Top all-time · #16477
The Forth Estate
Company blog · blog.nillium.combusinessstartups
The Forth Estate is the company blog at blog.nillium.com, writing about business and startups. Since 2020, 4 different Hacker News readers have linked it 51 times, most often “Fact-checking isn't the answer to misinformation”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (11) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Posts about news business models, local news, and journalism funding, plus the company's plans for a news platform. The comments link these posts as pitches for its own project rather than praising the writing.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 11 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
What is going on in and around Forth
Most-linked posts?
- Fact-checking isn't the answer to misinformation3 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2021-03-25
- News was never meant for social platforms2 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2020-11-30
- Building a new business model for news – and learning from the music industry2 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2020-04-17
- We're Not an Aggregator2 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2020-11-25
- Why we're building Forth: A new news platform2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-11-20
- Launching Forth: original reporting with the look and feel of social media2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-05-24
- “We need a well equipped press corps to keep us informed.”2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-01-07
- A Pre-CMS: The Reporting Management System2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-05-30
What Hacker News says?
How is this not theft? Journalism is expensive. Of course, there are other business models (full disclosure, we're building one too: https://blog.nillium.com/what-can-napster-teach-local-news/ ) but circumventing a paywall is not the answer. Yes, the NYT is one of the few outlets that is doing reasonably well right now. But many newspapers are going out of business, or at least furloughing employees -- employees who…
Comment linking /what-can-napster-teach-local-news/
on “I Am Deleting the Blog”Submitted It’s time to remove news from Facebook and Google as a story · 47 points
HN discussionWe're trying! https://blog.nillium.com/why-were-building-forth/
Comment linking /why-were-building-forth/
on “Facebook Indefinitely Suspends Trump”Submitted Can we ever go back? as a story · 46 points
HN discussionSimple solution -- dont get your news from places that let anyone post. https://blog.nillium.com/fighting-misinformation-online/
Comment linking /fighting-misinformation-online/
on “Almost half of local Twitter trending topics in Turkey are fake – study”Submitted Now what? The collateral damage of a tech backlash as a story · 29 points
HN discussionFWIW, we are working on this. Almost all of the issues listed in this thread can be traced back to the way aggregators and social networks end up monetizing (or not monetizing) news. We're trying something a little different: https://blog.nillium.com/were-not-an-aggregator/
Comment linking /were-not-an-aggregator/
on “Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?”Submitted Why we're building Forth: A new news platform as a story · 6 points
HN discussionWrote this a little while back. Most news orgs -- especially local -- are being set up to fail in this environment. https://blog.nillium.com/news-was-never-meant-for-social-pla...
Comment linking /news-was-never-meant-for-social-platforms/
on “Facebook gives money to America’s biggest news organizations”Submitted Building a new business model for news – and learning from the music industry as a story · 6 points
HN discussionBut that all requires an informed populace. The problem with Facebook (and others, of course) is that it warps all financial incentives for the publishers, while sapping revenue away from them. Now if you want any revenue at all, which is required for surviving, you need to have clickbaity headlines so you can get traffic to your page. And even that assumes that certain news can find an audience; local news especial…
Comment linking /news-was-never-meant-for-social-platforms/
on “We can have democracy or we can have Facebook”Submitted Fact-checking isn't the answer to misinformation as a story · 5 points
HN discussionThis is more like Amazon diverting the money that used to go to the book authors back to themselves, and then when the authors and publishers start layoffs and go bankrupt, people ask why the writing is so bad. Shameless plug, but we're working on something to take the good of social without the predatory leanings or misaligned interests: https://blog.nillium.com/why-were-building-forth/
Comment linking /why-were-building-forth/
on “We can have democracy or we can have Facebook”Submitted “We need a well equipped press corps to keep us informed.” as a story · 5 points
HN discussionThis has been our working hypothesis; we're building tools for newsrooms to syndicate the piecemeal updates of breaking stories throughout the day, for people who dont want to commit to long articles or videos. https://blog.nillium.com/what-can-napster-teach-local-news/
Comment linking /what-can-napster-teach-local-news/
on “Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories”Submitted News was never meant for social platforms as a story · 5 points
HN discussionThis is why we're building a news platform that sets up a different incentive structure than the current status quo. If publishers aren't desperate for clicks, there is no reason to stoop to outrage porn. https://blog.nillium.com/news-was-never-meant-for-social-pla...
Comment linking /news-was-never-meant-for-social-platforms/
on “Emotional headlines have an impact regardless of the credibility of the source”Submitted We're Not an Aggregator as a story · 5 points
HN discussionIn reality, the reason why these have failed in the past is human psychology. Think about this with something other than news -- we all have $800 smartphones, but stare at the app store thinking, "hmm...do I really want to spend 99 CENTS?" When you subscribe to a publication, you have to make decision once. You think about the amount of money against all future potential articles you can read, and decide from there.…
Comment linking /what-can-napster-teach-local-news/
on “The Atlantic lays off almost 20% of staff”Submitted Why We're Building Forth: A new news platform as a story · 5 points
HN discussionOn a little bit of a corollary -- “Who gets to decide what’s true?” is the wrong question. We should be asking “how do we determine what’s true?” https://blog.nillium.com/fighting-misinformation-online/
Comment linking /fighting-misinformation-online/
on “Is content moderation a dead end?”Submitted What can Napster teach local news about business models? as a story · 5 points
HN discussionNo one wants to be fact checked. https://blog.nillium.com/fighting-misinformation-online/
Comment linking /fighting-misinformation-online/
on “Users post more falsehoods after others correct them: study”Submitted Launching Forth: original reporting with the look and feel of social media as a story · 3 points
HN discussion*Disclaimer: working on a news startup to combat some of these issues* I find it interesting first of all that local news -- and weather, especially -- are the most trusted in the US. It reminds me of that old half-joke that everyone hates Congress but loves their congressperson -- but more likely it's that the issues that hit close to home are less likely to be polarized across traditional political lines. We've lo…
Comment linking /news-was-never-meant-for-social-platforms/
on “US ranks last among 46 countries in trust in media”Submitted News was never meant for social media as a story · 3 points
HN discussionWe're working on another way for disseminating news. It might make plagiarism a little more difficult, while also working a little better for our audience: https://blog.nillium.com/what-can-napster-teach-local-news/
Comment linking /what-can-napster-teach-local-news/
on “To show how easy it is for plagiarized news sites to get ad revenue, I made one”Submitted It took a siege at the US Capitol for social platforms to do the right thing as a story · 3 points
HN discussionOf course, this is not ideal. There is a big difference between journalism and message boards -- though that isn't to say, of course, that there can't room for both. We've been working on a platform reimagining how local news can operate -- taking whats good from social media (the format and distribution), but maintaining journalistic rigor. We cannot lose journalism. https://blog.nillium.com/defending-journalism-to…
Comment linking /defending-journalism-to-defend-the-republic/
on “Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper”Submitted Defending Journalism to Defend the Republic as a story · 3 points
HN discussion