News Industries: Funding Innovations and Futures
News Industries: Funding innovations and Futures is a one-day ICA 2024 postconference event that will bring together the research community and stakeholders from the news industry to have an open dialogue about what has worked and what hasn’t in developing funding models in the online news environment.
Date: Tuesday 25 June 2024, 9:00am-4:00pm.
Location: Kurrawa Surf Club, Gold Coast. Please note there will be a dinner on the evening of 24 June at Kurrawa Surf Club (included in the registration fee).
Endorsed by the following ICA Divisions: Media Industry Studies Interest Group; Journalism Studies Division
Deadline for Abstracts: 1 February 2024
Organising Committee
Professor Sora Park, U of Canberra
Associate Professor Caroline Fisher, U of Canberra
Professor Terry Flew, U of Sydney
Dr Aljosha Karim Schapals, Queensland U of Technology
Dr Janet Fulton, U of Canberra
Dr. Agata Stepnik, U of Sydney
Topics
The goal of this event is to bring together academics, industry and HDR students to share and learn about innovative funding approaches in journalism through a global comparative lens. We hope to generate a constructive dialogue about solutions to the funding challenges facing the news and media industries locally and internationally.
We will be inviting leading academics and industry professionals from news organisations, start-ups, and digital platforms, to ask big questions about the shifting economic and social value of news, including:
- Are paid subscriptions a viable model for general news?
- Should digital platforms be involved in funding news?
- Are governments playing an increasing role in supporting news?
- Do we need blue sky approaches to the financial sustainability of news?
There are three main areas we would like to address:
- Business models and innovations – e.g. advertising, micropayments, freemium models and subscription
- Government subsidies, philanthropy and not-for-profits
- Regulating digital platforms and financial support from platforms
We would also like to encourage blue sky thinking. Have we been tinkering around the edges of a system that is failing? Should we throw out old funding approaches and start again? What type of news environment do capitalist democracies really want?
Format of the Day
The event will consist of a series of panels, presentations, keynotes and conversations.
Submission Process
Please submit an abstract for a 5–7-minute lightning talk. The abstract should be no more than 200 words plus a 50-word bio for each author. Please submit one file either in MSWord or PDF. Submit through this form no later than 1 February 2024.
The committee is looking for presentations that demonstrate originality, relevance to themes, and innovation.
Contributors will be selected by peer-review and notified of the decision on or before 1 March 2024. At least one author is expected to attend the postconference and present in person.
We will explore the potential of an edited volume of postconference materials as a report for industry and a valuable resource for academics researching in this space.
Registration and Fees
Registration will open on 1 March 2024. All participants must register for the postconference. Registration costs will be $AUD 88 (waged) and $AUD 35 (student/part-time or casual) which covers coffee breaks and lunch on the 25th June and the dinner on the 24th June.
Key Dates
1 Feb 2024: Deadline for abstract submission
1 March 2024: Corresponding authors notified of decision
20-24 June 2024: Main ICA conference
25 June 2024: Postconference event
Sponsors
We would like to thank our sponsors:
- The News and Media Research Centre at the University of Canberra
- Discipline of Media and Communication, The University of Sydney
- Australian Community Media
The funding from these organisations is from three Australian Research Council grants:
For any enquiries, please contact the committee on: newsfuturespostconf@gmail.com.
Acknowledgement
This postconference aims to continue the discussions that were sparked at the ICA 2023 Postconference ‘Novel Directions in Media Innovation and Funding’
Heartbeat of Australia 