As James Poniewozik of Time concluded at year's end, "the mass-media audience as we have known it" is a distant memory. "It is no longer possible to please most of the people most of the time." The trouble for these monster corporations is that an America of niches doesn't always play to their strengths. Top-heavy conglomerates are geared up for producing mass-common-denominator products, but when that mass common denominator disperses, they can be flummoxed. |