SvdJ Incubator · Workshop
Suppose journalists ran their own distribution platform. What would they want to decide, and what would they rather not?
The Dutch Journalism Fund (Stimuleringsfonds voor de Journalistiek) is organising a workshop with eight journalists on how a shared distribution platform built on open protocols could be governed.
When Thursday 11 June, 15:30 to 17:30, followed by drinks.
Where Waag Futurelab, Nieuwmarkt 4, Amsterdam.
Who Eight participants from mixed backgrounds: freelance journalists, members of a journalism collective, newsroom staff, and tech or product people at a news organisation.
Compensation Travel costs reimbursed, plus a €100 stipend.
The problem
The distribution of journalism is largely in the hands of a few large technology companies. Google, Meta and now the generative AI platforms decide what gets seen and read. For independent journalists and small newsrooms that position keeps getting tighter: traffic is falling, dependence is growing, and the people who write the rules don't work in the Netherlands and aren't journalists themselves.
An alternative is a shared platform built on open protocols, managed by the journalism sector itself, where the fundamental choices are made within the journalistic field.
Current situation: choices about moderation, curation and distribution lie outside the sector.
Proposed situation: the same choices are placed within the sector — but by whom exactly?
The idea is appealing but unfinished. Who decides which articles appear in a shared feed? Who moderates, and on what grounds? How much infrastructure do you run yourself before you can say the platform is truly yours? Which decisions sit with a members' council, which with an editor, which with the operational staff? Each of these questions has several possible answers, and every answer shifts who actually holds power.
What this research is about
We are working on this topic within the SvdJ Incubator programme. A central question is which of these governance questions journalists actually want a say in, and which they would rather delegate. We are mapping which choices journalists consider important to be able to make themselves.
We do this through a number of concrete dilemmas. One example: a new paying reader signs up for the platform. This person does not follow any specific journalists yet. So which accounts will the platform recommend for this reader to follow? And who comes top of the list? The well-known journalist with a strong reputation and a large following? Or do you make room for that emerging new talent and offer them as the first suggestion? During the session we work through several such dilemmas, none of which has a clear-cut answer.
Why take part
The session is meant for journalists who think enough about their distribution to have an outspoken opinion about it. You are at the table while a design question is still open, before the choices are settled. The results go back to the SvdJ network and appear in our research output, in which participants are named if they wish. And you will close the afternoon with a group actively engaged with what Dutch journalism could look like five years from now.