While Google struggles to spin off its online ad-management system to offline media, other companies are erecting beachheads on the digital market shore.

What? Give up your cell phone for the evening? Not possible, you say.

With the proliferation of online social networks and other forms of interactive media, how will book publishers retain their tech-savvy teen readers?

This Rorschach test won't reveal anything about you, but take a picture of it with your phone and it could reveal something about the company that placed it there.

More than a year after Hurricane Katrina, the city's musicians are keeping the heart of New Orleans thumping to its own unique beat.

Look back with me, if you will, to the halcyon days of late October 2005. At the time, the words "YouTube" and "time-shifting" hadn't yet slid onto the buzzword-spouting lips of self-appointed media pundits. Network shows hadn't yet been made available (legally, anyway) for streaming on the Web. And frustrated writers staring at nearly blank computer screens hadn't yet figured out a way to stretch their MySpace-will-rule-the-universe screeds to the required 500 words. Ah, we were so young and innocent then.

Any of you involved in media over the past decade now knows that computers and networks offer more than a new way to deliver content or ads: They give everyone more opportunity to assume the roles of authors - of creative participants - in an increasing variety of venues.

At year's end, we decided to brew up a special concoction to accompany our cover story on the trends influencing the future of media in 2007. So we scoured the marketplace for high-end teas (on the expense account, of course), boiled the water, soaked the leaves, and enjoyed a cup or two of jasmine and Earl Grey. But then we realized something: Nobody here knew the first thing about reading tea leaves. So we got on the phone and consulted a few real-world oracles to find out what's in store for media in 2007 and beyond. Some of their predictions …

It's no secret that once-dominant media brands are under assault. Readers and viewers are turning to less-established outlets to access news and entertainment, and anyone with a keyboard and an Internet connection can post his own take on world events. Despite high-profile efforts - moving Katie Couric to the evening news, for instance, or creating free newspapers targeting 18- to 34-year-olds - traditional media companies are still struggling to figure out how to maintain their audience in a fragmented, interactive era.