As advertising revenues have shifted from journalism to global platforms optimised for attention rather than public interest, quality media has been starved of the resources it needs to hold power to account—putting democratic systems at risk. In this workshop, Tidhar Wald (International Fund for Public Interest Media) and media entrepreneur Garvan Walshe (https://kronkite.social/) explore how this structural failure came about and, more importantly, how it can be reversed. 

Drawing on global funding perspectives and hands-on entrepreneurial experience, the session will examine new models for financing, distributing, and scaling public-interest journalism—beyond the extractive attention economy. 

Participants will be challenged to rethink platforms, incentives, and ownership structures, and to imagine what a “pro-democracy attention economy” could look like: one designed not to maximise clicks, but to sustain trust, quality, and civic participation.