Afew months ago, I was invited to give a lecture to students in a publishing and editing program. My proposed talk was about digital media: the churn and instability of it and how an editor can steer through those currents. I planned to be realistic but forward looking about the challenges facing contemporary journalism—I wasn’t going to stand up there and tell the students they should quit before they even started trying.
Then, weeks before the lecture, the digital magazine I’d been working for was shuttered. I still delivered the talk as planned, albeit with the uncanny sense of attending my own wake. During the Q&A, the first student to raise their hand didn’t ask about the future of media or sustainable funding models or pitching advice. They asked: “So what are you doing for money now?”
