Forbes Enters Recurring Revenue Fray With Premium Profiles

Forbes announced Wednesday morning the debut of its new Premium Profiles product, a venture 18 months in the making that aims to translate the cachet of the Forbes brand into a new source of recurring revenue for the publisher. With Forbes Premium Profiles, the thousands of people, places and companies that make one of the roughly 100 proprietary lists that Forbes publishes annually will receive a free profile on the Forbes website. List-makers from select lists will also have the ability to supplement this profile for a fee, allowing them to unlock a variety of features including an expanded bio section, custom headshot, company profile, an ad-free experience and more. List-makers will have three upgrade tiers to choose from, and the pricing and features differ based on the list the individual has made. For the Top Financial Advisors list, for instance, the Basic, Select and Partner packages cost $3,500, $6,000 and $9,500 respectively, and the subscriptions recur annually. In general, Premium Profiles will cost between $1,500 and $10,000 per year, according to Jessica Sibley, who was recently named Forbes’ chief operating officer. “Everyone can have a business profile, but few can earn a Forbes profile,” said Paul Reiss, group vp strategic partnerships and licensing. “The difference is that this will be an exclusive community.” Forbes Premium Profiles offer list-makers a chance to upgrade their page for a fee. The product release is part of a wider industry effort from publishers to diversify their revenue sources––including the recurring ones. Forbes Premium Profiles offer the firm an alternative method of generating steady revenue at a far more expensive price point, with less competition and likely going after corporate credit cards. Other efforts, like that of Axios HQ or FT Strategies, aim to translate publisher expertise into brand-aligned revenue. A replenishing pipeline of business professionals Last year, 23,000 people, places and companies made a Forbes list, and the publisher views that number as its total addressable market. It anticipates adding between 20,000 to 25,000 new list-makers a year, providing the publisher with a replenishing pipeline of business professionals to convert into Premium Profile subscribers. By creating a profile for all list-makers and then offering them the ability to upgrade, Forbes reaps the potential benefits of the freemium model, said Jack Marshall, cofounder of the media consultancy Toolkits. Even if the publisher only converts a small percentage of list-makers into Premium Profile subscribers, it will not rely on network effects to succeed: every sign-up it generates becomes a source of passive revenue. While the Premium Profiles product does not have a dedicated team, roughly 40 people are involved in its production and maintenance, Reiss said. Beyond the work of standing up the platform, though, the Premium Profiles will be largely self-monitored, as subscribers will have direct access to update and maintain their pages. The publisher declined to specify what amount of financial investment the project required. Different price points and perks to balance ROI Currently, Forbes has only unveiled its Premium Profiles for three lists: the Top Advisors, Next 1,000 and Top Financial Security Professionals. The publisher began using the financial advisors directory as a beta test for the product in March 2021, and 700 list-makers have since upgraded their account, Reiss said. Depending on the list, the Premium Profiles will have different price points and perks, a tactic that aims to make them valuable to list-makers no matter their professional background. Financial advisors, for instance, will be able to use their profile as a source of lead generation and the high lifetime value of a client in the financial services industry helps justify the steeper price tag. For someone who made the Next 1,000 list, which catalogs promising small businesses, their Premium Profiles will cost $1,500, $7,000 and $10,000, lowering the cost to entry. The perks also reflect their different needs: Next 1,000 profiles can offer company spotlights, whereas Top Financial Advisors can include additional news sources that feature their firm. Premium Profiles are an extension of its licensing efforts The concept for the Premium Profiles stems from the cachet associated with making a Forbes list and the related licensing opportunity, Reiss said. When someone makes a Forbes list, they have historically had to pay to use the Forbes logo in their marketing materials or to list it on their company website. With Premium Profiles, Forbes hopes to streamline that process, creating a digital hub that accomplishes the same purpose––the top tiers include licensing rights––while also providing additional perks. The product draws on the same customer motivation but it modernizes the infrastructure and stays true to brand identity, Marshall said. “It comes down to a brand halo: they are trying to tap into the idea that, in pop culture, Forbes is a stand-in for success,” Marshall said. “Based on the direction that the brand has been headed for the last decade, this seems like a logical extension of their product.”

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Forbes Enters Recurring Revenue Fray With Profiles For Its List-Makers

Premium Profiles will cost between $1,500 and $10,000 annually

Mark Stenberg

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Mark Stenberg