What future for mass media?

The Christian Science Monitor, the New York Times, and the LA Times have all been looking at the future of network news, which is pulling in fewer and fewer viewers. The Benton Foundation's Communications-related Headlines service notes:

The Big Three broadcast TV networks have been losing audiences to 24-hour cable news, Internet sites, and other sources of instant headlines. All that competition, say many media analysts, will eventually force networks to experiment with the content, style, and format of the evening news. Minus the ads, the average newscast is just 19 minutes, according to Andrew Tyndall, who analyzes the network news at The Tyndall Report. That lends itself to summarizing the day's events rather than providing the added value of in-depth reporting. So newscasts may face the same change that newspapers have made - emphasizing news analysis over news reporting

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The CSM notes just one "novel step to stay relevant."

Last Monday, ABC News announced that it will make its coverage available on a variety of media platforms. In addition to ABC News Now, a 24-hour news digital channel, it will provide broadband news and video on demand for cellphones and computers. "World News Tonight With Peter Jennings" is one of the products that will be accessible at any time. These steps should allow ABC to compete with cable news.

Industry pundits and commentators are being forced to consider the possibility that network news - perhaps like the networks themselves - might no longer be feasible in any form. Sunday's New York Times magazine weighs into the issue with a major piece by Jon Gertner dealing with new attempts by Arbitron - using "Portable People Meters" - to try to measure viewers' TV watching habits more accurately. Gertner quotes one Nielsen boss who says: "Television and media will change more in the next 3 or 5 years than it's changed in the past 50." Scary stuff. The Columbia Journalism Review's current edition also deals with a complementary issue: Nielsen's attempts to retain its TV audience measurement system's credibility as advertisers get more nervous.

The underlying question, of course, is whether all these billions in advertising dollars spent in the mass media system really is effective at all. All these articles fit well conceptually with my previous blog on Media chaos ahead?. There's a general feeling abroad that the mass media are approaching a tipping point, where the whole advertising-funded model that has supported the U.S. media in the modern era might be getting closer to complete collapse - and when the collapse happens it will be rapid and it will be stunning. Now this idea is hardly news - I've been hearing "The End of Advertising"-type stories for at least a decade. But as media channel diversity and content delivery explode, we could be closer to that prophecy than many in the industry would care - or dare - to admit.