Add Newsweek to the growing list of publishers launching readership communities. The Newsweek Expert Forum now offers a waitlist in advance of its formal opening later this month. Newsweek is building the Expert Forum in association with The Community Company, a virtual professional services firm that manages councils for Forbes, Rolling Stone and Bizjournals.
Agencies and clients face a reckoning with contributed content. The latter still assumes that opportunities abound. More than 100 entries in the SWMS contributed content gatekeepers list proves them right. Then again, when it comes to Tier 1, it just might be best to pay whoever lifts the velvet rope.
Is the Forbes Technology Council worth the money? We hear that a lot from PR pros looking to place contributed content. In our view the answer is ‘yes’, though there’s actually something bigger going on, which we’ll get to in a sec.
YOUR ACCOUNT
FRIDGE NOTES
Here’s a true story. An Oct. 8 Adweek headline says, ‘Press Releases Have Become Way Too Hyperbolic.’ The deck says, ‘Experts Warn the Loss of Credibility Could Lead to Catastrophe.”
TechCrunch redesigned this week. Still green, less clutter. Built for the phone. Events and newsletters rank higher in the home page scroll than startups, venture and AI. No enterprise section. Parent Yahoo invested this money to build engagement. More changes due in 2025, EIC Connie Loizos says.
Adweek’s Mark Stenberg reports that Wired is getting into the awards business. The Wired 101 Awards will debut in October. Be on the lookout for the announcement.
BI’s publishing software knows what you’ve clicked on before and where you came from. Through Google Analytics, BI also knows how all readers react to certain content. Once you visit, BI knows whether to ask you to subscribe, or to register, or just to let you see everything for just that one visit. Conversions rose 75 percent this year. Digiday got the scoop (subscription required).
Fascinating piece from Lars Lofgren about how a Forbes subsidiary — under the Forbes name — has managed to dominate Google search results…
…and now it turns out that Forbes — both iterations — are set to be purchased by the venture arm of Koch Industries. Nice scoop, Sara.
Now that it has sold off its classifieds business, the owner of Politico and Business Insider will go shopping for more titles. Don’t be surprised if News Corp. sells the WSJ to Axel Springer, especially if Lachlan Murdoch loses his grip on the media empire built by his politically conservative father.
