Forbes Partners With Blockchain-Based Journalism Platform to Publish Content

Major business media outlet Forbes joins the Associated Press in exploring blockchain, plans to use smart contracts for its contributors.

International business media outlet Forbes has partnered with blockchain-based platform Civil to publish its content on a decentralized network, Civil’s co-founder confirmed on Medium on Tuesday, Oct. 9.

According to Civil co-founder Matt Coolidge, Forbes is integrating Civil’s software into its own content management system (CMC). From the beginning of 2019, journalists will be able to upload their data to the Civil network while posting it to the Forbes website simultaneously.

Forbes, a U.S. business news outlet founded in 1917, reaches more than 120 million people globally through its main and local editions.

According to U.S. news outlet Axios, the new process will initially apply only to crypto-related news items. However, if Forbes considers the experiment to be successful, other pieces will be posted on blockchain as well.

Forbes is also going to extend decentralized solutions to its vast contributors’ network. Axios writes that through the use of smart contracts, Forbes authors can upload their articles to Forbes’ CMS and then share them on other platforms, such as LinkedIn and Medium.

According to Coolidge, Forbes is also planning to “experiment with new methods of reader engagement.” He also states that the use of a decentralized platform can help the media to ensure no third party can remove or alter the content.

Civil has previously partnered with major news agency Associated Press (AP). The global media agency plans to use blockchain for intellectual rights, tracking its content usage, and supporting ethical journalism. The AP is also going to store its content in the Civil network as a part of the trial so that news agencies can have immediate access to the reports.

As Cointelegraph wrote earlier, Adblock Plus developer eyeo GmbH created a blockchain-based browser extension Trusted News to detect fake news and label websites accordingly. Adblock reportedly plans to move the database for the project to the Ethereum blockchain, and to issue MetaCert tokens to track rewards and prevent manipulations.