ICA 2024 Post-conference event – registration now open

News Industries: Funding Innovations and Futures

Tuesday 25 June 2024 (dinner on Monday 24 June included in registration)

News Industries: Funding Innovations and Futures is a one-day ICA 2024 post-conference 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 through a global comparative lens, and futures for news media sustainability.

Format

The program includes a series of panels, presentations, keynotes and conversations. The program can be accessed here.

Keynote speakers

Dr Richard Denniss, Executive Director of The Australia Institute, is giving a special keynote at the event dinner (24 June) on the importance of news in democracies. Dr Denniss’ talk will provoke some rethinking about how we imagine the role of news, how we fund it and how it is regulated.

Professor Kristy Hess: ‘Burning platforms’?: Exploring local news futures in Australia

Professor Phillip M. Napoli: Calculating the Funding Gap in Local Journalism: Methodological and Empirical Observations from a Work in Progress

Panel discussion: International news subsidy schemes

Professor Monica Attard will lead a discussion with international academics on how subsidy schemes are being implemented around the world. Panellists include:

Alfred Hermida and Mary-Lynn Young (Canada)
Jaemin Jung, Se-uk Oh and Youngju Kim (South Korea)
Eli Skogerbø (Norway)
Tim Koskie (Australia)

Industry panel: Innovative funding approaches to news

Join Professor Robert G. Picard as he talks to industry experts about innovative funding approaches in news. A distinguished panel of industry professionals from news organisations, start-ups, and digital platforms will be asked the big questions around the shifting economic and social value of news. Panellists include:

Megan Brownlow, Principal, Housten Consulting
Jarrah Petzold, Director of Marketing, Australian Community Media
Will Hayward, CEO of Private Media
Jacqui Park, journalist, editor and media strategist

Lightning rounds

There are two lightning rounds with five presenters each where they will talk about their research for 6-7 minutes with time for a discussion at the end.

Conversations

Throughout the day there will be opportunities for conversations with the keynotes, panellists and other participants. We hope to generate a constructive dialogue about solutions to the funding challenges facing the news and media industries locally and internationally.

Key areas of discussion we would like to address throughout the day include:

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

Our aim is to continue the discussions that were sparked at the ICA 2023 Post-conference “Novel Directions in Media Innovation and Funding” hosted by Mary Lynn Young and Alfred Hermida, which was held in Toronto in May 2023.

Publications

We are pleased to announce that select abstracts will be invited to submit a full paper for a special collection of Global Perspectives, “News Media Bargaining Codes and Sustainable Futures for Journalism”. Further information on this special collection can be found here.

We are also exploring the potential of an edited volume of post-conference materials as a consolidated report for industry, and a valuable resource for academics researching in this space. 

Details

Date: Tuesday 25 June 2024, 9:00am-4:00pm. We are also hosting a dinner on Monday 24 June (6-9:30pm), included in the registration, with Dr Richard Denniss from The Australia Institute as the keynote speaker.

Location: Kurrawa Surf Club, Gold Coast.

Old Burleigh Rd, Broadbeach QLD 4218

Old Burleigh Road

Registration and Fees

Registration is $AUD88.00 (waged) and $AUD35.00 (student/part-time or casual) which covers coffee breaks and lunch on 25 June and the dinner on 24 June. 