Reinvention or regression for Forbes?

Lucia Moses of MediaWeek examines Forbes‘ strategy of offering space on its Web site to corporate blogs and other writers.

Moses writes, “Meanwhile, editors have been pressured to increasingly rely on nonpaid contributors for the Web, with the goal, as one former editor put it, ‘of not paying anything for content.’

“Traffic to the site has plunged 21 percent to 11.5 million monthly uniques from 14.5 million in the past six months, per comScore.

“From the outside, the experiment is being closely watched for both how Forbes will filter and integrate non-staff written content and how its audience will react. Is the move just another retrenchment or an effective new model for increasing margins in a CPM-challenged world?

“Robin Steinberg, svp, director of print investment and activation, MediaVest, gave Forbes credit for thinking differently, but wondered how business news consumers in particular would react to the potential confusion surrounding the change in the historic brand.”

Read more here.