Media and ad industries are a generation behind the way consumers create, consumer and share interactive media. Gathering and leveraging data from countless media platforms and devices will render new media currencies and alter ad spending. Most marketers are looking to find the right audiences, not the biggest ones.

Fascination with social media discounts the ultimate power individual consumers have over mining for digital gold -- a process that will be driven more by personal relevance than by sheer numbers. That is the financial sweet spot of the new media age.

The advertising upfront could yield the most convincing evidence yet of receding and shifting revenues that threaten the existence of some TV networks and stations even in better economic times -- if they don't stop clinging to their old ways. Unlike the major banks, there is no federal bailout for media.

So many of the merger assumptions for a successful AOL Time Warner alliance turned out to be wrong. Is there any reason to believe TW will succeed as a content player now?

Many media brands will fade as liquidity and deals begin flowing in an economic recovery and companies strengthen their value proposition though consolidation or integration of strategic businesses.

Despite the recession, total online ad spending in 2009 should hit a record $24.5 billion (growing only 4.5%), while grabbing at least 1% of overall market share annual through 2013, when it should total $37.2 billion. For traditional media to hold its own, it needs to fix broken business models.

Emerging from the recessionary abyss will be a long, arduous task. Unless media businesses alter their infrastructure, processes, expectations and strategies, improved financials are not assured. There is no more business as usual; there are only ways to avoid the pitfalls.

Jonathan Miller's appointment as chief digital officer at News Corp. underscores the retrenchment of big media, which will see more shifting assets, redefined leadership and new business models around evolving interactive applications. Eventually, all media will be new media.

A principal of the study suggested that in 10 years, 85% of TV viewing will still be on a TV at home. But it's difficult to imagine the experience will not be redefined by social networking, long-tail niches, etc. Consumers appear to be more prepared for that advent than the television industry.

Social-networking is the backbone of digital media, but making it pay is tricky. Its eventual monetization will have less to do with advertising as we know it and more with hyper-personal, hyper-local transactions. Will companies structure themselves to take advantage of those new economic opportunities?