How Fortune uses 5,000 outside contributors

Lucia Moses of Digiday writes about how Fortune uses thousands of outside contributors for content on its website.

Moses writes, “The Time Inc. title draws from a 5,000-person contributor network who supply what Fortune digital editor Aaron Task calls ‘our op-ed page.’ The result is commentary from executives like Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent (‘Every moment of every day is an opportunity to start or strengthen a relationship’) and Shark Tank contestant Robert Herjavec (Place ‘more emphasis on the cause and less on the blame’). Recently, the site had executives including Cinnabon president Kat Cole and Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky dispensing advice about how to succeed at work.

“In taking an open approach, Fortune joins the company of Forbes, The Huffington Post and Yahoo Finance, which also rely on outside bloggers to bolster their traffic. Fortune has been careful to distance itself from Forbes, which was early in opening up its site to outside writers (and brands). Fortune’s editor has criticized Forbes for making it hard to tell what’s staff written and what’s not. Opening the door to outsiders has had its misses; Gawker once briefly shut down parts of its platform in response to violent pornography posts, and Forbes said it was investigating after a contributor reportedly asked a PR agency for money to write about the agency’s subject.

“Fortune also has to keep in mind the concern of ad buyers like Jeremy Tate of Starcom who wonder about the goal of the contributed content. ‘What I’d want to understand from Fortune or any publisher supplementing their editorial using a contributor model is the role that content plays and how they’re ensuring it maintains the editorial voice a media brand is known for,’ he said.”

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