When biz journalists go to Sun Valley

Business journalists have flocked to Sun Valley, Idaho to “cover” Allen & Co.’s annual investment conference, even though they aren’t allowed on the premises, noted the Idaho Mountain Express.

Staff writer Greg Moore wrote, “This year, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, The Associated Press, Bloomberg, Reuters and CNBC are all ‘covering’ the event. Although they can’t do so in the normal sense, since all of the conference’s presentations are closed to the press, there’s plenty to keep tabs on.

“‘It’s all about the periphery,’ said Andrew Ross Sorkin, who covers mergers and acquisitions for The New York Times. ‘It’s about what happens outside the formal conference—who’s talking to whom, and about what to whom. An enormous number of transactions that have transformed the media—their seeds have been planted here.'”

Later, Moore wrote, “Several reporters said one of the interesting undercurrents running through this year’s event is the jockeying for position between established, traditional media and the Internet upstarts. The people who run television stations and newspapers need to figure out how to compete with the Web-based media or, failing that, buy them. The Associated Press’s Liedtke said he considers an invitation to the Allen & Co. conference to be a “stamp of approval” from the establishment—and a sign that a new business is worth watching.

“Reporters said that even if they don’t get much breaking news from the event, it’s a great place to make or strengthen contacts.”

Read more here.