Peter Chernin
President and COO, News Corp.
Peter Chernin has been president and chief operating officer of News Corporation since late 1996, overseeing one of the world’s largest media companies with diversified global operations spanning five continents, including the production and distribution of film and television programming; television, satellite and cable broadcasting; and News Corp.’s aggressive expansion into the digital media and Internet space. Oh, yes, he also has to work for the world’s most aggressive media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, who has made major bets in the digital sector, most especially the acquisition of the hugely popular social-networking site, MySpace. How he is going to keep up the hypergrowth on the Internet, even as he is managing more mature media businesses, will be Chernin’s major challenge. He has had a lot of hard jobs, though, heading both 20th Century Fox Filmed Entertainment and, earlier, the Fox Broadcasting Company. He was the executive responsible for the movie “Titanic” and the television show “The Simpsons,” as well as “Beverly Hills 90210″ and “Melrose Place,” for which we owe him a great debt of gratitude. He began his career in publishing, first as associate publicity director of St. Martin’s Press and later as an editor for Warner Books.
