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Trailblazing BBC back on top

Posted: 18/07/05 By: Jemima Kiss
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This week's MediaGuardian is entirely dedicated to its annual review of the most powerful people in the media.

News mogul Rupert Murdoch has been knocked from the top slot by BBC director general Mark Thompson and chair Michael Grade. According to the Guardian's panel of nine industry experts, the outcome of the government's green paper on the future of the corporation was "a spectacular win" for the pair.

"It has been transformed from an organisation that was traumatised and leaderless to one looking confidently ahead with its funding assured."

Helen Boaden, director of BBC News, is listed at 20 and director of new media Ashley Highfield at 23. The new media department is likely to benefit from recent controversial savings made by Mark Thompson, along with projects such as Creative Archive and iMP (interactive media player) - "iTunes for the broacast industry".

Other representatives from new media include Apple founder Steve Jobs who comes in at number six. His high rank stems from the fact that a new generation of iPodders now buy and listen to music in a different way, and the phenomenon has profound implications for the broadcast industry.

"I don't listen to the radio anymore. I have my own personal radio station on my iPod," said a panelist.

Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have crept up from 20 to number 9, profiled by the Guardian's John Plunkett as 'the ultimate new media success story'.

Google's reach, credited to its simplicity and speed, makes it an "awesome brand", said the panel. It is enormously influential and has become central to the internet experience - making and breaking businesses, and news sites, with its algorithmic rankings.

Leading the ranks of newspaper editors, Paul Dacre at Associated rolls in at number 10, Rebekah Wade of the Sun at 13 and John Witherow of the Sunday Times at 47.

Also of note: NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear sneaks in at 97; MediaGuardian him describes as "the public face of the boldly successful BBC strike".

And a surprise entry at 99: a rare acknowledgment of the [expletive-deleted] delight that is Holy Moly. Often fished by tabloids.

Full list at MediaGuardian.co.uk.

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