Categories: OLD Media Moves

Forbes journalists building their brands

Forbes chief product officer Lewis Dvorkin writes Tuesday about how some of the business magazine’s journalists are creating a brand for themselves, which helps their careers.

Dvorkin writes, “For a new breed of content creator, brand-building on FORBES highlights the potential rewards of Entrepreneurial Journalism:

– Andy Greenberg, one of our technology reporters in New York, used his individually branded page on Forbes.com to focus on computer security and hackers. His comprehensive and in-depth digital work (more than our magazine could ever accommodate) caught the attention of Julian Assange, leading to an exclusive interview, a timely cover story in FORBES magazine and continuous coverage of Wikileaks online. All that led to a book deal for Andy on the history of cryptographic anonymity and how it led to Wikileaks.

– Parmy Olson, a staff reporter in London, followed a similar path (‘My book would have never happened if it weren’t for my posts on Forbes.com’). Parmy was intrigued by a loose confederation of hackers known as Anonymous. She began to post about the group’s bigger attacks, developed sources in Britain and reached out to core supporters, including a purported 16-year-old girl hacker. Parmy’s controversial email interview with the teen resulted in her most popular post. Her continued posts have built an audience for the release of her upcoming book, We Are Anonymous: Inside the World LulzSec, Anonymous and the Global Cyber Insurgency.

– Staff reporter David Ewalt, a geek and avid gamer, scored a book deal to write about the history of Dungeons & Dragons, in large part because of his digital presence and access to millions of Forbes.com readers. He’s now building an audience for his book on Forbes.com by frequently covering the gaming industry and tech culture. ‘As I wrote the book,’ says David, ‘I could post about D&D and related subjects on my page, building awareness about the book, increasing interest and establishing myself as an expert on the subject.’ Of Dice and Men is scheduled to be released later this year.”