Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Summer Camp

Whoo hoo! We're off for a 5 week summer camp at Sun Valley:
Spokesperson Eileen Vegg said the media are allowed informal access to the various moguls, but are not allowed to attend any presentation, lecture or meal.

Among those likely to make the trek, besides Murdoch (with son Lachlan) and Redstone, are Warren Buffett, eBay's Meg Whitman, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts co-founder Henry Kravis, Sirius' Mel Karmazin, Viacom's Philippe Dauman, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, Sony's Howard Stringer, Time Warner chairman Richard Parsons, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, Warner Music's Edgar Bronfman Jr., Universal's Ron Meyer, Disney's Robert Iger and Paramount's Brad Grey.

New media will be repped by such upstarts as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Ning founder and Facebook board member Marc Andreessen, Discovery's David Zaslav, Sling Media's Blake Krikorian and Google's Sergei Brin and Eric Schmidt.

A coterie of Hollywood agents also generally jets in.
The good news is that Rupert and Ted Turner will be able to bed down in the same bungalow this year:
Turner was speaking at a Rotary Club lunch, and said the rapprochement with (former arch enemy) Murdoch started with a letter congratulating the News Corp boss over his new attitude to conservation, buying carbon offsets and creating stronger environmental practices. That letter prompted a lunch invite from Rupert, and so a war of words that has stretched back some 15 years was healed.
"I'm and old fuddy-duddy now," Turner told the crowd. You got that right, you sell-out.

The big subject around the campfire this year is tipped to be online advertising space:
Even the top Internet companies — save maybe Google Inc. — are seeing revenue growth slowing as online audiences fragment. And they worry that, without steady access to high-quality content, they won't be able to attract enough viewers to keep growing fast.

At the same time, the barons of old-line newspapers and broadcast TV seem to have realized it's pointless to keep fighting the shift online, but they're still unsure how to embrace it.
Gosh, Rupert, where could we possibly find some high-quality content eh??? Hmmmnnn.... Err.... Ummmm......Is it lunchtime yet?
The closed-door meetings — schedules and even event names are closely guarded — typically break up in late morning.

That leaves the afternoons free for outdoor pursuits from horseback riding to mountain biking to golf.
Not to mention fucking each others' wives. Don't forget that bit. What would summer camp be without it?