Media Reporters Become 'Bizerazzi' Thanks to Twitter
Journalists covering this year's Allen & Co. media confab in Sun Valley saw Twitter as a valuable reporting tool. However, the media moguls in attendance dismissed the microblogging site's prospects as a business.

By Patrick Phillips
I Want Media, 7/20/09

Investment bank Allen & Co.'s 27th annual Sun Valley, Idaho "summer camp" for media titans, held at the start of July, attracted its usual crowd of industry bigwigs (Rupert Murdoch, Barry Diller, Bob Iger), tech innovators (Eric Schmidt, Mark Zuckerberg, Evan Williams), and even a basketball star (LeBron James).

One aspect that wasn't so usual was the emergence of Twitter -- both as a hot topic among attendees and as a compelling new service used by many of the media journalists who reported from the conference. Their #sunvalley Twitter stream served up breaking news, as well as offbeat and sometimes insightful observations.

Meanwhile, Ken Auletta of The New Yorker moderated a panel of media bosses on how to capitalize on digital media, where Twitter's potential as a moneymaker was widely questioned.

Several journalists who covered the summit had observations extending beyond Twitter's 140-character limit to share with I Want Media.

What was the big issue at this year's Sun Valley?

Julia Angwin, Wall Street Journal: Internet business models dominated a lot of the conversations.

Ken Auletta, The New Yorker: To borrow a phrase, "It's the economy, stupid!"

Julia Boorstin, CNBC: The economy was, of course, topic number one. In terms of the issues that apply specifically to the media and tech giants, it's the changing business model. In this new Web-based digital world, how will content be monetized?

Joe Flint, Los Angeles Times: The economy was the big issue. The outlook for a recovery is bleaker than expected. In second place was finding ways to get people to pay for content online.

Kenneth Li, Financial Times: The big issue was how traditional media companies are still struggling to figure a way to profit from digital. This year the debate over paid-versus-free content colored discussions. The issue was framed by Time Warner's "TV Everywhere" on the paid side and the Hulu model on the free side.

Robert MacMillan, Reuters: On a wider level, [the issue was] how the old guys are going to make money online without destroying what they've spent decades building. They might have dismissed the newspapers' problems as someone else's. Not anymore.

What was the general mood of the media chieftains in attendance? Confident? Scared?

Julia Angwin: Rupert Murdoch said it best when he told Fox Business News that the mood was "bearish" at Sun Valley.

Julia Boorstin: I heard the term "somber" quite a lot. Not panicked, not upbeat, just cautious and somber.

Joe Flint: It's hard to gauge mood when so few talk to the press. Confident would not be the right word. And these folks are too rich to be scared. Downbeat? Does that work? Maybe nervous.

Kenneth Li: I noticed a distinct lack of confidence among most of the moguls, with Rupert Murdoch being the most bearish. His comments on no turnaround for another five years made headlines everywhere.

It's interesting to note that the biggest story in media probably happened on Google's blog a day before Google executives showed up. The announcement of Chrome OS, if they pull it off, could dramatically increase usage of Google products, which they ultimately hope will translate into higher search volume, cementing their dominance in online advertising.

Robert MacMillan: I don't think these people get scared. I think they get ... concerned. I'd say they were concerned because they know that they have more problems facing them than the recession and advertising cutbacks that come as a result of it.

Who was the "star" at Sun Valley this year?

Julia Angwin: Going into the conference, I thought that Evan Williams of Twitter would be the star. In past years, Internet executives such as Chad Hurley of YouTube have had their breakout moments at Sun Valley. But this year, the mood about Twitter (and about everything) was bearish.

Ken Auletta: Queen Rania of Jordan. Why? Only a near-sighted person would ask.

Julia Boorstin: LeBron James was clearly the biggest "star," but in terms of the CEOs I'd have to say it was Evan Williams of Twitter. It seemed like all the CEOs were talking about the service. Even if they didn't think it would be a wise investment, they were still talking about it.

Joe Flint: Evan Williams of Twitter, at least as far as we were concerned. Everyone was talking about Twitter and using it from the conference. Of course, many of us spent most of our time trying to corner Rupert Murdoch. He was pretty elusive actually. LeBron James was the other star. It was amusing watching him tower over everyone.

Robert MacMillan: Perhaps Richard Rosenblatt of Demand Media. I promised I'd refer to him as a darling, and perhaps even more, chiefly because the Financial Times beat me to it. Rosenblatt isn't jailbait, but he's a dealmaker in media. He knows a lot of people and I think he knows how to sell a good company and a good dream and nobody feels bad about it afterward.

What was the hottest gossip at Sun Valley?

Julia Angwin: Well, we reporters were pretty bummed about getting shut out of the bar for the first time ever. I think the local paper did a nice job of capturing the difficulties faced by the press:

Julia Boorstin: The journalists at Sun Valley always gossip about who's seen rubbing elbows. Eric Schmidt and Bill Gates! Jeff Bezos and Evan Williams! John Malone and Jeffrey Katzenberg! If only we could overhear the discussion.

Joe Flint: How many sneakers could [CBS interactive head] Quincy Smith wear in one day. Oh, and who would buy Twitter.

Robert MacMillan: One thing that I heard a few times was: This Twitter thing is amazing, but damn, it can't make any money. And CEO Evan Williams? He's kind of weird. Why doesn't he stick up for himself when we piss all over his business model?

Any big surprises this year?

Julia Angwin: I was surprised how bearish the mood was. As a technology reporter, I'm still quite excited about the developments in the industry I most closely cover. I was surprised at how negative the sentiments were about technology from some of the traditional media executives.

Joe Flint: No Sumner Redstone. And why no Ari Emanuel? And that Allen & Co. closed the bar to reporters. Not cool.

Kenneth Li: We were banned from the bar and nobody owned up as to why.

Robert MacMillan: Rupert Murdoch spoke to me and allowed me (along with Ken Li at the FT) to break some news off him. That is a huge improvement from when his bodyguards put me in a vertical half-nelson and marched me into a huge glass window at the old Dow Jones office. But that's personal.

Several journalists posted Twitter updates from Sun Valley. Was Twitter helpful -- or distracting -- in your coverage?

Julia Boorstin: Twitter is perfectly designed to cover events like Sun Valley. It allowed me to send out fun little tidbits, or striking CEO quotes, that didn't merit a full blog. And it let me get the info out to my readers ASAP, without having to wait for a blog to be posted.

Joe Flint: Twitter was great. It was an outlet for material that we would otherwise never use. It generated a lot of attention for the conference and our coverage. Basically, there were three standards at the conference: something was story-worthy, blog-worthy or Twitter-worthy.

Kenneth Li: The irony of Twitter at Sun Valley was that despite all the negative talk about Twitter's business prospects, a group of key reporters relied on it to get the news out as quickly as possible. The business press became the bizerazzi at Sun Valley. I blame Twitter.

Robert MacMillan: Funny you should ask. I've not been a big fan of Twitter in my own work, but I must say it was wonderful at Sun Valley. There is so much color and other ephemeral moments that don't matter for posterity, but sure do matter if you want to present a more complete picture. I tweeted like a rutting bird, and others did, too.

Any favorite Sun Valley tweets?

Julia Angwin: It's gotta be when NBC exec Ron Meyer mistakenly took BET founder Bob Johnson's car.

Julia Boorstin: I ran into LeBron James soon after he arrived in Sun Valley. He offered to play a pickup game with any of the CEOs there. What better way to put the offer out there?

Joe Flint: My favorite two were LeBron on being the main attraction of the conference ("I'm the small guy," he said) and asking Murdoch if he wanted to buy the LA Times ("too difficult").

Robert MacMillan: Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said something to another guest -- right in front of me and a competitor -- that I wished I could tweet. But I didn't want to get every reporter banned from coming to next year's show.

Why didn't you tweet from Sun Valley?

Ken Auletta: I can barely write a sentence in 140 characters.

Media top dogs including Rupert Murdoch and Barry Diller dismissed Twitter's business prospects. What's your opinion: Does Twitter have a future?

Julia Angwin: Twitter has a very bright future. LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman said it best: "It's easy to make Twitter a business. The question is whether it's a moderate or huge business."

Julia Boorstin: Twitter is certainly compelling and addictive. There seem to be a number of potential revenue models, most obviously advertising. But, especially at this point in the company's life cycle, I'm not surprised that the media giants aren't interested.

Kenneth Li: There is little doubt that Twitter has transformed the Web and has positioned real time search as the foundation of the next phase of the Internet. The jury is out on whether it is a standalone business or a great feature for some other bigger business like Google. Google CEO Eric Schmidt told reporters that they've been talking.

Robert MacMillan: Who cares? It's only money.

PREVIOUS MEDIA INTERVIEWS