The “Bleacher Report model” at Forbes: What works?

Bleacher Report isn’t the only outfit that uses what we like to call the Bleacher Report model. Forbes.com has a “crowd-sourced” writer community similar to B/R’s, though much smaller.

Here’s how Lewis DVorkin, the site’s chief product officer, describes the Forbes project in a post today:

For the last 16 months, we’ve offered smart people working for others—journalists, authors, academics and topic experts—the opportunity to build brands on Forbes.com around their name and knowledge. They complement the smart editors and reporters already working for Forbes …

For us, it’s all about Entrepreneurial Journalism. We provide the publishing tools, training, promotion and marketing support. Reporters and writers produce expert content and work to build a following using the tools of social media. Many participate in our incentive payment plans. For others, the reward is association with our brand.

Forbes is a little different from Bleacher Report in that it hand-picks its contributors, relying heavily on “experts” in various fields around the business world, while B/R invites everyone to apply to the Writer Program, approving about one in five to become Bleacher Report authors.

DVorkin asked six Forbes contributors to talk about their experience writing as “Entrepreneurial Journalists” for the site. The bulk of his post is the answers provided by those six. They talk about why they chose to write for Forbes, what’s worked, what isn’t working and what they think the future of journalism looks like.

It’s worth a read. Does any of what they say apply to Bleacher Report?