Philanthropy Is Not the Future of Journalism

A session at SXSW Interactive 2012

While donations play a key role in community support and engagement, the writing is on the wall regarding how much government, private and foundation funding will continue to be available to public media. As media that exists to serve the public, often the mass reach required to compete for the media dollars available for banner advertising is at odds with serving the public mission. We will look at specific examples of nonprofit news organizations developing mission-supported revenue streams, integrating donor relationships into marketing and advertising, and considering revenue streams that are separate from and/or compliment their mission.

About the speakers

This person is speaking at this event.

Nicole Hollway

GM, St Louis Beacon

Nicole Hudson Hollway is the General Manager of the St. Louis Beacon, a non-profit news organization that applies the values and tools of journalism to solving the issues facing the St. Louis region. Nicole has spent her career applying digital media to products in industries
ranging from Broadway to finance. In addition to her work at the Beacon Nicole serves on a number of local arts boards and is a co-founder of the St. Louis For the Love effort. Nicole is currently working on the book Token: Getting Real About Race in a “Post-Racial” America, a non-fiction semi-autobiographical look through the lens of the “other."

twitter

This person is speaking at this event.

Janet Coats

Owner, Coats2Coats

Janet Coats is CEO of Coats2Coats, a consulting firm focused on helping clients realize a media future that is mobile, participatory and profitable. She also is the New Media Journalism Initiative Manager for The Patterson Foundation, an independent charitable grant-making foundation based in Sarasota, Fla. The New Media Journalism Initiative is exploring ways to enable innovation in the community-journalism arena. A graduate of the University of Missouri, she worked as a reporter and editor at papers in Texas, Florida, Virginia and Kansas. As executive editor of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and later The Tampa Tribune, she was a leader in building newsrooms that focused on multi-platform journalism.