General Electric Chairman Jeff Immelt emphatically denies plans to sell NBC Universal, pointing to cable network and international growth as offsets to its fourth-place broadcast TV network and its increasing vulnerability during the ad recession. But 2009 could tell another tale.

The $19.6 billion raised by the federal government's auction of the analog spectrum will barely ease the $263 billion national deficit. But it will make Verizon, AT&T and Google (by default) bigger power brokers in an exploding wireless digital marketplace. For the winning bidders, the spectrum is a rare opportunity to change the complexion of the wireless mobile scheme by directly managing applications and platforms, some of which don't yet exist.

It has become a familiar predicament for digital media innovators: how to leverage and grow new markets. So it is not surprising that Apple is seeking to boost the sale of iPods and iTunes content downloads by altering its pricing arrangements. Continuing to charge consumers, by any other name, could be a long-term mistake. Eventually, Apple will learn -- just as AOL did -- that walled gardens and mobile interactive consumers don't mix.

One thing became clear this week: Intelligent bullies with position and financial resources can opportunistically seize on bad news paralysis. Their objective--to leverage waning assets or those difficult to value in a chaotic environment--is a template for forced growth. It will become a hallmark of this year's restructuring deals. Think Microsoft, Liberty Media and, yes, JP Morgan.

There is no shortage of online content and advertising, although it's a long way from mastering the Holy Grail of applications: video, search and management. The big questions is: how do companies turn special-interest content into a money maker?

It's only a matter of time before the fallout from the Bear Stearns bailout, intensifying finanical market turmoil, and the tightening economic squeeze catch up with all companies. Media-related players--from communications and entertainment to the Internet to advertisers--will see the impact in advertising revenues, consumer spending and the availability of funding for deals and expansion in the second half of the year. Even well-heeled media players with limited ad exposure will feel the pain.

The top priority for companies engaging in the digital media blitz is to get used to the uneasy challenge of opposing forces: the meteoric growth and opportunity of interactivity grinding against strained economics. That friction is a core dynamic of this new business era. So get hold of your ying and yang. Otherwise, you will miss opportunities to build new businesses and value.

Buying Bebo.com for $850 million boosts AOL's social-networking profile. But it will do little to improve its user engagement intelligence quotient unless it can master advertising without disenfranchising its fickle online communities.

Audience behavioral targeting and data tracking are becoming a more precarious double-edged sword for consumers, advertisers and Google-inspired Web masters. The creation and use of an individual's digital footprints are at the core of exploding online advertising. It is becoming the driving tenet by which business is conducted in the digital marketplace. Eliot Spitzer's fall from grace this week is one of the most dramatic examples of the potentially destructive power of the electronic information system enveloping users of digital interactivity.

With media chiefs finally conceding that their companies are under economic pressure, they are rethinking survival and growth strategies. This has been complicated by the digital sea change altering industry financial models. Core advertising revenue--a lagging economic indicator--is beginning to falter and shift to interactive venues, which also are proving to be recession-sensitive. They can no longer conduct business as usual, and they cannot convert to new markets fast enough to counter losses from a deteriorating economy.