Glenn Beck
Radio host and political commentator
Beck ended his Fox news show june 30 amid declining ratings and an advertiser boycott. By September, he had launched GBTV, about which Wall Street analyst Richard Greenfield wrote, "Pay attention to Glenn Beck -- he's about to turn the media world upside down." Two weeks later, GBTV, which applies the cable model to an online property, boasted 230,000 subscribers, each paying $5 to $10 per month.
Beck's digital assets also include TheBlaze.com, a conservative news site that attracts 5 million uniques a month (according to comScore), and Markdown.com, where NASCAR tickets, NRA memberships and more go for deep discounts. "I don't consider [it] a digital company," Beck, 47, told an industry conference in November. "I consider ourselves more a storytelling company and a content company. The way we deliver it is secondary." He also suggested that his focus on a new type of media empire may be three to five years ahead of its time. Says Beck, "We are on the verge of revolution."