All I want for Christmas is a business magazine with a CEO list

TheDeal.com executive editor Yvette Kantrow writes Friday about all of the end-of-the-year business magazines coming out with lists of the top CEOs and leaders.

Kantrow wrote, “The parade began with Corporate Leader’s debut issue last month, which gave us ‘The Best CEOs in America’; was followed by ranking-obsessed Fortune’s ‘Power 25 List’; and included the newly list-happy U.S. News & World Report’s ‘America’s Best Leaders.’ Wading through all these random rankings — accompanied by breathless profiles and overly serious explanations of bogus methodologies — left us yearning for last year’s version of Fortune’s Power List, when the magazine wisely ‘decided to eliminate rankings’ and provide instead photo portraits of 25 big machers, unencumbered by any hype-infected text.

“Indeed, this is the first time in a while that Fortune produced a traditional ranking for its Power List, having taken a strange detour in 2005 to publish ’25 People We Envy Most’ in its place. As ridiculous as that list was — and with names like Sean Hannity, Burt Rutan (who?) and Jake Burton (who again?), it was pretty ridiculous — Fortune’s impulse to eschew a traditional ranking of the powerful was a good one.

“Just take a look at its 2004 offering to see why. Coming in at No. 7 was recently deposed Citigroup Inc. CEO Chuck Prince, who was lauded for showing ‘great skill running the world’s largest financial services company.’ Ousted Merrill Lynch & Co. chief Stan O’Neal came in at No. 20 and was hailed as a ‘visionary.’ Of course, their departures don’t negate the fact that these two wielded power back in 2004, when they headed major institutions. But their current situations show what an amorphous concept power can be.”

Read more here.