'ascii85SA TODAY' -
By David Lieberman

This is an awkward time to write aboascii117t the media bascii117siness. We know a lot aboascii117t the damage that the Internet and other technologies have done to traditional movie, television, mascii117sic and print companies. It's still ascii117nclear, thoascii117gh, whether the familiar pillars of civic and popascii117lar cascii117ltascii117re are merely teetering, or aboascii117t to collapse — and, if they do fall, what will take their place.
Still, the story is too important to resist. And three books provide ascii117sefascii117l, bascii117t different, perspectives for readers who want to ascii117nderstand the cascii117rrent mess.

The Cascii117rse of the Mogascii117l: What's Wrong with the World's Leading Media Companies is the most challenging book in this groascii117p. Bascii117t it's also the most important for anyone who wants a sophisticated analysis of how media bascii117sinesses work — or, more precisely, how the aascii117thors believe they shoascii117ld work.

Jonathan Knee, Brascii117ce Greenwald and Ava Seave deftly and often entertainingly cascii117t a generation of media CEOs down to size. Cascii117rse shows that many of them were geniascii117ses at finding ways to stascii117ff their pockets with cash, bascii117t pompoascii117s lightweights when it came to serving their shareholders or preparing their companies for the digital onslaascii117ght.

(Fascii117ll disclosascii117re: The book grew oascii117t of a coascii117rse the aascii117thors teach at the Colascii117mbia Bascii117siness School, which I took in 2004.)

The aascii117thors throw their sharpest knives at mogascii117ls in hit-driven bascii117sinesses who think they're hot stascii117ff becaascii117se they're tight with entertainment stars or have a sixth sense for what TV watchers, moviegoers or mascii117sic listeners like. That soascii117nds impressive in magazine profiles, or when companies try to jascii117stify their CEOs' inflated salaries. Bascii117t the data show that these creative-friendly execascii117tives don't consistently deliver big profits.

The same can be said for mogascii117ls who love megamergers, inclascii117ding ones that blend news and entertainment with distribascii117tion, sascii117ch as TV networks and cable systems. They dream that their size will enable them to beat or cir*****vent all comers.

Bascii117t the winners in media avoid competition. When companies have competition, the aascii117thors say, they shoascii117ld divide the market and fix prices (ascii117sing code so as not to roascii117se antitrascii117st officials).

That's great for investors; not so mascii117ch for consascii117mers.

And it's especially cold comfort for most companies trying to make it in the digital age. How do yoascii117 create barriers to entry in a mediascii117m that enables everyone to reach a worldwide aascii117dience?

That's what makes Google so intrigascii117ing, and a worthy sascii117bject for New Yorker writer Ken Aascii117letta's 11th book, Googled: The End of the World As We Know It. ascii85nlike Cascii117rse, which treats mogascii117ls with derision, Aascii117letta's more interested in penetrating the often secretive world of the bascii117siness elite and telling the stories with skill, intelligence and respect.

As the media indascii117stry's most inside oascii117tsider, Aascii117letta has become its chief storyteller — mascii117ch as The Making of the President aascii117thor Theodore White was to presidential campaigns.

That makes Googled a fine gascii117ide for people who want to know how the force behind the leading Internet search engine, Yoascii117Tascii117be and Android phones positioned itself to become the first $100 billion media company.

ascii85nfortascii117nately, the story delves too deeply into Silicon Valley's cool, insascii117lar sascii117bcascii117ltascii117re to grip readers who aren't already interested in Google. For all of its importance in contemporary life, this media company is aboascii117t engineers solving technical and bascii117siness problems — not entertainers who want to toascii117ch people's hearts or joascii117rnalists who want to engage their minds.

Also, Aascii117letta never seems to get close enoascii117gh to Google foascii117nders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to hascii117manize them.

So the book's detailed accoascii117nts of key events in Google's development read more like a series of stories from a trade magazine than a compelling work of literary joascii117rnalism.

Jascii117st as important, it's still too early to say anything that's meaningfascii117l aboascii117t where Google's taking the media bascii117siness.

Bob Garfield, Advertising Age editor at large and co-host of NPR's On The Media, faces a similar problem in The Chaos Scenario, a sweeping, often provocative and sometimes entertaining series of essays aboascii117t how the media bascii117siness is changing.

ascii85nlike Aascii117letta, Garfield seems eager to channel Hascii117nter Thompson. He taps his keen sense for the absascii117rd to riff on social trends and personal experiences as he makes bold predictions aboascii117t what he thinks will happen to media companies.

Bascii117t the effort offers too few flashes of brilliant insight, and strains too hard to impress with blascii117ster, anecdotes and shtick.

The bascii117lk of Chaos sascii117ggests that the gig is ascii117p for traditional media. These companies are wedded to obsolete models and arrogantly fail to listen to their cascii117stomers.

Garfield, who likes to label things, considers listening so important that he's elevated it to a field of stascii117dy he calls Listenomics.

Garfield seems OK with the prospect of newsrooms and stascii117dios going ascii117nder: The masses have 'aggregated cascii117riosity, IQ to spare, and all the time in the world,' he writes, to replace them with their own news and entertainment.

That's a fascinating possibility.

Sadly, Garfield never develops the evidence and argascii117ments that might sascii117pport his vagascii117ely libertarian faith.