by Patricia Sellers
If you're a TV fan or any sort of media maven, check out this story about NBC Universal's (GE) study of viewer emotions toward the most-watched shows of the past 50 years.
NBCU surveyed some 3,500 heavy TV watchers and asked what emotions they felt viewing each program. Lauren Zalaznick, President of NBC Universal Women and Lifestyle Entertainment Networks, presented the findings, with cool moving graphics, at the TEDWomen MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 22, 2010 2:40 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Meredith Whitney dropped a big lump of coal on municipal bond investors' holiday.
Sunday night, on 60 Minutes, the Wall Street analyst -- who warned early and famously in October 2007 that bank stocks would collapse, and soon they did -- blared her warning about the dire financial conditions of the U.S. states. Since her TV turn, Whitney told me this morning, she's been fielding lots of emails and MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 21, 2010 11:45 AM ET
by Patricia Sellers
The best bosses tend to be those who welcome bad news -- "Hit me with your best shot!" -- and keep hope alive.
That balance is at the heart of the remarkable turnaround at Ford (F). Last week at the Yale CEO Summit, a gathering of corporate chiefs and other influentials led by Yale professor Jeff Sonnenfeld, Ford Americas President Mark Fields told a story that conveys how Ford MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 20, 2010 12:32 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ) Sheri McCoy has been rocketing up Fortune's Most Powerful Women list. This year, she is No. 12, vs. No. 44 in 2008.
The giant leap was the result of her promotion to worldwide chairman of J&J's pharmaceuticals group, a $22.5 billion-a year business. And Fortune has been predicting for a while that McCoy has a good shot to be J&J's next CEO.
Sure enough, McCoy is MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 16, 2010 12:33 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Don't plan on buying Nathan Myhrvold's 2,400-page Modernist Cuisine for your beloved this Christmas.
The six-volume tome by Microsoft's (MSFT) former chief technology officer was due out in December and is currently listed for $451.25 on Amazon.com. But Myhrvold told me yesterday that a glitch waylaid the on-time delivery of his years-in-the-making labor of love.
Modernist Cuisine flunked Amazon's package durability tests. Not once but three times.
Most Amazon (AMZN) customers MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 15, 2010 10:57 AM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Yahoo (YHOO) has reportedly begun the layoffs that I wrote about on Postcards last week.
Meanwhile, the Silicon Valley company that's dominating the news is Netflix (NFLX). Founder-CEO Reed Hastings is Fortune's Businessperson of the Year. In the past three weeks since we put him on the cover, the war of words over his power -- and his level of threat to the media giants' steady profit streams -- MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 13, 2010 1:19 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg wrote one of the most-read Guest Posts ever on Postcards. "Don't Leave Before You Leave" ranks second in popularity to a post written by my 93-year-old Uncle Walter Stoiber, "The Great Depression, as I remember."
Yesterday at TEDWomen, a gathering in Washington, D.C., Sandberg expounded on the theme of her Guest Post: helping women understand what they need to do to reach the top. This MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 8, 2010 1:06 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Credit: Asa Mathat
While rumors keep swirling about Yahoo (YHOO) merging with AOL (AOL) in a deal that would include private equity, don't hold your breath. A source close to Yahoo told me today that neither AOL nor private equity buyers have contacted the company to discuss a potential deal.
Meanwhile, Yahoo news that should transpire sooner: layoffs. Sources tell me that Yahoo next week plans to announce 10% MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 6, 2010 2:48 PM ET
By Patricia Sellers
On stage at Fortune's Most Powerful Women dinner in Silicon Valley, I interviewed Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz.
Approaching two years in the job, Bartz has slashed costs and improved Yahoo's profits, but she's seriously under the gun to get revenues growing and up the company's game against Google (GOOG) and social sites like Facebook.
In an interview last January, Bartz graded her job performance "B minus." What grade does MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 1, 2010 2:35 PM ET
For the latest on the most influential women in business, philanthropy, government, and the arts, like us on Facebook. 
In a funny and candid interview, Google VP Marissa Mayer explains how she got to the top. Watch
Xerox CEO Ursula Burns shares how she once accepted a job with Dell but ended up staying with Xerox. Watch
Pattie Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Oprah's Next Act," "Can Meg Whitman Save California?" "The $100 Billion Woman" (Melinda Gates), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). Since its launch in 1998, Pattie has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women" cover package.
A specialist at dissecting larger-than-life personalities, she has also profiled former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Morgan Stanley chairman John Mack, and countless CEOs.
Pattie co-chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big brand companies.
In Pattie's blog, Postcards, she provides insight into the lives of super-achievers through commentary, career advice, and Guest Posts by CEOs and other leaders.
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Fortune Most Powerful Women
Sheryl Sandberg:
Gina Bianchini
