• The Economist, Friday, November 21, 2008 12:03 PM

On Nov. 16, Judy McGrath, MTVN's CEO, joined celebrities and MTV staff to say goodbye to "Total Request Live", one of the cable network's longest-running programs. The Economist says McGrath's appearance was a symbolic way for MTV to say goodbye to the old way of doing things, since her job is to find new ways of doing things. Indeed, the cancellation of TRL, a show in which viewers vote on the most popular music video, reflects the fact that MTV's young audience can easily access whatever music videos they like, whenever they like, online.

MTV knows its audience, but it's also struggling to keep their attention, the Economist says, because the very people to whom MTV appeals now spend the majority of their time on sites like Facebook and YouTube. McGrath describes this generation of Millennials as the "on-demand generation", because they are used to getting the content they want, when they want it.

To that end, MTVN has made serious strides online, creating virtual worlds around its brands as well as posting content of popular shows like "South Park" and "The Daily Show" on their own sites as well as the sites of distributors like Hulu. Even so, the question of whether MTV can change quickly enough to fit its customers shifting habits remains unanswered. McGrath notes that she's open to the challenge of meeting those shifting habits. "I think the major strategy is that you have to be open and flexible, and probably change it every day," she says.

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