Diane Mermigas, the venerable media columnist, writes this week that 2006 will be something like 2005, only more so. Meaning the industry's biggest companies will continue to grapple with shifting consumer tastes, technology-driven changes in consumer behavior, and a nimble ad market. Management will need to respond more adroitly to these transformative developments, Mermigas says, and some simply will not be up to the challenge. She suggests the industry (or, rather, industries) will require "a new generation of graduates from the Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Steven Spielberg school of mavericks and free-thinkers." Her excellent assessment of the trends in …

Advertising Age writer Greg Lindsay has a good piece on the inexorable march toward fully controllable media--that is, media delivered to consumers when, where, and how they want it. The rapid adoption of technologies that allow personalization, time-shifting, and place-shifting is wrecking the familiar media landscape, causing advertisers to reassess how to spend their dollars. "We've become a nation of control freaks, and it's all technology's fault," one professional trend watcher told Lindsay. Also, says Lindsay, keep your eye on the Baby Boomers. Their numbers are huge and so too is their disposable income. The degree to which they decide …

The latest wrinkle in product placement does not require that the actual product be physically placed anywhere at all. It needn't be brought to a TV soundstage, a movie set, or a post-production house. Instead, the particular product can be specified in a contract, and digital magicians can then insert it into a scene. The work can be so seamless that few if any viewers will ever notice that that box of corn flakes, say, was placed on the kitchen table in a sitcom situation through the skills of a guy with cool software in his computer. Writes Sam Lubell …

Richard Zannino, promoted yesterday from COO to CEO of Dow Jones, effective February 1, arrives at a time when the company faces a series of formidable challenges, writes Jon Friedman, media analyst at MarketWatch, an online site owned by Dow Jones. "Zannino takes the reins at a disquieting time for large media companies," says Friedman. "He must find a way to raise Dow Jones' stock price during a period when mainstream media companies are largely out of favor with investors. To the great frustration of media CEOs, Wall Street has remained skeptical about the sector's growth prospects." Among Zannino's chief …

Now independent of Viacom Inc., the reconstituted CBS Corp., headed by Leslie Moonves, has been warmly received by Wall Street this new year. The stock price has been up (while Viacom's has remained flat). While some question the long-term prospects of the redefined CBS, with its assets arrayed mostly in the traditional-media camp, Moonves sounds upbeat. "You're not going to see us sitting on our heels and become a utility company," he told Reuters yesterday. "Anybody that wants our content, we'll make deals with them."

Combining the allure of the Internet with the convenience and familiarity of TV is not a new idea, but it will gain currency over the next couple of years with the introduction of technologies that heavyweight industry players are just now beginning to roll out. The Wall Street Journal's comprehensive story describes how Microsoft, IBM, Intel, AT&T, and others are preparing to make it easy to watch Internet programming--much of it yet to be produced--on one's in-home TV sets. (The New York Times tackles this issue today as well, choosing to focus on a new Net-based movie service from …

Sallie Hofmeister, writing in the Los Angeles Times, says that Google, more than any other company, frightens traditional media. The high-tech star is smart, crafty, and ambitious--and seems positioned to insinuate itself into television, book publishing, music, movies, even the personal computing business. According to Hofmeister, Google could announce as early as this week an inexpensive Google PC, complete with its own proprietary operating system that would be specially tuned to the increasingly Google-ized world of online content. The box would sell at Wal-Mart and other large retailers. All in all, Google's horde of cash, combined with its considerable know-how …

Television and the Internet will continue their successful seduction of Madison Avenue in 2006, making it difficult for the magazine industry to score any significant gains in 2006. So reports Mediaweek in its year-ahead look at the industry. Among the trends the trade mag highlights: a shakeout in the celebrity-magazine category (eight is too many); stepped-up offerings of integrated advertising packages (combining print and online or TV buys); and last-minute buys ("which continue to drive publishers crazy"). Also, Mediaweek sees more industry layoffs in 2006: top people, such as those recently axed by Time Inc., will find their way …

Writing in the Toronto Sun, Bill Brioux takes a look at TV '06 and sees nothing less than a "revolution."  "Everything appears to be in play," he writes. "Advertising, programming, delivery, technology, ratings-- even the concept of TV networks." Among his prognostications:  The WB may fade to black; fragmentation in TV viewership will force advertisers to "re-think" the way they buy into the medium; and we'll witness more time-shifting by viewers owing to better hardware/software. "That is good news for quality rookies like ‘My Name Is Earl’ and ‘Everybody Hates Chris,’" says Brioux, because "both dropped into killer slots …

Hachette Filipacchi is reportedly working on a new men's newsstand magazine that would be more graphic--and more lowbrow--than the men's titles that currently populate the category. Titled Shock, the book would feature "true-crime stories, girly pictures, and grisly accident photos," according to an editor familiar with the project. While Conde Nast is polishing Men's Vogue for a full rollout in 2006, Hachette is thought to be fine-tuning Shock, which, while aimed at men, is shooting for an entirely different demo. WWD.com's Jeff Bercovici notes that a number of other U.S. publishers have considered launching a "European-style" newsstand book for …