On Tuesday, the world’s most powerful media executives, tech billionaires, and dealmakers descended on Sun Valley, Idaho, for Allen & Co.’s annual conference, flying into the tiny Friedman Memorial Airport and once again turning the local tarmac into a private-jet-sized game of Tetris. Among those on this year’s guest list are most of the usual suspects, including Axel Springer chief executive Mathias Döpfner, Paramount chief David Ellison, and CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, who will spend the week enjoying billionaire summer camp, which has become one of the media industry’s most discreet venues for dealmaking.
Last year’s retreat proved unusually consequential: Acquisition talks between Ellison and Weiss over her opinion site The Free Press accelerated during the conference, eventually resulting in Paramount’s roughly $150 million acquisition of the “anti-woke” outlet and Weiss’ contentious appointment as editor-in-chief of CBS News.
But Ellison wasn’t the only media mogul trying to land Weiss during the 2025 summit. Status has learned that Döpfner privately approached Weiss at last year’s retreat with…
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