News isn’t free to report, but can be free to read (in an ideal world). When you read the Guardian you sometimes get asked for a contribution, which is one of the ways the Guardian is able to deliver cutting edge, free and editorially independent journalism. There is also the ad-funded model (the images in the page on your phone or on the side of the screen on your PC) and a philanthropic revenue model (which saw the company hire an indigenous editor and resulted in a Walkley Award). We discuss the combination of these revenue models, as well as podcasting and video, with Dan Stinton, managing director at Guardian Australia. We also dip into the implications of the audience data used in advertising and the onus to protect and not exploit such information.