Thread by @JuddLegum

1. Sad to hear the news about @HuffPost and @BuzzFeed, where I have a lot of friends doing amazing work.

Part of the problem is that two companies that produce no journalism -- Facebook and Google -- are capturing most of the profits associated with journalism

@HuffPost @BuzzFeed 2. Think about how much of the value of search and social is based on the fact that they surface NEWS. But those platforms capture most of the money.

3. I also think it's worth examining the trade-offs when journalistic outlets are funded by venture capital or controlled by large corps

These models can inject a lot of cash into journalism but they are also don't really care about journalism. Layoffs are an inevitability.

4. The cost here is not only the layoffs but the opaque influence on the nature of coverage when people fear for their jobs.

It's hard enough to report critically on advertisers -- often powerful companies -- in the best of circumstances.

5. I started popular.info because I wanted a way to operate outside of news ecosystem mediated by platforms.

I think independence will work for me -- and maybe for quite a few other people.

But it's not a replacement for the entire industry.