Greg Dyke left the BBC in January, prompting his fall in the list

Mr Dyke, who had led the list last year, was replaced at number one by media magnate Rupert Murdoch.

His sudden fall has been attributed to his resignation in January following the findings of the Hutton report.

At number two on the list is Michael Grade, the new chairman of the BBC, who took up his job in May.

Mr Murdoch, 73, is the largest shareholder in satellite TV broadcaster BSkyB, as well as the owner of four newspapers in the UK, including The Sun and The Times. In last year's list he was ranked at number two.

Highest editor

At number 12 is Mr Murdoch's son James, who is chief executive of BSkyB.

At third place is David Currie, the head of the new media regulator Ofcom, who was also in third place last year.

At fourth place is new entry Peter Burt, the chairman of ITV.

TOP FIVE MEDIA FIGURES 1 Rupert Murdoch, media magnate 2 Michael Grade, chairman of the BBC 3 David Currie, Ofcom chairman 4 Peter Burt, chairman ITV 5 Tessa Jowell, culture secretary Source: Media Guardian 100

The highest-placed newspaper editor, at number seven, is Paul Dacre, the editor-in-chief of Associated Newspapers, which publishes the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday.

The new proprietors of the Telegraph titles, David and Frederick Barclay, are also new entrant on this year's list, at number 11.

At number eight is Sun political editor Trevor Kavanagh, rising 48 places from 56.

At number 20 are Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the inventors of the internet search engine Google.

The list, published every year, is chosen by a panel of media figures.