Making predictions ia always a daunting prospective. But that was the challenge posed by David Cohn for this month’s Carnival of Journalism.

In order to avoid a stream of posts of how bad things may get for journalism in 2009, Cohn wanted us to be optimistic.

At a time of newsroom cuts, falling revenues and an economic crisis, there are still reasons to be positive.

At a time when the big news brands are in trouble, there is an opening for guerilla journalism start-ups.

Four of the most high-profile online community news services recently received an influx of cash from the Knight Foundation to strengthen their hometown reporting.

Newsroom layoffs are never good news. But they do create a pool of trained reporters that may enjoy the freedom of working for small, low-cost, news operations, based in the community and serving the community.

Over the next 12 months, we may see more of these guerilla news start-ups, experimenting with business models that prioritise public service rather than profit.

I have yet to meet a journalist who said they went into the profession for the pay. Perhaps the time has come for a realignment, moving away from journalism as a for-profit business and emphasising instead journalism as a public good.