The business of news: profit, non-profit or subscriber only?

With digital journalism pushing boundaries as well as belittling itself, the importance of funding that holds such operations together assume significance, said speakers at The Media Rumble’s session Making News Viable.

The models available can be subscription-driven, trust-run or be and a non-profit, said Durga Raghunath, Robert Wijnberg, Robin Dharmakumar, Siddharth Varadarajan—all of whom represent each of the models.

Raghunath is the co-founder of Juggernaut Books and FirstPost, Wijnberg is the founder and editor-in-chief of De Correspondent, Dharmakumar is the co-founder and CEO of The Ken, a subscription-based business journalism site and Varadarajan is the founding editor of The Wire.

The panel discussed which model can change the news landscape, consumer behaviour, public’s interest in paying for news, the overall ability of news models to survive independently and more.

While Abhinandan Sekhri, moderator and Newslaundry CEO, said, “News models need to be scalable to have an impact on journalistic landscape.” Dharmakumar of The Ken said, “When you enter the subscription model, the first thing you need to give up as a journalist is the pursuit of scale.” Speakers also discussed the people’s role in making the models work including Varadarajan, who said, “People in India are not willing to pay for news.”

Even as some say speakers stood their ground and argued it is the uniqueness of content that makes subscription-driven models work, others argued that it was more than that. Watch the video here.