Like many of you, I've been spending a lot of time lately thinking about how media is transforming -- and trying to understand what this means for the future of the media industry. The Internet, the digitization of media and the explosion of electronic distribution channels are changing the economics of the media industry right before our eyes. At its simplest, media is changing from an industry driven by scarce distribution to one driven by scarce attention. Now that the consumer has so many choices, controlling distribution no longer means that you control audiences. The consumer (or viewer) is the …

Recently I read an interesting study that suggested U.S. Internet usage is going to start a sharp decline over the next two to three years, as a result primarily of the economic downturn and some additional factors. All of which does not bode well for digitally based businesses or internet advertisers.