Well, back when I wrote for various publications, the channel was usually a journal or magazine. It was a common experience to write a query or send a piece and have them say, "Yeah, this piece doesn't fit our voice/genre/stochastically generated decision tree." That was usually your clue that probably what you were trying to do was not a fit for that outlet. In this case, you can look at the channels and decide whether or not you fit with what is being valued/encouraged/growing. It is more dynamic and easier to tell when the winds are shifting into something else than a publication which can change drastically month to month or week to week with not many clues that such a shift is happening.

My additional hope is that the traffic my posts generate, though probably not gonna be huge, will help fund your territory some.