As digital traffic booms, Forbes evolves its ad revenue model

emedia vitals reporting:
The reinvention of Forbes Media extends well beyond its content model. The business side of the house is in transition as well as the business publisher seeks to diversify its ad products and keep pace with the growth of the digital audience.
Forbes is building out both its advertising products and its operations as it seeks to capitalize on a steady rise of website visitors. In a phone interview, Chief Revenue Officer Meredith Levien talked about the growth of Forbes’ digital business and the opportunities that lie ahead in areas such as native advertising and mobile.
By most measures, the growth of Forbes.com has been impressive. Unique monthly visitors increased 67% from June 2010 to January 2013 (comScore U.S.). January’s 16 million unique visitors in the U.S. was a 26% bump from January 2012.
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comScore's report also notes, however, that three in 10 ads are never actually in view, “leading to significant waste, weaker campaign performance and a glut of poor-performing inventory that imbalances the supply-and-demand equation and depresses CPMs.”
Publishers such as Forbes are looking to counter that wasteful spending with native advertising programs that more closely integrate brand messaging and editorial content. Forbes’ BrandVoice program (previously called AdVoice) is one of the more successful examples of native advertising to date. BrandVoice allows advertisers to publish blog posts on Forbes.com using the same publishing tools as editorial staff and contributors. The only distinction is a logo on each post that identifies the brand. As Chief Product Officer Lewis D’Vorkin likes to say, the posts sink or swim on their own merit, just like any other post.
Two dozen advertisers have participated in the online and print iterations of the program since its launch in 2010. About a dozen are actively posting on Forbes.com, Levien said.  About 15% of total advertising revenue comes from brands participating in BrandVoice – a figure that Levien expects will rise to 25% this year. (Forbes does not break out specific BrandVoice spend.)
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