By
Temitope Olatunji
April 18th, 2024
Starting from next year, Forbes will be publishing its metadata from select Forbes articles to the blockchain via Civil platform.
Forbes, business media giant, has announced its partnership with Civil, blockchain-based journalism platform. The partnership will make Forbes the first major media organization to commit to regularly publishing content to the blockchain.
.@Forbes is officially joining the @Join_Civil network. We’re pleased to announce a significant, new partner today — and one of the biggest endorsements yet for #blockchain technology’s transformative potential for the media industry. #ConsenSys #Ethereumhttps://t.co/gm0g4uVv3t
— ConsenSys (@ConsenSys) October 9, 2018
Civil is the decentralized marketplace for sustainable journalism. Its blockchain-based platform facilitates direct, peer-to-peer exchange of value between journalists and readers. Launched by The Civil Media Company, Civil limits the need for third parties like advertisers and centralized publisher conglomerates.
The foundational role in Civil’s model belongs to the Ethereum blockchain: it enables the creation of a custom token, CVL, which is based on the ERC20 protocol. The token is a value stored in a decentralized database that’s managed by Civil’s smart contracts, which allows the Civil platform to interact with the CVL token.
As a result of the partnership, Civil’s platform will be used by Forbes to experiment with new methods of reader engagement.
The Civil blog post reads:
“The arrangement with Civil allows Forbes to experiment with and better understand how publishing content on the blockchain can increase trust with audiences. It also allows Forbes to assess emerging opportunities that can potentially unlock new forms of audience engagement and drive additional revenue streams.”
Matthew Iles, CEO at Civil, commented on the deal:
“Civil’s mission is to power sustainable journalism throughout the world, and Forbes’ commitment to regularly publish content on our platform is a major milestone for our approach. We look forward to working with Forbes as we connect with a broader audience interested in new, more direct ways to discover, share and support ethical journalism.”
Forbes will integrate Civil’s software with its own custom-built content management system known as Bertie. After the process is complete, Forbes journalists will be able to upload metadata to the Civil network at the same time they upload their stories to the company’s platform.
Salah Zalatimo, Senior Vice President of Product & Technology at Forbes, said:
“We are relentlessly focused on rapid experimentation and implementation so that we can determine what’s in the best interest of our audience and what is next for our industry.”
He added:
“Forbes and Civil believe passionately in the mission of journalism, and together we can provide audiences with a level of unprecedented transparency around our content. We’ll also be able to expand the reach of our writers and identify new revenue channels over time.”
Under the agreement, Forbes will start publishing some article metadata to a blockchain platform at the beginning of next year. If the experiment is successful, Forbes will publish all article metadata to Civil’s platform, which means that Forbes will be storing proof of an article’s existence on the platform.