Secret meeting in Sun Valley, ID: Media moguls puzzle over economy
July 12, 2009 in City
Media moguls puzzle over economy
Business mood is down at annual conference
Short version:
SUN VALLEY, Idaho – Security is tight at investment bank Allen & Co.’s annual conference.
Held at the tony Sun Valley Resort nestled in the northern Rocky Mountains, the fairly secretive gathering of media kingpins, technology geniuses, billionaire investors, politicians and even the occasional star athlete is also filled with moonlighting detectives and retired police officers watching everyone and everything like a hawk.
What exactly are they guarding? The businesses of most in attendance here have already walked out the door, and no one seems to have a clue where they went. With the world’s economy mired in the recession, their advertising-dependent companies pummeled by consumers who have gone into hiding, and the Internet undermining the model that has made them all wealthy, the moguls who met under the glorious Idaho skies were a decidedly downbeat lot.
“I’m shocked at the business mood, which is talking about either that we’re at the bottom or going lower,” News Corp. Chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch said.
“It’s going to take years and years, like five years at least, before we see any real growth coming out of this,” Murdoch said.
Every summer for the past 27 years, Allen & Co.’s conference in Sun Valley has served as a sort of Davos for the media, entertainment and, increasingly, technology elite. The corporate chieftains, whose private jets crowd the tarmac at Friedman Memorial Airport in Ketchum, are not accustomed to defeat or negativity.
Many here agree that one of the keys to a turnaround is getting people to cough up some cash for the content they watch online for free. “People will get addicted and be willing to pay for it,” said Malone.
But Malone declined to say how, or when, that would come about. It was the same with Murdoch, who told his Fox Business Network that he has “a lot of plans I’m not ready to disclose yet” about how to get people to pay to read newspapers online.
Full:
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/jul/12/media-moguls-pu...
