CEO runner-up: Richard Rosenblatt

Rosenblatt's big media idea is simple but brilliant:  Give the masses what they want.  His Demand Media uses a team of freelancers to churn out 7,000 videos and articles a day, based on a sophisticated computer analysis of what online readers are searching for on any given day.  The material appears on Demand's own family of sites, but also on mainstream media outlets such as USA Today.  Readers are happy, and advertisers apparently are too:  Executives say that Demand Media has been profitable since its start, reportedly generating more than $200 million in revenue a year.  The company is said to be exploring the possibility of an IPO.  (Demand and Rosenblatt, 41, won't comment.) -- Beth Kowitt

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