Why Is This A Surprise?

This is conniption-worthy. How can the CEO of the second-largest marketing company claim that there are major changes taking place in media due to emerging media like the Internet, "and we don't understand the speed and scale at which they're taking place."?

It's not like all of this happened overnight. Sir Martin, you've had a dozen years' worth of warning shots. How can you claim to not have a clue what to expect?

You've certainly known for years that new media was eroding television, print and radio consumption. (Incidentally, television didn't need the Internet to continue its yearly ritual of charging more for less. The Internet just accelerated that trend.)

You might have sighed with relief when the Internet bubble burst, but we all knew (and warned the world) that the medium wasn't going away. And it didn't. And you've had a few years since the bubble to reflect on this.

So quit pretending this snuck up on you overnight.