According to Forbes, Journalist Entrepreneurs helps writers create deeply engaged communities around their subject-matter expertise and build enduring businesses across Forbes platforms, including premium newsletters.
As Forbes staff, “Journalist Entrepreneurs” receive a salary and benefits, as well as a split of the revenue they generate, helped by Forbes’ editorial, marketing and customer service/support functions, as well as the extensive reach of the site. They can self-publish their work through Forbes’ CMS, Bertie; establish their own profile page on Forbes.com, and easily create and distribute their own customized paid newsletters, which are then distributed, marketed and managed by Forbes.
Their work is:
- Promoted through relevant stories across Forbes, one of the top 30 sites in the world;
- Highlighted in Forbes’ contextual marketing efforts that reach millions of people monthly, and
- Spotlighted across Forbes’ social platforms, which engage 40 million people across LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Forbes says it offers editorial guidance, legal support, payment management and access to extensive art and video libraries. The journalists also have the opportunity to participate in broader Forbes initiatives, such as Forbes LIVE events (Forbes hosted nearly 100 in 2020 alone).
“We’re the world’s authority on the entrepreneurs who are disrupting, innovating and reshaping business – and much like the people we cover, today’s journalists are increasingly entrepreneurs themselves,” said Randall Lane, Forbes’ Chief Content Officer. “Through our ‘Journalist Entrepreneurs’ platform, we’re giving writers the support and exposure they need to grow their loyal reader base and extensive tools to generate multiple revenue streams to support their work.”
Among the charter Journalist Entrepreneurs are new staffers Dwight Silverman, the former tech editor for The Houston Chronicle, and acclaimed travel writer Suzanne Kelleher. Lane said that Journalist Entrepreneurs will be chosen for the quality of their work and the unique insights they bring. “We’re aiming for quality over quantity,” he said.
“Journalist Entrepreneurs” also encompasses paid newsletters for key Forbes franchises like the “Midas List,” which focuses on the venture capital community, and “SportsMoney,” which details the business of sports. The newsletters will be edited by Alex Konrad and Mike Ozanian, respectively.
This spring, a similar paid newsletter strategy will be extended to popular voices in Forbes’ extensive contributor network, allowing them to generate additional revenue from their already large following.
The various paid subscription newsletters complement Forbes’ paid investing newsletters, written by financial experts, as well as Forbes’ more than two-dozen free, advertiser-supported newsletters, which reach 1.5 million people each week, say the publishers.
“With Journalist Entrepreneurs, we’re giving our writers the opportunity to go deeper into the subjects that matter and leverage Forbes to directly profit, while also demonstrating consumers will pay for premium content,” Lane said, noting that Forbes also recently introduced an unlimited access digital subscription for the site.
