PressEthic

Because it has to do with the changing face of media, that's why. And draws parallels to the situation faced by press media.

Here's the article on Cruise's switch to a veteran publicist after months of terrible press under the publicity direction of his sister.

What is important are the underlying currents that in part steered Cruise to switch publicists. From the article:

"The entertainment media is changing," said Allan Mayer, managing director at Sitrick and Company, a public relations firm. "The currency a movie star had was the ability to put people in the seats. They command enormous salaries. But simply having a star in a movie isn't enough. Young audiences don't have the same loyalties and interests that previous generations have. That's why there is so much panic in the industry."

Movie stars have lost their currency, and so then has the movie industry. The big studios don't know how to market to younger audiences, and can't figure out why big names aren't selling tickets. The reasons are part and parcel to what we have discussed is happening with press media.

The currency that newspapers have is the ability to sell newspapers, and they're losing that currency. And they're losing money because they don't know how to make money online. To say that there is panic in the newspaper industry for many of the same reasons there is panic in the movie industry might not be too far off.

Both are being challenged by new mediums of their media. The new medium for the movie industry in this case is a generation of ticket buyers that they can't figure out, because names like Tom Cruise don't make them buy a ticket. Hell, he probably doesn't even make them swoon.

What makes them buy a ticket? My guess is films that they feel are more "edgy" or independently made. Low-budget reality-type films like "Open Water" make gobs of cash - and in that case they cast unknown actors specifically to increase the sense of reality.

The movie, however (often) terrible, is more important than the actor. Big movies have become more like video games, but that's a whole different thing...

The new medium for the print media industry we know: blogs, online, etc., etc., etc.

And the record industry - they couldn't sell a record to save their lives it seems. Their currency was blown out of the water by file sharing and the like.

Newspapers, movie tickets and records aren't selling, and for the same reasons - shifts away from the traditional forms of their media.

So, the question: who will adapt and who will die? How will the forms of the various media change?

I think the day is coming when you will see a daily column called "blog" on page A1 of the New York Times, or a "blog" section somewhere in the paper. Maybe also a code to plug in to a listening device that gives you access to a list of songs or records in your preferred genre for free.

Maybe that wouldn't help them sell. Maybe it would be a futile attempt to stem a rising tide.

But for everything that could be said about the Times at that point (and yes, I read other papers; I read The Onion) it would still be the Tom Cruise of newspapers.