This is the third in a series of blog posts to help you decipher each program track at ONA15. You can sort our schedule by your own favorite track by clicking on any of the gray boxes on the main session page. You can find my breakdown of our Audience Engagement + Impact track here, and on our Developer Tools + Tech track here.

There are so many great sessions at ONA15, it can be difficult to decide which to attend! Here we’ll preview sessions specific to the Revenue + Ethics Track to help guide you in choosing your discussions. And don’t forget, for every track we’ll be hosting Table Talks, an open forum for discussing solutions to a variety of challenges in your area of interest or expertise.

Revenue Here and Now

Revenue continues to be a critical issue for newsrooms around the world. A few of our sessions are geared toward what’s working right now. First, we’ll host The Revenue Review: Memberships, Advertising and Events, a look at the top three revenue streams for many news organizations. Our high-powered, energetic presenters — Joy Robins of Quartz and  Evan Smith of The Texas Tribune — will walk us through each. They’ll then join moderator Kai Ryssdal, host of Marketplace, for a sit-down Q&A.

Another critical revenue stream, particularly for non-profits and start-ups, are the many philanthropic organizations supporting great journalism and innovative storytelling. Get an inside look at the decision-making process of top journalism foundations in Help Us Fund Your Work: Candid Advice from Funders Who Love You. Reveal’s Meghann Farnsworth and The Texas Tribune’s Emily Ramshaw will act as hosts and moderators, ensuring a lively Q&A with participating funders. They’ll be joined by a dynamite crew:

• Robert R. McCormick Foundation’s Jennifer Choi
• Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation’s Molly de Aguiar
• Democracy Fund’s Tom Glaisyer
• John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Lauren Pabst 
• Knight Foundation’s Jennifer Preston

And if you’re feeling entrepreneurial, like you might want to strike out on your own with that big idea, you can hear lessons learned from a number of terrific start-ups, and have the chance to sit down with their leaders for an intimate mini-mentorship Q&A in Solving For News: Real World Lessons From News Start-Ups. You’ll hear from:

• Hearken’s Jennifer Brandel
• Rivet Radio’s Geneen Harston
• Alley Interactive’s Josh Kadis
• Timeline.com’s Jonathan Kalan
• ALLDIGITOCRACY’s Tracie Powell
• Berkman Center’s Hasit Shah
• Ryan Singel, Contextly

Revenue Growth and New Ideas

Like any business, news organizations are always looking for additional revenue streams. We’ll take a close look at them throughout ONA15, starting with Rappler Founder and CEO Maria Ressa in Journalism’s New Role in the Crowd Economy. Maria will explore how the advent of crowdfunding and social participating in news intertwine to create a invested news community … both figuratively and literally.

We’ll also go beyond memberships, advertising and events to examine Revenue Streams Beyond The Big Three. We’ll hear about crowdfunding, finding new audiences and the value of predictive analytics and data stores from Beacon’s Keren Goldschlager, Time’s Charo Henríquez, Predictablely’s Yao Huang and Pro Publica’s Scott Klein.

Legal and Ethics

Questions regarding digital ethics continue to be one of the most discussed issues in newsrooms. We’re pleased to say our Build Your Own Ethics Code will be ready for a beta release at ONA15, and will be part of an interactive ethics conversation led by Tom Kent of the Associated Press, Abe Kwok of The Arizona Republic, Laura Wides-Muñoz of Fusion, and Dr. Wendy Wyatt of the University of St. Thomas.

We’re also examining the impact of the bombardment of graphic visuals from crime scenes, civil unrest and the battlefield on social news-gatherers. In Blood on the Screen: Vicarious Trauma as Social Newsgatherers Watch the Unwatchable, SAM’s Fergus Bell, Reported.ly’s P. Kim Bui, AP’s Eric Carvin and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma’s Bruce Shapiro will discuss ideas for what newsrooms can do to better support those sorting through the flow of social media.

And last but not least, we’ll host our perennial discussion of all things legal in The Legal Panel, with practicing attorneys Gregg Leslie and Karlene Groller. They’ll review a few high-profile topics from the past year, and answer your questions about a variety of aspects of newsroom law.

We hope you’ll have a chance to explore these sessions and many others, and use our amazing networking opportunities to meet colleagues who share your passions and interests.

Stay tuned for our next post, exploring the Audio, Video + Photo Track. And see you in LA!

We continue to add to the initial schedule launch as we confirm new sessions. And we’ll periodically update you here on the blog so you can keep track. Check out our first, second and third updates for more highlights. Continue reading

This is the second in a series of blog posts to help you decipher each program track at ONA15. You can sort our schedule by your own favorite track by clicking on any of the gray boxes on the main session page. You can find my breakdown of our Audience Engagement + Impact track here.

There are so many great sessions at ONA15, it can be difficult to decide which to attend! Here we’ll preview sessions specific to the Developer Tools + Tech track to help guide you. And don’t forget, for every track we’ll be hosting Table Talks, an open forum for discussing solutions to a variety of challenges in your area of interest or expertise. Continue reading

What does it take to conduct a five-month, data-heavy news investigation and win a Pulitzer? And how does it feel to watch your work portrayed by some of the leading stars in Hollywood?

ONA15 attendees will find out when members of the award-winning Boston Globe team that dug into abuses by Catholic Church clergy reunite on Saturday, Sept. 26, to sit down in a keynote conversation with Josh Singer, screenwriter of “Spotlight,” the upcoming movie chronicling their series.

During the keynote, as Josh plays clips from the film, Walter V. Robinson, the Globe’s Editor at Large (played by Michael Keaton), Sacha Pfeiffer, Globe columnist and reporter covering nonprofits, philanthropy and wealth (Rachel McAdams), and Michael Rezendes, a senior investigative reporter for the Globe’s Spotlight Team (Mark Ruffalo), will discuss their work, what the series might look like in the digital age and the difference between reel- and real-life newsrooms.

A lot has changed since January 2002, when the original team of eight reporters started looking into sexual abuses in the Boston Archidiocese. They were using the basic tools of the trade: the phone, shoe leather and “data mining” — which at that time meant manually reviewing public databases, reports and publications, then matching up names, dates and information.

The herculean efforts uncovered decades of secrecy and lies and inspired new safeguards. A 2010 story from The Guardian summed it up:

“As a result of their five exhaustive months of database-mining, interviewing and cross-referencing, the eight Globe reporters on the case had established that the Boston archdiocese had, over the previous decade, privately settled sexual abuse claims made by Catholic families against a staggering 70 of its priests.”

“… Within two years of the first of the Globe’s 800 articles on the scandal appearing in January 2002 … Cardinal Law had resigned, 150 priests in Boston stood accused of sexual abuse, more than 500 victims had filed abuse claims, and church-goers’ donations to the archdiocese had slumped by 50 percent.”

And, as the story notes, during that same time “across America as a whole, more than 450 priests and four bishops resigned, and several states, including Massachusetts, introduced new laws obliging clergy to report any knowledge of child sex abuse to the civil authorities.”

With the renaissance of investigative reporting by digital news outlets, we’re looking forward to hearing from the team that performed the ultimate public service — helping bring horrific abuses to light.

Jane McDonnell is Executive Director of ONA, overseeing and managing the day-to-day operations of the world’s largest membership organization of digital journalists, and working closely with its Board of Directors. Her purview includes membership, partnerships, global community outreach, budgeting and revenue generation, fundraising and development, the Online Journalism Awards, and providing vision for ONA’s state-of-the-art annual conference.

As we mentioned during our initial schedule launch, the first round of the ONA15 schedule was roughly 70 percent complete. We’ll continue to add to the schedule through mid-July as we confirm new sessions. And we’ll periodically update you here on the blog so you can keep track. You can read our first update here. Continue reading