Yahoo generates revenue from advertising while attempting to provide a rich content experience for users. In turn, television networks seek to provide incredible content while generating absurd amounts of revenue from advertiser placements alongside the shining content.

The problem is network ad revenues are declining. Advertisers are looking for new ways to reach consumers, and television is heading for a big change in ad formats. TNS Media Intelligence reports that ad spending across all categories will increase 2.6 percent. Targeted areas like cable are growing at 4.7 percent.

While television searches for its new identity, advertisers are shifting dollars online. TNS predicts that online ad spending will increase 13.4 percent over last year (not including search).

Lesson learned: targeted vehicles attract advertisers.

Why is cable growing? Because the Discovery Channel has now become Discovery Networks, and while audiences are smaller and segmented, advertisers can simultaneously target unique audiences with positioning on the network's niche properties like Discovery Kids and the Military Channel.

Lesson learned: smaller audiences don't equal smaller dollars.

The definition of targeted media vehicle has begun to change. Capturing the consumer mind offers equal opportunity for catastrophe and wealth. The biggest opportunity for portals like Yahoo is to capitalize on specialized interest offerings to targeted groups of people (a.k.a. the social generation). Catastrophe, however,  can be found in something else entirely.