Mogul stalking is the way of the “Bizzerazzi” - journos covering the prestigious Allen & Co.  Sun Valley Media Summit. Below, a roll call on current attendees and missed attendees. The general lesson: difficult year to run a media co, potential need for further consolidation (a la Weinstein Co and potential Liberty Media investment) and spin-outs (a la Time Warner/AOL), Twitter-”It”-is yet need for paid online subscriptions for content, and much less access for journalists.

Who’s Who 2009 @ Sun Valley - Name (Company):

Lebron James (Cavaliers’ small forward), Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Sergey Brin, Larry Page + Eric Schmidt (Google), Rupert + James and Lachlan Murdoch (News Corp.), Bob Iger (Disney), Sir Howard Stringer (Sony), Jeffrey Immelt (GE), Leslie Moonves + Quincy Smith (CBS), Owen Van Natta (MySpace), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Chase Carey (Fox), John Malone + Greg Maffei (Liberty), Rob Wiesenthal (Sony), Evan Williams (Twitter, “Sun Valley It-Boy”), Tom Freston (Firefly3; advising OWN/Oprah net), Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), Rich Rosenblatt (Demand Media), Peter Chernin (former News Corp.), Steve Burke (Comcast), Brad Grey (Paramount), Jean-Bernard Levy (Vivendi), Bobby Kotick (Activision), Hank Vigil (Microsoft), Barry Diller (IAC), Marc Andreessen + Gina Bianchini (Ning, Andreessen Horowitz $300M fund).  More after the jump…

Meg Whitman (former eBay, CA GOP gubernatorial cand), Phillipe Dauman (Viacom), Michael Ovitz (former Disney/CAA), Ron Meyer (Universal), Robert Johnson (BET), Blake Krikorian (former Sling Media), Ted Leonsis (former AOL), Jeff Bezos (Amazon),  Gordy Crawford (Capital), Jim Wiatt (former WMA), Harvey Weinstein (Weinstein Group, former Miramax), Jeff Bewkes (Time Warner), Jimmy Dolan (Cablevision), David Zaslav (Discovery), Ken Chenault (Amex), Aviv “Vivi” Nero (NV Investments, one of biggest individual stockholders in Time Warner, helped Weinsteins exit Disney deal; definite “New Medici”), Wilbur Ross (investor), Erin Burnett (CNBC/journo), Tom Friedman (NYT/journo), Casey Wasserman (Wasserman Group), Bill Bradley (former NJ Senator), Mel Karmazin (Sirius XM, former CBS), Don Graham (WaPo), James Robertson (RRE Ventures), Haim Saban (Saban), Tom Staggs (Disney), Sir Martin Sorrell (WPP), Muhtar Kent (Coca Cola), Jon Miller (News Corp), Tim Armstrong (AOL), Alvaro Uribe (Colombian President), Tom Brokaw (former NBC/journo), Alex von Furstenberg (Arrow Capital Mgmt), Sumner Redstone (Viacom), General Petraeus (Army), Michael Lynton (Sony), John Scully (Scully Brothers private investment firm), Michael Eisner (former Disney), David DeVoe (News Corp), John Donohoe (eBay), Jeff Zucker (NBC), Cathie Black (Hearst), George Tenet (former CIA Director/Allen staffer), Richard Lovett + Bryan Lourd (CAA), Jeff Berg + Chris Silbermann (ICM), Jim Berkus (UTA),  Mario Gabelli (GAMCO Investors, with relevant quote via DHD: “Today there are seven or eight motion-picture studios. A round of consolidation will occur in the next six to 12 months because of the costs of financing, prints and advertising, the benefits of globalization and such.”), Michael Dell (Dell), Scott Bommer (SAB Capital), Corey Booker (Newark Mayor), Roger Goodell (NFL), [more...]

Who’s Missing:

Edgar Bronfman Jr. (Warner Music), Sir Richard Branson (Virgin), David Geffen+ Jeffrey Katzenberg (Dreamworks SKG), Elisabeth Murdoch (Shine Group/Reveille), Ben Silverman (NBC Universal), Steve Jobs + any iSenior Mgmt (Apple), John Chambers (Cisco), Paul Otellini (Intel), Ari Emanuel + Patrick Whitesell (WME Ent), Steve Case (Revolution, former AOL), Michael Bloomberg (Bloomberg, NYC mayor), John Riccitiello (EA), Jack Welch (former GE), Randall Stephenson (AT&T), Ivan Seidenberg (Verizon), Gary Forsee (Sprint), any venture capitalists (…).

Some quotables:

Per Joe Flint/LAT:

One question: 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 made many of them wealthy, the moguls who met under the glorious Idaho skies were a decidedly downbeat lot.

This speaks to the transition time affecting the media industry at-large. Lower DVD revenues drive down above-the-line talent fees, forcing most studios into wider event theatrical releases, which squeeze the independents further and make each film that much more a risk.

In my view, the ability to micro-distribute films with a turnkey digital distribution becomes more and more a necessity, creating micro-libraries of value to alternatively distribute using traditional and digital means.

In short, the media industry has to realize that their margins require tightening in production, marketing and especially distribution to remain afloat — even with the large tentpole guarantees, like Pirates of the Caribbean, Tranformers, etc.

When Sony Corp. Chief Executive Howard Stringer was asked about Twitter and other social networking sites, he quipped, “a lot of people are doing very well at making very little money. It’s not a club I’m looking to join.” Unfortunately, he’s already a club member. Battered by slumping electronic sales, Sony profit fell 43% for the 2008 fiscal year and the company has projected another loss for 2009. Other old media companies are also struggling. Profit at Murdoch’s News Corp.’s was off by 70% in the three-month period ended March 31. During roughly that same period, Walt Disney Co.’s profit sank 46%, Viacom Inc.’s dropped 34% and Time Warner Inc.’s fell 14%.

More:

Malone, who sits on the board of cable programming giant Discovery Communications, thinks eventually people are going to have to adjust to coughing up some cash for online content. “People will get addicted and be willing to pay for it,” Malone said.

Per Julia Angwin/WSJ via Twitter:

LeBron James appears - wearing shades indoors and posing for pix with fans. “I ain’t nobody,” he says. “I’m a small guy.”

Michael Ovitz predicts one more agency consolidation.

More:

Unlike the music industry, he said, which was blindsided by Napster, Mr. Krikorian said the television industry has been pirating its own shows by placing them on the Internet for free. “Now they are going to try to put the genie back in the bottle,” Mr. Krikorian said, ostensibly referring to efforts such as Time Warner’s “TV Everywhere” initiative.

Per Nikki Finke/DeadlineHollywoodDaily sources - the 2008 Allen & Co. agenda:

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
- Presentation by Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos
- “Gazing Into The Future” panel moderated by The New Yorker’s Ken Auletta featuring IAC’s Barry Diller, Google’s Larry Page and ING’s Mark Andresen

Thursday, July 10th
- “Education Crisis” panel featuring Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education Joel Klein
- “Global Perspectives” analysis featuring Allen & Co’s Don Keough
- Joint presentation by DreamWorks Animation’s Jeffrey Katzenberg and Intel’s Paul Otellini

Friday, July 11th
- “The New Breed” panel including Bill Me Later’s Gary Marino, Slide Inc’s Max Levchin and WeatherBill’s David Freidberg
- “Where We Are, Where We Should Be” panel featuring New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former U.S. Senator and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn
- Presentation by His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan

Saturday, July 12th
- Presentation by Microsoft’s Bill Gates
- Presentation by Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett

* Great vintage Finke post from NY Mag on the Allen & Co invitation listings.

Sun Valley Twitterers followed:

Joe Flint (LAT)

Kenneth Li (FT)

Julia Angwin (WSJ)

Jane Boorstein (CNBC)

Mediafile (Reuters)

And last, a recent snapshot of Fortune CEOs willing to use social media, which many do not view as valuable today: