-By Staff Report

Where to begin? Based on all that shifted, dipped, soared, crashed and burned in 2007, the coming year in media will be even more hair-raising and volatile than the one that just passed into history.

Certainly the largest force shaping 2008 will be the steady flow of readers, viewers and users away from traditional media to digital options of all kinds. But other factors--the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike and deepening uncertainty about the economy--hold dark portent for all media.

In the digital realm, 2008 will be shaped by the nexus of evolving advertising and social networks that will respectively coalesce Web users and monetize the explosion of bulk avails on the Web pages they consume. Layer on the X-factors of gaming and virtual worlds and the digital space will look very different than it did even in fourth-quarter 2007. Web-based video will also morph from the user-gen palate to more professional-produced product from the traditional media players. Hey, if the Queen of England is posting video on YouTube, the world has certainly changed.

If content is king, the writers strike is its potential assassin. If the stoppage lasts even a few more weeks, the broadcast nets, already suffering through an abysmal fall season, will have virtually nothing in the pipe by the time the upfronts hit in May. Underperforming schedules and attendant makegoods will only further compound a serious inventory shortage, and clients will look elsewhere. Cable and the Web are already sharpening their knives for the feast that could potentially come their way. While on the surface this looks dire, perhaps the strike will force new thinking and business models to emerge. Necessity, and the loss of billions of dollars, could once again be the mother of all invention.

But this could all be academic if the predictions of an '08 recession come to pass. A pullback on the part of auto, retail and other lifeblood categories for moribund sectors like radio and newspapers, the challenged magazine industry, and even the ascending out-of-home business could be devastating. The magazine industry saw some brightness in the men's category in 2007. But as Steve Greenberger, executive vp, media director at SLG Advertising, told senior editor Lucia Moses, 2008 is "going to be a tough year for all. For marketers who were going to be aggressive, they're going to be more guarded. For those who were more guarded, they're going to hold back completely."

We at Mediaweek are by no means immune to any of this marketplace volatility and have aggressive plans to roll out new Web-based services that will offer video coverage and new data features designed to keep us competitive by keeping our readers competitive. As in most challenging times, opportunity abounds for those with the energy and imagination to find solutions. Our mission for 2008 is to provide the news, facts, data and perspective to help those discoveries happen. --Jim Cooper, executive editor

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