• New York Times, Monday, April 24, 2006 10:33 AM

Break all the existing rules. Think outside the box. Change the familiar paradigms. Those were the messages pounded home last week at the Television Bureau of Advertising's annual marketing conference. For the first time, the conference was arranged around a single, unifying theme: Multiplatform distribution of content. To thrive in the current environment, stations must regard content as endlessly distributable--to TV viewers, Web users, radio listeners, podcast fans. Everyone can be part of some potentially profit-generating audience-- or the attendees at least week's confab were told. Beth Comstock, president for digital media and market development at NBC Universal, said, "In media today, I don't think there is a single rule that can't--and frankly, probably shouldn't--be broken. This isn't just about driving growth. It's about staying in business." When it comes to capitalizing on additional methods of delivering content and ads, Gordon Borrell, president of a firm that specializes in selling local TV and online advertising, told the audience, "We are where television was in the late 1950s." In other words, climb into your space suits; this rocket ship is preparing to launch.

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