I saw an article on AdAge (via Techmeme) this morning that surprised me. The headline is “Media Work Force Sinks to 15-Year Low“. I was surprised because the news felt immediately disconnected from what it feels like to me. To me it feels like there have never been more opportunities and outlets for the creation and distribution of media. Then I looked at the article and understood more of the issue. Newspaper (un)employment is dragging the number down. However, employment at ad agencies is shooting through the roof.

Of course the real issue is how people are counting who makes a living as a provider/distributor of media. I suspect two interesting things are happening. At some point consumer software folks (not just internet media folks) will get counted in this number and the number will rise. Additionally, a bunch of jobs whose very existence was dependent upon the bloated economies of distribution monopolies will never reappear. I don’t know what the final numbers will look like but I am sure that this “indicator” is indicative of nothing more than the monumental shift we’re going through. At some point people will reset their understanding of what actually constitutes media or their jobs will also “disappear”.