Alan Yentob, the BBC creative director, takes to the stage at the Periodical Publishers Association and asks the audience: are we your collaborator or your competition?
I have never really encountered the famous Yentob before but found him impressive. And name-droppy.
"As I was saying to Mark or Greg or who ever else was running the BBC," he said at one point. Well, Yentob joined the Beeb in 1968 so he would have seen off quite a few directors general.
Being from the BBC, he brought a few clips along, and Yentob being Yentob they were almost all his own work.
"Technological revolution has not just democratised things but made it so easy to capture things," Yentob said, encouraging people to use it in their storytelling. Even, presumably, magazine editors.
He added that the BBC has been "unique in thinking a great deal about the future".
He stated the BBC resource meant that the corporation got into the digital world without waiting for regulatory approval.
"The BBC has had a long learning curve into the digital world and we just started something," he said.
"Once we started that journey early, before we had been allowed to do so and that is the reason why the BBC helped to kick start the digital revolution
Now he said the corporation was struggling to cope with the endless possibilities.
"It is not just about giving people stuff - it is about how you connect with people."
Yentob told the audience that the BBC had massive resources "and it sits there".
He then said something that made the whole audience sit up. "At what point are you a competitor or a collaborator?" was his question, and then immediately answered it before any in the audience, who compete against BBC magazines, could answer it for him.
"My sense of the BBC's future is that the only future for us, and the only exciting future, is a collaborative one."
This was particularly so in the digital world. "The public don't want to be told, 'no entry here' and that we can't give you access to our back catalogue," he said.
Yentob then mentioned the success of the iPlayer and hinted that its future would not be isolated to the BBC.
"The BBC is not afraid of collaboration and it is not afraid of giving its material away," he said, adding that it has been in talks with companies including Bebo and Nintendo.
"You name them, the BBC has been collaborating with them."
Finally, he looked to the future and to the global media stage.
"It isn't Rupert Murdoch on his own any more," he said, adding that companies such as the Telegraph and the Guardian are becoming international.
"Most companies now who are looking geographically outside the UK see the BBC there as well."
