Inside Forbes: We're On a Mobile Crusade as Our Brand Leaps to What's Next

I so dislike Internet jargon, even though I'm guilty of resorting to it. The most annoying current phrase is: Mobile First. It's standard fare in press releases. It's thrown around at industry events with pomp and bluster. It's the go-to sound bite to hype a strategic direction -- even if staffing and content plans to back it up are nonexistent.  So far, the best of Mobile First leads to responsive page design that neatly squeezes desktop news formats into smaller devices. FORBES, along with our traditional media brethren and the startup news darlings, too, have all done that, each with a twist. Well, the time has finally come -- at least for us. The responsive play is no longer enough. We're determined to pave a new path forward.

Our goal is to turn mobile into a way of doing business across our company. The chart below explains why. Mobile ad spending, after a steady march to parity with the desktop, is about to surge ahead. Desktop's long reign as the digital money machine for publishers will soon be over. The mobile/millennial juggernaut will see to that. And that's only half the story, perhaps not even the toughest half, as the ad industry faces dramatic restructuring in a platform world. Facebook's mobile ad dollars account for 75% of its total revenue, sucking business from everyone. Plus, Instant Articles, and the speed at which Facebook can deliver content to mobile consumers, represents a new threat. And if that's not enough, here comes Apple News, a new content aggregation app, and iOS9, which makes ad blocking a fearful reality on phones, too. Who knows what Google, which has ruled digital advertising for a decade, has up it's sleeve.

As the trends became clear, we began to plot our mobile future, choosing a familiar path. Back in 2010, the purchase of True/Slant, with its social journalism DNA, helped FORBES transition away from a portal universe. Native advertising was also part of the play. Audience and revenue followed. Today, digital ad sales represents 70% of our total ad revenue, compared with 25% at traditional competitors. This time around, FORBES bought a young app startup (Camerama) for its mobile-product, data-centric DNA. The first result: a kind of social networking app (with a unique Web play) for our growing Under 30 franchise. It will be released on Oct. 4 at our second Under 30 Summit in Philadelphia as the first in a series of apps for passionate communities attached to our brand.

The real fun comes next as we reorganize our staff into small units for the mobile web, still the predominant way consumers access news. The plan is to build an all new, streamlined experience for social news consumers that will look, feel and function nothing like Forbes.com on smartphones today.

Here's a preview of where we're headed:

-- An accelerator unit that drives a mobile product ethos with developers, data scientists and a range of editorial roles.

-- A quick-loading consumer experience that accounts for mobile attention spans and consumption habits.

-- A design and formats that recognize social networks will be the main driver of audience growth moving forward.

-- A feature set focused on sharing, saving, video and different forms of impulse participation.

-- An ad model that leverages our BrandVoice native ad platform, first launched in Nov. 2010 and now with 100 marketing partners across digital and print.

On top of this ambitious list: opportunities for editors, reporters, producers, designers, product and sales people to learn a new way, with incentive-based programs to reward great ideas and regular editorial contributions.

Of course, we won't forget the desktop. In fact, we're embarking on an exciting project to re-architect and optimize the Forbes.com home page for our most loyal visitors. The data-focused redo will provide our product folks with information to build the right experience for on-the-go consumers and marketing partners seeking premium ad inventory.

FORBES is approaching a signicant anniversary. The company published its first magazine in 1917, almost 100 years ago. Since then, we've had many ups and downs. The last five years brought particularly swift and dramatic change: the first non-family member CEO; the transition from a website to a publishing platform; rising magazine readership when all print was counted out; a focus on youthful entrepreneurs (30 Under 30) that may one day rival the venerable FORBES 400. And a year ago came the sale of the company to Asian investors with ambitious plans for growth in that region. Now comes our own mobile revolution -- and maybe some day Mobile Only for Mobile Natives. Jargon becomes less annoying if it's yours.