Forbes buying online news startup True/Slant, marrying old and new media

Forbes buying online news startup True/Slant

NEW YORK — Forbes Media is buying the online news startup True/Slant.

Lewis Dvorkin, who founded True/Slant and was once an editor at Forbes magazine, announced the deal in a blog post Tuesday. He didn’t say how much Forbes is paying.

True/Slant, which started about a year ago, seeks to offer a launch pad for individual writers to build followings around their work. It began with about 100 freelance writers posting bits of news and opinion. A few of the contributors came from established news brands including CNN, Rolling Stone and Newsweek.

Unlike most traditional news outfits, True/Slant offers to share advertising revenue with its writers. The whole concept is built around the journalist as entrepreneur — a “brand of one” as Dvorkin put it in an interview last year.