Imagine hearing voices for every written blog on the Internet. Eric Tulin, CEO of ConvoCast, says he has a voice-enabled radio engagement tool that could revolutionize Web text blogging. Because participating consumers register their contact information and permission ahead of time, media companies can follow up with audience members and selectively incorporate comments in promotions.

A funny thing is happening on the way to the recession. Innovation and e-commerce are looking impervious to economic ravages, at least, for now. While retail store sales continue to take a hit, e-commerce continues to thrive. Car production pulls back, but iPhone production can't keep up with consumer demand. The market for tech innovation and mobile interactivity has a relevance that outweighs recessionary concerns.

Pity the poor advertiser. A crippled economy has arrested consumer spending. Television strains to bolster its diminished mass-market might. More accountable online metrics search for reward in an uber-fragmented maze. The business of buying, selling and creating ads is up for grabs. Still, unprecedented opportunity for innovation lurks amid the chaos. TV broadcasts have to give advertisers more online exposure.

Consumers and investors have endured enough media and tech barons to know that trusting visionaries doesn't always work out. Indeed, the public and Wall Street are now conditioned for a steady barrage of announcements from sector leaders like Apple and Google. When there's silence, it's assumed something is wrong. Stock prices drop. The blog machine works overtime with rumors. It's as if the World Wide Web has developed a click-and-download ADD. Well, it's time to get real.

Looking past the sexy draw of the smackdown between media moguls Barry Diller and John Malone is a statistical reality. The real determination is bottom line: Who is better at managing shareholder value, rather than asset flipping?

Contrary to popular belief, the biggest challenge in digital media is not producing or aggregating content and advertising. It is providing adequate frameworks to manage the deluge of interactive content and advertising--making a more efficient, lucrative experience for all concerned.

Say what you want about Google. It is not like any other media technology hybrid on the planet. Now it's coping with maturity. Google is changing the media MO, but it still wrestles with some fundamentally familiar demons.

The intensified debate over free Internet content may become a moot point in a boundless viral digital universe. The true economics of interactivity are not rooted in content, but in the wealth of related connections and actions that are so misunderstood. The Internet has become a commodity of space and time. Those who exploit its free resources will win.

Walt Disney and News Corp. have it in spades. CBS is getting it. Time Warner and Viacom don't have as much as they should. It is the power of international growth to offset the economic turmoil that's clogging media's advertising engine. Now that companies have shown their vulnerabilities in recent earnings calls, it's worth taking a closer look at media backstops. There aren't many.

The most notable change in this year's upfront will be widespread resignation that the status quo cannot survive next year's mandated digital conversion. And as the rebalance of ad dollars continues, the process of pricing, evaluation and measurement effectiveness requires refinement that can only come from an underlying digital infrastructure that connects all media platforms and devices.