Sullivan said he believed that the increasing popularity of sponsored content would eventually lead to widespread reader cynicism and an eventual reduction of the effectiveness in sponsored content.
“After a while, in this circus of desperate attempts to get attention…there will be a moment in which the average reader will look at The New York Times and be so disgusted by what it’s become,” he said, adding that he wanted his journalism company, The Dish, “to be there when that happens.”
Sullivan characterized The Dish, which uses a yearly subscription model and currently has 28,000 members, as an alternative path for journalism.
However, Caroline O’Donovan, an audience member and staff writer at the Nieman Journalism Lab, asked Sullivan whether his model could work for journalists who lack the prominence he had when he launched The Dish.
In response, Sullivan said it had taken him 14 years to reach the point he was at now. “If we can get 28,000 subscribers, why can’t anyone else?” he asked. “Why are they so afraid?”
—Staff Writer John P. Finnegan can be reached at finnegan@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @finneganspake.