• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, Yesterday

Forbes is hoping to set a new standard for audience engagement with a platform called ForbesPredict. 

The new feature, which was built in partnership with a media tech firm called Axiom, invites readers to predict outcomes of stories covered by Forbes. There is no wagering. 

The goal? 

“With ForbesPredict, we’re deepening our connection to our audiences and moving from scale to engagement and loyalty,” says Sherry Phillips, CEO of Forbes, in a statement. “We also think it will help to keep our newsroom informed of what our audiences are thinking on topics we cover, and we’re excited to see how that informs our storytelling.” 

ForbesPredict debuts in beta this month and will formally launch in the second half of 2026.  

Seeking to understand the new platform, Publishing Insider conducted an email Q&A with Nina Gould, chief innovation officer at Forbes.  

Publishing Insider: How is ForbesPredict going to work? Are readers being asked to predict outcomes or express their opinions?  

Nina Gould: ForbesPredict invites readers to forecast the outcome of clearly defined, binary questions—events that resolve to a yes/no or measurable result. While the experience is intentionally consumer-friendly and game-like, it is powered by a sophisticated prediction-market engine beneath the surface, not a simple poll. Readers express conviction quantitatively—indicating not just what they believe will happen, but how strongly, with forecasts dynamically influencing the market as new information emerges. They can then track markets over time as the news story it’s associated with evolves, and adjust their position as group sentiment shifts.

Participants build a visible track record of accuracy by earning tokens for being right—tokens that have no cash value but matter within the ForbesPredict ecosystem as a signal of judgment over time. The tokens unlock greater status, gameplay advantages, and non-monetary rewards along the way. 

Beyond rankings and leaderboards, ForbesPredict gives readers a meaningful voice in the news itself, turning what is traditionally a one-way media model into a two-way exchange. As the ecosystem evolves, ForbesPredict creates a feedback loop in which the newsroom informs the audience through reporting, and the audience informs the newsroom through collective prediction sentiment. 

Publishing Insider: How do you define engagement? What is the practical impact—can you tie it to revenue?

Nina Gould: ForbesPredict performance is measured using a blend of familiar publisher metrics and proven gaming KPIs, with an added focus on driving direct traffic back to Forbes in a zero-click world. On the publisher side, that includes session duration, pages per session, registrations and logins, repeat visits, and daily and monthly active users—signals that readers are choosing to come back intentionally rather than arriving passively via search.

Layered on top are gaming-style engagement metrics such as DAU/MAU, stickiness, new player acquisition, time to first action, and actions per session, which capture how deeply users are actually “playing.” Together, these behaviors translate into higher value sessions through increased ad engagement, stronger loyalty, and higher lifetime value—especially when active, returning players convert into long-term Forbes members. 

Publishing Insider: Is there any political intent to ForbesPredict, as in the features offered by some publishers that allow readers to say if a story is accurate and fair, etc.? 

Nina Gould: No.

Publishing Insider: How did this evolve—were you using it at Forbes?

Nina Gould: After more than a decade working in the digital publishing space, Axiom CEO and co-founder Jeff Yam (also a Forbes board member) developed a firsthand understanding of the challenges publishers face today, especially in a zero-click world where audiences increasingly consume content without ever reaching publishers’ sites. Drawing on his industry expertise and his cofounder’s experience as an early adopter of prediction markets, they started Axiom and brought the idea to Forbes to support a broader strategy focused on reducing reliance on search traffic and driving deeper, more participatory onsite engagement. People already make thousands of informal predictions in their daily lives, and through news consumption, they believe there is a structured way to capture and validate that. 

Publishing Insider: Please explain the scope. Will this be used by Forbes newsletters and your print products?

Nina Gould: To start, this ForbesPredict will live on Forbes.com only. We will evaluate expansion into newsletters and print as the product evolves.  

Publishing Insider: Can you provide any metrics as to how it’s working? Can you describe a use case?

Nina Gould: Not yet. The beta is set to launch mid-late February. We can follow up with live examples and success metrics from live use case once the beta has been live for a few weeks.

Publishing Insider: Is it something that be used by advertisers to predict ad outcomes?

Nina Gould: No.

Publishing Insider: Is it available to other publishers?

Nina Gould: Axiom is building for the media industry and plans to start with publishers and digital media. Forbes is Axiom’s launch partner. 

Publishing Insider: What is Forbes' relationship with Axiom? Are you an investor, part owner, etc.? Are they aware of the data company called Acxiom, which is based in Arkansas?

Nina Gould: Axiom is an independent company. Axiom is not related to the Acxiom in Arkansas.