White Paper: Building Trust in the Open

Journalism's distribution channels are collapsing. Google search referrals to publishers fell by a third globally in the year to November 2025. Social media referrals have plummeted even more dramatically: down 80% from Facebook and roughly 60% from X since 2020. Email newsletters, long considered the last refuge of direct audience relationships, now face displacement by AI-mediated inboxes. And trust in news has flatlined at 40% globally, with 83% of Americans saying they have not paid for news in the past year.

This paper presents the case for open protocols as trust infrastructure for journalism, examines early experiments from newsrooms and protocol builders working together, and offers practical recommendations for newsrooms, technologists, and funders who want to act on this opportunity.

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