Digital Media and Executive Bodycount

John Ellis, in today's Wall Street Journal, surveys the ongoing turmoil at the highest levels of corporate media as they contend with the tectonic disruptions of the Internet economy - notably the spate of hiring and firing at Sumner Redstone's Viacom.

His conclusion:

The fact is, no one at the executive levels of megamedia really knows what to do about digital disruption. They are -- all of them -- riding a technological tiger, hoping they can buy time, hoping against hope that the tiger doesn't eat them alive.

Hapless media misadventures can be seen everywhere. At The New Republic, a venerable, beloved publication with a history besmirched with controversy long before the Internet - their foray into the blogosphere turned disastrous due to a witless lack of netiquette. And at Newsweek John Meacham has taken the role of managing editor, replacing Mark Whitaker, who has been asked to make sense of the digital world. (Is that considered a promotion in those circles?) Even the ouster of HP chairwoman Patricia Dunn can be read as failure of old-guard companies to undersand the currency of information in a digital era.

The day will come when companies are helmed by men and women who have grown up in deep familiarity the new economy, posessed by both strong buisness acumen and intuitive knack for networked information. Who knows how capitalism will be transformed by their leadership? But until that time - twenty years in the future, perhaps - the tiger will keep feasting away.

Tags: Digital Media, Viacom, New Republic, Newsweek, HP