December 1, 2008

The CableFAX 100: Ed Note: Warning: Read this before Diving into the Magazine

I apologize for the foreboding title, the sort of thing you see on the first page of a manual included with a household appliance. Yet we hope this new edition of the CableFAX 100 will be as useful to you in your work as a good piece of equipment is at home. Let me explain:

First, your new 100 has been streamlined to roughly 100 people. What a concept, a 100 list that contains 100 names! Not a joke, really. Over the years our lists have contracted bracket creep. Last year, for example, included 240 names across 100 slots. This year it’s one name per slot, with just a few exceptions.

To keep to roughly 100, we’ve removed a lot of people and things. The legislators, lobbyists, tech vendors and products, some association heads, DBS and telco execs you usually found here are gone. Char Beales, Decker Anstrom, Mark Hollinger, Rich Licata, Mae Douglas and many others should be in this magazine but are not. In an election year Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Bill O’Reilly, Keith Olbermann, Larry King and Rachel Maddow should be as well.

It wasn’t all subtraction, though. Those whose profiles lack a ranking from ’07 are new to the 100. Speaking of new to the 100, we welcome a list of regional power players, on page 38. You’ll also note a brief list of people whose portfolio includes cable, but who transcend cable. We call this list Above It All (page 6).

To make this book more valuable, particularly when you are in a meeting with a 100 member, we emphasized the Q&A responses, providing a look at the 100 as people rather than purely as executives. We appreciate that nearly all answered our somewhat personal questions. Along those lines, you’ll see a next to the name of executives whose additional Q/A responses can be found at our Web site. Also on the Web, I urge you to see the new CFAX 100 Database.

Magazining is a team sport. So, thanks to my colleagues Steve Goldstein, Mark Cavich, Paul Maxwell, Amy Maclean, Michael Grebb, Chad Heiges, Cathy Olson, Joann Fato, Debbie Vodenos, Erica Gottlieb, Rachel Smar and Ken Freed for their help. They caused its success. Thanks also to our advertisers. And to the countless people who sent us nominations. This magazine is theirs. Happy New Year.

Return to the 2008 CableFAX 100 table of contents.