It was a day for the record books: Two struggling television networks evaporated to make way for a new one, and the giant Walt Disney Company acquired the animation studio that had made its own
once-iconic animation division look second-rate. Publications everywhere struggled to make sense of the rearrangement of the deck chairs. Were these seemingly momentous happenings good news or bad?
A sign of industry strength or weakness? Who could be read as winners, who as losers? It will take a while to sort out, although most observers appeared to believe the companies that emerged from
the action--The CW Network, a Pixar-fattened Disney--will be stronger than their predecessors. In Hawaii, the Web site of KGMB9 TV combined the reporting of CBS News and the Associated Press to
produce a balanced roundup, expressing general enthusiasm for both mergers, but revealing a more modulated reaction by some observers. For example, Hal Vogel, the media analyst, is quoting as saying,
"This makes sense. It's not a slam-dunk proposition, but it makes sense. Six networks was too many."
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Read the whole story at CBS News and AP »
