So I am attending a conference in San Francisco, the Inbound Marketing Summit. There are great speakers here, mostly riffing on the changes that are happening in the media world. Right now I am listening to Chris Brogan talk about the power that bloggers hold in the new media world where everyone can be a publisher. Many predictions from many speakers that daily newspapers won’t even be around in five years. People are struggle with accepting that our news and information will come from blogs, such as this one, because there is this issue of journalistic quality and trust. Even printed media institutions are now printing things that point to their eventual demise. Here’s a bit of irony for you: Barry Diller was quoted in today’s printed USAToday (hey, I didn’t buy it, it was left outside my hotel room door. Oh wait. I did buy it. Marriott built it into my rate, and I didn’t notice the opt-out tiny print on my keycard packet until I was checking out) as saying if you have ink on your hands, meaning you are in the print advertising business, you are finished. Here’s a link to the article and more with Barry Diller. So, what does this have to do with Park City? I think the point is, it comes back to two A’s: authority and authenticity. I think authority can be faked, and authenticity cannot. Newsmedia journalists get the authority just for showing up. That doesn’t make them authentic. What do you think?