From something to fool around with to "Lifestyle brand"

MSM is beleagured these days. I am getting worried emails from friends about what will happen to Knight-Ridder when it is cast off from its corporate harbor. Myspace, a social networking software popular among 20 somethings, especially those who like music, is now signing bands. This is a textbook example of how the Internet is disrupting established structures by eliminating the need for a middleman. How much of current MSM thinking is about being the middleman--gathering stories and putting them together for the viewer/user? McLuhan saw this clearly when he noted "It is quite predictable, then, that any new means of moving information will alter any power structure whatever." For another view of how this will play out, see Terry Heaton's "Remarkable Opportunities of Unbundled Media" an excellent story from Ohmynews.com.