Jon Fine on "Modern (Sigh) Media Maturity"

It's difficult for me to add anything to this column about mature media and their fictional lament over days gone by. "You remember when you were the Next Big Thing," Jon Fine writes in the December 12 issue of BusinessWeek, taking the persona of a newspaper or magazine owner/publisher/editor type.

"Near as you can tell, MySpace [and its like] is just a bulletin board where teens and twentysomethings get their bands signed and get themselves hooked up. A place where users create the content looks more and more like the best way to reach young people. You can't imagine how this happened. You can't imagine letting people leave comments about you for everyone to see. You can't imagine rank amateurs' content being more attractive than that produced by a Mature Medium."

"You're saying I have to lose control of my medium to gain it? Get outta here!" Indeed.