The old media stalwarts still believe they can control what their viewers see and do. They still believe they can control the flow of content. They are still afraid of new marketing. And, in the same breath, they are still dismissive of it.

They just don't get it.

We recently pitched a campaign to a television network….a campaign that involved a series of 30-second spots, along with user-generated content via YouTube, and a weekly competition and give-away in conjunction with the news broadcast.

The word was that corporate would be leery of losing traffic to YouTube. This fear outweighed the very real possibility that they would generate volumes of traffic to their site from YouTube from a demographic they wouldn't normally attract.

Of course, the same thing happened to the newspaper and print industry a few years ago. Classified job listings used to make up about 40% of newspaper revenues nationwide. That is, until Monster.com came along. Newspaper revenues have never recovered, and likely never will. More recently, they're taking another beating from Craigslist.com. As newspapers struggle to compete with Monster and online classifieds, they're getting hit yet again as ad revenues continue to spiral downward.

Their mistake? Not beating Monster to the punch. Oh well…

The same thing happens to television, only in this case, it's started from within. YouTube is only the latest assault on the industry, preceded by fragmentation into cable, satellite, and broadcast.

The response is typical…"let's build a website and sell ads so we can take advantage of the new media and retain some of our profits before they go elsewhere."

Not good enough…that is simply applying old logic to new trends, and it won't work in the long term.

The question that local networks should be asking is NOT: how can we take advantage of new media?

Instead, the question they should be asking is: how can we adjust our business model to produce media that caters to the new market?

It's a vital distinction, and one that ad guru Seth Godin discusses at length in his book "Meatball Sundaes." Once you get beyond the old thought paradigm, it's so clear to see.

Why don't they get it?