The Sustainability of Journalism: What works?

Share evidence with us on what business models, laws, policies and regulations, and other ideas from beyond the market and state can help journalism survive, transform and thrive

If someone — a government, a policy-maker, a funder, an investor, a union, a tech company — asked you what they should do to help journalism survive, transform and thrive in the future, what would you tell them? What evidence would you give them that your idea or policy would work?

If you’re one of those people — in government, making policy, involved in funding or investment, building tech — what kinds of input, evidence or advice would best help you support the sustainability of journalism?

I’m working with the Forum on Information and Democracy, as the Lead Rapporteur for its Working Group on the Sustainability of Journalism, and we’re developing a new report to help answer these questions.

Wherever you are in the world, we’d like to hear from journalists, experts, policy-makers, researchers, investors, funders, civil society, technologists, and others with a stake in the future of journalism… and what you share will help inform a report with concrete recommendations for governments (and others) around the world keen to find new ways to support and strengthen independent journalism.

We especially want to hear from those groups & voices rarely represented in industry & policy discussions — if this describes you, or you want to point us to such groups and voices, please get in touch.

You can send us your inputs and evidence in whatever format’s easiest for you.

>>> If you need a few questions to help guide you through what we’re looking for, here’s a form (in English and French). Others have used this to share short ideas and inputs with us — like links to their reports or papers, examples of promising or successful business models they think we should look at, or examples of laws or policies that help strengthen journalism.

>>> Or you can email us something you’ve written or documents you think we should look at, or people we should talk to: contributions@informationdemocracy.org.

If you have any questions or suggestions at all, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. And to get an alert when the report comes out, sign up for the Forum’s newsletter here.