Everything old is new again:

Three years after the 1990's Internet boom turned into an online debacle of failed acquisitions, plunging stocks and management turmoil for media companies, an old lesson must be re-learned, News Corp. President Peter Chernin said on Wednesday: "content is king."

It's been awhile since that cry has led the business charge for media companies. In the 1990s, industry watchers bet the Web and broadband access would quickly turn microwave ovens into online grocery stores and cell phones into movie screens.

Media companies responded by buying up Internet service providers, Web developers, software and wireless communications companies for premium prices, and "content is king," which means growth driven by hit movies, TV shows, records and books, was replaced by a virtual land-grab for technology.

New York-based News Corp. , which through its Fox Entertainment Group Inc. unit owns the Fox broadcast and cable TV networks and 20th Century Fox movie studio, participated in the trend, although to a lesser extent than rivals like AOL Time Warner Inc. , the Walt Disney Co. and Vivendi Universal .

"What the hell were we thinking?" Chernin asked in a speech to civic organization Town Hall Los Angeles. "Where did (we) get our grandiose ideas the media business was on the way to complete and utter re-invention?"

Chernin said media companies must now re-learn the old lesson that consumers want them to create fresh and exciting entertainment, not a gadget for delivering entertainment....