America’s most exciting election in decades has focused even more attention than usual on the foreign-born billionaire who has made himself into this country’s premier media mogul: Rupert Murdoch. How Murdoch will use his vast holdings, which now include the grand old Wall Street Journal, to cover – and maybe even shape – the election is a question of huge import for anyone with an interest in the media, or politics, or both.

For obvious, competitive reasons, it is something I am very interested in too. But in our fascination with old-style press barons, of whom Murdoch is surely the boldest manifestation, I wonder if we are underrating the rise of a new type of media tycoon. I’m not thinking of the internet guys – the Brins and Zuckerbergs of our age have had a revolutionary impact on the way we create and consume information, but, so far, they have steered clear of producing much content themselves. The baron I have in mind is actually a “baroness” – Oprah Winfrey, who this month announced plans to launch a new, eponymous, television channel.