Vanity Fair has released The New Establishment List of 2013, featuring the 50 people who have been classified as “The Disrupters” of the business status quo. These industry leaders have stormed through the competition with their innovations, ranging from Amazon power house Jeff Bezos, to Susan Wojcicki, the brains behind Google advertising. Get to know them, because they have each indirectly contributed to the future of the publishing industry.
Jeff Bezos, the head of Amazon, was ranked as #1, up two spots from last year. As publishers are painfully aware, Bezos has already excelled in his corner of the book market with ebooks, self-publishing, and the Kindle. Bezos is looking to expand his domain and intercept Netflix’s success with their self- produced shows as well as buying The Washington Post, a move that was looked upon skeptically by many, but for Bezos it is just another conquerable hurdle.
Jonah Peretti, of Buzzfeed, was ranked #46. You’d be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t heard of Buzzfeed, the silly yet serious news and entertainment website, or read one of their quick witted and informative articles. Peretti is no stranger to making website successes, as he co-founded the Huffington Post. According to Peretti, 85 million people visited Buzzfeed in the month of August, surely living up to its name. Peretti’s success can also be due to his advertising scheme in which they produce ads that look like Buzzfeed posts in order to get readers interested.
Susan Wojcicki, Senior Vice President of Product Management and Engineering at Google, is rated at #36. Among one of the few women on the list (girl power!) she is certainly also one of the most notable, regardless of gender. She is responsible for Google’s advertisement triumph and the why reason Google is still a functioning, well-oiled machine. It should also be mentioned that Susan has the largest advertising division IN THE WORLD, and is continually expanding upon that.
Reid Hoffman & Jeff Weiner, of Linkedin/Greylock, rated at #10, prove that success doesn’t always have to be flashy. Instead, with the creation of LinkedIn, they did what many social media sites fail to do: make the members of the site look credible. Not only is this site respected and quite useful to most American companies, it is reported that 225 million members have posted their resumes on LinkedIn. You can thank them for your most recent job, America.