Interesting times in the media world...

As I look out over the fractured jigsaw puzzle that is the media landscape, I can't help but feel overwhelming curiosity about where it's all headed.

The nature of the distribution of information has changed so much in the past century, and the internet seems to have shaken everything to the core. After I left my TV job and consulted a public relations person about getting a job, she replied "Good work on leaving a dying industry!" Yikes. Well, I'm out of it now, so that didn't unnerve me all that much.

That comment is just one of many different things that always make me start thinking about the future. Where is all this going to end up? Can Hollywood and broadcast networks keep up their astronomical spending to try to keep people glued to their seats? Can newspapers survive the drop in revenues?

I honestly don't know, but I can speculate.

In my read of media history, I've found that no medium really stays on solid ground for all that long. Something new always comes along to fracture the marketplace. First you had newspapers and books, then radio came along and fractured the viewers. TV added in further fractures. Finally we hit cable and the internet age which have seemingly shattered the viewership into a million little pieces.

The newer guys to the game, cable and internet, are very well suited in their programming strategies to keep people tuned in. They're not going for the broadest group of people possible like the big networks (and yes, I am aware that many of these channels share parent companies with the big networks). Instead, they're looking for a sizable slice that will devotedly use their content. The cable channels have employed this with programming like "Mad Men", "Breaking Bad", and "Archer". The internet is full of low cost entertainment sites that all cater to tiny niches. Perfect for the new age.

I especially wonder what will happen to journalism. After all, it takes money to run a paper or local TV station. I've seen some bright spots in the journalism world. We still have NPR, who haven't bent to sensationalism due to their non-profit nature. Their website is my go-to place for news. Then there's ProPublica, a non-profit internet publication dedicated to investigative reporting. I'm really hoping that site gets big. It's excellent.

But even with some decent examples of survival with some small audiences. It seems to me that our media landscape remains uncertain.