will the real 'new media' please stand up?

Because if I have to go to one more panel discussion where a bunch of the most powerful media figures sit there scratching their head as they decry the lack of direction and useful prediction in the online and cross platform space, I am going to chew my arm off.

Seriously.

Like last Friday, I'm at the New York Television Festival panel discussion for Network Building on the Web. And it's amazing - sitting up there is what I believe to be one of the greatest media minds of our time, Fred Siebert. Currently of Next New Networks, he's sharp-witted and sharp tongued, at once needing to be heard and deliciously irreverent. And yes, even he admits that we are all still in the 'testing phase'. Beside him is Simon Asaad, one of the founding fathers of heavy.com - another startup that I believe to be among the most savvy in the whole 'monetize through advertising and build a self sustaining model' game. Whilst he does not admit to being similarly baffled (there is a heartening variety of smugness deployed by the Australian, as he sits up there proclaiming with wonder that his coolness filter is still 'the kind of stuff that personally cracks me up'), it is clear that a few false moves and his venture, too, could still come toppling down.