Forbes

My old buddy and sometime nemesis Lew Dvorkin floated some pretty scary prevarications in his introduction of changes to come at Forbes, where he is now "chief product officer." Here is his justification for compromising what little is left of Forbes' editorial integrity, followed by my response to its posting on Talking Biz News under the headline "How Forbes is changing journalism."

Dvorkin:
Making New Connections in a New Media World
By LEWIS DVORKIN
I began my transition to digital media 15 years ago, first as editor-in-chief of a magazine about the internet, then eight years at Aol and most recently as founder of an online news startup.

During that time I marveled at how many in the media world continued to find comfort in playing the role of gatekeeper, even as emerging technologies threatened their rule.

I had spent a fulfilling career as a print journalist. But I also watched as readers who wanted to share their knowledge about the news were relegated to the silo known as Letters to the Editor, with its strict rules for submission and placement far away from hallowed news pages.

Advertisers were put in silos, too, dictated by the principles of Church vs. State. Some marketers, notably Mobil, found their way out when The New York Times allocated space on its Op-Ed page in the late 1970’s for advocacy advertising.

I recently happened upon a nearly 30-year-old quote from Herb Schmertz, Mobil’s outspoken former head of public relations. It is eerily identical to the mantra of today: “There’s a dialogue out there,” he said, “and you’re either in it or you’re not.” Mobil decided to speak up, using scarce space in The Times to get its message out during the early days of America’s gasoline crisis.

Then the Web arrived. Its underlying technologies – and limitless space –began to topple the media’s traditional barriers. At will, readers could join the news conversation in real time, publish their thoughts and stories – and engage with journalists who cared to do so.

By taking to the Web, audience members with deep topic-specific expertise successfully took on quite a few professional journalists with far less knowledge. Marketers, experts in their own right, also became respected content providers in an increasingly information-obsessed society.

Next came Social Media. Its core elements effectively blew up every gate, wall and silo erected by the media. Suddenly, the media’s three distinct voices — journalists, consumers and marketers — could openly roam about and publish within close proximity of each other, connecting, communicating and learning. They began to form new kinds of relationships within highly personalized news streams.

Today, everyone can be a creator or curator of content. What was yesterday’s audience is today’s cadre of potential experts who can report what they know or filter information for distribution to friends who trust their judgments.

Advertisers can do the same. Intel, already both a blogger and tweeter, recently launched Free Press, a news section on its corporate web site with technology articles written by Intel staffers (some even have journalism credentials). Intel hopes to attract an audience, but it’s also making these stories available to be republished by traditional news organizations, many of which now have fewer resources for original reporting.

At Forbes, we’re beginning to open up our print and digital platforms so many more knowledgeable and credible content creators can provide information and perspective and connect with one another. In doing so, we will be totally transparent. All participants will be clearly identified, delineated and labeled.

Audience participation has long been part of Forbes.com. With the launch of this year’s Forbes 400, we began to place reader content in the contextual flow of the pages of our magazine (and there is much more to come). In next week’s issue we introduce a similar concept for advertisers. Today, SAP, a leading business software company, became our first digital AdVoice partner.

Our goal is to extend the Forbes reach, to make our magazine and Forbes.com a forum for journalists, consumers and marketers. We hope to fulfill what has always been the promise of our industry: open dialogue that leads to new and rewarding relationships.

My response:
Lew talks as if the concept "vested interest" didn't exist.

"Audience members with deep topic-specific expertise successfully took on quite a few professional journalists with far less knowledge," he says in describing how the Web created new possibilities for corporate interests to follow Mobil's pioneering efforts to tell the American public the truth about energy.

Right. These "audience members" also have an agenda, and one of the traditional roles of those editorial gatekeepers that Lew is now ready to dispense with is to put that agenda in context. Yes, the Web permits a dialogue, and those interested in the insights of Intel staffers can go to Intel's site.

I think we all embrace the diversity of ideas, opinions and informations that the Web makes available. My question is why Forbes as a Web site should be the aggregator of all this wonderful content from "marketers" and "consumers". Will it be open to absolutely everyone or is someone still deciding which choice Intel pieces will be "republished"? Calling SAP "our first digital AdVoice partner" certainly seems to suggest that these corporate shils will pay to have their content on the Forbes site and presumably since everything will be "transparent" that fact will that be disclosed.

Why not, really? But then the headline above should cut out the last word to read "How Forbes is changing." Call the new Forbes what you will -- a content marketplace, a corporate-consumer dialogue, a hack forum -- it has nothing to do with journalism.