The Year in Media | My Channel, Myself
Staff members of The Timess media news department are highlighting the most significant developments this year in the industries they cover.
At the beginning of the year, all eyes were on Oprah Winfrey as she flipped the switch on OWN, a cable channel defined by her brand. It was her vision of the future of media. Viewers havent materialized as fast as Ms. Winfrey and her backer, Discovery Communications, would like. What that means for media is still being fought over.
Undaunted, others have followed Ms. Winfreys lead this year. MSNBCs Keith Olbermann leapt to the tiny Current TV; Glenn Beck left Fox News and asked fans to pay a monthly fee for his Internet channel; Regis Philbin left Live! With Regis and Kelly and started conceiving new shows. Rather than resist the splintering of the media industry into small niche slices, these stars have chosen to embrace it.
Maybe one day well be able to say to our TV sets, find Oprah, and Google or Xbox will do the rest. For now, the stars are still trying to find us, so theyre taking down some of the walls that have historically separated themselves from the public. Ms. Winfrey took to Twitter and Facebook to chat with viewers and she seemed to be loving it. Her channel did, too it turned around and put a few of her Web chats on TV.