Jill Abramson
First woman to be executive editor of The New York Times
Christiane Amanpour
CNN’s fearless, globe-trotting war correspondent
Tina Brown
Author and editor who rescued Vanity Fair, updated The New Yorker, and became the first woman on top at Newsweek
Betsy Carter
Visionary and mentorly founder of New York Woman magazine
Connie Chung
First Asian-American prime-time news anchor
Gail Collins
First woman named editorial-page editor of The New York Times
Katie Couric
First woman to solo-anchor a prime-time network news broadcast
Christine Craft
A 40-something TV news anchor who sued for age discrimination (she was demoted in 1981 after a focus group said she was “too old, too unattractive and wouldn’t defer to men”)
Anthea Disney
The Rupert whisperer, who blazed trails across all platforms of the Murdoch media empire
Nora Ephron
The most successful Hollywood director New York journalism ever produced (yes, she did time at the New York Post, Newsweek, and Esquire)
Arianna Huffington
Author and networker extraordinaire whose viral blog network upended the industry
Charlayne Hunter-Gault
Heroine of school desegregation who joined what was then known as The MacNeil/Lehrer Report in 1978. She later left PBS to report from South Africa for NPR and CNN.
Molly Ivins
Trenchant columnist who stood taller in her cowboy boots than most men
Dorothy Kalins
Launcher of magazines (Saveur, Garden Design) and peerless spotter of young talent
Geraldine Laybourne
Longtime TV executive and cofounder of Oxygen, where she instituted a crossgenerational Mentor’s Walk for women in various fields
Frances Lear
Creator of her groundbreaking eponymous magazine “for women of a certain age”
Ellen Levine
Longtime editorial boss at Hearst Magazines, who has shepherded dozens of magazines and launched hundreds of careers
Carol Loomis
Exemplary financial journalist at Fortune, where she’s worked since 1954
Susan Lyne
Now in online commerce, but a supreme role model and mentor as founder of Premiere and CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
Rebecca MacKinnon
Co-founder of the Global Voices online community and former Beijing bureau chief for CNN; now a wise voice on global Internet policy
Sonia Nazario
Pulitzer Prize-winning Los Angeles Times journalist (“Enrique’s Journey”)
Martha Nelson
Founding editor of InStyle, now a heartbeat away from running the almighty edit side of Time Inc.
Asra Q. Nomani
Muslim feminist author who spent 15 influential years at The Wall Street Journal
Peggy Orenstein
New York Times Magazine writer who has brought feminist and motherhood issues into the 21st century
Geneva Overholser
Pulitzer Prize-winning editor of the Des Moines Register, now a journalism educator and all-around role model
Lynn Povich and the other women who sued Newsweek for sex discrimination
Anna Quindlen
Newspaperwoman turned novelist and essayist who makes everyday life lyrical
Maria Elena Salinas
Iconic anchor of Univision news programs
Diane Sawyer
First female correspondent on 60 Minutes now anchoring ABC News
Liz Smith
The grande dame of showbiz news, dogged campaigner for literacy, and mentor to many
Lesley Stahl
Trailblazer in Washington coverage who has become a standard bearer for 60 Minutes
Susan Stamberg
The original voice of NPR’s “All Things Considered”
Gloria Steinem and the Ms. crew, who (among other things) changed the way the world addresses women
Martha Stewart
Embodiment of the human multimedia brand
Kara Swisher
Co-founder of All Things D, who crashed the frat party of tech coverage
Betsy Wade and the women who sued The New York Times for sex discrimination
Barbara Walters
TV news pioneer with many firsts to her credit
Ruth Whitney
Who in 31 years as editor of Glamour mentored talents such as Cindi Leive and Charla Krupp
Oprah Winfrey
Queen of all media
Susan Zirinsky
The first woman to produce a prime-time network news show, for CBS
May I suggest a 41st "divine sister"? Peggy Simpson was a trailblazing journalist who was a named plaintiff in the 1970s sex and race class action lawsuit against the Associated Press. She was recently a panelist at Syracuse University's Newhouse School: http://newhouse.syr.edu/Newsroom/read_news.cfm?id=742
#1 Posted by Christy Perry, CJR on Fri 6 Jul 2012 at 11:23 AM
Kudos ladies.
#2 Posted by Parna Sarkar-Basu, CJR on Fri 6 Jul 2012 at 12:44 PM
No Amy Goodman? As the original and longtime host of "Democracy Now!", the syndicated progressive radio show, I see Goodman breaking journalistic ground nearly every day by covering many stories and issues the mainstream media fails to, and presenting them in a way that demonstrates the impact on individuals, communities, and society in general.
#3 Posted by Tim Sullivan, CJR on Fri 6 Jul 2012 at 12:58 PM
Pretty inbred list. I bet almost all of them knew or know each other. Molly Ivins! I guess if you're a conventional Democrat, even plagiarism won't hurt your reputation. Jill Abramson - on the case when it came to Clarence Thomas, but guts put in a blind trust when the offender was Bill Clinton.
One thing about establishment media folk, they sure do spend a lot of time praising each other and giving each other awards.
#4 Posted by Mark Richard, CJR on Mon 9 Jul 2012 at 12:56 PM
@Mark Richard
Oh, a little shrill there, fella. I can just hear the stamping of little feet coming out of your little corner of heaven. Probably courses in other cultures, other races, gender studies...all of that would do you a world of good. But you're not interested are you because then they wouldn't be shining the spotlight on you. Funny how most pejorative adjectives are derivatives from the female and invented, oddly enough, by males like you, you little prima donna you.
#5 Posted by Carol L. Clark, CJR on Mon 9 Jul 2012 at 06:42 PM
To Carol L. Clark, wow, do I feel put in my place. This is the part where I'm supposed to be silenced by your subtle wit, stupefied, uncomprehending of the big words like 'pejorative', and of concepts like a lack of exposure to other cultures (of which you are quite cluelessly certain) determining my cluelessness, so I'll let your light touch speak for itself.
It still doesn't acquit Molly Ivins of plagiarism, though, or make this list unpredictable - I expect anyone familiar with the self-absorbed NY/DC political-media echo chamber could have done as well.
#6 Posted by Mark Richard, CJR on Tue 10 Jul 2012 at 01:10 PM
Helen Hottenstein broke ground at The Plain Dealer when she joined its all-male copy desk around 1967. She did it again when she was the first woman to work with the printers as make-up editor.
Years later, Elizabeth Sullivan, daughter of NY Timesman Walter Sullivan, a Pulitzer winner, became The PD's first woman foreign correspondent and editor of the editorial page.
#7 Posted by Stephen G. Esrati, CJR on Tue 10 Jul 2012 at 01:38 PM
I agree with earlier commentator--pretty inbred list indeed. And how any self-respecting journalism pub can make a list like this without including a real trailblazer like Sylvia Porter is beyond me.
#8 Posted by Blue Heron, CJR on Tue 10 Jul 2012 at 02:46 PM
Women's eNews has found in its more than 12 years of operating a news service dedicated for covering issues of particular concern to women that to produce daily news content we had to change the very definition of news and the strategies for gathering it.
One argument for additional women in power in news media would be that women's presence in the news meetings would result in better coverage of what are thought of as women's issues and the expansion of female audiences. In addition it is the premise of Women's eNews that women in the U.S. are poorly served by most news media in that these issues are not generally covered. Thus women do not have the information needed to advocate on their own behalf, build communities of interest and have a reasonable expectation that local political, corporate, educational and religious leaders are aware of the basic facts of their lives: such as the high U.S. maternal mortality rate.
To gather news about women's concerns, a journalist can not rely on the local police department, fire department, mayor's office, city council, board of education, planning board, governor's office and state legislature. Occasionally one might bubble to the surface but Women's eNews has found the most reliable and consistent source of news about so-called women's issues are the nongovernment organizations working at the local, national and international level who are intimately involved with the lives of women and the economic, health and violence issues they face.
I would encourage journalists who wish to expand their beat to include women and girls to go beyond the annual wage gap piece and report on the job segregation angle; to go beyond the Susan Komen story to report what low-cost health services are available in their own communities for birth control, cancer screening (including cervical, ovarian and uterine) and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases; to go beyond the police blotter item to cover the available funds for domestic violence shelters and programs addressing reduction of family and dating violence.
Please feel free to check out Women's eNews--a nonprofit daily internet news service--for additional examples.
Rita Henley Jensen, founder and editor in chief
Women's eNews
#9 Posted by Rita Henley Jensen, CJR on Tue 10 Jul 2012 at 02:52 PM
This list could easily be expanded. I would also mention Marlene Sanders and Pauline Fredericks.
#10 Posted by C. Claiborne Ray, CJR on Thu 12 Jul 2012 at 11:59 AM
Why not 100 women in the last 100 years? Good list, but there will always be some amazing pioneers missing.
#11 Posted by Michele Weldon, CJR on Thu 12 Jul 2012 at 12:00 PM
Where is Helen Thomas... need I elaborate?
#12 Posted by susan t. mcelhinney, CJR on Thu 12 Jul 2012 at 12:10 PM
Kate Webb should be here as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Webb
#13 Posted by Marshall, CJR on Thu 12 Jul 2012 at 01:20 PM
I can't imagine such a list without Nancy Woodhull, Nancy Hicks Maynard and Cathleen Black.
#14 Posted by Mark Trahant, CJR on Thu 12 Jul 2012 at 01:25 PM
With the state of our media today, I would not want to be on any list that included those who changed the "media business in the past 40 years." A strange idea, this list.
#15 Posted by Stewart, CJR on Thu 12 Jul 2012 at 02:31 PM
Add to the list of missing pioneers Meg Greenfield and Carole Simpson.
Both broke barriers in the 1960s and 1970s, in print and in broadcast.
#16 Posted by Bill Hensel, CJR on Thu 12 Jul 2012 at 03:10 PM
Good List but you are missing one of the most influential women in media—Nikki Finke. Her website, Deadline Hollywood which she founded just 5 years ago has changed Hollywood. She breaks the stories, EVERYONE reads her and the entire town is scared of her brutal fearless honesty.
Surprised you missed her as there’s no question she’s a game changer.
#17 Posted by Javier, CJR on Thu 12 Jul 2012 at 04:20 PM
You neglected someone right under your noses profiled in this very issue of CJR: the inimitable Kate Boo. Her prose rocks the heart.
#18 Posted by roberta baskin, CJR on Thu 12 Jul 2012 at 11:22 PM
That's a great list, but the last one is incorrect.
The first woman to produce a prime-time network news show was Susan's predecessor at "48 Hours," Cathy Lasiewicz. Interestingly, that was not the first prime-time network news show whose executive producer was a woman. That distinction belongs to "Street Stories," which aired on CBS from 1992-93 and was anchored by Ed Bradley. I was the show's writer.
The executive producer? Cathy Lasiewicz.
#19 Posted by Greg Kandra, CJR on Thu 12 Jul 2012 at 11:47 PM
I see the fundamental principle of journalism still applies...
NEVER LET THE FACTS GET IN THE WAY OF A GOOD STORY.
#20 Posted by shambles, CJR on Fri 13 Jul 2012 at 05:28 AM
No Katharine Graham?
#21 Posted by Tim Smith, CJR on Fri 13 Jul 2012 at 09:26 AM
I think Suzanne Braun Levine needs to be added to your list. She was the first editor of Ms. magazine and also the editor of the Columbia Journalism Review.
#22 Posted by Daniel Sheridan, CJR on Sun 15 Jul 2012 at 06:36 AM
I second Tim Sullivan, no list of media women who matter is complete without Amy Goodman.
#23 Posted by Steve Wax, CJR on Sun 15 Jul 2012 at 11:02 AM
Reviewing the article title, did I see Callie Khouri's name? Her landmark screenplay for the 1991 film Thelma & Louise has been key inspiration and motivation for change in a multitude of ways. Her directorial effort influenced the title of this article, while her game-changing contribution to film history moved the topic of women in media forward more than any other film I can recall. Her screenplay has affected major politics, film, news casting, and influenced society and culture in numerous other ways, too, including fashion, women's friendships and a renewed lack of reverance for rape.
#24 Posted by Gina Fournier, CJR on Mon 16 Jul 2012 at 10:12 AM
Bev Broadman and Cissy Baker, legendary forces in CNN's heyday.
#25 Posted by Greg Lefevre, CJR on Mon 16 Jul 2012 at 01:37 PM
The New Yorker's Jane Mayer, for "Strange Justice," doing what the daily media didn't do for and to Clarence Thomas. Susan Faludhi, for Backlash, another mirror; Katherine Boo, for covering the poor in a new way. Geneva Overholzer, as managing editor of a Midwest newspaper (sorry, forgot which) for breakthrough feature coverage of a rape using the woman's name (with her cooperation.) Joan Didion, for pioneering expansion of the essay form, combining personal voice and hard reporting. Countless invisible women at newspapers and magazines, laboring with workplace bias, and nevertheless expanding forms and bringing a different voice and tone to reporting. All rank higher on my personal list than Diane Sawyer (remember that simpering rehabilitative interview with Michael Jackson after he was first accused of molestation? ) and Connie ('it's off the record") Chung.
#26 Posted by Katy Butler, CJR on Tue 17 Jul 2012 at 12:48 PM
A second to earlier posts on overlooking Amy Goodman and Helen Thomas on list. Thomas was the trailblazer for women political reporters.
#27 Posted by Deborah T. Givens, CJR on Mon 20 Aug 2012 at 10:49 AM
What about Margot Slade?! former Sr. Editor The New York Times, Exec Editor Consumer Reports, Managing Editor Bloomberg News and now deputy editorial director, The Daily Voice.
#28 Posted by Anonymous, CJR on Mon 27 Aug 2012 at 11:36 PM