How often are we reading or watching or linking to information that says that there is turmoil in the traditional media world? For example, the New York Times has a Billionaire investor, the Boston Globe was going to go out of Business, or Rupert Murdoch is going to do a deal with Bing and Microsoft and give Google a run for their money! Ha! I think Google is the one with the last laugh. The can of worms is out and they are all over the place.

It is kind of like the War in Iraq and the War in Afghanistan. They are both huge diversions. Meanwhile the dog at home not only has a “bad case of fleas” the dog has also been hit by a “car.” (This dog don’t hunt any more). For America, the fleas are the 2 wars and the Bailouts. The car for America is whole economy, the devaluation of the dollar and hyper inflation. The fleas for the publishers are the ad networks and the bloggers. The car is Google.

Internet and alternative media and bloggers are game changers. Why? Look at it this way. IF before 1995 we had a couple of thousand radio stations and TV stations and a few thousand news papers we had a finite amount of “media.” Every so often there would be a few new newspapers or publishers offering a new slant on a traditional idea. Now here are some 50 Million + new blogs out there according to Cyberjournalist.net. While this number is large, not all of these blogs are actively being worked on. But the point here is there are now MILLIONS of new channels, MILLIONS of new publishers, MILLIONS of new journalists. Targeted advertising inventory has exponentially increased.

Meanwhile our dog back in his house on 6th Avenue in New York is scratching like crazy, chasing his tail, he is so busy he doesn’t know where his next bone is coming from, he has too many fleas to worry about all of his favorite couches and chairs have been infested with fleas….he can’t even lick his own walls any more.

In all seriousness, content and advertising are blurring. Even the FTC wants a piece of this and is asking the bloggers to declare if they have been paid or not. So do the publishers and media companies go with a more advertorial type business model like the bloggers or do they dig a trench and charge for the crossing of their bridge hoping that their content will be of higher value than the content providers outside the moat? Yup, we and they are at a big fork in the road….and the stakes are mighty high. Meanwhile look out for that car, because that car is gaining a lot of speed and there ain’t no slowing it down.

To share an example of this I have a project of my own that I want to embark on. For the past year plus I have been working in the behavioral health care field, “Drug Rehab” for short. I’ve met a lot of “treatment centers” over this past year and I feel it is now time for me to hit the road in 2010 and actually visit their facilities…..think long road trip…..really long road trip. Many of these centers are in some of the most beautiful places in North America. There are 11,000+ of them and they are growing by numbers all the time. Even better are the people, they are a lot of fun to hang around, many are recovering from one substance or another.

So like the dog with fleas, the time has come to scratch an itch. The 2010 America in Rehab Tour is being announced here. This is an opportunity for a 2 month long car commercial. A 2 month long daily wireless provider ad. (Does it get any better?) A daily camera show. Or a daily restaurant rating. Taking the ability to write, film, post, click and share not only do we have a fantastic model to entertain on we also have a fantastic model to advertise on. (But there is a catch). What if the shit breaks? What if it doesn’t go as planned? What if there is an accident? What if there is a bad experience? What if the driver is pulled over by the cops for texting? What if? What if? We have to stop living that way. What if….this is a huge success? Like reality shows? What if rock bands decide to copy this? I’m sort of copying John Madden in his Madden Cruiser.

Having an informing ride together back to Westport, CT from the NYC AdTech Show with Jonathan Yarmis he said and I quote, “advertising as we know it is dead.” So instead of dying with it I figured I be part of the disruption and see where it leads…..and it leads to open road.