How Forbes became so digital

Adweek’s Charlie Warzel interviewed Forbes CEO Mike Perlis about the dramatic changes at the business magazine, including its focus on digital news and commentary.

Here is an excerpt:

Adweek: Critics of AdVoice will say that having 1,000 contributors to the site is can lead to sloppy journalism and create that “if you’ve got something to say, say it on the Huffington Post’ kind of eye-rolling. What does Forbes do to keep thought leadership while democratizing the platform?

In a world where content can be commoditized we create filters around our brand. We love the fact that we produce a successful magazine. Our 1,000 contributors are all hired, are vetted, are all on a compensation plan and all curated which is very different from ‘if you’ve got something to say, say it on the Huffington Post.’  Our model is, if you’ve got passion and expertise then apply for a position. We’ve really created more relevant content than we ever could have by carefully hiring people with more narrow and specific passions.

That’s a lot of content, though. How does Forbes keep track of it all?

I’m not suggesting we edit them like we edit a full-time staffer, but the most important decisions we make is at the point of our contributor hires. We can take things down as quickly as we get them started and we do when we need to. We’ve enhanced our full-time and freelance staff too, and a number of those people pay full time attention to the contributor space editing on a vertical-by-vertical level. We think the vibrancy of the platform is worth the extra time and energy. It’s not an easy thing to do and it’s all about this platform. Our content carries the Forbes name and our whole mantra is to put authoritative journalism at the center of the social media experience.

Read more here.