How Decentralization Benefits Publishers, with 404 Media’s Jason Koebler and ProPublica’s Ben Werdmuller https://flipboard.video/videos/watch/cb5f5404-3c1e-4399-b78d-691c84db671a It’s tough being a media outlet these days. Audiences are fractured, referrals from search engines are dropping, and publishers are at the mercy of algorithms they don’t control. Savvy journalists at forward-thinking newsrooms are not letting this happen to them. Instead, they’re doing the work that arguably has been most critical all along: building direct connections with their audiences. It’s common to do this through email lists and subscription models, but the open social web offers a new, more equitable ecosystem for quality journalism to thrive. Two people on the frontlines of this movement are Jason Koebler, a journalist and co-founder at 404 Media, and Ben Werdmuller, the senior director of technology at ProPublica. In this episode of Dot Social, the two talk about their fediverse experiences so far and why they’re hopeful for publishing in the future. Highlights of this conversation: 1:40 404 Media’s one year anniversary and learnings 2:29 Addressing online media’s biggest challenge 4:30 Fracturing of social media, of audiences and challenge for publishers 6:01 Ben and his trajectory in media 7:34 How 404 Media and other journalistic organizations can solve problems around discovery 11:15 Premium feeds and the radicalness of “listen to this wherever you get your podcasts” 14:35 The cons of email and the promise of ActivityPub 16:20 Core selling points of decentralized social media 19:17 Seeing it all come together 20:25 Will Threads become the whale in this pond? 25:13 “Federate or die” 29:05 Benefits of owning your own platform and audience 34:36 The time is now; getting feedback to developers 36:24 Picking Ghost (over Substack) 37:54 Flipboard and the movement toward innovation in the fediverse 39:49 The threat of AI-generated content and how it plays algorithmically 42:45 For You feeds and the “black box” model of surfacing content 44:19 Top wishlist items for the web 48:47 Desire for a better advertising ecosystem Mentioned in this episode: “What We Learned in Our First Year of 404 Media” “Wherever you get your podcasts” is a radical statement John O’Nolan’s Dot Social episode Threads announcement from 8/28 “Protocol Wars - The Fediverse Explained!”(WVFRM podcast) 🔎 You can find Ben at https://werd.io/ and @ben@werd.social. You can find Jason @jasonkoebler@mastodon.social and 404 Media at @404media@flipboard.com ✚ You can follow Mike at @mike@flipboard.social and @mike@flipboard.com 💡 To learn more about what Flipboard's doing in the fediverse, sign up here: http://about.flipboard.com/a-new-wave Thu, 01 Oct 2026 07:45:36 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://flipboard.video How Decentralization Benefits Publishers, with 404 Media’s Jason Koebler and ProPublica’s Ben Werdmuller https://flipboard.video/client/assets/images/icons/icon-1500x1500.png https://flipboard.video/videos/watch/cb5f5404-3c1e-4399-b78d-691c84db671a All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://flipboard.video/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder. <![CDATA[How Decentralization Benefits Publishers, with 404 Media’s Jason Koebler and ProPublica’s Ben Werdmuller - Flipboard Video]]> https://flipboard.video/w/r7z6QY3dm5EqrFmDFkAgPY;threadId=6673 https://flipboard.video/w/r7z6QY3dm5EqrFmDFkAgPY;threadId=6673 Fri, 18 Oct 2024 23:28:53 GMT @cabbage@piefed.social Heh, good idea 😃 We're always happy to answer any questions you may have about Flipboard! Our blog is a good reference too: https://about.flipboard.com/blog/inside-flipboard/ (also recently federated at @blogs@about.flipboard.com )

]]> Flipboard Video <![CDATA[How Decentralization Benefits Publishers, with 404 Media’s Jason Koebler and ProPublica’s Ben Werdmuller - BillyClark]]> https://flipboard.video/w/r7z6QY3dm5EqrFmDFkAgPY;threadId=6673 https://flipboard.video/w/r7z6QY3dm5EqrFmDFkAgPY;threadId=6673 Thu, 17 Oct 2024 20:42:43 GMT Great talk! I guess a lot of us are her as end users struggling to find good content online as the mainstream web keeps deteriorating - it's incredibly interesting to hear the thoughts from the side of the publishers trying to be reached. It gets me pretty excited about ActivityPub integration in @ghost@threads.net.

It's interesting to hear Flipboard has been such a significant driver of traffic to websites already, as I wasn't really familiar with the service before they joined the Fediverse. I wouldn't mind learning more about this journey - maybe another Flipboard employee wouldn't be a terrible guest for a future episode! :)

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