The news and journalism industry has undergone massive changes to its business model over the last several decades. This panel compared and contrasted various approaches to funding news organizations (reader revenue/subscriptions, venture-backed, philanthropic giving, etc.) and provided insight into building sustainable news organizations. It also considered questions such as the following: In a future more heavily reliant on reader revenue and philanthropic giving, how can we be sure news organizations do not just tell the stories that readers or donors want to hear? And how do we make sure that news is still available to those who cannot pay for it? Kaizar Campwala, vice president of news at Disney; Nick Chen, co-founder and CEO of Pico; Sherrell Dorsey, ’18JRN, founder and CEO of The Plug; Elizabeth Green, CEO and co-founder of Chalkbeat; and Sibel Lowin, global partnerships solutions lead at Google, answered these questions from organization leaders from a variety of backgrounds, including nonprofit and VC-backed for-profit models, both nationally and at the local level. This session was moderated by Josh Benson, partner of Old Town Media.
