Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes: Era of Media Moguls Is Over

NEW YORK - The era of media moguls is over, Time Warner chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes said here Wednesday.

Nowadays, big companies are the stars, and firms from the traditional and new media worlds act on the same stage, he said on the opening day of the 2010 International Council Meeting at The Paley Center for Media in a session that was webcast.
In the old media business world, people spoke of moguls who were often self-promoting guys and undisciplined when it came to deals and the like. "We're not moguls anymore," Bewkes said later. "We're reasonable people" who try to make the right decisions.

Asked about Netflix, which has given industry players headaches as they try to figure out whether it is friend or foe, Bewkes lauded the convenience and "great interface" of its online streaming service.

“We don’t worry about antagonizing Netflix,” he said. “But what you don’t want to do is undervalue the content”

Bewkes also showed no concern about other big tech players, such as Steve Jobs' Apple. If they tried to interfere with content companies' subscriptions, "it wouldn’t be good,” Bewkes warned. “But it’s not going to happen." After all, a tech company that doesn't support the company's popular content only "will degrade the value of their product.”

Asked about his personal media consumption, Bewkes said he reads the major newspapers - whether in paper or tablet form. And he likes to watch all news channels to see how they each cover key news items. Plus, "I watch a little Family Guy" because of his 13 year-old son, and the show is "pretty funny," although he wonders whether a 13-year old should watch that kind of show, Bewkes shared.

The TW CEO also once again signalled that the first half of 2011 will bring the launch of premium VOD films at price points of$20-plus. Asked whether a $50 price could make sense, he said that "seems high."

Discussing CNN, Bewkes said the main challenges is that "we have to do a better job at programming the news" and making it more accessible, understandable and interesting. He reiterated a point his team has often made that CNN attracts more viewers, but ratings overall are lower that those of Fox News, because busy people get news and leave quickly. "Or we bore the hell out of them," he quipped. "We are trying to fix that."

Yuri Milner: New-Style Oligarch?

He sees himself as a 'servant' of the digital marketplace


Digital Sky Technologies CEO Yuri Milner is a big investor in the hottest Internet companies of the day, but the Russian businessman isn't keen on the idea he's an "oligarch."

Instead, Milner prefers to think of himself in the services business, bringing his knowledge of East and West to his investments in Facebook, Zynga and Groupon.

"I'm a servant," he said in a wide-ranging interview with AdweekMedia editorial director Michael Wolff at the Monaco Media Forum today. "I'm trying to align our interests with them."

DST became the talk of Silicon Valley when it invested $200 million in Facebook in May.

Since then, it has led a $180 million round for Zynga and $135 million financing for Groupon.

It is reportedly interested in a big new round of funding for Twitter.

DST's Russian business, Mail.ru, went public on the London Stock Exchange this week.

The positive reception for the collection of e-mailing, social networking and gaming properties can be seen as a barometer to the reception Facebook would get if it decides to go public.

"There is a significant momentum behind the social Internet, a wide range of public investors were very enthusiastic about that," he said.

Milner, a theoretical physicist by training, believes large-scale connectivity is giving rise to the "era of mathematicians," in which algorithms can tap into huge pools of social data to inform people of everything from new friends to new products. Every 12-18 months, people double the amount of information they share, further improving the ability of a social platform like Facebook to deploy artificial intelligence, he said.

"There's a huge demand for that sort of intelligence just because of this unprecedented sharing," Milner said.

Milner was mum on a possible Facebook IPO, saying the company's executives will decide when and if that's a right move. He anticipates Facebook will further diversify its business model to complement its advertising business with more direct payments from users, which is more popular with Chinese social networks.

"I'm trying to learn from various corners of the world," Milner said. He noted a Chinese entrepreneur recently jokingly told him, "We can talk as communist to communist."

The invitation-only Monaco Media Forum, which continues through Nov. 12, gathers approximately 300 global leaders in traditional and new media for discussions about the future of online, broadcast and print.

Quadrangle's Media Pow-Wow Gets Underway

Media moguls and financiers are gathering at New York's Plaza Hotel for Foursquare, the annual invitation-only media conference held by private-equity firm Quadrangle. At Wednesday's "pitch panel," startups will be grilled by old-time media execs

Murdoch: Internet Is Bigger Than News Corp

Despite its vast media holdings, News Corp. is dwarfed by the enormity of the Internet, says chief Rupert Murdoch. "We don't dominate anywhere," says the media mogul. News Corp. remains "a tiny fraction" of the media universe, with the public well able to find differing opinions elsewhere.

Marketwatch has the story.

Where do media moguls go...?

As the media business goes through a generational shift, several former industry titans appear to be seeking a compass for their lives.

WHEN Michael D. Eisner left the Walt Disney Company after a shareholder revolt in 2005, the former chief executive was forced to rethink his life. Where once he had commanded a private plane to fly around the world, last year he pedaled around Italy on a bicycle. Instead of wielding the power to back the next “Pirates of the Caribbean,” today Mr. Eisner is financing a modest Web video series called “Prom Queen,” e-mailing his friends to remind them to watch.

While Viacom boss Tom Freston admits: "I'm trying to figure out what to do." Ex-Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin says: "I'm going to find myself."

New York Times has more.