Speakers
SPEAKERS 2026
SPEAKERS 2025
SPEAKERS 2024
Alex Chapko
GM & Global SVP AlliancesPIANO
Katharina Schmidt
Editor in ChiefWiener ZeitungHannah Sarney
Editorial Product Director, Executive EditorFinancial TimesMilda Petkauskaitė
Representative in the BalticsReporters Without BordersJonathan Knight
Head of GamesThe New York TimesDominik Krzysztof Cagara
Co-founder & CFOOC MediaSofie Hvitved
Senior Advisor & Head of MediaCopenhagen Institute for Future Studies, Future Media HubsSamuel Fairburn
Co-founderFlareDaniel Flatt
Co-founderFlareCécile SOURD
General DirectorMediapartOlena Lavruk
Executive DirectorInkerTimo Kämäräinen
Editorial Development DirectorAlma MediaMagdalena Woods
Founder and CEOFlareJody Doherty-Cove
Head of Editorial AINewsquest
SPEAKERS 2023
FEDERICA CHERUBINI
Director of Leadership DevelopmentReuters Institute for the Study of JournalismLearn MorePATRICK BOEHLER
Acting Head of Innovation and Audience EngagementRadio Free Europe/Radio LibertyLearn More
SPEAKERS 2022
SPEAKERS 2020
About
Boutique, two-day media business event in the heart of Riga that serves as a meeting space for media professionals — managers, innovators, digital experts as well as editors and content writers. The aim of the forum is to bring the media business community together to share, create, and collaborate. Here, we will exchange the latest professional knowledge that will help discover hidden opportunities in the ever-changing media business world.
The forum is organised by The Centre for Media Studies at Stockholm School of Economics in Riga.
“We entered new technological and geopolitical eras that are going to define news publishers’ business models and their relevance for the next decade. How do we adapt? By learning from the best. This year’s Reinventing Media Business will focus on practical case studies on revenue models that work and excel, AI adoption that’s making a real impact, and press resilience in the new geopolitical reality.”
Zakhar Protsiuk, Forum Director, COO at the Kyiv Independent
What to Expect
Expert insights: Powerhouse sessions with leading European media innovators
Inspiring case studies: Real-world examples that spark new ideas
Relatable experiences: Honest stories from peers in the field
Useful connections: Meet collaborators, mentors, and future partners
agenda 2026
OCTOBER 7
Registration + coffee ☕️
Opening remarks by Edgars Spuravs and Victoria Svanberg
Inside The Atlantic’s growth playbook
Megha Garibaldi | Chief Growth Officer at The Atlantic (United States)
Few news publications in the world are growing with the same confidence and momentum as The Atlantic. The publication has grown to more than 1.4 million subscribers through a strategy centered on quality journalism, strong reader relationships, and disciplined audience growth. In this case presentation, Megha Garibaldi, Chief Growth Officer at The Atlantic, will unpack how the publisher approaches business growth, audience engagement, and building a globally-relevant media brand.
Newsletters, Niches, and Nordic Expansion: Inside Altinget’s B2B Media Engine
Jakob Nielsen | Editor-in-chief at Altinget (Denmark)
While traditional newspapers keep cutting costs, niche media are thriving. Altinget was one of the first news organizations in Europe to build a business around paid, niche political journalism — and two decades later, it’s a fast-growing media company operating across Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, with both B2B and B2C revenue lines. In this case presentation, Jakob Nielsen, Editor-in-Chief of Altinget, will share the recipe behind the company’s niche-first model, its expansion across the Nordics, and how it built a B2B engine that now sits alongside a growing consumer subscription business.
☕️ Coffee break
How The Economist reaches new audiences—and loyal subscribers
Isobel Owen | Head of Social Media at The Economist (United Kingdom)
At a time when news distribution is increasingly shaped by platforms, algorithms, and short-form attention, The Economist has taken a deliberately different path: prioritizing brand trust, editorial clarity, and direct relationships with subscribers worldwide. In this case presentation, Isobel Owen, Head of Social Media, will explore how The Economist thinks about audience development across platforms, how it uses social channels without becoming dependent on them, and how it builds engagement while preserving a highly distinctive editorial voice
Suspilne Ukraine: Betting on News During Wartime
Khrystyna Havryliuk | Head of News Desk at Suspilne (Ukraine)
Suspilne, Ukraine’s public broadcaster, has spent more than four years running a national newsroom under wartime conditions: air raid sirens, blackouts, frontline reporting, and an audience whose information habits are shifting in real time. Keeping the newsroom both efficient and relevant has meant rethinking how a publicly funded broadcaster operates, from newsroom structure and resourcing to how stories reach audiences across platforms. In this case presentation, Khrystyna Havryliuk, Head of News at Suspilne Ukraine, will share how the organization has kept its newsroom lean and its coverage relevant as audience behavior changes during a prolonged war.
PANEL: The Future of Quality Media: Who Needs It, and How Will It Grow
Panelists: Megha Garibaldi, Jakob Nielsen, Khrystyna Havryliuk
Moderator: Zakhar Protsiuk
🍹 Networking and Drinks
OCTOBER 8
☕️ Coffee
Thrive to Survive: Direkt36 Under and After the Orbán Regime
Péter Nádori | COO at Direct36 (Hungary)
Direkt36 is a small, non-profit investigative newsroom in Budapest that has done the opposite of what you’d expect under a decade of intensifying government hostility: it has grown stronger, more influential, and more essential to Hungarian public life. In this case presentation, Péter Nádori, COO of Direkt36, will unpack what made this growth possible, what other independent newsrooms operating under political pressure can learn from it, and what new challenges Direkt36 now faces as the political situation in Hungary keeps shifting.
Democratizing AI: Growing AI Execution at Bonnier News
Martin Jönsson | Business Intelligence & AI Director at Bonnier News (Sweden)
At Bonnier News, Sweden’s media powerhouse, 80% of journalists now use the company’s editorial AI assistant regularly — but the bigger shift is what happens next. Employees across the organization are using an internally built platform to create their own agents, workflows, and AI projects, empowering the entire organization to solve problems and streamline processes. In this session, Martin Jönsson, Business Intelligence & AI Director at Bonnier News, will share the lessons from Bonnier News AI adoption.
☕️ Coffee break
Driving Sustainable Growth Through Experimentation
Simin Jimenez | Growth Manager at The Guardian (United Kingdom)
Sustainable growth rarely comes from a single big bet — it comes from a system that keeps testing, learning, and adjusting. At The Guardian, that system runs on experimentation: using data and technology to understand what actually moves readers from casual visitors to engaged supporters. In this session, Simin Jimenez, Growth Manager at The Guardian, will share how its team uses experimentation, data and technology to optimise reader journeys, strengthen engagement and grow reader revenue.
Launching Romania’s first paywall: Lessons from building audience revenue in a sceptical market
Isabela Pop | Head of HotNews Premium at HotNews (Romania)
This presentation explores the strategic, editorial and organisational lessons from building an audience revenue programme in a market where many believe readers would never pay for news. From product decisions and pricing to internal change management and learning after launch, the session offers practical insights for publishers introducing audience revenue in emerging markets.
🍝 Lunch at AC Hotel by Marriott Riga (Dzirnavu street 33)
Capital Stacks of Journalism: Financing 15 Years of European Digital News
Peter Erdelyi | Head of Center for Sustainable Media (Hungary)
How much capital does it take to build a sustainable digital news publisher — and where does it come from? Capital Stacks of Journalism, a research project from the Center for Sustainable Media, examines how 20+ European digital-first publishers founded over the past 15 years reached profitability, reconstructing their launch capital, funders, and financing instruments at each stage of growth. In this session, Peter Erdelyi, founding director of the Center for Sustainable Media, will present the project’s key findings — typical funding needs, time to break-even, the role of different capital providers, and how revenue models have evolved — and what this tells us about building and scaling sustainable public-interest media today.
PANEL: Our quest for media viability: Four small independent media share their journey toward sustainability
Panelists: Cristina Alvarez, Giorgi Beroshvili, Azra Milić, Giovanni Vale
Moderator: Jakub Parusinski
Drawing on practical experiences from the MOST project, this session explores how independent media outlets navigate their path towards financial, operational, and editorial resilience. Based on hands-on consultancy with six independent media across different European regions, the panel shares the most important management, audience, and revenue lessons from the project Media Organisations for Stronger Transnational Journalism.
Closing Remarks
Tickets
INCLUDING COFFEE BREAKS + LUNCH + EVENING RECEPTION
A minimal participation fee is applied, so that we can cover basic expenses of the event – travel and accommodation for speakers, venue hire, lunch and coffee breaks and evening reception. By purchasing the ticket you contribute to the event and the community building amongst media professionals in the region.
REGULAR FEE
GROUP TICKET
For six or more people from one organisation*
Scholarships
Not available
*Payment by invoice is available as well.
Venue
Reinventing Media Business Forum will take place at the STOCKHOLM SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS IN RIGA, a leading business school in the Baltics. It is located in the heart of the famous historical art-nouveau district in the capital of Latvia.
ADDRESS
Stockholm School of Economics in Riga,
Strelnieku Street 4a, Riga (Latvia)
Partners
