Steve Jobs Tops Google Chiefs on Media Power Rankings

LONDON: Apple chief Steve Jobs has moved to the number one position on the MediaGuardian 100 annual list of the most powerful people in media, bumping Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page to the number two spot.

Jobs, who last year was in fourth place, was credited for his innovation in changing how we consume media with the iPad. In taking the top spot, Jobs dethroned Page and Brin, who have sat atop the list for three years.

Sitting in third place—a notch lower than last year—is BBC chief Mark Thompson, directly above News Corporation’s chairman and CEO, Rupert Murdoch. Twitter’s co-founder and CEO, Evan Williams, rounds out the top five.

Elsewhere in the top ten, meanwhile, are outgoing American Idol judge and X Factor creator Simon Cowell (6); Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg (7); News Corp.’s chairman and CEO for Europe and Asia, James Murdoch (8); and two new entrants: U.K. Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt and ITV chairman Archie Norman.

MediaGuardian also ranks the top ten most important people in television, with BBC’s Thompson at the top of the list, followed by Cowell, ITV’s Norman, BBC One controller Jay Hunt, Shine’s Elisabeth Murdoch, ITV’s television director Peter Fincham, Sky chief Jeremy Darroch, BBC news director Helen Boaden, Channel 4’s new chief executive David Abraham and the BBC’s political editor Nick Robinson.