Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Media and Tech Confer in Sun Valley (Wall Street Journal)

Look for the media insiders to discuss what Comcast Corp. will do with NBC Universal and its chief executive, Jeff Zucker, if regulators bless its bid to control the company. (The deal was negotiated in part at the conference last year. Mr. Zucker, a regular attendee, is expected to be there this week.) The fate of ABC is also likely to be a topic of conversation. Disney denied rumors that it has considered selling ABC, but chatter persists. With more moguls putting their content behind a paywall, expect talk about the wisdom of a subscription model for newspapers and TV shows and the iPad.

The techies and their deal-makers are likely to be brainstorming more potential combinations and content-swapping deals between AOL Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., as all three plot ways to compete with ever-expanding Google. The escalating war between Google and Apple Inc. is another likely topic of conversation. Guests shouldn't expect an onsite showdown. While some Googlers are expected to attend, Apple CEO Steve Jobs isn't.
While I'm sure it would be great to attend this conference, I wonder about the wisdom of having basically the same group of highly elite media leaders year after year. If there's one thing many of us know, it's that the people at the top aren't exactly in touch with the real world. Discussing only amongst themselves just perpetuates that problem.
Read the full article here.

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