• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, September 30, 2009

How will get your news in a few years?
Broumand: I think it's one page that looks a lot like what the Drudge Report looks like right now.

What will most surprise people about media 10 years from now?
Broumand: How similar it will end up looking to the landscape of traditional media today (or how it did a couple of years ago) - a handful of media companies will control and dominate the distribution of content.

Who controls the media, and how (if it changes at all) does this control change?
Broumand: Right now, control is in flux because no one can control and own distribution the way they could previously. Obviously, there are players that have more control than others. But in the end, the environment will settle a bit and a couple of tycoons will run around and snap up those with the most powerful and influential distribution. No one will ever be able to control media the same way again, but you can sleep well at night knowing that guys like Si, Barry and Ron will once again play a big part in what we consume.

What happens if creativity becomes a commodity?
Broumand: Creativity will never become a commodity. Information will - and already has.

What has been the biggest disruptive force in media?
Broumand: It's difficult to pinpoint one thing exactly. It's kind of like the Terminator movies in that you can go back in time and pinpoint various different events and developments that taken together have created massive waves of disruption. My opinion on the highlights: email, ubiquitous broadband, the MP3 format, cheap mass storage, streaming video, blogging platforms ... maybe Perez Hilton.

Where will the next disruption come from?
Broumand: The full disruptive force of the iPhone has yet to be seen. And it's probably less about the iPhone and more about the disruptive force of rich mobile computing as a whole. The implications are massive. On a retail level, it will affect the sale of things like levelers. And from a publishing perspective, combined with publishing platforms like Twitter, the news cycle starts to get all kinds of crazy.

What is the last change that really surprised you?
Broumand: When people started to use the word "tweet" as a verb with a completely straight face.

It seems social networks might dominate a sizable share of consumers' social lives? Any way around this?
Broumand: Sadly, I find it doubtful. I keep waiting for the backlash. I don't think it's coming.

What are the implications of continued market segmentation, and does it have limits?
Broumand: I actually think the trend at some point will go in the opposite direction and we will have a re-conglomeration of media.

Could content editors ever be entirely replaced by voting, ranking algorithms, etc.?
Not likely. Someone has to produce the content that gets voted on, ranked, or put into algorithms. Automated content will never be king.

Lance Broumand is the founder and ceo of UrbanDaddy, the invitation-only site, which is geared towards affluent males.