While some like to keep it all in the (corporate) family — Disney's Bob Iger prefers ABC News, naturally — many others say they turn to social media (Judd Apatow cites Patton Oswalt's Twitter rants) as their go-to for staying current.
You might be surprised how many of Hollywood's most powerful people get their news from Twitter.
As part of The Hollywood Reporter's second annual ranking of the industry's most powerful creatives, stars, executives, reps and directors, THR asked the honorees to reveal their primary news source.
While many of Hollywood's top entertainment execs (38 percent) said their No. 1 source is what President Trump calls the "failing" New York Times, others showed their corporate loyalty — Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger said he turns to Disney-owned ABC News and NBC chairman Robert Greenblatt prefers NBC News.
Social media also looms large in their media diets. Among those citing Twitter as a primary news source are CBS Entertainment president Kelly Kahl, actor-producer Dwayne Johnson, MGM chairman and CEO Gary Barber, Showtime Networks CEO David Nevins, writer-director Barry Jenkins and director-producer Judd Apatow, who specifically cited "the twitter rants of @pattonoswalt."
Meanwhile, filmmaker-actor-producer Jordan Peele gave what might be the most creative answer of all: “Ancient Aliens on the History channel.”
Bob Iger, chairman/CEO, Walt Disney Co. (No. 1)
"ABC News, major national newspapers and online news aggregators."
Bob Bakish, president and CEO, Viacom (No. 6)
"Google Alerts."
Alan Horn, chairman, Walt Disney Studios (No. 8)
"New York Times."
Peter Rice, chairman and CEO, Fox Networks Group (No. 10)
"My iPhone."
Emma Watts, Vice chairman and president of production, 20th Century Fox Film (No. 12)
"New York Times and The Washington Post."
Ariel Emanuel, co-CEO, WME-IMG (No. 13)
“Washington Post.”
Patrick Whitesell, co-CEO, WME-IMG (No. 13)
"Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Flipboard."
Dana Walden, co-CEO and chairman, Fox TV Group (No. 16)
"Gary Newman."
Gary Newman, co-CEO and chairman, Fox TV Group (No. 16)
“You can’t just rely on one source anymore. I get a number of email updates from various news services for breaking news. I like The Wall Street Journal and New York Times for more in-depth reporting.”
John Lasseter, chief creative officer, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios (No. 17)
“Apple News.”
Jon Feltheimer, CEO, Lionsgate Entertainment (No. 20)
“At the office, CNBC. At home, CNN.”
Casey Bloys, president of programming, HBO (No. 23)
“New York Times.”
Richard Plepler, CEO, HBO (No. 23)
“Print – New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post; TV – CNN.”
Tony Vinciquerra, chairman and CEO, Sony Pictures Entertainment (No. 26)
“Multiple sources and lately it’s like drinking from a firehose.”
Tom Rothman, chairman, Motion Picture Group, Sony Pictures Entertainment (No. 26)
“I read four newspapers every day, on actual newspaper, New York Times, L.A. Times, Wall Street Journal and Financial Times.”
Paul Telegdy, alternative & reality, NBC Entertainment (No. 27)
“BBC.”
Robert Greenblatt, chairman, NBC (No. 27)
"Andy Lack and NBC News, of course."
Ryan Murphy, writer/executive producer (No. 28)
“It used to be The New York Times, but now I have MSNBC on in a loop in my house.”
Chris Meledandri, CEO, Illumination Entertainment (No. 29)
“New York Times.”
David Kramer, managing director, United Talent Agency (No. 33)
“These days, I seem to be paying attention to news more than ever before. I listen to a lot of NPR and Pod Save America, read The New York Times and watch a lot of Chuck Todd, Jake Tapper and Rachel Maddow, to name a few.”
Jay Sures, managing director, United Talent Agency (No. 33)
”All my news clients, I can’t pick favorites!”
Dwayne Johnson, actor-producer (No. 34)
“Twitter.”
David Nevins, CEO, Showtime Networks (No. 36)
“Twitter and newspapers on my iPad.”
Nancy Dubuc, president/CEO, A+E Networks (No. 44)
"The key these days is not to have one. It's amazing how challenging it's becoming to just get the facts."
Cindy Holland, vp original content, Netflix (No. 45)
“KCRW/NPR.”
Dick Wolf, executive producer (No. 46)
“Depends on the day.”
Chuck Lorre, writer-producer (No. 47)
“John Oliver.”
John Skipper, president, ESPN, and co-chairman, Disney Media Networks (No. 49)
“New York Times and ABC News”
David Zaslav, president/CEO, Discovery Communications (No. 56)
“Early morning read of newspapers like Wall Street Journal, New York Times, New York Post and NowThis. Plus Googling Trump news.”
Peter Chernin, chairman and CEO, Chernin Group (No. 50)
“New York Times.”
Judd Apatow, director/producer (No. 51)
“The twitter rants of @pattonoswalt."
Greg Berlanti, writer-producer (No. 52)
“An actual print copy of the New York Times that I read in the morning.”
Gary Barber, chairman and CEO, MGM (No. 54)
“Twitter.”
Channing Dungey, president, ABC Entertainment (No. 55)
“My daughter’s Snapchat stories.”
Simon Kinberg, writer/producer (No. 59)
“Eavesdropping”
Mark Pedowitz, president, The CW (No. 60)
“Starting at about 6 a.m., I read at least five newspapers every day: New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Post, WSJ, USA Today and of course, the NY Post.”
Chris Albrecht, CEO, Starz (No. 61)
“My iPhone feed.”
Diane Nelson, president, DC Entertainment (No. 64)
“CNN, MSNBC, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times. Fox News for a reality check.”
Geoff Johns, president/chief creative officer, DC Entertainment (No. 64)
“Twitter. My favorite echo chamber!”
Jon Berg, co-president, production & development, Warner Bros. Pictures (No. 64)
“Apple News and The New York Times.”
Adam Fogelson, Chairman, STXfilms Motion Picture Group (No. 66)
“CNN.”
Tyler Perry, actor-producer; CEO, Tyler Perry Studios (No. 67)
“CNN.”
Zack Van Amburg, president, U.S. programming and production, Sony Pictures TV (No. 69)
“My kids. Sure, CNN, The WSJ, The New York Times. My kids teach me more.”
Ava DuVernay, director-producer (No. 70)
“My social media feeds that aggregate headlines from multiple sources around the world.”
Kelly Kahl, president, CBS Entertainment (No. 71)
“For better or worse, Twitter.”
Noah Hawley, writer/producer (No. 76)
"New York Times. I try to read the physical paper. It’s just a different experience. After the election, I stopped going on Twitter and Instagram and stuff. I’m sure all my followers are wondering where I went, but I just felt like that instant culture thing is not helping anybody — and at least give us the night to absorb, allow somebody to think about it and write things up and research it.”
Chris Silbermann, managing partner, ICM Partners (No. 77)
“Newspapers. I’m old school.”
Frank Marshall, producer (No. 79)
“New York Times.”
Kevin Hart, actor-comedian (No. 80)
“My phone. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook — nothing happens that doesn’t hit one of those.”
Brett Ratner, CEO, RatPac Entertainment (No. 82)
“MediaREDEF.”
Jeff Skoll, founder, Participant Media (No. 83)
“Mix of mainstream print, issue based publications, and alternative short form video outlets. Plus the NHL App!”
Kevin Beggs, chairman, Lionsgate TV Group (No. 91)
“New York Times, The Manchester Guardian.”
Jordan Peele, filmmaker-producer-actor (No. 93)
“Ancient Aliens on the History channel.”
Patty Jenkins, director (No. 94)
“Google News.”
Brian Grazer, partner, Imagine Entertainment (No. 95)
“Jason Hirschhorn’s MediaREDEF.”
Neal Moritz, producer (No. 96)
“The Hollywood Reporter.”
Barry Jenkins, writer-director (No. 97)
“Twitter, where I follow journalists to see the news the news writers find newsworthy. It's my RSS feed. And it's global. There are no borders on Twitter.”
Reese Witherspoon, actor-producer (No. 98)
“Wall Street Journal and the Skimm and BoF”
David Ellison, founder/CEO, Skydance (No. 99)
“The Economist and Huffington Post.”