ONA26 is a must-attend event for news leaders navigating one of the most challenging moments in journalism. Whether you’re a founder weighing what comes next, an executive diversifying revenue under pressure, or a CEO trying to lead your team through constant change, there is a full lineup dedicated to executives in the schedule. Featuring candid conversations, a high-level look at the trends and opportunities you’ll need to know to move your team ahead of the game, and practical frameworks from some of the field’s most experienced leaders, these sessions form your playbook for strategic decisionmaking in the next year. Check out some of the sessions you’ll want to be sure to add to your conference agenda:
Executive leadership
Candid conversations, skills and practical frameworks for executive leaders.
Projecting Stability When Everything Is Changing: A Session for CEOs on Funding, Leadership and Getting Shit Done
This high-level session will cover everything from diversifying revenue to leading teams through uncertainty, providing concrete frameworks for decision-making to an honest look at what “getting shit done” looks like when you’re juggling boards, budgets, burnout, and big ambitions all at once.
Featuring S. Mitra Kalita (URL Media | Epicenter-NYC).
Creating Your Test Kitchen: Small-Batch Innovation for Newsroom Leaders
This high-level and highly interactive workshop will teach you a framework to evaluate your Big Idea in a newsroom test kitchen before putting it on the main menu.
Featuring Jake J. Hylton (LOOKOUT News).
Leading Through Crisis: Newsroom Resilience When It Matters Most
Explore how mission-driven newsrooms prepare for high-risk coverage, safeguard staff in volatile environments, adapt publishing tools when infrastructure fails, and build resilient systems that strengthen public trust long before a crisis hits.
Speakers include Liliana Velázquez (John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation), Erika Carlos (El Tecolote), Laura Lee (NC Local) and Jen Sabella (Block Club Chicago).
Build Your Fundraising Muscle: Stop Planning, Start Asking
In this hands-on workshop, you’ll learn how to articulate the value of your journalism to potential supporters, identify the fundraising approach that fits your stage and capacity, and draft real campaign language you can use before you leave the room.
Speakers include Candice Fortman (Blue Engine Collaborative) and Dustin Block (BlueLena).
How To Talk to Funders
Join this highly interactive best practices session to demystify what philanthropic funding partners value. Newsroom leaders will leave more prepared to ask for support, communicate impact and set up an ethical and productive partnership.
Featuring Megan Griffith-Greene (The Poynter Institute)
Stepping Down to Allow Others to Step Up
Knowing when to step down from a leadership role is crucial for protecting your news organization’s longevity, fostering team growth, and bringing forward the next generation, but can be a very difficult decision, especially for founders. Join this participatory conversation for insightful advice and fresh perspectives on how to know when it’s time.
Speakers include Sara Lomax (URL Media | WURD Radio) Candice Fortman (Blue Engine Collaborative), Charles Sennott (GroundTruth), Garry Pierre-Pierre (URL Media).
Building Resilient Newsrooms Without a Safety Net: Lessons from Exile, Immigrant, and Startup Media
This session explores adaptive leadership, community-anchored revenue strategies, and practical approaches to sustaining civic journalism when traditional models fall short.
Featuring Faisal Karimi (Nowruz Media).
Trends and Opportunities
Sessions providing a high-level overview of what your team needs to know to stay ahead of the curve.
How Journalism Can Model Curiosity, Confront Bias and Reduce Polarization
News is complex, and simple binaries are false and dangerous. Join this important conversation on political polarization and civic problem-solving to learn how journalism can create the conditions necessary for communities to negotiate their differences by modeling curiosity, transcending geographic and ideological bubbles, and building a collective truth.
Speakers include Joy Mayer (Trusting News) and Mónica Guzmán (Reclaim Curiosity).
Finding the “We” – Why and How to Integrate News Creator Strategies into Your Newsroom
Learn about the changing news consumption habits and actionable strategies for integrating creators into your newsroom strategy.
Speakers include Jeremy Gilbert (Northwestern Medill), Ryan Kellett (The Independent Journalism Atlas) and Liz Kelly Nelson (Project C).
Understanding Audiences and Algorithms in 2026: An Overview in the Age of AI
This session offers an overview of how audiences and algorithms are evolving in 2026 in the age of and how artificial intelligence is reshaping visibility, traffic, and content consumption focusing on how audience behavior is changing and where media and content strategies should be directed.
Featuring Clara Soteras (News Publishers Consultant).
Is Your News Organization Climate-Ready? (By Application)
In this workshop from the Metcalf Institute’s Accelerating Climate Ready Newsrooms (ACORN) Project, participants will hear from newsrooms that are working on climate readiness strategies and then create their own climate-ready plans that include clear statements on how they will move from where they are today to where they want to be and mapping out six month to one-year plans to meet their goals.
Speakers include Fara Warner, (Metcalf Institute) and Srishti Bose (Local News Initiative).
Defunded, Not Defeated: Reimagining the Public Media Model
This featured conversation dives into the mechanics of radical collaboration, the reality of merging legacy brands with digital startups, and the specific revenue and content innovations that ensure public media remains undefeated in a hyper-competitive landscape.
Speakers include Ashley Alvarado (Texas Public Radio), Tim Isgitt (Public Media Company), Thomas Evans (National Public Radio) and Kimbriell Kelly, (Chicago Public Media).
Making AI Real: What Leaders Need to Know Before Scaling
Explore how Reuters journalists, product teams, and governance leaders are building transparent and responsible systems to encourage bold experimentation and broad adoption while keeping to journalistic standards.
Speakers: Andy Sullivan (Reuters), Paul Cifarelli (Thomson Reuters), Arlyn Gajilan (Thomson Reuters), Jonathan Leff, (Thomson Reuters).
Bringing Readers Back: Real-World Tactics for Combating News Fatigue
This timely case study addresses news avoidance in an era of unending content, offering attendees tactics and strategies to make their offerings more friendly and relatable, including creating entire new beats, broadening the scope of alerts, and re-thinking what makes an audience-first story mix.
Speakers include Angela Pacienza (The Globe and Mail) and Jennifer Kho, (Consultant, Independent)
Empowering Better Business Decisions with AI & Data
News organizations are swimming in data—much of it messy, scattered and incomplete. Learn practical, newsroom-ready strategies for audience growth, revenue optimization, experimentation, and decision-making.
Speakers include Elizabeth Couch, (Crain’s City Brands), Becca Aaronson (News Product Alliance), Nick Hagar (Northwestern University) and Mariah Craddick (The Atlantic).
Strategies to Engage Immigrant and Non-English Speaking Communities
Join this timely case study session for newsroom leaders to learn about operationalizing strategies for outreach and engagement with immigrant and non-English speaking communities, including leveraging AI technology and social video to build community relationships and trust.
Speakers include Nissa Rhee (Borderless Magazine) and Hillary Flores (Borderless Magazine).
