Recording Digital Journalists' subject matter expertise

We've just rolled out a new feature that we wanted to bring to your attention: We're now recording subject matter expertise for contributors, so anyone who engages with our network will get a chance to tell the world what they are an expert at, and all our readers will get a chance to learn more about contributors. If you click on your account profile you'll now notice a new message asks you to provide info about the industries and content you know well. So if you are an expert at fitness, food, celebrities and technology, you can now check off all of those topics and our system will record the details. We have a very detailed checklist and we will be adding more topics as we learn more about what our contributors are good at. You can check as many boxes as you like but we ask that you keep it focused on content and industries you know really well (less is more here, so don't feel like you have to check off everything you know a little bit about). And for readers: If you click on anyone's name, you will now see subject matter expertise below their name. The goal with this feature is two-fold: (1) We want to give contributors a chance to write more often about subjects they know well, and give readers a chance to understand what our contributors know really well. Someone who writes about food that knows it well (an expert) may be someone a reader wants to follow more often. So by publicly showing readers your subject matter expertise, we hope to see an increase in readership for writers. (2) We will be using the data we collect to provide more opportunities for content creators. On digitaljournal.com, we'll be reaching out to subject matter experts more often when a story arises that fits their beat (i.e. a story about the NHL strike would be assigned or sent to a sports/hockey expert before a general assignment writer). Furthermore, with the launch of our /newsrooms division we will also be using this data to put together teams of Digital Journalists who want to earn extra income by working as part of our brand newsrooms team. We have already brought on a number of Digital Journalists to these projects and many of you have already earned a nice bump in monthly income by working on custom content projects with us. This is something we will be doing more and more often, as we are seeing several opportunities arise as we bring on more and more customers. So, understanding more about your subject matter expertise will allow us to reach out more often and provide you with new revenue opportunities via custom freelance projects. So click on your name and get started by telling us about the industries and verticals you know well! And as always, we appreciate any feedback.