Interesting panel @ Times Center this morning which highlights the future of media, as part of Advertising Week. No Wireless in here, so I’m posting this using my iPhone.

The first theme is The Atomization of Content. Martha Stewart is on the panel and says she’s still using the same business plan she developed 17 years ago, and it worked out ok … But as far as the monetization of content, it was far more challanging.

Martha rattled off a few blogs she has used a social media content strategy, along with parterships, and mentioned this strategy is different (and currently a challange to make money on) than her quite profitable merchantdizing business) (forgive my spelling … I’m on my iPhone)

Another speaker is saying the Internet is old school, cited the Gients vs Jets game and the gient 6 story screen that no one who could take their eyes off of … It costs 40 million dollars today .. What will cost in 5 years? 10 years? Will it be Freenium.

So, from this point of view, and I agree (since little new was discussed at OMMA Global and other conferences I attended in the last few years that is actually ….NEW) but the platforms are maturing and many of the fears of Madison Avenue, are now here.

Chris Anderson, on the far right, says we’re still figuring out what the Future of Media is going be. Another speaker says Craigslist and the Internet as destroyed the Newspaper Industry, etc (same stuff we’ve been hearing guite alot of for a few years).

Another speaker, Milton Glazer, brings in the uninvestigated relationship between media outlets and their advertizers – the even handed news coverage (for example, about 1/3 of advertising in newspapers is by Pharma, and they don’t like President Obama’s health care plan, so would newspapers want to go out of their way to provide full, even handed coverage when it might mean losing the good will of main sources of income).

Chris Anderson thinks there is a silver lining as Journalism will now be connected to their actual customers, the readers, through micro payments.

But what comes out of this is you can put out the best content but it’s almost impossible to get people to pay for it.

Chris Anderson says this is the Golden Age of Analytics, citing the Adobe Omniture deal – and while there is a lot of difficulty in setting up analytics so there is both actionable information AND protection of privacy; another speaker chimed in that this is the most interesting time she’s ever seen because of insights we get that defy conventional wisdom and isn’t predictable.

Another brought up the music awards recently where Kayne West did his thing, was well prepared for, beforehand (iJustine eas out side Radio City Music Hall, Perez Hilton was reporting on the Awards like it was the Cuban Missle Crises and deals were done with Twitter beforehand), etc.

The ripple of news coverage was favorable and brands / advertizers were happy.

Is that attention “monetizable”? It might be, but it’s not yet clear how that attention (which the music awards and controversy around it) can be tracked so you can prove it, as Chris Anderson points out.

My takeways – First, I’m glad I’m deeply into analytics, and known for it, as Chris Anderson says “This is the Golden Age of Analytics”.

Second, the Future of Media isn’t all that clear, with a haze over who is going to pay for it, and how.

Third, the measurement of content across multiple screens (third screen), and should be added into some rating systems by the end of next year.

Forth, in order to take full advantage of controversy around events, like the Music Awards, last week, being “enabled” beforehand.

I believe, and this would extend to Public Relations, that Enablement, beforehand, needs to be established, planned for, payed for (in some way) and metrics evolved around those capabilities, Pre event and Pre engagement.

Finally, i apologize for spelling and grammer errors due to posting from my iPhone and not having the names of most of the speakers beforehand.