It’s no shock to say the news industry is in a weird spot. Former industry juggernauts are just husks of what they used to be, and new companies are trying their hand in an ever-evolving market.
But as companies try to find their new footing, some are bound to misstep. Forbes, the American business magazine founded more than a century ago, is facing criticism for an article regarding the shooting deaths Sunday of eight children in Shreveport, Louisiana. The article itself wasn’t the focus of the criticisms, but rather the ability for readers to “bet” whether Congress would act on gun control, Futurism reports.
Futurism wrote that Molly White, a cryptocurrency journalist, first shared an image of the prediction bet on her Bluesky account, describing it as “ghoulish.” The prediction widget, which Forbes called ForbesPredict, was embedded just after a description of the alleged shooter. It asked readers if they believe “Congress WILL pass new gun safety legislation before 31st December 2026,” Futurism reports.
At some point after the story initially published, the website removed the ForbesPredict module.
How the media is using prediction markets to keep readers
Forbes isn’t the only news outlet to include prediction markets in its articles. Other publications, like CNN and Fox News, also use similar techniques, but those companies are partnered with actual prediction markets like Polymarket or Kalshi.
ForbesPredicts is a little different. It doesn’t allow readers to use real money when placing “bets.” Readers instead use “wager coins,” which act as a fake form of currency and allow them to wager on what might happen next in the story.
Forbes’ chief innovation officer, Nina Gould, told Publishing Insider that these coins have no monetary value but can act as a “signal of judgment over time.”
“The tokens unlock greater status, gameplay advantages, and non-monetary rewards along the way,” Gould said.
Each bet costs 100 coins, and users can spend 10 coins to get a hint on what the current outcomes are before making their predictions.
While they can’t purchase anything, ForbesPredict’s wager coins still turn a news story — in this case, a story about the deaths of eight children — into a betting game. But that’s the whole point, according to a press release announcing the software.
“Forbes readers aren’t there to speculate. They’re there to be informed,” said Jeff Yam, CEO and co-founder of the trading platform Axiom and a member of Forbes’ executive board. “We built ForbesPredict to invite them to join a forum so that we can better understand what Forbes readers think about important news topics.”
Why did Forbes include it in this story?
Earlier this year, Gould spoke with Digiday, describing ForbesPredict as the “gamification of following a story.” She said it could help measure audience behavior to shape what “segments” Forbes might do next. The company can also use the data to help sell advertisements.
“You can really look at creating segments about people who feel positively or negatively about a particular topic, a particular company, things like that,” she said.
While it may be unclear why Forbes would “gamify” a story covering a gruesome topic, there are reasons beyond keeping a reader’s attention.
On its website, Axiom says its mission is to solve the biggest problem in the media industry — artificial intelligence. In the past, people may have searched for an answer on Google and clicked on a couple of sites, typically news sites, to find the answer. But now, when users search on Google, Google’s own AI chatbot cuts out those sites, giving users answers without them having to click on a single site and taking revenue from an already cash-strapped industry.
“AI platforms are answering the questions your journalism used to answer, permanently restructuring how information flows,” Axiom’s website reads. “The quiet hope that this was a fluke. The data says otherwise. The trajectory is clear.”
Companies like Axiom and Forbes are hoping that these offerings keep users around and coming as AI continues to erode the media’s revenue stream. It’s still unclear if this approach has been effective, 404 Media reports.