No. 4 Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO, News Corp

Last year's position: 8

Why? He 'gets' the net

The Agenda Setters judges are clearly convinced that Murdoch's 76th year on the planet will be as influential as any other.

And that's some compliment for a man who has arguably shaped governments and controlled public opinion to a greater degree than any other individual since the presses first rolled in the newspaper business.

Despite rumours and succession talk over the past decade, as well as a cancer scare in 2000, Murdoch shows no signs of slowing up. The Oxford-educated media tycoon appears as active now as he was in 1968 when he took over the News of the World.

The Aussie media magnate wins acclaim this year for buying social networking website MySpace, signalling a further concerted effort to make up for lost time in the online world, after several years which saw News Corp and Murdoch accused of failing to 'get' the internet - a charge he even admitted. Now all the talk on the web is about content and nobody knows more about making money from content than Murdoch.

This year Murdoch will have to demonstrate what he intends to do with MySpace, though you can count on closer ties between the social networking site and all of the Murdoch media brands.

You can also bet a man as aware as Murdoch of the power of 'eyes on the page' will not be short of ideas as to how he can make money out of the vast MySpace community and brand capital.