Owing to its success in the nastier reaches of the Internet, which is often also Reddit’s problem, the company announced that it will launch a comment-free news site this week.
Why would I advertise there?
If you were in charge of an Internet marketing campaign would you risk your job or the success of said campaign paying Reddit money given its history of nastiness, skulduggery, and general mean-nature of its users? Many in that position would simply answer that question with a resounding, “no.” In an effort to stem this decision making, Reddit has announced that it will launch a standalone news site that will surface the stories that the Internet users read and want to read.
While much of the content will come from Reddit, the new site Upvoted.com, will also have its own web site curated by a small editorial team. The site will remain a part of Reddit, but if you’re looking to insult, harangue, harass its readers, this site is just not having that. Upvoted has finally been launched after nearly a year of work and Reddit hopes that advertisers take heed.
As most know, Reddit had a rough summer given the behavior of thousands of its users and that is what it is precisely trying to get away from with this offering and the launch of Upvoted.
Quite simply, it’s Reddit without Reddit.
The editorial team
Upvoted’s editorial team will be led by Vickie Chang who cut her Internet teeth as the editorial director of long “gone” Myspace. The launch will come slow with about 10 to 20 stories per day, but Upvoted hopes to make that 40 stories a day before too long.
“Everything will have a direct tie back to Reddit,” says Chang. “I want to find the tiny thread that connects it back to Reddit.”
By following those direct ties, users will enter the Reddit world and the customary commenting on posts of interest.
“The stuff our community creates on a daily basis blows our mind,” Upvoted’s team said in an email to Wired. “Unfortunately, rather than telling that story, some news outlets take our users’ content and repackage it as their own. They don’t tell the backstory of our communities. We think our users’ stories need to be told, but with them at the center of it.”
New Revenue
It’s clear that Reddit is also looking to stop lining the pockets of other news sites that simply take Reddit’s content and makes a fair share of money when readers flock to their sites by the millions.
Chang made it clear that there would be no banner ads, but rather would offer sponsored stories written by the same editorial team.
“They’re going to be just as interesting as actual content,” Chang says. “It could be a piece on Tesla, a piece on how WiFi works, no matter what it’ll be good content—and it’ll just happened to be sponsored.”
