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Got it. Your point was about randos, general editorial quality and caliber, and being taken seriously. Specific decisions were made a few years ago about addin
by smcnally 11y ago
Got it. Your point was about randos, general editorial quality and caliber, and being taken seriously.
Specific decisions were made a few years ago about adding a distributed editorial workforce -- a Contributor network -- to the full-time editorial staffers. This was not a universally-beloved decision at the time. It has been a very successful one for Forbes.
My take on the basic thesis is there are more credible, authoritative people with stories to tell than could reasonably be hired as full-time staffers. Adding those voices under Forbes' brand helps scale content creation, community, and revenues. It also provides the ability to identify and nurture talented creators.
Despite Forbes' Contributor network being relatively high-touch, bringing on 1000+ new writers is going to be dilutive by definition. Historical editorial models and workflows are about command and control; scaling a contributor network is about ceding some of that. More of my take on what this success has done to Forbes' "serious business identity" is here https://medium.com/@sjkmcnally/reach-and-revenue-vs-dilution-24307615893d#.40y1etxya https://medium.com/@sjkmcnally/reach-and-revenue-vs-dilution...
The ability to identify and manage the Contributors and their contributions is built into the platform and processes around it. No one should get or stay in the ecosystem who shouldn't be there.
Specifically re this Powerball piece, I mostly agree. I know some people will enjoy it even if others do not. I would not expect people to borrow against their 401k for lotto tickets because of it. I don't know if or what changes should be made to it. Luckily, that's someone else's issue to handle.
There are a bunch of statistically-interesting things to consider about the jackpot, though not really about improving your odds of winning it. "(You are vastly more likely to get struck by lightning twice in your lifetime.)" -- http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/powerball-jackpot-800-million-odds/ http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/powerball-jackpot-800-mi...