During the last Hollywood strike, which lasted something like 20 weeks (incidentally, around 20 years ago), new methods of programming evolved to deal with the fact that … well, there weren’t any writers.  More reality based programming, for example, like COPS and America’s Most Wanted, as well as America’s Home Videos debuted, which have stuck around in some form or another since that time.

One wonders what will come out of *this* strike if it gets prolonged.  In a delicious bit of irony, for example, one wonders now that the media landscape has fractured into both online and off line means, whether or not there will be other online alternatives that will necessarily evolve to meet the demand for entertainment.

Specifically “late night” entertainment as the late night talk shows have been the first casualties of this strike.

The Wall Street Journal reports that this may in fact be happening.  23/7 — found at 237.com — is a site which satirizes and parodies the news stories of the day with a decided political slant, which coincidentally was recently launched in the wake of the writers strike.  Something like the Daily Show, actually.

Mat Ingram reports that its difficult to be funny, which, I think is his own polite way of saying that its a bit _un_funny.  Irrespective of what your opinions of humour might be — and if 237.com is humourous — I think that sites like 237.com are probably going to start popping up with increasing regularity as the strike continues.

That is, if the strike continues, you can bet that there will be more and more online alternatives, even alternative in ways that aren’t even similar to television and movie projects that will be missing, that will be produced.

And I don’t think that this is *just* because enterprising and entrepreneurial individuals will recognize this “gap” and try and fill it (although its smart), but because like a gas, the demand for entertainment will change and fill any available containers that pop up to fill it.

On one hand, I’m quite for the Hollywood Strike as it makes a lot of sense to want to compensate people who are the creative forces behind much of the entertainment I enjoy.

On the other hand, its an exciting time as a new media watcher because as the Hollywood Strike *lengthens*, so too will the growth of alternative and online entertainment to match the unmet need.

And I don’t think that the irony should be lost on anyone that the reason why the strike is on in the first place is to compensate for new media distribution — which is now growing *because* of the strike.

It seems like over the past few days, the entire technosphere has gotten them worked up into a righteous frothy debate over the OpenSocial API, wringing their hands with what it will mean to Facebook, Google, and all parts in between — ignoring, perhaps, one of the larger, and certainly much more meaningful to the average Facebook-ian (and indeed, average non-techie person), tech stories that is directly related to new media.

Yes, I am referring to the impending strike by The Writers Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America that will likely happen in a short 48 hours.

What? Who cares?

Well, anyone who watches late night television for one (anyone?), including techie favourites The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, but also late night perennials such as David Letterman and Jay Leno.

These shows are going to go into re-runs with the strike, as they require fresh material daily, and require the heavy lifting to be done by said writers who are part of said union.

So wait — what does this have to do with Facebook?

Nothing.

But what it *does* have to do with things is how people who write for hollywood get paid for their work as it gets distributed through different distribution — “new media” — networks, including and not limited to things like iTunes, but also other nascent ventures, such as, for example Hulu; also, that practically obsolescent form of digital media, the DVD.

While I also scoffed at the notion at first — running a snide “zero divided by anything is still zero, chumps” through my mind — I did do a little bit of researching and through an article at the International Herald Tribune, there are a few facts that are worth considering, in particular ” Consumers are expected to spend $16.4 billion (€11.3 billion) on DVDs this year, according to Adams Media Research … By contrast, studios could generate about $158 million (€109 million) from selling movies online and about $194 million (€134 million) from selling TV shows over the Web.”

Now, I don’t think that anyone *really* knows the nuts and bolts of how “new media” distribution dollars are going to work out; and I think any new media watcher has seen exactly how long its taken for the larger media companies to get their online acts together (comically so, I might add).

But the various writers unions have a point: the online pie, as fetal, experimental, and primordial as it is now, is *not* worth zero dollars, and in fact, will likely grow to rival physical digital mediums at some point in the future.

And I’ll take their side on this one — its a fight worth fighting for now, because as slow as many things have gone in the recent past, no one really knows how fast things will change in the future. And if they sit on their hands until the next set of negotiations — which will likely be years from now — its possible that the online market will have exploded, while these writers are still paid according to 20th century standards.

While we’re all still enthralled by the latest Facebook / Google standoff, there’s one new media story right under our noses that will affect many non-techies — and will surely be noticed by the media — in the upcoming days. I wonder how many tech bloggers will actually take notice then.