OLD Media Moves

The strategy behind Forbes newsletter expansion

Randall Lane, the chief content officer and editor in chief of Forbes, writes about its newsletter strategy where it’s hiring business journalists to write about specific topics.

Lane writes, “Journalist Entrepreneurs will earn a salary and benefits like other staffers, and be able to leverage our editors, fact-checkers, lawyers and designers. But then they’ll split revenue with Forbes—evenly, without a cap—based on the subscription journalism they create. In addition to great writing for the magazine and Forbes.com, expect a fleet of world-class newsletters, among other new offerings.

“We already have Dwight Silverman onboard—the longtime Houston Chronicle tech editor carries so much weight that Michael Dell personally tweeted him best wishes when he jumped to Forbes. Suzanne Rowan Kelleher covers travel trends as deftly as Beyoncé commands the stage. Scott Mendelson knows more about Hollywood box office than the studio heads themselves—no small topic as the entertainment business reinvents itself. Dozens more are still to come.

“Letting our journalists embrace the same free-market system we’ve always espoused enables us to create something truly authentic for Forbes. Our ultimate incentive, of course, is one thing above all: making you, the reader, ever happier.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

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