As this year began, it seemed a new spirit of co-operation was in the air between old and new media.

Leslie Moonves, chief executive of CBS, the grey flannel of the traditional broadcasting world, summed up the mood of the time. “There’s no such thing as old or new media any more,” he proclaimed, making a public overture to Chad Hurley, the co-founder of YouTube who has become the face of the second internet revolution. “There is just media.”