Wednesday 20th January: Forbes launches its own paid newsletter platform

January 20, 2021

Good morning! Today's Media Roundup is brought to you by Esther.

Forbes is launching a newsletter platform that will allow journalists to launch their own paid newsletters and split the revenue with them. In other words, it wants to be another Substack, but with more support for writers.

The plan at the moment is for the publisher to create a platform that offers writers some of the marketing, editorial and salary benefits of being a part of Forbes' newsroom, but with editorial independence. Forbes of course hope that they will see the benefit of those new audiences.

No doubt there'll be some smart commentary on this over the next few days, but our initial impression is that this will work really well for writers who don't have quite enough followers to go completely solo (or perhaps don't want to take on the risks), but who nonetheless have garnered enough of an audience to be of value to Forbes' growing subscription business.

Given Forbes' rich history with their contributor network, they certainly have the expertise to make this work. Interestingly, Medium has also been trying to get something similar off the ground since last summer...

Publishers can now add Taboola Stories to their websites, so instead of seeing chumBOXES, users will be able to scroll through chumSTORIES instead. Lucky, lucky us.

An editor has banned letters criticising the Covid-19 vaccine from appearing in his newspapers. “We have always tried to provide a platform for free speech and open debate, even when that meant publishing opinions which are controversial...but feel we must make an exception during the pandemic when it is vital that everybody has the vaccine in order to save lives.”

I'm slightly shocked it's taken the US this long to wade into the Google/Facebook/Australia row, but it finally has. In a submission to an Australian parliamentary inquiry, the US has said that the proposed legislation is unreasonable, impractical, “fundamentally imbalanced” and could run counter to the US-Australia free trade agreement. Your move, Australia...

This week's podcast:

Ian McAuliffe, founder and CEO of Think Publishing, talks about the evolving landscape of contract publishing. He tells us about the ideal employee or a contract publisher, the ideal client and how the pandemic has accelerated digital adoption amongst traditionally conservative clients, but still not killed off print.

If you're enjoying our podcast, newsletter, or any of our other work, you can support us with a virtual coffee! Any contributions are greatly appreciated, and will go towards our operating costs - things like the website, transcriptions, and when we're allowed, an actual team drink or two.