Jeff Sonderman
May 29, 2012
2:09 pm
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Mallary Jean Tenore
May 24, 2012
3:25 pm
On Wednesday, Forbes.com contributor
Eric Jackson wrote a controversial post comparing the media attention that Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg gets to that of former Marimba CEO Kim Polese 15 years ago. By Thursday morning, Jackson had deleted the post and
written an apology.
The incident raises important questions about transparency and Forbes.com's publishing process, in which freelance contributors can publish and delete posts without input from editors.
In his story, Jackson wrote that Polese "didn’t deserve" to be on Time’s list of the 25 most influential people back then and that she was clearly “in the right place at the right time.” It helped, he added, that she was “young, pretty, and a good speaker.” He noted the similarities between Polese and Sandberg — “they both like(d) magazine covers and editorial spreads” — and shared this advice for Sandberg: “Maybe you should tone down the public appearances for a while and just keep your head down at Facebook.”
Readers accused Jackson of sexism, saying his post was “
dreadful,” “
ridiculous” and ignored all that Sandberg has achieved. Rachel Sklar
tweeted: “Here's your post, summed up: ‘Don't get too big for your britches, honey.’ Here's mine: Watch us.”
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Jeff Sonderman
Mar. 12, 2012
11:21 am
Forbes
Don't call Forbes.com just another news website, writes Chief Product Officer Lewis DVorkin. It is "a full-fledged platform" for 1,000 expert contributors and Forbes staff alike, and "a social media operating system" to engage 30 million monthly unique visitors. Among the soon-coming social features to power that "operating system":
- Device-optimized home pages "for desktop, mobile and tablet users that integrate key social elements."
- The Follow Bar, "a new navigational feature... It will make it easier for our growing audience to follow and find all our staffers and subject experts."
- Anointing superusers: “Our goal is to measure desired user behaviors — the number of times you visit, the number of staffers and contributors you follow, and much more. Those who score high will have different kinds of rights and privileges.”
Earlier: Forbes contributor makes "OK money working part-time" (Poynter)
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Steve Myers
Dec. 1, 2011
3:04 pm
Forbes.com
Lewis Dvorkin writes that Forbes.com's contributor system, in which people with expertise in particular fields blog for Forbes.com (and
some get paid), is a "
disruptive model," with 850 contributors who have helped increase traffic by 50 percent to 25 million unique monthly visitors.
Ken Rapoza says in a testimonial: "It keeps me in journalism working for a major, well-read brand. I average over 240,000 visitors a month. I probably have more people reading me here than I did at Dow Jones and the Journal. ... It allows me to make okay money working part time." Forbes.com pays certain contributors a fee every month, with bonuses for making visitor targets, and requires that contributors write a certain number of posts each month and interact with the audience in comments.
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Jeff Sonderman
Nov. 3, 2011
10:59 am
Forbes
News Corp. CEO
Rupert Murdoch is No. 24 on Forbes' new list of the
70 most powerful people in the world. New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson is No. 64. The
blurb for Abramson reads, "Bloggers come, bloggers go, but the Gray Lady, run for the first time by a lady, still sets the terms of the global debate." The overall prestige of news leaders seems to be falling, though.
Last year's list had Murdoch at No. 13 and then-NYT editor Bill Keller at No. 50. Murdoch and Abramson are the only news media figures on the list, otherwise dominated by many world political leaders and corporate CEOs. ||
Earlier: In August, Forbes placed Abramson at No. 12 on its list of
most powerful women, just behind Lady Gaga.
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Jim Romenesko
Aug. 9, 2011
3:04 pm
Romenesko Misc.
Randall Lane, 43, worked at Forbes in a variety of positions from 1991 to 1997. As editor, he'll be responsible for editorial content development and "will also be charged with developing fresh ideas and recruiting new voices and writing talent," says a release. He'll report to chief product officer Lewis D’Vorkin. Bill Baldwin
stepped down as editor in July 2010.
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Jim Romenesko
July 28, 2011
9:21 am
Fortune
Nonpublic documents that Fortune magazine obtained reveal that Forbes Media violated covenants on a revolving credit line that it took out in 2006. The loan, which was part of a series of transactions that allowed the Forbes family to cash out more than $100 million from the company, is due next July. Some lenders have been selling pieces of it at a discount from face value. Katie Benner writes:
The company went into technical default on some $90 million worth of revolving credit. The family and the minority owner, Elevation Partners, began an emergency plan to restructure the business and get back in the good graces of its lenders.
Forbes Media says its renewed profitability means that it is out of the woods ... and it says the company is confident that it will be able to refinance its revolving line of credit when it comes due on July 6, 2012. Forbes Media said in a statement: "It is not up to the banks whether to refinance. It is up to Forbes. [We] have numerous financing options as we go forward."
In 2006, Steve Forbes told the New York Times that selling over 40 percent of Forbes Media to Elevation Partners was a way to expand the empire, and “I can tell you we are making major investments.”
> What Steve Forbes is telling his staff about the Fortune story
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Jeff Sonderman
June 3, 2011
10:20 am
Several New York Times staffers objected to Executive Editor Bill Keller's recent controversial columns about the media, which he wrote knowing he would shortly step down from his leadership post, according to reports.
Keller wrote a magazine column in March
questioning the value and journalistic practices of The Huffington Post specifically and aggregation in general. He later started a firestorm on Twitter by suggesting
Twitter makes you stupid and followed it with a
like-minded column.
"I think it’s fair to say that knowing that I was going to be announcing that I was moving on made me feel just a little bit liberated in what I said in the column," Keller
told Forbes' Jeff Bercovici. Some Times' staffers, however, were not pleased.
Media writers and social media staffers complained to him that because he was writing as the top editor of the Times, his rants were making their jobs more difficult, reports Gabriel Sherman for
New York Magazine:
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