Wired magazine is perhaps the most positive, life-affirming publication on the planet. If someone threw a rock at their window, someone there would write a cover story about how shards of glass will save humanity.

So it's a bit amazing to hear Wired editor Chris Anderson declare that "the age of the blockbuster is over."

Anderson pronounced his hypothesis while pimping his book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, at NATPE's 2007 Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas.

He says that media outlets have become so fragmented, no one can truly strike gold anymore. One glimmering exception: YouTube.

Per the Hollywood Reporter:

Anderson also noted the success of user-generated site YouTube, saying that Barry Diller was wrong when he said that "people with talent won't be displaced by 18 million people producing stuff they think will have appeal." In fact, Anderson said, videos on YouTube are generating "network-sized audiences for the kind of content that TV isn't making. ... There's going to be a battle between these two markets."

Unabashedly breathless enthusiasm for the questionably successful? That's the Anderson we know and love.