FELLT and Forbes; two different media products from two different decades. The latter a traditional capitalist magazine founded not only upon a genuine, proud and burning interest in money, but also by an individual that had much of it. Then FELLT, the opposite of every traditional media institution with it’s “no media brand” structure. Influential individuals communicating with their following in various channels and forms. Personal and direct rather than controlled and packaged.
Last Thursday (June 7) Forbes launched a “Follow Bar” on Forbes.com, which gives readers the ability to personalise their feeds by following individual writers. Chief Product Officer Lewis DVorkin announced: “Forty years in the news industry has taught me a simple truth: journalism is about the people producing it, the audience consuming it and the brand that connects them.”
Forbes “Follow Bar”.
DVorkin and Forbes have got all but the most important thing right. Journalism and its future is about the people producing it and an audience consuming it, but not about some media brand “connecting” the two. As individuals we respect, trust and are entertained by other individuals. No one cares about what Forbes, Vogue, CNN or any other media brand has to say. Individual writers, stylists, podcasters, photographers and even editors are the centre force of a new personality-focused media.
At last media is not about the big building; it’s about the people inside it.