we’ve built up a new editorial newsroom, we are building a mirror ‘brand newsroom,’ with the same discipline and the same skill sets,’ D’Vorkin said in a phone interview. ‘The difference is that personnel from the sales side – not the product or editorial side – are working with our AdVoice partners to educate them and advise them on how to publish.'”

Read more here.