Google's Larry Page tops media power list

Google's co-founder and chief executive Larry Page has topped The Guardian's Media hot 100 for 2012, in a list shaped by the fallout from the Leveson Inquiry.

The annual list sees Page oust Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook, from the top spot, while there are also places in the 100 most powerful for Simon Cowell, Jeremy Clarkson, Lord Sugar and new BBC director general George Entwistle.



Despite vast changes in the ways people access media, particularly on digital platforms, it is a judge-led inquiry into media standards and ethics that has most dictated the make-up of the list.

Lord Justice Leveson, who has heard testimony from leading media figures and former prime ministers in his inquiry over the past year, joins the list at number ten in 2012.

He is just one place ahead of Rupert Murdoch, who appeared before him at the Royal Courts of Justice inquiry over two days of landmark evidence earlier in the year.

Murdoch has topped the list three times previously, and has never fallen outside of the top ten until now, suggesting that his influence is waning in the UK, particularly following the phone hacking scandal at his UK newspaper publishing group.

His son James Murdoch clings onto the list in 100th place, but has seen his media stock fall dramatically after he had to resign from his posts as chairman of News International and pay-TV giant Sky following major public pressure.

However, Elisabeth Murdoch has seen her profile rise following a well-received MacTaggart lecture in Edinburgh last month, and now stands in 18th place.

She sold her Shine Group production company to her father's News Corp and has remained untainted by the hacking scandal, but recently ruled out replacing her father at the head of the media empire.

Google's Page is named the most powerful media figure after a year that has seen major growth at Google - from a search engine to a fully integrated content and hardware giant - including a multi-billion purchase of smartphone maker Motorola Mobility.

Page, who took over from Eric Schmidt as Google chief executive in April this year, has also seen Google's Android mobile operating system become the most popular mobile OS in the world, running on around 68% of smartphones.

He bumps Facebook's Zuckerberg from the top spot, after the social network suffered a disastrous stock market debut, including concerns over its long-term growth prospects leading to a near halving of the share price.

However, Facebook is still represented on the list by Joanna Shields, its vice-president and managing director in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, who is the highest-ranking woman in 2012.

The former Google, AOL and Bebo executive was praised for transforming Facebook into a "key marketing platform for businesses in Europe".

The top ten also includes Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo in second place, followed by the BBC chairman Lord Patten in third, just ahead of the corporation's new boss George Entwistle, who started his challenging new job today (September 17).

Apple's design chief Sir Jonathan Ive, the man responsible for the look of products such as the iPhone and iPad, is in fifth place, while the top ten also includes the Daily Mail's Paul Dacre, WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell and The X Factor boss Simon Cowell in seventh, eighth and ninth respectively.

Other high-profile names in the top 100 include Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson (27), Labour MP Tom Watson (36) and Graham Norton (60), who recently sold his production company So Television to ITV for a deal that could be worth £17 million, along with BBC Radio 2 breakfast host Chris Evans (75) and Lord Sugar (90).