It's a topic many journalism summits explore, though seldom with this level of focus. On April 3, 2014, Solving the Revenue Riddle: A Summit on Sustaining Digital News explored where money and journalism intersect when audiences have the luxury of an endless media terrain.

This summit (hosted by the The Texas Tribune and the Knight Center for Journalism) was held at the University of Texas-Austin, immediately before the 15th annual International Symposium on Online Journalism.

When the conversation steered towards nonprofit news and smaller, niche sites, Lara Setrakian and Kristin Nolan, fellows at Columbia University's Tow Center for Digital Journalism, found a sampling of media outlets were aiming for diversified revenue streams. Their study, Seeking the Single-Subject News Model (PDF), describes sites with a very specific target subject as "hypertopical," explaining why this system is more economically desirable. Higher content quality is a standout upside.

While corporate sponsorships remain central to large media outlets' funding, and the Pew Research Center's Jesse Holcomb brought forward the stance that audience revenue and non-traditional sources are becoming increasingly important. And countless alternatives are seeking revenue streams everywhere, from crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter to looking to philanthropic interests, which was the focus of the final panel. Philanthropy is seen as vital to the interests of public media, a "bridge to the future."

Read more at Nieman Journalism Lab. See also the Twitter hashtag #newsrev.