Reddit, the self-proclaimed ‘front page of the internet’, will launch a news site today called Upvoted that will serve up the best content from its community.
Upvoted will feature stories, infographics, illustrations, videos, and podcasts on everything from news to sports and lifestyle. However, it won’t allow users to comment or even vote on posts.
A dedicated team of around ten members, led by journalist and former Myspace editorial director Vickie Chang, will create stories for the site based on the best posts from Reddit.
Upvoted will be an experiment for Reddit to see if it can regain the traffic it loses when other sites spin stories created by its users into their own content.
To combat this, the editorial team will scour Reddit for interesting stories, verify the details and interview the original content creators for Upvoted articles. Each post will also guide readers to the original Reddit post.
When asked by Wired about whether Upvoted address controversial stories from the Reddit universe, such as those criticizing the company’s leadership team, Chang says that nothing is “off the table.” “I don’t have any hard steadfast rules. If it’s a topic of discussion, the community is always going to be our first priority,” she added.
In order to monetize the new site, Upvoted will feature sponsored content written by the editorial team.
It could be an interesting way to introduce newcomers to the world of Reddit, without the dangers of harsh comments and negative communities — something that the company’s podcast of the same name, which just concluded its first season, already does for fans of the medium.
The site is scheduled to launch today. At the time of writing, Upvoted was not yet open to the public.
➤ No comments allowed on reddit’s new news site ‘Upvoted’ [Wired]
Image credit: Gil C / Shutterstock.com
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