I bawled my way through Nowhere Special, a 2020 movie about a terminally ill man who needs to find a new family for his four year old son. I’ll be thinking about it for years. It’s the story of a window cleaner with a terminal| Ben Werdmuller
Many of our colleagues' communities are being directly targeted by an increasingly authoritarian, anti-immigrant regime. As managers and leaders, we have a duty of care. It starts with listening.| Ben Werdmuller
It turns out that "we're protecting democracy and our industry is dying, please pay us money" is not a great sales pitch.| Ben Werdmuller
This simple, repeatable framework for building a culture of open feedback has been a part of my toolkit for over a decade.| Ben Werdmuller
How law enforcement and private parties can access your information without your knowledge, and what you can do about it.| Ben Werdmuller
Preparing viable alternatives for broadcast censorship and a restricted internet.| Ben Werdmuller
Casey Newton's annual updates are always great. This year, perhaps predictably, the biggest highlight for me is his ambitions around community. We need stronger community platforms to support newsrooms.| Ben Werdmuller
Has the internet led to more polarization, or is this more of a great unmasking, where people feel more comfortable to share opinions they've always held?| Ben Werdmuller
Let's help build the world we want to see.| Ben Werdmuller
Useful tips on creating an unlimited PTO policy. I used to think these were more accounting hacks than real benefits - but I've changed my mind over time.| Ben Werdmuller
How community-first thinking can help newsrooms survive AI| Ben Werdmuller
An open source project aimed at making medical research easier.| Ben Werdmuller
A new survey suggests that scientists vastly prefer Bluesky to X - and to its other alternatives.| Ben Werdmuller
"Sixteen of the 50 biggest news websites in the UK are now using a “consent or pay” model to allow users to pay to reject personalised advertising or even avoid ads altogether." It should be illegal.| Ben Werdmuller
"Obviously, any campaign that used only that AI-generated data would miss the mark — instead of looking at the views of real respondents, it would be looking at a funhouse mirror reflection of a demographic cooked up by a language model with no access to actual data."| Ben Werdmuller
From startup CTO to newsroom leader: Ask me anything.| Ben Werdmuller
"Artificial-intelligence startup Perplexity offered to purchase Google’s Chrome browser for $34.5 billion as it works to challenge the tech giant’s web-search dominance."| Ben Werdmuller
Writing at the intersection of technology, media, and democracy by Ben Werdmuller| Werd I/O
Newsletter subscribers might be surprised to see a slightly new design. I’ve moved away from Substack and back to Buttondown, an indie mailing list service.| Werd I/O
