Deadlinehollywooddaily.com in spite of its long name is the source for all breaking news and great commentary for the WGA strike and AMPTP and SAG talks. Nikki Finke has created a blog that not only has been providing news and updates about the situations, but she has personally broken many of the stories, especially during the writers' strike. Her posts are decidedly pro-union and very against not only the studios, but the industry trade papers for reporting in slanted ways for the studios.

            Her position on all the union contract negotiations has generally been one of David versus Goliath. She has taken the position that the talent guilds deserve higher residuals, because they are the little guys who are being strong armed by the studios. Although her claims are not readily based on sound economic analysis, she does have a very keen understanding of the actual players in the discussions. She reports how the studio heads deliberately aim to horde profits while keeping the talent as under paid as possible. One of her best posts was supported by a video that juxtaposed the studio heads saying to investors how profitable online distribution was going to be with the statements to the WGA that there was no money in online distribution and that they would not agree to any residuals before they could "experiment" with the medium.

            Nikki Finke's position has nevertheless been backed up mainly by her ability to quote the hypocrisy of the studios. It seems that it has been her intention to keep the studios in line when it comes to presenting an accurate description of the effects of the new media contracts. Currently her posts are centered around both the SAG talks, and the WGA's complaint that the AMPTP is not paying the residuals agreed upon in the Minimum Basic Agreement that was signed to end the writers' strike. Her blog is evidence that new media is such unknown uncharted territory, that often personal emotions tend to outweigh any rational thought. It seems very possible that the future of digital media may be decided in irrational, territorial infighting rather than sound economic business plans.

 

The media companies have always been reluctant to address new technologies. It has always been there position to let smaller companies experiment in the new space, and wait until ubiquity before entering and taking over the new market. This happened with television, home video, and will now happen with new media. After seeing the music industry collapse by losing control over the distribution of their music, the film and television companies have decided to enter the new media space. They are currently battling with everyone from YouTube to the talent guilds over the future business model of new media. Representative of the whole situation is the negotiations, strike and agreement between the American Motion Pictures and Television Producers and the Writers' Guild of America. This battle over residuals had the studios defending the position that new media is still untested and unprofitable. This is an exciting time. The future is up for grabs and whoever has the best business model will win.