• Hollywood Reporter, Wednesday, February 8, 2006 11 AM

Media analyst Diane Mermigas tries gamely in this week's column to sum up the current state of the various industries she covers--cable, TV, telephony, satellite, newspapers, the Internet--and concludes that we are in a period of vast reformation. Virtually every planet in the media universe is in the midst of change, either due to deliberate decision-making or as an effort to survive in an ever-changing environment. "Every day seems to bring a virtual explosion of new developments at all levels of the entertainment, media and information food chain, contributing to a perpetual cause-and-effect formation of a new-media world," Mermigas writes. "Every new development poses as much opportunity as challenge." Citing industry by industry, company by company, Mermigas attempts to capture the dynamism of the current environment. For every segment that's down, another is up. Think newspapers and the Internet. Also, though, think in terms of new alliances, which Mermigas points out are popping up everywhere. Her piece is wide-ranging and short on new information, but it's a competent, up-to-the-minute summary of old media and new in a time of remarkable change.

Read the whole story at Hollywood Reporter »