Claims of Legacy Media’s Death Are Premature

The deaths in recent days of former Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons and Cablevision Systems founder Chuck Dolan seemed, in a way, symbolic of the slow death of the traditional television industry. Both Time Warner and Cablevision were, until a decade or so ago, major forces in cable TV and entertainment. Both now have been swallowed up by other entities, their value dissipated, a victim of video streaming. 

You might think, then, that Elon Musk made a good point on Monday when he said that “legacy media is becoming something we used to use.” Musk made the comment in reaction to a post from another X user, Mario Nawfal, who claimed this year had been a “record breaking flop” for legacy media. But it’s possible to misunderstand the shift underway. You could argue that people are getting their information and entertainment from the same sources as always, but via a different distribution medium.