Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 2h

Let the record show that, no, I am not interested in new franchise business opportunities in my area.

Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 7h

Last week I was delighted to give a keynote talk to open #FediForum, the conference about building the open social web. It's about the real threats we're facing, why open alternatives matter so much right now - and the questions we can ask ourselves to make our work really matter.

Why the open social web matters now

The needs are real – and you have so much power.

werd.io

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Reposted by Ben Werdmuller

Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 10h

Who would have thought that 25 times as many people would be getting their daily news updates from a Boston College history professor (Heather Cox Richardson, who has 2.5 million subscribers) than from the Washington Post.

karl rove knausgård @uhactually.bsky.social · 1d

Lmao WaPo has fewer than 100K circulation now. It turns out “alienate your liberal subscriber base” is not a good strategy when the Republicans also hate you. www.forbes.com/sites/andyme...

The Washington Post Is Running Out Of Readers Willing To Pay

Once a titan of American journalism, The Washington Post now struggles to reach even 100,000 print subscribers most days.

www.forbes.com

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Reposted by Ben Werdmuller

Sara Luterman @slooterman.bsky.social · 14h

If you’re a parent of a child with a disability, you’re worried about how your family will be impacted by SpecEd Department of Education layoffs and you want to talk to a journalist about it, please DM, email (sluterman at 19thnews dot org) or Signal (slooterman.18).

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 13h

This is not a solicitation, but if someone had $2-5M to put into an organization to create and support open newsroom tools, there is an awful lot of good that could be done.

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 14h

This is absolutely correct.

Sendable deck: one you can send in an email. It's a picturebook for the recipient.

Meeting deck: an aid for a conversation at a desk or boardroom.

Pitch deck: a deck for standing up on a stage and presenting.

These are all different.

Matt Cowgill @mattcowgill.bsky.social · 19h

probably my most deeply-held belief: it is not possible for a slide deck to be both (1) a good presentation aide; and (2) a standalone document that can be read and understood in isolation.

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 14h

Toddler wants to be a white ghost for Halloween. But let me tell you, constructing such a costume is, uh, fraught with challenges.

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 23h

The Bird and Baby and Greens are two of my favorite spaces in my hometown, and I’m annoyed that Larry Ellison owns them now. But I have to say that the renovation itself doesn’t sound horrible. I just wish someone nicer held the keys. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Plans to reopen Tolkien and Lewis pub in Oxford approved

Planning permission and listed building consent is granted to restore The Eagle and Child in Oxford.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 1d

I thought this was brilliant: a great introduction to the problems of The Free Press (and what the CBS acquisition represents), and John Oliver as energized as he's ever been. youtu.be/gieTx_P6INQ?...

Bari Weiss: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

YouTube video by LastWeekTonight

youtu.be

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 1d

A fun game to play is "guess which prominent members of the journalism industry are secretly working for the security services of at least one nation".

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 1d

It's literary, tbh

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 1d

I don't know what happens next, but on the face of it, the ceasefire and the return of captives from both sides feels really good. May there be peace, may the rebuilding be equitable, and may everyone get to live and co-exist in dignity and prosperity.

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 1d

Every newsroom depends on software, but that doesn’t mean it should build it.

Here’s a framework for deciding what to build, what to buy, and why technology should be a strategic partner, not a helpdesk.

werd.io/build-what-m...

Build what makes you special. Buy the rest.

A framework for newsroom build vs buy decisions.

werd.io

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Reposted by Ben Werdmuller

Jay Rosen @jayrosen.bsky.social · 2d

I have always loved @propublica.org's mission statement. It speaks to method as much as mission, and does not shrink from describling their journalism as a moral undertaking. www.propublica.org/about/

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 2d

What are we all doing for Halloween decorations this year? I have a ton of spooky gravestones and that kind of thing in the basement, but it's not been a year when I feel like decorating the house with explicit references to death.

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 3d

Today I learned that an interview with my great uncle is in the collection of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

He "describes his experience as a member of the Dutch Resistance in the Hague; details of his arrest; his time in a slave labor camp; and actions that led to his release."

Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

collections.ushmm.org

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 4d

One of my very favorite things I’ve ever been involved in building. And: I miss that community.

Nine @jinxremoving.bsky.social · 4d

This is a really lovely reminiscence by @werd.io of what it was like to run a popular website in the early 2000s. Also, having met Fred, I can’t overstate how on-brand this snippet is. words.werd.io/we-are-the-m...

Of course, there’s reasonable and then there’s reasonable. One morning after a heavy night of vodkaing, we woke up to discover that our friend Fred (who drew a cartoon about a walrus pirate captain) had changed every single word in every single discussion thread to “gunrock”. These aren’t the sorts of challenges every website owner faces, but they were ours.

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 4d

A while back I wrote about how I helped make personality tests on the web popular - and how they were used in an effort to swing an election fifteen years later.

Personality Tests and the Downfall of Democracy

In 2001, I found a way to make personality tests go viral. In 2016, they were used to swing an election.

medium.com

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 4d

I'm always impressed by the finesse with which dropshippers make Instagram ads for the most insane SkyMall Sharper Image level crap. I was just presented with a sophisticated George Clooney level reel for an ice cube maker that makes your ice look like a d20. Just perfect for your old fashioneds.

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 4d

"Yesterday, I built all your hopes up by suggesting Trump might win the Nobel Peace Prize, but at least you can console yourself with the fact the CIA did." www.normalisland.co.uk/p/venezuelan...

Venezuelan woman who begged Trump to bomb her country wins Nobel Peace Prize

María Corina Machado has become the first person since Barack Obama to win the Nobel Peace Prize for doing absolutely nothing.

www.normalisland.co.uk

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 4d

Yep, auto-suggest seems unproblematic to me. I think my general AI rule is: suggest things internally but don't publish in public by default.

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 4d

I'm skeptical of using AI for alt text generation. The tech is not bad at all about describing what's in a picture, but I'm unconvinced that it can tell you what's *important* in a picture. Maybe if you fed in the context? But a human can write alt text in a minute or two, so is it really worth it?

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 4d

I could watch this on an endless loop.

The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · 5d

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 5d

Genuine relief at this:

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 5d

Our plane to Spain is in the air!

🙌🙌

Thank you so much to the countless people supporting us in every way and in particular all of the Rutgers students and faculty who have supported us every step of the way.

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 5d

"He said *what*?!"

[Re-use this post as appropriate]

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