Day: 9/12/2006

Mainstream Media Advances On The Internet

Posted by on September 12, 2006 at 8:29 pm. 1 Comments :

A new report finds that the usual suspects in big media are also the big winners on the Internet. The report also states that those same players will be growing faster than other sectors of the media industry.

Anybody thinking that the Internet was going to rescue us from the stodgy, entrenched, and compromised press that has been torturing journalism for the past 50 years had better wake up. The giant corporations that own the media today are not about to let go of their monopolies.

“…traditional media companies are aggressively pursuing online and mobile platforms, protecting their brands and developing new revenue streams,” said James Rutherfurd, VSS’ executive vice president and managing director.

Rutherford said amid the unprecedented fragmentation of the media market, “traditional media companies have responded by investing in multiple media platforms to reach this increasingly fragmented audience.”

Market fragmentation is really just the migration of consumers to new technologies. The media companies recognize this migration and are developing or acquiring properties in the new media space. Already, 9 of the top 11 news sites on the net are owned by big media. The most popular new Internet destinations have targets on their backs. Rupert Murdoch’s Internet division recently purchased MySpace and the rumors of YouTube’s acquisition are heating up.

If we want to preserve the net’s independence, we had better make sure that we don’t allow it to be devoured by the dinosaurs that have fouled the conventional media. That means putting your home page where your mouth is. We need to support independent sites and refrain from supporting those that have fallen into the big media abyss.

An interesting side note from the report: The number of hours that consumers will spend with media will increase to 3620 per person annually. That’s almost 10 hours a day. This projection paints a bleak picture of mankind’s future.

No Altercation At MSNBC.com

Posted by on September 12, 2006 at 10:28 am. NO Comments :

Eric Alterman, author, columnist, blogger, and media reformer, has been fired by MSNBC after 10 years. The website gives no reason for the termination and Alterman himself is typically gracious and respectful of his colleagues. However, he doesn’t ignore what many of us skeptics are thinking anyway:

“Whether my termination is, in fact, a product of a political decision at GE/NBC, which according to reports I read and gossip I hear, has lately taken a much firmer hand in guiding the content of both MSNBC and MSNBC.com, I have no way of knowing […] though the natural speculation that arises is a damn good argument against the kind of media concentration that allows a company like GE to own NBC in the first place.”

Altercation will continue as an affiliate of Media Matters and Alterman still writes for The Nation and the Center for American Progress. But there is a sad irony in the author of What Liberal Media? getting axed by precisely the sort of mainstream news outlet that he so effectively exposes in his book.