Journalism’s mission statement is to act as an informational service for its core audience and the public at large. As the industry faces perilous times, the industry’s biggest potential lies in a version of the model practiced at the gathering I attended: The ability to evaluate journalism’s impact; and to identify where it is working, who it is working for, and why. Journalism’s survival as a critical public service depends on it.

How might we make our in-house knowledge available to other institutions and industries that could benefit from it?
We could bundle our “institutional expertise” on city issues and sell to paying subscribers, including the government, universities, philanthropies, nonprofits, and businesses.

How might we provide the same degree of real-time, inclusive, need-to-know information that people rely on in disaster, to ongoing issues of civic importance?
We could combine all of these services above by reimagining our publication as a community service and a business: One that highlights a real-time civic problem on its home page, accessible to all, and provides a historic deep dive for paying subscribers.

How might we get news to all readers who need it, in a way that they can access, regardless of cost?
We could partner with local caregivers, social work services, community halls, houses of worship, libraries, shelters, or hospitals to provide on-site access to our publication for free.
We could provide our publication in multiple languages. We could add close-captioning and voice text.
We could reimagine what form a “publication” product could take in these specific contexts: A news-and-meditation app for the elderly? Free publication-only computer stations at the library? Wearable tech in a hospital?