This may have been the worst time in history to decide to focus a career on freelance writing and journalism, but it may also be the best time, if one can accurately and quickly read and respond to the trends.

So I’ve created a new category here at the Mind Control Division: future of media. This is where I’ll be filing the posts that summarize some of the brilliant thinking done by bright minds considering what may lie ahead.

Most recent is this great synopsis, from Fiona Campbell-Howes, of a lecture delivered by Emily Bell head of digital content at London’s Guardian News and Media.

Bell spoke on the topic of “Journalism ten years from now,” and she is optimistic about the future, but she thinks that influencers and journalists will not be limited to medium in the future (that’s a leg up for anyone with a “radio voice”).

The best tidbit was the claim by Bell that “news has never been profitable”. Campbell-Howes paraphrased:

Sky News isn’t profitable; it’s subsidised by other Murdoch enterprises. The Guardian isn’t profitable; it’s funded by a trust. BBC News isn’t profitable; it’s funded by the licence fee. It’s very difficult to make a profit from journalism, although some new models are showing small profits, such as VillageSoup, a hyperlocal news community organisation in the US.

So if you want to know where the money will come from to pay for the future of media, maybe it will come from the same cobbled-together sources as our existing media organizations.

Somehow that makes me feel a bit better. If news has never been profitable, and it’s been around forever, it’s reasonable to expect that it will continue to be around. Which means there just may be a place for me in the days ahead.