Flipboard acquires Graze, the feed builder working to monetize the open social web
News Source
β’Wed, 26 Aug 2026 18:35:40 +0000
π° What Happened
Flipboard, the magazine news company that has lately backed the open social web, says it is buying Oregon startup Graze, which helps monetize that world by letting creators earn from their feeds. Graze sells tools to build, change and manage Bluesky feeds, which are streams users can set as a home feed, pin, or bring into other AT Protocol apps. In 21 months, Graze reports sending over 41 billion posts to some 12 million people.
The model is the key. Its ads are based on context, not on tracking each user, which fans of the web call the relying on a spooky ecosystem. A brand seeking developers can buy an ad in a feed run by that group, and the feed's maker also picks the ads it allows. Revenue is split 70/30, with most going to the creator. Graze says it has more than 7,000 feeds and about 60% of its traffic is making money, and Flipboard boss Mike McCue liked the idea as a way to let curators earnings.
π The Backstory
Graze is part of a new group of sellers building the open social web, the term for platforms where users, not one firm, control their data and who sees it. Beyond the big names, open sites like Bluesky and Mastodon find it hard to earn, and Graze was made to fill that gap by helping curators make money from their skills.
Flipboard, which gathers and shapes posts into magazines, sees in Graze a nearby step: an active, ad-supported feed world and a type of ads that do not need to track users. The deal puts Flipboard deeper into the tools for creators and the ad layer of the open web, giving it an option to the data-based mode that turns on the big social apps today.
π― Why It Matters
The deal is a bet that simple, non-tracking ads can make the open social web pay, sending money to niche curators and moving value and data away from the big monitoring platforms.
Flipboard, the magazine news company that has lately backed the open social web, says it is buying Oregon startup Graze, which helps monetize that world by letting creators earn from their feeds. Graze sells tools to build, change and manage Bluesky feeds, which are streams users can set as a home feed, pin, or bring into other AT Protocol apps. In 21 months, Graze reports sending over 41 billion posts to some 12 million people.
The model is the key. Its ads are based on context, not on tracking each user, which fans of the web call the relying on a spooky ecosystem. A brand seeking developers can buy an ad in a feed run by that group, and the feed's maker also picks the ads it allows. Revenue is split 70/30, with most going to the creator. Graze says it has more than 7,000 feeds and about 60% of its traffic is making money, and Flipboard boss Mike McCue liked the idea as a way to let curators earnings.
Graze is part of a new group of sellers building the open social web, the term for platforms where users, not one firm, control their data and who sees it. Beyond the big names, open sites like Bluesky and Mastodon find it hard to earn, and Graze was made to fill that gap by helping curators make money from their skills.
Flipboard, which gathers and shapes posts into magazines, sees in Graze a nearby step: an active, ad-supported feed world and a type of ads that do not need to track users. The deal puts Flipboard deeper into the tools for creators and the ad layer of the open web, giving it an option to the data-based mode that turns on the big social apps today.
The deal is a bet that simple, non-tracking ads can make the open social web pay, sending money to niche curators and moving value and data away from the big monitoring platforms.