Industry practitioners, innovators, policymakers, think tankers and thought leaders gathered for a wide-ranging discussion on Media and Publishers Online: United in Diversity at this high-level working lunch. Ludovic Blecher, head of Google’s Digital News Innovation Fund; Therese Comodini Cachia, member of the committee on legal affairs in the European Parliament and rapporteur for the directive on copyright in the digital single market; Jörgen Gren, member of cabinet responsible for content and innovation for Andrus Ansip, European Commission vice-president for the digital single market; Duncan Hooper, editor-in-chief, digital platforms at Euronews and Boris van Hoytema, managing director of New Atoms, a content-based Dutch innovation startup, kicked off the debate, which touched on key issues in the digital-media sector. How do we finance and distribute good, quality journalism, using the tools of technology to disseminate better journalism? How do we ensure innovation stays at the cutting-edge, using the new tools of technology to ensure a better user experience and a stronger journalism sector underpinning our democracy. The discussion was fed by a “Key Issues Paper: Digital News and Innovation” prepared by the Lisbon Council (you can download it at the link below). The session was the first of a series to be hosted by Industries of the Future, a new multi-disciplinary collaboration on one of the key questions of our time: how will digital technology transform and revitalise industry itself, bringing new models to the fore and posing new challenges for policymakers and society alike? In a multi-stakeholder environment informed by an advanced think tank perspective, participants examine the opportunities and dilemmas of tomorrow – and the steps we should be taking today. The initiative is led by FTI Consulting, Google and the Lisbon Council.