How do we fund journalism in future?

DATELINE SYDNEY: An absorbing day here at the future of journalism conference. It is clear that Australian journalists are both facing up to the digital challenge and fearing its consequences.

The key question that cropped up throughout was about whether journalism can be funded if newspapers - or broadcasters - collapse due to the loss of advertising revenue. I was living under the impression that papers here were defying the trend in the rest of the developed world because circulations are, largely, standing up. But it appears that the same decline in ad revenue and sales, although not as steep as in the US and Britain, is occurring.

Eric Beecher, who runs four websites including the iconoclastic, said: "I can't see a funding model for serious journalism in future, not one that will pay for large staffs with specialists, and foreign correspondents and stringers, everywhere. I can't see ads paying for big operations that costs tens of millions of dollars. Websites can attract millions but not the necessary tens of millions."

John Cokley, a journalism lecturer at the University of Queensland, in accepting that situation, urged journalists to do much more to market their work, to understand the demand and then discover a business model to fund it.

But this kind of approach clearly isn't on the mind of Jay Rosen, professor of journalism at New York University. In his thought-provoking contribution, delivered via satellite, he said, more than once: "I have no commercial aspirations whatsoever". Instead, his concern is to uncover the social value, rather than the financial value, of participatory journalism.

This strikes me as the nub of a fascinating debate. We journalists have got used to the idea that our trade, craft, profession, whatever, is inextricably linked to the making of profit. After all, that has been the case for more than a century. But will that continue once the great profit-making platforms (aka newsprint newspapers) die?

Rosen reminded us of a historic truth: journalism has never been a self-sustaining activity in commercial terms. Could the net change all that? He clearly believes that the empowerment of citizens will encourage widespread acts of journalism. Much as I admire his various open source reporting projects, such as, I wonder whether it is hopelessly idealistic too.

Rosen pointed out that he sees a role for professional, trained journalists in future. Though they will interact with "amateurs" - citizen journalists, bloggers - their skills and, most importantly, their daily devotion to reporting, researching, collating, selecting, processing and disseminating news will be of great importance.

But that takes us back to the main question: who will fund them? I don't buy Cokley's entrepreneurial idea. I like the idea of philanthropy but I know it's idealist. I think advertising will still raise a lot of money, enough to fund small staffs. It still may not be enough.

I'll come back to more of Rosen, and more on this conference later.