Two decades in media technology taught me something uncomfortable: most media companies aren’t failing because of external forces. They’re accelerating their own demise through what I call the Seven Deadly Sins of Media.
Sin #1: Monopoly Complacency
Legacy media operated as protected monopolies for decades. Local newspapers, national networks, regional broadcasters—all assumed their audiences and cash flows were guaranteed forever. This comfort zone became a talent drain. The best creative minds and technical innovators left for industries that actually rewarded reinvention.
The best creative minds left for industries that actually rewarded reinvention.
Sin #2: Leadership Without a Reinvention Mandate
I’ve watched executive teams focus entirely on preserving existing models while asking product and technology teams to “optimize the current machine.” The mandate is always incremental improvement, never fundamental redesign. When your leadership’s primary job is protecting yesterday’s business model, transformation becomes impossible.
Sin #3: Frozen Structures, Hostile Culture
Job definitions, labor agreements, and HR policies are locked into workflows designed for print and broadcast. But the real killer? The mutual distrust between line staff and executives that blocks any meaningful collaboration. You can’t transform when your organization operates like warring tribes.
You can’t transform when your organization operates like warring tribes.
Sin #4: The Leadership Carousel
A small set of leaders rotate across similar institutions, bringing identical assumptions and playbooks. Meanwhile, organizations speak in high-level mission terms while day-to-day work remains low-leverage production tasks. This makes it nearly impossible to attract transformative talent.
Sin #5: Zombie Innovation Spend
Media companies invest heavily in technology that chases visible trends—CMS rewrites, app relaunches, format pivots. But these projects rarely start from understanding how audiences actually consume content on TikTok, YouTube, or through LLM-based experiences. It’s innovation theater, not real innovation.
It’s innovation theater, not real innovation.
Sin #6: Product Timidity
Roadmaps focus on incremental improvements to articles and homepages rather than formats native to feeds and streams. Teams imitate the surface of modern products without adopting feed logic or creator-centric storytelling. They’re building yesterday’s internet.
Sin #7: Commercial Surrender
Perhaps the most devastating: search and social platforms captured targeting, data, measurement, and pricing power in digital advertising. Programmatic systems treat premium journalism as interchangeable inventory. Publishers bear the cost of content creation but capture a shrinking share of the value they create.
Publishers bear the cost of content creation but capture a shrinking share of the value they create.
The pattern is clear. These aren’t external disruptions—they’re self-inflicted wounds. The media companies that survive will be the ones willing to commit the sin of pride: believing they can actually change.