Reddit experiment brings you news without the community
As great as Reddit can be for discovering interesting news, it's not always ideal for newcomers -- it takes time to navigate that sea of posts, and some communities aren't so friendly. Reddit thinks it can help, though. It's launching Upvoted, an experimental news website that includes both curated stories from Reddit as well as original content... but not Reddit's community or voting. While it'll still link back to Reddit, it's really meant as an introduction for readers (and, we'd add, advertisers) that might be spooked by the occasional hostile comment on the main site. It's also meant to keep more news within the Reddit ecosystem, rather than letting other sites write about it first.
This won't be a conventional news page. Rather than rely on banner ads, Upvoted will get revenue from sponsorships for "good" original content. As an example, Tesla might pay for a genuinely informative story about electric cars. It's hard to say if this strategy will do much to improve Reddit's bottom line. However, it's not hard to see why the company is willing to give this model a try. As crucial as the community is to Reddit, its anything-goes philosophy can only do so much to attract new advertisers and users -- Upvoted theoretically brings in a lot more cash without damaging what makes Reddit so special.
