''404 Media'' is an online publication focusing on technology and internet reporting. The publication covers topics such as hacking, sex work, niche online communities, and the right to repair movement. The publication is worker-owned.

History

''404 Media'' was founded in 2023 by former staff of

Vice Media Vice Media Group LLC is an American-Canadian digital media and broadcasting company. , the Vice Media Group included five main business areas: VICE.com (digital content); VICE STUDIOS (film and TV production) VICE TV (also known as VICELAND); V ...

's ''Motherboard'' after it filed for

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

. Among the founding members of ''404 Media'' were Jason Koebler, the former editor-in-chief at Motherboard, as well as senior editors Emanuel Maiberg and Samantha Cole, and writer Joseph Cox. '' Fast Company'' summarized the outlet's creation as "bootstrapp nga spartan setup consisting of a

Stripe Stripe, striped, or stripes may refer to: Decorations * Stripe (pattern), a line or band that differs in colour or tone from an adjacent surface * Racing stripe, a vehicle decoration * Service stripe, a decoration of the U.S. military Entertainme ...

account and the

Ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

web-hosting platform".

Business model

''404 Media'' is owned by its reporters, a model that was inspired by organizations such as ''

Defector Media ''Defector Media'' is a subscription-based sports blog and media company founded in September 2020 and based in Manhattan. The Defector blog is primarily written by former employees of the ''Deadspin'' sports blog. In October and November 2019 ...

'' and '' Hell Gate''. The company offers two paid tiers, from a $100 annual subscription to a $1,000 annual subscription. In January 2024, the website began requiring email addresses to make it harder for websites using

Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

article spinners to scrape its articles. As of February 2024, the company is profitable.

Notable reports and coverage

In January 2024, the outlet reported claiming that AI-generated rewrites of ''404 Media'' articles had begun to show up on search engines, with some of these AI-generated stories prioritized over the original article on

Google Search Google Search (also known simply as Google) is a search engine provided by Google. Handling more than 3.5 billion searches per day, it has a 92% share of the global search engine market. It is also the most-visited website in the world. The ...

. During the Taylor Swift deepfake pornography controversy, a ''404 Media'' investigation discovered that the images originated from

4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, cooking, weapons, television, ...

and were being distributed on Telegram before making it onto social media platforms. In February 2024, ''404 Media'' released a report alleging that

Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...

and

WordPress WordPress (WP or WordPress.org) is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) written in hypertext preprocessor language and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database with supported HTTPS. Features include a plugin architecture ...

were selling users' data to AI companies OpenAI and Midjourney for training purposes. ''404 Media'' has also covered how so-called "ghost kitchens", delivery-focused restaurants on apps such as

UberEats Uber Eats is an online food ordering and delivery platform launched by Uber in 2014. Meals are delivered by couriers using cars, scooters, bikes, or on foot. It is operational in over 6,000 cities across 45 countries as of 2021. The process of ...

and

DoorDash DoorDash, Inc. is an American company that operates an online food ordering and food delivery platform. The company is based in San Francisco, California. It went public in December 2020 on NYSE and trades under the symbol DASH. With a 56% mar ...

that sell food from other restaurants, have utilized generative AI to create product images.

Reception

In an article about 2024 media industry layoffs, the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'' highlighted ''404 Media'' as a successful new media venture amid an "existential crisis" in the industry. The article stated that the publication has been noted for "publishing an eye-catching range of stories about the tech sector", and noted that "Not only is it producing good stories but its founders say it is breaking even". On 25 July 2024, the

Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ci ...

announced that ''404 Media'' was to receive one of three 2024 EFF Awards for their ''"incisive investigative reports, deep-dive features, blogs, and scoops about topics such as hacking, cybersecurity, cybercrime, sex, artificial intelligence, consumer rights, government and law enforcement surveillance, privacy, and the democratization of the internet."''

References

External links

* Internet properties established in 2023 2023 establishments in the United States Employee-owned companies of the United States {{Journalism-stub Worker cooperatives of the United States