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Apple and Google climb UK media power stakes

Oh Bill, where art thou?
Written by Graeme Wearden, Contributor
Steve Jobs, Sergey Brin and Larry Page all enjoy serious influence across the UK media landscape, according to this year's MediaGuardian 100 list -- which has snubbed Bill Gates for a second successive year.

The annual list is organised by The Guardian newspaper and rates individuals on their cultural, economic and political clout in UK media.

Apple's chief executive was ranked sixth, up from 29th last year, on the back of the phenomenal popularity of the iPod and the impact this is having on traditional radio stations, as well as his role in animated film studio Pixar.

"No-one has done more to change the way we listen to music in the modern era than Steve Jobs," said the panel who calculated the list.

The co-founders of Google -- described as "the ultimate new media success story -- came in three places below Jobs, compared to 20th in 2004. "With millions of people using the search engine every day, Google controls the news and websites we see, and how we see them," said the panellists, who were also impressed with the wide range of services offered under the Google brand.

As in previous years, the MediaGuardian100 was interesting not only for those who were included, but those who didn't make the cut. Those included included Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. He reached second place in 2001, 10th in 2002 and 12th in 2003, but vanished altogether in 2004 and failed to climb back into the top 100 this year.

Other fallen stars included Meg Whitman of eBay, Terry Semel of Yahoo and Jeff Bezos of Amazon.

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