Sun Valley Mogulfest – Does Twitter Get Any Love?

Just like the swallows return to Capistrano every year, the world’s top media moguls come to Sun Valley. And while there might be less bird poop  at the Allen and Co. Media Mogul Conference, there is as much ruffling of feathers (zing!)

Early headlines from the event have focused on the rise of social media (have you heard of Twitter?) as well as paid content. In other words, if you can’t make money off of Twitter or Facebook, how much should one pay for it?

The bears were out in full force, according to Kenneth Li reporting in the Financial Times:

Mr. Murdoch, speaking on the sidelines of the Allen & Co-hosted conference, said he was not interested in buying Twitter, an online service that lets users broadcast short messages that has taken over the web by storm.

“Be careful investing here,” Mr Murdoch warned.

John Malone, chairman of Liberty Media, shared Mr Murdoch’s skepticism. “I don’t know if it’s monetizable,” Mr Malone said of Twitter. He added that someday, users might pay a nominal fee for social media.

Regardless of the real versus potential value of Twitter, we know what everyone’s really concerned with: where everyone ranks on the Power Grid:

Its been reported that the Power Grid’s top three Media Moguls are all in attendance (or at least have plans to be there.) Coming in at number one is News Corp.’s owner Rupert Murdoch, second is Michael Bloomberg (who also runs New York City), and third is Viacom boss Sumner Redstone. That’s a lot of raw power right there.

Rounding out the attendees from our top ten is Facebook magnate Mark Zuckerberg at number eight. And number ten is IAC strongman Barry Diller (though we refer to him around the office as Mr. von Furstenburg.) One wonders how much teasing poor Mel Karmazin has recieved for only placing 19th on the Power Grid Rankings.

TV Titans were also in the house: Disney’s Robert Iger come in at number three, while Time Warner’s Jeff Bewkes is number five. Viacom’s Philippe Dauman is the 19th most powerful TV Titan, which makes us curious if he has to sit in the back row.

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