MAVEN OF MEDIA MEASURING

Susan Whiting

Nielsen Media Research

Susan Whiting helped make cable television a media powerhouse. As a young innovator at Nielsen Media Research Inc. in the 1980s, she helped created the rating systems that allowed sponsors to track cable viewers and consequently gain the confidence they needed to spend billions of dollars on advertising.

It was a labor of love for Ms. Whiting, who joined Nielsen right out of college 29 years ago. "We were basically running with ideas as soon as we developed them," she says. "We were helping a whole industry build itself."

That industry turned on her in 2005, when Nielsen's new digital meters reported ratings for some channels that were lower than previous measurements. Media executives lobbied politicians to intervene, and Ms. Whiting had to testify in support of the new systems at two congressional hearings. She eventually won the war and gained political allies.

In January, 51-year-old Ms. Whiting was named chair of Nielsen Media Research and executive vice president of The Nielsen Co., its Dutch parent. These market research companies are active in more than 100 countries, with over 38,000 employees. They collect data on every television show in the United States and more than 70% of global Internet activity, and they track box-office grosses for more than 50,000 movie screens.

- Tommy Fernandez