Anderson Cooper, the host of "Anderson Cooper 360°" on CNN, was named the 2005 Media Person of the Year in the annual online poll held by I Want Media. Cooper was announced as the year's top figure in the media industry on CNBC's "The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch" on Dec. 5.

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Updated: Q&A interview with Anderson Cooper.

The readers of I Want Media nominated 10 candidates and sent thousands of hits to the two-week-long Internet poll. The winner last year, in 2004, was Jon Stewart of Comedy Central -- a "fake" news anchor.

Following Cooper, the figures who earned the most votes this year were, in order: Steve Jobs; Howard Stern; Google guys Sergey Brin and Larry Page; and Martha Stewart. Here are the 10 candidates:

Anderson Cooper. The former reality television show host may very well be the news anchor of our age. The youthful, telegenic ex-host of "The Mole" is a contributor to metrosexual magazine Details and possesses solid journalistic chops from his reporting stints in locales like Bosnia and Rwanda. His "emotive" reporting during Hurricane Katrina connected with viewers -- and helped catapult him to his new role as the centerpiece of CNN. Fans favorably compare him to fake news anchor Jon Stewart (the 2004 Media Person of the Year), which, says Cooper, is "high praise." Updated: Q&A interview with Anderson Cooper.

Nick Denton. Blog pal Arianna Huffington calls him "the Rupert Murdoch of the blogosphere." Actually, his Gawker Media stable of popular blogs seems more like Conde Nast of blog world, attracting desirable demos and big-name advertisers. While Jason Calacanis sold his Weblogs outfit to AOL and Andrew Sullivan hooked up his blog to Time.com, Denton licensed Gawker content to Yahoo, insisting that "the whole point about blogs is that they're not part of big media." Denton and his crew of scrappy, buzz-making bloggers have probably done more than about anyone to establish blogs as a legit alternative medium.

Google guys. Sergey Brin and Larry Page are scaring the bejesus out of the mainstream media. The founders of the omnipotent search giant seem to be continuously launching -- or rumored to be launching -- new projects with the potential to crush traditional media business models. Will Google extend its ad-brokering system to TV commercials? Should Google be allowed to digitize the books of major libraries for online searches? Will Google drain classified ad revenue from newspapers? At least the ascendancy of Google and other portals gave new value to Time Warner's much-maligned AOL.

Steve Jobs. Thanks to the efforts of the CEO of Apple Computer, you can now watch "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" on your iPod. The announcement in October was following by a string of other revoluntary developments in the way consumers can access television programming. TiVo recently revealed plans to allow unlimited TV-show downloads to the device. As for Apple, its next move may be media domination. One analyst predicts we'll one day see an iPod with enough storage to turn it into a "portable media center" that will play hundreds of movies and thousands of songs.

Judith Miller. The former New York Times reporter should be named Media Person of the Year "because she maintained her journalistic integrity while being pressured by the government to give it up," says one e-mail to I Want Media. Well, perhaps. Miller was praised by her editors after serving nearly three months in jail for refusing to reveal her source in "Plamegate." But soon after she was freed, Miller came under what she calls a "tsunami" of criticism for her role in the story. Top editor Bill Keller says she "seems to have misled" the newspaper. Did Miller give the Times a black eye to rival the Jayson Blair scandal of '03?

Rupert Murdoch. In April, the media tycoon delivered a pivotal industry speech, warning media folk to wise up to the potential threat of the Internet: "We need to realize that the next generation ... [has] a different set of expectations ..." His News Corp. is now busy buying up nontraditional media assets like MySpace.com (and has no interest in acquiring Knight Ridder). Meanwhile, his Fox News continues to dominate and may spin off a business news channel in 2006. Murdoch this year contended with the surprise resignation of son Lachlan while watching fellow longtime media boss Michael Eisner step down at Disney. But Murdoch, 74, isn't going anywhere. "I'm sick of being told I'm dying," he says. "I'm feeling great."

Craig Newmark. Even Rupert Murdoch says he's a fan of Craigslist. Within 10 short years, Newmark's no-frills community Web service has come to rule the classified advertising marketplace worldwide. Goldman Sachs has described Craigslist -- which is staffed by less than 20 people -- as "a real menace" to any media company that sell classified ads. Its low-key, unassuming founder doesn't perceive his creation to be any sort of threat. Many people turn to Craigslist because of its "culture of trust," he says. "We are simple, effective, honest." Newmark is now rumored to be exploring the possibility of a news site written by "citizen reporters."

Sumner Redstone. "The age of conglomerates has ended," proclaims the chief of sprawling media giant Viacom, which will split next year into two separate public companies, to be called Viacom and CBS, in an effort to boost "shareholder value." Redstone may be on to something. Talk of break-ups now surrounds other media biggies, including Time Warner, Knight Ridder, Primedia, and VNU. Observing that younger audiences are fleeing traditional media and entertainment, Redstone has been steadily increasing his personal stake in a video-game publisher, Midway Games. He may be on to something yet again.

Howard Stern. The infamous shock jock is leaving his longtime radio show on Viacom's Infinity Broadcasting at the end of the year to host a new "uncensored" show on Sirius Satellite Radio. Stern's widely publicized move, following his confrontations with the FCC over alleged indecent broadcasts, could help propel the young medium of satellite radio more into the mainstream. Hugh Panero, the head of rival satellite firm XM, dismisses Sirius's Stern strategy as a "gamble all on one personality." But in an e-mail to I Want Media, one fan gushes that Stern is truly "forging new frontiers."

Martha Stewart. She was already voted Media Person of the Year in 2002. But 2005 may be her biggest year yet. How often do media moguls get released from prison and immediately star in two high-profile TV shows? While Stewart's version of "The Apprentice" won't continue past December, her syndicated daytime show is going strong. Advertisers are returning to her flagship magazine and her new advice book is a bestseller. Coming soon: a Sirius satellite radio channel, a new line of home DVDs, even Martha Stewart-branded residential communities. She recently told Fortune magazine: "I cannot be destroyed."

Honorable Mention: The "Dying" Newspaper. Barely a day goes by without a pundit declaring that the obituary of the print newspaper will soon be written, as more and more younger readers flee to the Web and other media. For now, newspapers are a profitable business. But pressure from investors to preserve profit margins is leading more publishers to cut jobs -- an estimated 1,900 this year -- which only fuels the perception that newspapers are on their way out.

VOTER COMMENTS:

• "In a year when the financial infrastructure of mainstream journalism seems poised to collapse, I believe we should nominate someone who has shown the courage to invest heavily in the publication of news stories and columns, here and abroad. I therefore nominate George W. Bush."
  
  — Bob Garfield, "On the Media"

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• "I normally hate end-of-the-year lists, but your crop of candidates has given me pause. It's not often that I would be torn three or four ways in a vote -- my '96 Penthouse Pet of the Year ballot notwithstanding. The Google dudes, Nick Denton, Howard Stern -- even Martha -- all deserve heady consideration, mainly because they each make me care about things (stock, blogs, lesbian strippers via satellite, homemade pecan strudel, in that order) I could've cared less about a year ago. A side note, I’ll probably have to withhold votes for Stern (as I was once employed by his E! show) and Martha, because despite my unabashed love for her (as both a media mogul and dashing older woman), even I'm starting to get sick of her all-media saturation. That leaves Denton and the Google dudes in a bloggy, google-y deadheat.
  
  — Dylan Stableford, Folio: Magazine

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• "If there was a single human incarnation of the Twilight of Advertising-Supported Media -- one person embodying DVR and satelite radio and HBO and Craigslist and Internet news and all the other ad-mooting technoologies and business models -- I might choose her or him. Instead, there's Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google. I'm glad that so many disparate online media enterprises (Yahoo, NYTimes.com, DailyCandy, TheStreet.com, MySpace, etc., etc., etc.) are proving themselves these days, but I find the scale and consistency of Google's brilliance and ambition downright thrilling."
  
  — Kurt Andersen

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• "First place goes to the Google guys. They have done what TV, radio, and all other media have failed to do since the days James Franklin founded the New England Courant more than 240 years ago; convinced potential newspaper proprietors that this is a dying business. With the death of newspapers comes the death of the informed citizenry and the potential collapse of meaningful mass democracy. Scary, but true. Second place goes to Bruce Sherman of Legg Mason's Private Capital Management. By forcing the sale of Knight Ridder, he squeezed what had been until then a mere hypothetical trigger pointed at the industry's heart. What the future holds, as a one-time Media Man of the Century, Henry Luce might have said, knows God."
  
  — Eric Alterman

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• "Judith Miller. Her faux-ethics grandstanding has done more to harm The New York Times' credibility than a hundred Jayson Blairs, and has in no small way contributed to the demise of print journalism, thus paving the way for the emergence of the Web. Thanks, Judy!"
  
  — Adam Penenberg, Slate

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• "My choice is Hubert Boehle, the president and CEO of Bauer Publishing Co. I credit him with the re-invention of the American magazine weekly scene after being dormant for so long. The success of InTouch and Life & Style and the continuous success of Woman's World since 1980 is an honor no other publisher can claim. ... The sad thing about our industry [is] if things happen outside New York City, we do not pay attention to it. I love NYC and the media scene in NYC, but there is more to America and American media than NYC ..."
  
  — Samir "Mr. Magazine" Husni

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• "The Google guys. For the moment, at least, it's their world and we're only living in it."
  
  — Frank Rich, The New York Times

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• "Stephen Colbert poses a serious threat to Jon Stewart, possibly replacing him as the most trusted name in news."
  
  — Craig Newmark, Craigslist

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• "Shep Smith. When a TV pretty boy anchor whose future seemed to hold little more than prominent placement on a 'blooper' reel suddenly went on the air upset and angry over the federal government's inhumane treatment of poor and minorities during Hurricane Katrina, a seismic shift in public consciousness took place. Sure, the same thing was happening over at CNN to Anderson Cooper. But for Fox News Channel's brainwashed viewers, they'll never forget that rare weekend of raw truth juxtaposed with FNC's usual pro-Bush swill. From that point on, Dubya's poll numbers started to plummet, even among his supporters."
  
  — Nikki Finke, LA Weekly

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• "For my money, it would have to be the Google guys. Google is revolutionizing the flow, distribution and organization of information in the U.S. and, I suppose, in some sense the whole world."
  
  — Joshua Marshall, Talking Points Memo

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• "Sumner Redstone, for deciding to break up his company and forcing the rest of the industry to consider doing the same."
  
  — Tim Arango, New York Post

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• "I'm going with the Google guys for commanding the largest market cap of the media congloms in their first year as a publicly traded company. And to think they did it by updating a saying popular with direct marketers when they were still second-class citizens: 'It's not junk mail when you're interested in the subject.' That, basically, is what Google has going in cyberspace. It's not spam when the topic's top of mind."
  
  — Richard Morgan, The Deal

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• "NBC News managing editor/'Meet the Press' host Tim Russert. Nobody in broadcast journalism is better prepared than him. He asks equally tough questions to Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, and, like the lawyer that he is, he uses 'precedent.' Russert freely quotes, with attribution, from newspapers, magazines, and even rival TV programs. 'Meet the Press' is journalism at its best, and Russert has put this historic franchise on a new pedestal. That he was subpoenaed in the Valerie Plame/Joseph Wilson case might make Russert an even bigger newsmaker in 2006. Also, Russert's blue-collar, Buffalo, N.Y., roots -- in this era of media 'elites' -- is refreshing. His book about his father ('Big Russ') was a classic. I would add an honorable 'rookie of the year' mention to BusinessWeek editor-in-chief Steve Adler. He succeeded an icon in Steve Shepard, but he quickly put his own stamp on the magazine, including the hire of Ad Age's Jon Fine to start the 'MediaCentric' column. It is a witty and novel look at the business."
  
  — Steve Cohn, Media Industry Newsletter

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• "Howard Stern. With Howard's move to Sirius, he is truly one person changing the media landscape."
  
  — Donny Deutsch, Deutsch Inc.

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• "The Boys from Google, for somehow simultaneously convincing every single media company in the world that they were about to put them out of business, all the while raking in $6 billion in ad sales -- greater than the combined ad sales of every Time Inc. magazine or the prime-time haul of any of the Big Three TV nets."
  
  — Scott Donaton, Advertising Age

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• "Rupert Murdoch. He could have taken his many Old Media wins, done a victory lap and sat on his substantial and complicated global legacy. Instead, he let his son Lachlan walk away -- or flee, as family dynamics would have it -- and decided that the bold, new leader for a bold, new media age is himself. He is hanging in, filled with the frisson of a techtonic shift in the offing, and on the prowl for new digital assets. Now that he is has bought MySpace.com, he has become the dad in the basement at a teen party, keeping an eye on those darn kids and trying to learn some new dance steps as fast as he can. Even more than most moguls, the man can't spell quit."
  
  — David Carr, The New York Times

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• "Make a list of some candidates for Media Person of the Year -- Judy Miller, Bob Woodward, the anonymous source, the docile press, Brian Williams, bloggers -- and they all lead back to a man who says he pays no attention to the media: George W. Bush. Judy Miller went to jail to protect a source in the Bush administration. Bob Woodward got ensnared in a media firestorm because he has great sources in the Bush administration and is doing a book that will presumably explore whether Bush lied to the country or just to himself about WMD's. The importance of anonymous sources to the public is made clearer, or should be, by the Bush administration, which often treats reporters as if we represent special interests, not the public interest. A docile press has become less so -- as witnessed when Brian Williams of NBC or Anderson Cooper of CNN -- teed off on the ineptness of the Bush administration's response to the devastation of hurricane Katrina. Not since Dan Rather do we see bloggers spring to life as they do defending, or condemning, George W. Bush."
  
  — Ken Auletta, The New Yorker

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• "The Media Person of the Year should be every serious* journalist who covered the awful news surrounding the wrath of Mother Nature during the year, ranging from the post-tsunami destruction in South Asia in early January to the Katrina-Rita-Wilma hurricanes to the Midwest tornados (*the NBC reporter who was filmed doing a stand-up in about three inches of water need not step forward in this case, thank you). Not only did they show rare courage, but their grit and ambition to get the story was gratifying in a year filled with scandal, embarrassment and shame for our profession. Their sense of urgency and desire for excellence also stood in stark contrast to the failures of the governments to do their jobs properly."
  
  — Jon Friedman, MarketWatch
  

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