Perhaps the business outlook for most industries is bleak thanks to the global economic crisis, but there’s a strangeness to the media industry’s troubles, since it has to report on its own undoing. And there is plenty of undoing to report.

Today’s pain? Advertising Age says a “Shakeout” is in the offing among publications. And Mediaweek suggests both buyers and sellers of ads are cutting back, with some marketers “cutting print budgets as much as 50 percent.”

Moreover, there is only one more day of election ads.

Perhaps the solution lies in Police TV shows, which, according to the New York Times, has helped CBS attract viewers in the advertising sweet-spot: 18-49 year olds.

Apparently, what is good for CBS is a bad economy. CBS’s lineup of police procedurals, where the criminals always get caught, and sitcoms that are reliably funny in unchallenging ways, seems to be becoming a safe haven for viewers worried about jobs and mortgages.

Go figure.

Keep an Eye On:

• MySpace unveils a technology that it hopes will resolve copyright issues (WSJ)
• Even elections can’t help depressed ad spending (Ad Age)
• Media mogul John Malone’s Liberty Media to use its large cash reserves to reduce its debt load (Reuters)
• Viacom reports quarterly results, with an eye on Sumner Redstones debt woes (Forbes)

(Photo: Reuters)