[Unconference] Who Cares What People Will Read? What Will They Pay For?

This session was among the most popular pitched to our annual unconference, in which attendees can suggest topics they feel should be added to this year's schedule. The pitches are voted on by other attendees, and this year the top five were added to the ONA17 schedule.

See the pitches.

At its core, journalism has always been about quality. But the advertiser-supported model confused the very idea of quality to mean quantity of readers. We’ve learned it’s usually the case that stories that go “viral” on the web are not stories that people would be willing to pay for. It’s actually a much higher bar, and a much more difficult task than you might imagine, to truly learn what people are willing to pay for, vs. what they’re merely willing to read. If you want to learn more about the kind of journalism you need to produce to move from an advertising-centric model to a subscriber-centric model, then this session is for you. If you’d like to talk about the possibilities of high-value subscriptions, or even membership models, then this session also is for you. Ken Sands, deputy publisher at the Chronicle of Higher Education, will lead the discussion.

The unconference is generously supported by Medium.

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