The biz media and the CEO as celebrity

Davdi Weidner of Marketwatch writes Thursday about how business journalists made CEOs celebrities, and how some of these CEOs now need to earn their celebrity status.

Weidner writes, “Until a few years ago, the American chief executive used to be largely anonymous.

“Back in the 1970s, when stock ownership was mostly the province of sophisticated investors, CEOs were reclusive. They were stodgy, old, white men who didn’t give interviews. When they did, they had all the charisma of the fine print in a 10Q.

“That all changed in the 1980s when magazines such as BusinessWeek, Fortune and Forbes put American CEOs on the front cover accompanied by flattering profiles inside. The blossoming business media ushered in the era of the celebrity chief executive.

“It’s in that culture, the culture we have today, that three chief executives – – Jeffrey Immelt, Ken Thompson and Kerry Killinger — made their names. Immelt, Thompson and Killinger also have something else in common: they all were exposed as overhyped pedestrian CEOs this week.”

Read more here.