Jonah Peretti

If online media had a Henry Ford, it would be Peretti, who for more than a decade has been studying -- and ruthlessly optimizing for -- the ways people get information on the Internet. His success at goosing the rankings of HuffPost stories in search results fueled the site's frantic growth; by the time he launched BuzzFeed in 2008, social networks were in bloom, hence the site's wellknown reliance on shareable listicles like "15 Tiny Hats on Cats." The formula is working: In August, BuzzFeed drew a record 85 million unique visitors -- and a growing roster of heavyweight journalists help it break real news too.