• by OMMA Magazine Writers , October 14, 2009

We've been busier than a one-legged man at an ass-kicking contest here at OMMA, with the wind-up (and down) of Global and the OMMA awards. We paused a moment to fête our Online All Stars (who you can read all about in this issue) with a circus-themed bash, and then wound right into MediaPost's Future of Media (which you can read more about in our sister publication Media).

Months before, after giving Wired editor Chris Anderson our impassioned plea to participate in the Future of Media (the event, not the actuality), we came to have a dimmer view of the future. Or maybe media. We approached him at a launch party at Michael's in Manhattan for his most recent book Free: The Future of a Radical Price. We told him a little about the project and what we were trying to get at. Much nodding, etc. But when we said the words, "The future of media," things went wonky.

Anderson: I don't even know what that word means.
Ed:Blog: 'Future?'
Reporter: 'Media?'
Anderson: 'Of.' [He's a funny guy, now.] No, 'media.'

He went on to say how he doesn't know what media is anymore. More and more people gathered around. At one point he asked, "Is Twitter media?" Enthusiastic yeses from all involved. Then he asked "Is this glass media?" and we gave the Mandese-patented  "Anything can be media." Anderson proceeded to denigrate McLuhan. But then he got onto fragmentation and at one point asked, "What is writing?" He's a big one for the ambiguous semi-rhetorical question, that Anderson.

But, of course, we're all pals again. Anderson spoke to us for a couple of pieces you can read in Media, and he moderated our panel at the Future of Media Forum at the Times Center in New York during Advertising Week, where he interrogated the likes of Martha Stewart, Mark Cuban, Reid Hoffman and Judy McGrath. Of course, the first thing he said when he got onstage was, "I don't know what media means anymore."

The Editors
editorial@mediapost.com