What if public networks became a platform for communities to create their own local media, not just consume it? After the federal funding cuts, here's one idea for rebuilding NPR and PBS around community co-creation, open platforms, and human-centered, prototype-driven design. [If I ran NPR and PBS](
Ben Werdmuller
If I ran NPR and PBS
Building community-driven public media for the post-federal funding era.
 )
Realizing I don't like "human in the loop" as a construct because it doesn't specify the center of gravity. It's got to be "human in control".
"Substack's One Weird Marketing Trick was leveraging the economic interests of traditional media employees against their publishers to get positive "earned media"." [www.atvbt.com/substacks-se...](
Atoms vs Bits
Substack's Secret
just one guy's opinion
 ) [Substack's Secret](
Atoms vs Bits
Substack's Secret
just one guy's opinion
 )
Ten years ago, Google crawled two pages for every visitor it sent to a publisher. Today, Anthropic crawls 60,000. [www.axios.com/2025/06/19/a...](https://www.axios.com/2025/06/19/ai-search-traffic-publishers ) [axios.com/2025/06/19/ai-...](https://www.axios.com/2025/06/19/ai-search-traffic-publishers )
People trust people more than brands. What if we rebuilt newsrooms around that truth? Here's a thought experiment: a semi-decentralized model where journalists own their audience, keep most of their revenue, and still get legal, editorial, and platform support. [When people trust humans more ...](
Ben Werdmuller
When people trust humans more than brands: the incubator newsroom
How we might rebuild journalism from the ground up by rethinking what a newsroom is.
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What is open source? How did it develop? How does it succeed and where does it fall short of its potential? An updated look at the movement: [werd.io/what-is-open...](
Ben Werdmuller
What is open source?
Why the idealistic promise of collaborative software often falls short of its potential.
 ) [What is open source?](
Ben Werdmuller
What is open source?
Why the idealistic promise of collaborative software often falls short of its potential.
 )