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Sam Altman, chief govt officer of OpenAI, on the Hope Global Forums annual assembly in Atlanta, Georgia, US, on Monday, Dec. 11, 2023.
Editor’s Note: A model of this text first appeared within the “Reliable Sources” e-newsletter. Sign up for the daily digest chronicling the evolving media landscape here.
New York
CNN
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2023 was a 12 months of titanic change within the trade.
The media and expertise sectors had been upended by disruptive forces, testing the management of a few of the world’s strongest executives. At the identical time, that disruption additionally produced some new leaders who had been catapulted into positions of immense affect and authority.
We surveyed the media and expertise landscapes to determine 11 consequential figures that stood out for his or her far-reaching selections in 2023. Below, you’ll find our non-exhaustive checklist of the leaders who formed the area wherein the world turns for communication, data, and leisure.
- Sam Altman: Most of the world had no concept who Altman was on the finish of final 12 months. But in only one journey across the solar, the OpenAI founder has turn into probably the most watched executives on the planet. The expertise powering his agency’s ChatGPT instrument has enthralled the general public, thrilling Wall Street, upending Silicon Valley, gridlocking Hollywood, and sending some very horrifying jitters down the spines of observers throughout the seven continents. That is why the current boardroom drama at OpenAI prompted a cascade of headlines. And it’s why world leaders have held pressing conferences concerning the quickly advancing expertise enabling synthetic intelligence. It isn’t an understatement to say that the choices Altman makes as OpenAI boss would possibly very effectively restrict or speed up an existential menace to the human race.
- Taylor Swift: The generational expertise is in a league of her personal. Swift commanded the world’s consideration all year long, dropping music that instantly turned the soundtracks to our lives, crisscrossing the nation on her acclaimed “Eras Tour,” releasing a smash hit live performance movie for individuals who couldn’t attend in particular person (or needed to re-live the magic of her enchanting performances), juicing the NFL’s rankings and a lot extra. She was such a pressure that the Federal Reserve truly credited her for reinforcing the financial system. In TIME’s piece crowning her because the 2023 particular person of the 12 months, Sam Lansky mentioned it finest, declaring that Swift “became the main character of the world” in 2023. It’s arduous to disagree with that.
- Elon Musk: The world’s richest man actually tried his finest to be the principle character of the world, however as an alternative of going about it by creating alluring artwork and uplifting others, Musk selected to take action by self-immolating earlier than the general public. Musk was the main focus of an immeasurable variety of headlines for his embrace of deranged — and at occasions hateful — conspiracy theories, ugly assaults on the Anti-Defamation League and figures like George Soros, repeated smearing of the press, and the elevating of harmful extremist figures on his social media platform, X. The appalling conduct led to a crippling advertiser exodus from X, one which threatens to place the corporate out of enterprise, in line with Musk himself. Regardless of whether or not that occurs, Musk efficiently killed the location as soon as often known as Twitter, taking from the world what was as soon as an necessary communications platform.
- David Zaslav: He could be a newcomer to Hollywood, however Zaslav has not been shy about shaking issues up. The Warner Bros. Discovery boss continued to buck institution pondering in 2023 and led the best way on a number of fronts because the media panorama shifted beneath everybody’s toes. Zaslav launched the Max streaming service, uniting all of WBD’s storied manufacturers and content material underneath a single roof, providing shoppers a streaming possibility that resembled the normal bundle. And Zaslav has thought creatively to generate income, together with licensing HBO content material to Netflix, a as soon as inconceivable transfer. Zaslav’s daring pondering has been mimicked by a few of his friends, with Bob Iger notably transferring to mix the Hulu and Disney+ libraries, in addition to license choose Disney content material to Netflix. That mentioned, it hasn’t been all rainbows and sunshine for Zaslav. He’s acquired hefty criticism for his excessive compensation, ruffled the feathers of the Hollywood elite after tinkering at TCM, alienated previous pals amid CNN drama and needed to cope with an infinite checklist of trade challenges in 2023, together with the historic writers’ and actors’ strikes. But by the thick and skinny, Zaslav has been on the heart of all of it, taking part in an instrumental position in shaping the media panorama for the longer term.
- Bob Iger: The king of the Magic Kingdom has by no means dominated in a extra consequential second. Iger retook the throne final 12 months and has labored by 2023 to place Disney as a media firm of the longer term. What that in the end appears like stays to be seen. But Iger’s imaginative and prescient is slowly coming into focus, with the Disney boss transferring to amass Comcast’s remaining stake in Hulu and making strikes to set ESPN up for a direct-to-consumer future, which can embrace sports activities betting. As with Zaslav, the 12 months has been grueling for Iger, as he’s been saddled with a mountain of challenges which are besetting Disney and the trade at massive. In the wake of an eyebrow elevating CNBC interview over the summer season, Iger annoyed his personal military of staffers and have become public enemy No. 1 in Hollywood amongst picketers. But with the strikes now resolved, he’s moved to calm his personal troops by signaling that he could not offload linear tv property comparable to ABC, regardless of having urged so earlier within the 12 months. Iger’s selections haven’t solely impacted the House of Mouse however despatched ripples by the media ocean.
- Steve Bannon: The “War Room” host at the moment wears the crown as king of the MAGA Media. In 2023, the middle of gravity in far-right media moved into Bannon’s nook, notably after Fox News fired Tucker Carlson. The extremist rhetoric championed by Bannon usually units the agenda within the dishonest media area wherein he holds court docket. Bannon won’t have the loudest microphone, however he actually performs an important position shaping the narratives which are usually adopted by Donald Trump and his allies. His “War Room” present is to 2024 what Breitbart was in 2016.
- Greta Gerwig: With her smash hit “Barbie,” Gerwig established herself as an leisure pressure. Yes, her earlier initiatives “Little Women” and “Lady Bird” had been acclaimed by critics and nominated every for a number of Academy Awards (the previous took one house). But Gerwig surfaced to the entrance of the general public’s consciousness in a serious method over the summer season, breaking data on the field workplace, with “Barbie” producing greater than $1.4 billion in world ticket gross sales. Accompanied by Swift and Beyoncé, Gerwig performed a number one position in the summertime of ladies.
- Adam Mosseri: When folks speak about Meta, founder Mark Zuckerberg usually involves thoughts. And whereas Zuck actually holds the last word energy throughout the empire he has constructed, Mosseri stood out in 2023. The Instagram boss expanded his portfolio, overseeing Meta’s X competitor, Threads. And because of this, he expanded his visibility, changing into a much more distinguished determine within the public sq.. As Threads boss, Mosseri has performed an necessary position in shaping the platform (which has turn into the de facto house for X refugees) and significant coverage selections. Mosseri additionally discovered himself the topic of some unflattering information protection. Outlets like The Wall Street Journal continued to aggressively report on disturbing traits of Instagram’s highly effective algorithm — a not so nice reminder of the facility Mosseri wields as the manager calling the pictures on the Meta properties.
- Kara Swisher: If there’s one journalist that each govt within the media and tech sectors is aware of, fears and respects, it’s Swisher. The reporter-podcaster-commentator is a pressure of nature, prolifically updating her hundreds of thousands of followers with necessary insights into the largest tales of the day, whereas additionally not being afraid to name anybody out on the carpet. And regardless of her no-holds-barred fashion and distinctive skill to get underneath the pores and skin of a few of the world’s strongest folks, Swisher nonetheless manages to safe top-notch interviews, each at in-person occasions and on her many podcasts. It’s a nod to how broadly revered she is.
- Janice Min and Jon Kelly: Those In The Know in The Biz have doubtless seen their media diets change within the final two years. While Hollywood denizens nonetheless obsessively scan the key Hollywood trades, Min and Kelly have assigned them some obligatory studying materials as effectively. Both The Ankler and Puck have emerged on the scene as large gamers in Hollywood media, delivering important reporting on the trade about — and to — the highest figures within the leisure enterprise.
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Linda Yaccarino, CEO, X/Twitter speaks onstage throughout Vox Media’s 2023 Code Conference at The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel on September 27, 2023 in Dana Point, California.
The Losers: It wasn’t the most effective 12 months for a few of the trade’s main figures. Some had been fired. Others noticed their reputations destroyed. And others had been dealt historic setbacks that threaten the dominance of the businesses they lead. Here are six figures who had a very tough 12 months.
- Linda Yaccarino: Has any govt so destroyed their fame as rapidly and publicly as Yaccarino? The once-respected NBCUniversal promoting chief moved over to X the place she set ablaze the sterling fame she had acquired over many years of arduous work. Yaccarino, who holds the title of X chief govt, has truly served as Elon Musk’s ache sponge, changing into the general public face for the disastrous selections and infrequently gross conduct executed every day by the billionaire as he embraces conspiracy theories. Yaccarino’s pals within the promoting enterprise implored her to go away after Musk’s endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy idea, however Yaccarino selected to remain, driving a nail into the coffin on what was left of her public standing.
- Rupert Murdoch: There are 787 million causes that Murdoch had a less-than-ideal 12 months. The Fox boss was pressured to pay the historic fortune to settle a damning lawsuit introduced in opposition to his right-wing cable community by Dominion Voting Systems. The lawsuit introduced much more disgrace to Murdoch and his secure of hosts and executives, who had been revealed to have recognized that Donald Trump’s election lies had been bogus, regardless of broadcasting them to hundreds of thousands of their loyal viewers. And it revealed, to some extent, that Murdoch had misplaced management of the right-wing media universe he as soon as dominated, with emails exhibiting the Fox News proprietor was afraid of Trump’s military of supporters. Elsewhere in his media empire, Murdoch needed to scrap plans to reunite News Corporation with Fox Corporation. It was an all-around horrible 12 months for the media mogul — one capped by Murdoch even seeming to acknowledge that his powers are fading, handing the keys to his empire to his son Lachlan as he retired — at the very least on paper — and transitioned to chairman emeritus of his corporations.
- Tucker Carlson: The one-time king of Fox News thought he was untouchable. And to be frank, it actually appeared that approach to many of the public. But Murdoch turned that notion on its head when he fired Carlson in April. Murdoch gave no motive for the firing of the right-wing extremist who had repeatedly abused the primetime perch entrusted to him. Regardless, it was a brutal blow to Carlson, whose influenced had unquestionably diminished with out the distinguished platform Murdoch had supplied him. In the wake of his firing, Carlson turned to vlogging on X. More lately, he claimed to launch a “streaming network,” which can be a assortment of his movies being bought at an outrageous value to his followers.
- Chris Licht: When Licht took over as CNN boss, he had large goodwill. Suffice to say, he had squandered each ounce of it by the tip of his short-lived tenure, which ended over the summer season after a really public firing by his boss, David Zaslav. Licht’s transient one-year tenure was stained by a collection of extreme missteps. It was marked by layoffs, shrinking income, traditionally low rankings, the firing of two anchors, and rock-bottom worker morale. The last loss of life knell was a devastating — and extremely embarrassing — 15,000-word profile in The Atlantic. The blistering piece, wherein creator Tim Alberta spoke to greater than 100 CNN workers, known as into critical query Licht’s skill to guide the group into the longer term. Zaslav in the end agreed, exiling his one-time buddy from the WBD kingdom.
- Kevin Feige: Once upon a time, Marvel Studios reliably churned out billion-dollar hits acclaimed by critics and followers alike. 2023 shattered that notion, leaving a multitude for Marvel boss Feige to marvel at. The studio’s $200 million-plus “The Marvels” bombed on the field workplace and was panned by critics and followers. And, earlier within the 12 months, “Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” was savaged by the critics. To make issues worse, Marvel needed to drop Jonathan Majors — who was positioned to play the chief villain within the new section of the MCU — after the actor was convicted of harassment and assault. Taken collectively, it’s a dire state of affairs for the Feige-led Marvel, which has lengthy been certainly one of Hollywood’s most profitable studios.
- Sundar Pichai: For years and years, Google has operated with out going through any critical threats to its enterprise. That modified in 2023, with the abrupt ascension of OpenAI, which has left the tech titan doing every thing in its energy to play catch-up. Pichai, going through what might be an existential menace to Google’s dominant search product, introduced Gemini late within the 12 months, however the product hasn’t fairly lived as much as the promised hype. On the antitrust entrance, Google can also be in unprecedented territory, having misplaced a serious trial to Epic Games because it concurrently battles the Department of Justice in a separate consequential lawsuit. At the very least, the lawsuits have uncovered how the sausage is made at Google — and it hasn’t been the most effective sight to behold.
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