MediaGuardian.co.uk’s annual rundown of the most influential media figures is out – doubtless, with all the associated headaches that go with subjectively compiling a list of the great and good. Just for fun, and since they asked, here’s an equally subjective second look to compliment the original…
#2 – Mark Thompson: The BBC DG is up from #3, though he’s said to have had “a worse than rotten year” – but the British Broadcasting Corporation somehow still isn’t deemed as powerful as Mountain View’s own Google (NSDQ: GOOG), whose founders sit at #1.
#3 – James Murdoch: News Corp.’s EU/Asia CEO slips from #2 despite his star having risen high enough to be talked of as a possible News Corp (NYSE: NWS) COO.
#4 – Steve Jobs & Jonathan Ive: Jobs rises from #6 despite this being the year he was laid up with a liver transplant and Apple’s computer market share fell to just 7.5 percent.
#5 – Steve Ballmer: Microsoft’s CEO is up from #7, apparently thanks to Bing reigniting his search ambitions – but Ballmer failed to acquire Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), and he knows just how far he is behind Google on that front.
#18 – Erik Huggers: BBC’s online chief rightly leaps 72 places for establishing iPlayer and leading Auntie in to the VOD future – that’s why he’s surely more powerful than Ballmer, Jobs and TV producer Elisabeth Murdoch (#17) above him.
#28 – Daniel Ek: Spotify’s CEO flies in after media hype that promises he will singlehandedly save the music business. Nevermind the as-yet-unproven business model – that makes him more powerful than BBC Vision director Jana Bennett (#30) and FT editor Lionel Barber (#40).
#53 – David Mitchell (comedian): You what… ?
#85 – Richard Moross: Not bad for a business card company. Moo.com’s CEO is deemed more influential than The Economist’s editor (#86), Sky1’s controller (#87) and the lead partner of one of the most important VC houses, Balderton’s Barry Maloney (#90).
#98 – Stephen Carter: How’s that for rubbing a Lord’s face in the dirt? Carter’s Digital Britain was billed as the most influential policy review of the decade – but he’s wedged to the bottom with only fellow token losers Michael Grade (#99) and Jonathan Ross (#100) for company. Ouch, m’lud.