Mark Zuckerberg Climbs Back On Top Of Global Media Powerlist
While the real exciting news is that the list has seen the highest proportion of women in its 15-year history, it’s also interesting to note that after a year in which Facebook was used by 1 billion people in a single day, Zuckerberg is back in business.
The founder of social giant Facebook has made it back to the number one spot on the Guardian’s annual power list, after losing to Google’s Larry Page last year.
The list showed the serious weight of US technology groups, with Google co-founder Larry Page (last year’s winner) and the Apple chief executive, Tim Cook, also claiming top spots.
And of course the ladies were a standout of the defining list, with the number of women in the list jumping by more than half on last year to 31.
Our fave lady of the moment Tay Tay and chief executive of media regulator Ofcom Sharon White both landed in the top 10, with the percentage of women judged by the panel to possess impressive cultural, economic and political sway growing from 20 per cent last year.
Zuckerberg made a big claim when he said that one in seven of people on earth used Facebook in August. But on top of organic growth, Facebook expanded in 2015 through its subsidiaries such as Instagram and WhatsApp, which are popular with a younger demographic, and the launch of its Instant Articles.
In the words of one judge: “It’s hard to argue with Facebook’s domination over everything.” The 31-year-old Zuckerberg also tops the list of media moguls under 40.
George Osborne, the UK chancellor, makes an appearance for the first time at number four having redrawn Britain’s media landscape through the introduction of the so-called “Google tax” and forcing the BBC to pay for free TV licences for the over-75s.
Other women on the list include Rebekah Brooks – the chief executive of News UK, which oversees newspapers including the Sun and the Times – and the controller of BBC1, Charlotte Moore.
But in what is sadly not much of a surprise, the list is still overwhelmingly dominated by white males, with just eight non-white members of the list.
Old mate Rupert Murdoch came in at number five.
The top 10
1 Mark Zuckerberg (2 last year)
Founder, chief executive, Facebook
2 Larry Page (1)
CEO, Alphabet; co-founder, Google
3 Tim Cook (3)
Chief executive, Apple
4 George Osborne (new entry)
UK chancellor
5 Rupert Murdoch (7)
Co-chair, 21st Century Fox, executive chair, News Corp
6 Tony Hall (4)
Director general, BBC
7 Jeff Bezos (5)
Founder, CEO, Amazon
8 Taylor Swift (right) (10)
Singer and songwriter
9 Paul Dacre/Martin Clarke (9)
Editor-in-chief, Associated Newspapers (Dacre); publisher, Mail Online (Clarke)
10 Sharon White
(new entry)
Chief executive, Ofcom
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