It seems it has taken the current global financial crisis to finally deliver on what the internet has promised since well before the last financial hiccup, the Dot Com Crash, in 2000.
It’s now official, online will be the only mainstream media to post reasonable growth in the coming year, and industry pundits are now predicting that it is set to surpass television as the leading communication channel, in terms of spend, by 2012.
What’s more, not only is advertising revenue down markedly but all television players and leading newspaper publishers in this country are also taking a major bath on the sharemarket.
Most noticeably, Channel Ten’s major shareholder, CanWest, is facing the prospect of having to seek Chapter 11 protection in Canada and its local TV assets may well be sacrificed to ensure the survival of the global conglomerate.
The much vaunted rivers of gold are also slowing to a trickle with Tony O’Reilly, the Irish entrepreneur, dumping media properties wordwide and leading local newspaper publisher Fairfax has seen its share price tumble to unplumbed depths as ‘classies’ desert their traditional home for online alternatives.
Of course, publishers Fairfax along with News Corp have belatedly embraced the internet revolution in an attempt to at least capture some of the torrent of escape spending, however, the amounts being earned are greatly reduced with many online options being only a tiny fraction of the cost of hard copy versions.
It seems no media organisation has gone unscathed. And it must be said that even the pure online players are being affected, if only by a slowing from the massive growth rates of recent years.
In fact, people are now wondering about many of the fundamental principles and notions that have gone unquestioned for years. The financial meltdown is applying a blowtorch to many previously ‘untouchable’ business models, which have remained intact far past their true use-by date, and it is testing many established organisations in ways that will ultimately dictate the shape of our economy in the years ahead.
Most economists agree the current difficulties facing the country will dissipate in two or three years; but in several decades time I believe people will in fact look back on the global financial crisis positively and as marking the beginning of a new more enlightened and globally focused era of international co-operation. | 
