It’s the most talked about media question of the times: What are the business models that will support news reporting and journalism? We’re gathering a bunch of people to pitch their plans to you.

We’ve asked four of the brightest thinkers to take a (hypothetical) ailing media company and lay out a vision for its future.

• Tim Burrowes, Founding Editor of Mumbrella
• David McGrath – GM, News & Sport at Telstra BigPond
• Bronwen Clune, Founder and CEO of Norg Media
• James Tuckerman, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Anthill

The brief was this;
You’re newly in control of The Australian National And Local Output Group (A.N.A.L.O.G) what would you do to save it? Extreme solution: sell it and start something else radically different. Minimal solution: do what you’ve always done best, but having to continually cut costs? What would you do – justify it with numbers, discuss changes to distribution, content mix or market or other options.

We’ve given all our panellists the current vital statistics of ANALOG; its people, its audiences, its platforms, its costs, its culture and how the money is trending. It’s the discussion we’ve all had -normally over red wine- “you know what I’d do if I was king for a day…” so get ready to compare your vision of the future with theirs.

Biographies

Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the founding editor of Mumbrella which launched in December 2008, since then it has become the must read of Australia’s advertising, PR & media world – blisteringly fast.

Prior to that, he was group editor of Reed Business Information’s Media Group, including editor of B&T. During his two years at the helm, he led the successful resdesign and relaunch of B&T magazine, oversaw the launch of the B&T Today daily email newsletter, and launched Digital Media magazine, which won launch of the year at Publishers Australia’s annual Bell Awards.

Before coming to Australia, Tim was the launch editor of the Middle East edition of Campaign magazine, which covers advertising and marketing stories throughout the region.

And in his previous role to that, he was editor of Media Week in the UK. He was twice named the British Society of Magazine Editors’ business editor of the year.

You can follow him on Twitter @mumbrella.

David McGrath

As General Manager of News and Sport at Telstra Media David McGrath is the boss at one of the fastest growing news organisations in Australia. Telstra has the “number 1″ mobile news destination, the AFL, NRL & V8 supercar portals, and BigPond Sport incorporating exclusive Online and Mobile content from ESPN, Thoroughbred Racing Channel (TVN) & the English Premier League (EPL).

David was Director of News & Information Services at Yahoo7 through the period when Channel 7 and Yahoo merged their online news output. Before that he worked for independent media production and consultant companies, ‘Stimulate Media’, ‘TWI’ and ‘Now.com’. Back in the day (think 1989) he worked for West Australian Newspapers as a reporter, then as a presenter/reporter for Channel 9.

Bronwen Clune

Founder and CEO of Norg Media, a company dedicated to creating people powered news sites around the world. Bronwen launched Norg in 2006 with what she says was a very “green” outlook on how the web worked. Not one to sit on the sidelines and very much in awe of the changes she saw it bringing to media, she wanted to explore that for herself. After somewhat of an epiphany and an intense few months of idea-jamming, she launched her vision for a future news organisation.

The site has won a number of awards including a Webby honoree award for innovation in journalism. Since then she’s gone on to become a regular commentator on the changing media landscape and has talked at various international and national media conferences on the subject. She spent most of her early professional career as a journalist on a major daily paper.

Bronwen is also on the inaugural board for the Foundation of Public Interest Journalism exploring new business models to fund investigative journalism. While she has grand delusions that she can make a difference, she is the first to admit she has no idea what the future of media holds, but believes we need to experiment.

James Tuckerman

James Tuckerman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Anthill – One of Australia’s leading media outlets for entrepreneurs and fast growth business owners. He is an Australian opinion leader and vocal commentator on the topics of innovation and entrepreneurship.

He is responsible for the launch of numerous initiatives and programs dedicated to the promotion and development of new and innovative Australian businesses, such as the Cool Company Awards, 30under30, the SMART 100 and Pitch Club.

Trained in law at the University of Melbourne, James commenced his career as a public relations consultant. However, at the tender age of 26, his career took a radical turn when he quit his ‘day job’ to launch Anthill Magazine from the spare bedroom of his parent’s home. Despite only $28,000 in personal savings and no experience in the publishing world, James has grown Anthill from the seed of concept to become one of Australia’s leading business magazines and largest online community for innovators and entrepreneurs. James holds bachelor’s degrees in Law (with Honours) and Arts from the University of Melbourne Australia.

Wendy Hogan

Unfortunately Wendy has had to withdraw.

We are very, very excited about this one, and we need to pay tribute to the excellent and smart people of Anthill, who run their own Pitch Club for would-be entrepreneurs of all stripes.

Get in the mood with Ari Gold.

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