????瑞恩?羅斯蘭斯基是領英（LinkedIn）的內容產品主管，他極力否認領英的媒體野心，或者至少是拒絕正面發表觀點。“我們并不是從一家出版或媒體公司的角度做出這項舉措的，”他在上周曾經這樣告訴我。

????“這項舉措”是指，領英宣布將向它的2.77億注冊用戶開放“內容發布平臺”。此前，這個網站已經向25,000名測試用戶開放了這個平臺。此舉實際上意味著領英向其用戶提供了一個充滿活力的博客工具，但里面又有新意。Tumblr（雅虎旗下）以及Twitter（和Blogger）創始人埃文?威廉姆斯運營的新站點Medium這些博客網站相對來說是免費向所有人開放。用戶發表博文，使用社交媒體進行分享，希望有人會來看。發表在領英上的文章針對的是已經在你職業網絡中的那些人，“你的領英身份是你專業資歷的記錄，”羅斯蘭斯基說道。他表示，新增發布長篇專業信息的功能，“有助于確保一些人能夠在職業生涯中脫穎而出，同時改善自己的職業形象。”

????領英現在的形象看起來已經相當不錯了。這項大規模開放平臺的策略依據的是領英在2012年推出的大獲成功的影響者項目（Influencer）。這個項目受到嚴格控制，發布平臺只向接到邀請的知名領英用戶開放。影響者項目起步時有150名供稿人，現在的數量在500名左右。這些人的文章平均被瀏覽31,000次，能夠獲得81條評論以及200個“贊”（或曰讀者表示認可的方式）。羅斯蘭斯基確認，理查德?布蘭森和比爾?蓋茨所發布文章的數據要超過平均值，但他拒絕透露影響者項目文章的中位數統計數據，而那是更有意義的衡量指標（注：本人是影響者項目的初始成員，領英編輯主任丹尼爾?羅斯曾經是《財富》雜志的編輯，同時也是我的朋友）。

????至于領英是否正在轉型成為一家媒體公司，答案似乎顯而易見。羅斯蘭斯基指出，領英的賺錢方式有三種：通過增值賬戶（跟其他新聞記者一樣，領英向我免費提供了這種賬戶），在網站打廣告，以及面向招聘者的工具。他說，等到新的發布工具推動用戶更頻繁地使用網站，那將增加廣告機會，鼓勵更多人注冊增值賬戶，同時提升招聘者獲得的信息質量。至于新的發布平臺是否是一個賺錢機會，他提出了不同意見。他說：“一名參與度高的用戶對我們所有三條營收線來說都是好事。”

????事實仍然是，領英的“發布平臺”越看越像一筆媒體資產。丹?羅斯上周在接受讀寫網（ReadWrite）歐文?托馬斯采訪時稍微有些不謹慎，他告訴后者，領英希望找到自己的奈特?斯萊弗——斯萊弗是統計學家出身的作家，他起初為《紐約時報》（New York Times）撰寫文章，現在則為娛樂體育節目電視網（ESPN）供稿。我在這里解釋一下，以免大家產生困惑，《紐約時報》和娛樂體育節目電視網都是媒體機構，而下一個奈特?斯萊弗的出版商也是一家媒體機構。

????跟所有優秀的競爭者一樣，領英并不避諱借鑒別人的思路，其中也包括傳統的傳媒公司。領英最新的影響者最佳建議“系列文章”——我的文章鏈接在此——會讓《財富》雜志的訂閱讀者產生一種熟悉的感覺。我們邀請知名領袖人物制作的“我得到的最佳建議”專題最初發表在《財富》雜志2005年5月21日刊，封面人物是沃倫?巴菲特。

????如果領英的下一步行動中包括聘請真正的記者來補充它的業余供稿人隊伍，大家不要感到意外。領英“媒體”產品的另一個自然延伸將是圍繞其影響者舉辦現場活動。

????從一個關鍵的角度上看，領英肯定跟其他出版商是不同的。也許是因為它不為內容支付費用，同時還規避責任——L領英將內容的完全所有權授予會員供稿人，同時承諾將刪除、注釋或編輯違反網站政策的文章。

????這是多么偉大的商業模式：不用為內容支付費用，但又從這些內容中賺大錢，同時通過放棄所有權跟文章的質量、可靠性或準確性保持距離。領英絕對正在成為一家出版商——一家“不粘鍋式的”出版商，它也許是所有出版商中利潤最高的那一種。(財富中文網)

????譯者：王燦均

????

????Ryan Roslansky, head of content products for the company, strenuously rejects LinkedIn's media ambitions. Or at least he refuses to address them head on. "We are not approaching this from a publishing or media-company perspective," he told me last week.

????The "this" in question is LinkedIn's announcement that it is opening its "publishing platform" to all its 277 million members, beginning with a test group of 25,000. The move essentially means providing a juiced-up blogging tool to LinkedIn users, but with a twist. Blogging sites like Tumblr (owned by Yahoo) or even Medium, the new site run by Twitter (and Blogger) founder Evan Williams, are relative free-for-alls. Post your blog, tell other people about it using social media, and hope someone will see it. A post on LinkedIn is targeted at the people already in your professional network. "Your LinkedIn identity is your professional profile of record," Roslansky says. Adding the ability to post long-form professional information, he says, "helps to ensure someone can stand out and look better in their career."

????LinkedIn is looking pretty good already. The platform-for-the-masses strategy expands on the wildly successful rollout in late 2012 of the LinkedIn Influencer program, a tightly controlled, invitation-only publishing platform for well known LinkedIn users. It started with 150 contributors and now has about 500. Their posts are viewed an average of 31,000 times, provoke 81 comments, and attract 200 "likes," or expressions of approval by readers. Acknowledging that the data for posts by Richard Branson and Bill Gates skew the average, Roslansky declines to divulge median statistics for Influencer posts, which would be a more meaningful measurement. (This seems like a good place to note that I am a founding Influencer and that LinkedIn's editorial director, Daniel Roth, is a former Fortune magazine editor and current friend.)

????As for whether LinkedIn is becoming a media company, the answer seems obvious. Roslansky notes that LinkedIn makes money three ways, through premium accounts (like other journalists, LinkedIn provides one of these to me free of charge), advertising on its site, and tools for recruiters. He says that to the extent the new publishing tool encourages people to use the site more, it will increase advertising opportunities, encourage more premium accounts sign-ups, and improve the quality of information for recruiters. As for whether the new publishing platform is a money-making opportunity, he demurs, saying, "An engaged member is a good story for all three of our revenue lines."

????The fact remains that LinkedIn's "publishing platform" looks more and more like a media property. Dan Roth was slightly less circumspect with Readwrite's Owen Thomas last week, telling him that LinkedIn hoped to discover its own Nate Silver, the statistician-turned-writer, first for the New York Times and now for ESPN. Lest there be any confusion, the Times and ESPN are media organizations; the publisher of the next Nate Silver is a media organization too.

????Like any good competitor, LinkedIn isn't shy about borrowing ideas, including from traditional media companies. It latest Influencer "package" on best advice—my contribution ran here—will have a familiar ring to subscribes of Fortune magazine. Our franchise on the "Best Advice I Ever Got" cited by prominent leaders first ran in the March 21, 2005, issue of the magazine, with Warren Buffett on the cover.

????Don't be surprised if LinkedIn's next moves include hiring real journalists to complement its amateur-writer contributors. Another natural extension of the LinkedIn "media" offering would be hosting live events around its Influencers.

????In one critical way, LinkedIn certainly is different from other publishers. Perhaps because it pays nothing for its content, and also undoubtedly to avoid liability, it grants full ownership rights to its member-writers, while promising to remove, annotate or edit posts that violate its policies.

????What a great business model: Make a ton of money off content you don't pay for and distance yourself from its quality, reliability or accuracy by never owning it. LinkedIn absolutely is becoming a publisher—a Teflon publisher, perhaps the most profitable kind of all.