Founders of 404 Media: L to R Emanuel Maiberg, Jason Koebler, Joseph Cox, Samantha Cole. Photo by Sharon Attia.
404 Media is a new media website founded by four former editors at Vice Media including Emanuel Maiberg and Jason Koebler. The website aspires to be kind of like what Vice Media once was.
“At 404 Media, we aspire to do society-shifting technology journalism, and to create a sustainable, responsible, reader-supported media business around it,” said the new company in a launch statement. “We will report and publish stories that you will not find anywhere else, that we believe only we can do. We hope these stories will take over the internet, impact public policy, and expose bad actors. We will point out the absurd. We will be irreverent and have fun. We will also do very serious work. We hope that you will read these stories and want to send them to your group chat, or bring them up as conversation starters at parties.”
404 Media’s new website’s home page looks very much like Vice Media’s once did. For example, it is filled with stories like one about sex toys, another about AI porn by Emanuel Maiberg and ones about hackers and earphones.
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“We’ll go where others won’t, talk to people who are overlooked, and expose those who do not want to be seen. We’ll show what is often forgotten: the humans who shape technology, and the impact their decisions have on the lives of ordinary people,” said Emanuel Maiberg said about 404 Media.
And he told the New York Times about 404 Media “It’s very much a website by humans for humans about technology. It’s not about the business of technology — it’s about how it impacts real people in the real world.”
Vice Media Group LLC is an American-Canadian digital media and broadcasting company that began as a punk magazine called Voice of Montreal in October 1994 in Montreal. The company grew to even have its own TV company, Vice TV, a basic cable television channel that offered investigative news reports and documentaries. At its height, Vice had offices in 35 cities around the world that worked on five different businesses and the company even looked to holding an IPO. Media titans Disney and Fox even invested at one point.
Once valued at as much as $6 billion, Vice media was recently bought out by George Soros’ Soros Fund Management, Fortress Investment Group and Monroe Capital for $350 million.
According to his official bio, Jason Koebler is a cofounder of 404 Media. He was previously the editor-in-chief of Motherboard. He loves the Freedom of Information Act and surfing. And Emanuel Maiberg is interested in little known communities and processes that shape technology, troublemakers, and petty beefs.
