Forbes Shutters True/Slant
Social-driven news site True/Slant, which Forbes acquired in late May, is heading for the trash heap. In a blog post on Thursday, True/Slant writer and reporter Neal Ungerleider said "the site, unfortunately, is winding down operations at the end of July."
Effective June 1, True/Slant founder and CEO Lewis Dvorkin was expected to join Forbes to lead all editorial areas at Forbes as chief product officer. And while some on Thursday said the shutdown was expected, that wasn't at all clear upon news of Forbes' acquisition in May. Going forward, "The small True/Slant team ... will now be working side-by-side with talented and dedicated journalists at Forbes Media," said Dvorkin at the time.
Forbes representatives with knowledge of True/Slant's fate could not be reached for comment late Thursday.
Since its founding last summer, True/Slant has relied on independent journalists -- known as "knowledge experts" -- who are assigned to specific topics, including politics, culture, sports, business, health, science and food. Each contributor got a dedicated page to feature their work with the goal of attracting a network of highly engaged followers. Pages also feature headlines from around the Web, which contributors select themselves.
Presently, True/Slant has more than 300 contributors whose work is divided into 18 topic areas, Dvorkin said in a open letter in May. Dvorkin also projected that "a record" 1.5 million unique users "will have visited our site," in May.
Alluding to future plans, Ungerleider said in his blog post on Thursday: "I hope to rejoin some former True/Slanters at a new -- as of yet disclosed -- project."
From December 1996 to April 2000, Dvorkin served as executive editor of Forbes magazine. More recently, he started consulting for Forbes in April of this year.
In his new role, Dvorkin is being expected to create and implement new editorial initiatives, as well as re-imagine Forbes.com and the magazine itself.
For months prior to Forbes' acquisition, True/Slant had been engaged in second-round fund-raising, according to Dvorkin. He also said Forbes Media was an original investor in True/Slant.
True/Slant was just the latest "new media" acquisition for Forbes, which has undergone painful transitions in the face of rapidly changing market demands.
Last November, one month after it was forced to cut 100 jobs -- from both the editorial and business side -- Forbes acquired FlipGloss Media. Santa Monica, CA-based FlipGloss helps publishers -- including Variety and Scripps Networks -- and advertisers create and distribute interactive, magazine-style content packages, which are designed to increase user engagement and ad performance.
After leaving Forbes, Dvorkin joined AOL as senior vice president of programming, where he was responsible for news, sports and network programming. At AOL, he is also credited with helping to launch top gossip site TMZ.com.
During his career, Dvorkin has also served as Page One editor of The Wall Street Journal, a senior editor at Newsweek, and an editor at The New York Times.
Recent Online Media Daily Articles
-
Network Advertising Initiative Proposes New Mobile Privacy Rules May 22, 9:03 p.m.
Moving forward with its plan to issue mobile privacy rules, the self-regulatory group Network Advertising Initiative ... -
Entertainment, Travel Bet On Mobile Banners May 22, 4:16 p.m.
Banner ads have long been the whipping boy of online advertising, and the same is now ... -
Marketers Should Tailor Specific Pitches To Tablet, Smartphone May 22, 2:51 p.m.
Don’t lump tablets in with mobile. That’s the takeaway of a new Forrester study looking at ... -
Good TV Content Trumps On, Whether Trad TV Or Streaming May 22, 2:42 p.m.
While consumers continue to perceive TV programming as superior in quality to that of online fare, ... -
Google Releases Self-Serve Display Benchmark Tool May 22, 2:02 p.m.
Understanding how a brand's online campaign competes with competitors requires trending benchmark data like engagement rates ... -
Twitter Brings Lead Generation To Tweets May 22, 1:14 p.m.
Twitter began testing a lead generation tool Wednesday in its tweet stream that resembles a cross ... -
DigitasLBi, Razorfish Tap Execs For Global Ops May 22, 11:26 a.m.
Publicis Groupe digital agencies DigitasLBi and Razorfish have installed new executives to run their respective international ... -
More Consumers Turn To Mobile To Research, Book Travel May 22, 8:53 a.m.
More than half of consumers used a mobile device to book travel in the last 90 ... -
Showrooming Overhyped, Mobile Key To Shopping Purchases May 22, 8:53 a.m.
Given consumers' mobile in-store shopping trends, some consider the showrooming hoopla overblown. The research process still ... -
Shopping App Swirl Adds In-Store Capability May 22, 8:53 a.m.
Swirl entered the mobile shopping fray last year with an iPhone app allowing users to learn ...
Be the first to comment on "Forbes Shutters True/Slant"
Leave a Comment