It’s been a busy week at GE’s NBC Universal. Not only did Hulu.com, the popular video web venture of NBCU and Fox add a major new partner — Walt Disney Company and its ABC network — but Lauren Zalaznick was added to a very select group. The President of NBCU’s Women & Lifestyle Entertainment Networks, which includes Bravo and Oxygen, is on the “Time 100″ list of the world’s most influential people. At No. 29 under Time’s heading of “Builders & Titans” — Lauren is one notch ahead of the powerful U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Not too shabby.
The name game: NBCU’s Lauren Zalaznick is in good company on
Time magazine’s list with heavy hitters from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to Brad Pitt and the guys who created Twitter.
Martha Stewart writes the profile of Lauren in the magazine, saying: “When you’re building a brand, you have to know exactly what that brand stands for… Her programs are filled with creative, talented and real people. Her shows, and those on them, don’t make any apologies for being themselves. Lauren, 46, has transformed that network so that you can now recognize a Bravo show at a distance. To do that kind of work in a very crowded field takes more than a producer — it takes a visionary.”
* Read Martha’s write-up in Time
* Read The New York Times‘ story about the deal with hulu.com, which just became the third most popular video site on the Web.
And, as long as we’re looking at lists, a tip of the hat was given to GE with its ranking on Forbes magazine’s annual list of “America’s Most Reputable Companies.” GE came in at No. 17. That’s behind PepsiCo, Google and Johnson & Johnson but ahead of Apple, Coca-Cola and IBM.
* See the full rankings
* Read the Forbes story
* Learn more about GE’s cable entertainment business
