Rachel McAthy of journalism.co.uk writes about how Forbes.com has reinvented itself as a digital platform.

McAthy writes, “Since the start of the ‘reinvention’ of Forbes.com two years ago there have been significant changes, not just to the production and presentation of content online, but also in the way its content is being consumed and reached across the web.

“The statistics that Lewis D’Vorkin, chief product officer of Forbes Media has to share are impressive. When he first returned to Forbes in 2010, (he was previously an executive editor of the magazine from 1996 to 2000), he says less than one per cent of traffic to Forbes.com came from social sites. Now that can range from 15 to 17 per cent a month.

“Search traffic has also risen, from 25 per cent to 40 per cent, and D’Vorkin says that the shifts seen in content discovery are down to the contributor model he and his team have worked to introduce over the past couple of years.

“Meanwhile the number of links featured on the homepage have been halved, while click-throughs have grown by 25 to 30 per cent. And digital revenues in the first half of 2012 were up 26 per cent compared to the first half of 2011, he added.

“And in the past 18 months traffic has doubled, with July seeing ‘another record month’ for Forbes.com with 31.5m unique users.”

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Jason Del Ray of Advertising Age looks at AdVoice, the initiative launched by Forbes in 2010 to generate revenue from advertisers by selling them space on its website.

Del Ray writes, “In the 22 months since launch, 13 advertisers have used AdVoice; seven of them online, according to Meredith Levien, Forbes Media’s chief revenue officer. While Forbes says the product has been a nice differentiator for the sales team, it appears it’s not yet a source of big business. AdVoice posts have generated 3.3 million page views over that time, or about 150,000 a month on average. Sixty percent of that traffic has come from SAP, the business-software maker that has been an AdVoice partner since day one and whose posts have garnered a total of 2 million page views.

“The way Forbes has sold AdVoice also makes it difficult to gauge its effect on the business’ top line. Advertisers have had to ‘earn’ their way into AdVoice participation by buying ad packages of at least $1 million on an annualized basis. But Forbes is now starting to introduce an alternative for advertisers who don’t want, or can’t afford, to buy a big campaign: a licensing model, with a six-month minimum, that will cost somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000 a month, according to Ms. Levien.

“‘We are still working on formulating the right way to value it,’ she said.

“The best Forbes says it can do in measuring the revenue from AdVoice is to say that ad packages including AdVoice have accounted for about 10% of the company’s overall revenue this year. Ms. Levien said she expects that number to reach at least 25% next year. Forbes is also expanding its concept into video and will unveil its first Ad Voice video partner in October.”

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Lewis Dvorkin, the chief product officer for Forbes, writes about how the business magazine has built a unique content model that combines traditional journalistic values, dynamic publishing and data analysis.

Dvorkin writes, “The result is 500 digital posts a day and timely material for 22 magazines a year — all from our reporters and topic experts. This issue’s cover, on LinkedIn and its CEO, is written by George Anders, one of nearly 1,000 experienced Forbes.com contributors. Last year, a story on the Lynn Tilton, a hard-driving hedge fund CEO, began online, then moved to print with new reporting made possible by reader engagement. Forbes.com conversations often find their way into the print.

“Each issue of the magazine opens with a digitally inspired section called Leaderboard. ‘It’s our monologue in print that takes its cues from the world of FORBES online,’ says Steven Bertoni, who edits its various components. The Scorecard feature captures significant ups and downs from a Web feature that updates the wealth of 50 billionaires every 15 minutes. Buy/Sell/Hold filters topics we see trending on Forbes.com. Up-and-Comers brings to life an annual Need to Know online event that invites audience participation. And don’t miss the Sgt. Pepper’s-like rendition of our 100 highest paid athletes list, staring Floyd Mayweather, not Billy Shears.

“Many journalists remain caught up in a decade-old debate: should a story be published online before it goes to print? FORBES is leading a far more critical discussion: how to reimagine traditional media products as the digital era marches on.”

Read more here.