One of the great disruptions in business history is happening via the digital marketplace as the Internet is changing the way the public consumes media.
We've talked a number of times here about why the media companies are doing a lot of strange things that don't make sense. The underlying reason is that they are in the midst of a long-term change that is impossible to make go away. The result is that there is increasing pressure by investors to see the publicly held companies start to perform for them much better.
We can't even keep up with the number of company names being thrown around for being taken private, companies like Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO), Clear Channel (CCU), Cablevision (CVC), The New York Times (NYT), Viacom (VIA), and The Boston Globe, among many.
Even though market forces are putting pressures on companies to do 
something, probably an even bigger part of the mix is that there are now the private-equity funds available to make some huge deals happen.
This isn't going to go away anytime soon. Media companies are cutting everything to the bone as far as expenses go, but it isn't enough. Cutting expenses is one thing, growth is another. In numerous old media companies there isn't going to be much growth for years.
That's the reason why you hear about suing over copyright, letting go of expensive celebrities, layoffs and making deals with Internet companies or buying them outright.
These are the right things to do, but this particular change in the market isn't something that any quick fix can take care of. It will go on for years. That's the reason why so many are looking to go private.
The question is how many will take that route to get the constant public pressure for short-term results off of them.
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