Announcing The Econoclast10: Most Innovative Celebrities In Digital Media

In conjunction with our EconCeleb conference later today, we present the Econoclast10 , a top 10 list of the most influential and innovative online celebrities. Whether they're blogging, investing, entertaining or, well, updating their MySpace profiles, these celebs are finding new ways to reach and interact with their fans. Check out the fancier, illustrated version here .

Our Econoclast10 is below. Please feel free to tell us which picks you agree with—and which ones you don't—and add your own nominations in the comments.

#1) Will Ferrell, Chris Henchy and Adam McKay : The trio's venture FunnyorDie.com has funny videos featuring celebrities, comedians and you. HBO, which couldn't make its own comedy site work, recently took a small stake in the site. The trio has wrangled in a plethora of Hollywood's hipper comedy elite to contribute to FunnyorDie.com and other sites in its network.

#2) Will.i.am : Black Eyed Peas hip-hop star Will.i.am has his own social network online, Dipdive, and has struck a deal with RIM ( NSDQ: RIMM ) to put it on Blackberry handsets. He also served as a spokesperson at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Beyond that, Will is responsible for the "Yes We Can" video supporting democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, The video was released on Dipdive.com and YouTube.com, and featured 35 stars including Kate Walsh, John Legend and Scarlett Johansson. It was viewed more than 17 million times and inspired dozens of others to follow suit.

#3) Ashton Kutcher : Ashton Kutcher co-founded the production company Katalyst, which has created TV shows and movies. The company has gone digital and signed a deal with AOL ( NYSE: TWX ) to produce five programs each with at least 20 mini-episodes to be distributed on AOL.com and AIM. Kutcher is also creative director for tech start-up Ooma; Kutcher's spearheading the marketing campaign and producing viral videos to promote this service. More named after the jump...

#5) 50 Cent : From drug dealing to fame with the release of his 2003 album "Get Rich or Die Tryin'," Curtis James Jackson III has become a rap mogul, founding G-Unit records and achieving multi-platinum success. In addition, Fifty founded the G-Unit Clothing company, has dabbled in movies and consumer products, and has used his Web sites, 50cent.com and thisis50.com, to push the promotion of 50 Cent events and memorabilia arguably more than any urban rap artist to date.

#6) Stephen Colbert : Well known for his popular Comedy Central show, "The Colbert Report," Stephen Colbert has used the Internet to interact with his fans in new and innovative ways, from Google SEO to a presidential campaign complete with Facebook groups. A winner of the 2008 Webby Awards for "Person of the Year," Colbert has also used his fame and success to raise funds for his education charity, DonorsChoose.org.

#7) Radiohead : At the end of 2007, Radiohead released their newest album, "In Rainbows," online in a "pay what you want" form. Some artists are commending the move, most notably, Bono, and others, such as Coldplay, have followed suit by offering their latest single online for free. Radiohead has since re-released their album on-demand on Last.fm and now have their own branded section and new music video available on Google ( NSDQ: GOOG ) and iGoogle.

#8) Peter Gabriel : From his initial fame as the lead vocalist of the rock group Genesis, Peter Gabriel has had a successful solo career and more recently has become a pioneer in digital distribution for music. Gabriel backed OD2, one of the first digital music companies We7, and more recently TheFilter.com , an entertainment site that filters users tastes in music, movies and Web video.

#9) Tila Tequila : Beginning her career with modeling in "Playboy" and "Import Tuner," Tila Nguyen had begun to find some success as a reality TV star and TV host before her MySpace page catapulted her to fame and "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila" debuted. She is now turning to music and with an unconventional tactic: instead of signing with a major record label she will release her first songs only online.

#10) Martha Stewart : Martha Stewart has made her mark in the digital space with MarthaStewart.com, which not only houses her blog and social net, but also recipes, gardening tips and home decorating advice, to name a few—oh, and did we mention she reads the WSJ on her Amazon ( NSDQ: AMZN ) Kindle? This year her company bought Emeril and a large stake in wedding planning community site WeddingWire. Late last year, it launched the Martha's Circle network, enabling advertisers to reach targeted audiences via its niche blogs and sites. Additionally, MarthaStewart.com has everything from recipes to entertaining ideas, and her TV show. The Martha Stewart brand has integrated partnerships online with companies including 1800 Flowers, Everyday Food and Macy's.

Industry Moves: Microsoft's Kevin Johnson Out; Reorg Of Platform And Services; Ballmer Memo

A major departure at Microsoft ( NSDQ: MSFT ) this evening: Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft's Platforms and Services Division, is leaving the company to head up gearmaker Juniper Networks. The departure will coincide with a reorg that will see Johnson's unit split into two parts. Microsoft's official announcement is here . The news was first reported at WSJ .

Johnson, who has been with Microsoft since 1992, and at his current position since 2005, was seen as a major figure in the company's attempt to acquire Yahoo ( NSDQ: YHOO ). In his official bio , the company touts 30 acquisitions under his watch in support of its 'software+services' strategy.

As for the reorg of his unit, here's how it works: One unit will oversee the Windows operating system and related online services. The other will oversee the pure online-only aspects, like MSN.com and the online advertising business. The first group will be headed by CEO Steve Ballmer, and three other executives. The company will begin a search for a newly created role to head up the other unit.

See more here from Kara at AllThingsD , who has also obtained a copy of a memo sent out by Steve Ballmer. It covers a wide range of stuff that must keep Ballmer up at night: Here are some key parts:

-- On Competition With Apple : "In the competition between PCs and Macs, we outsell Apple ( NSDQ: AAPL ) 30-to-1. But there is no doubt that Apple is thriving. Why? Because they are good at providing an experience that is narrow but complete, while our commitment to choice often comes with some compromises to the end-to-end experience. Today, we're changing the way we work with hardware vendors to ensure that we can provide complete experiences with absolutely no compromises. "

-- On Competition With Google : "In the coming years, we'll make progress against Google ( NSDQ: GOOG ) in search first by upping the ante in R&D through organic innovation and strategic acquisitions. Second, we will out-innovate Google in key areas—we're already seeing this in our maps and news search. Third, we are going to reinvent the search category through user experience and business model innovation. We'll introduce new approaches that move beyond a white page with 10 blue links to provide customers with a customized view of their world." (Ed note: they've been saying this for a long time, especially that '10 blue links' part)

-- On Yahoo deal : "Related to Google and our search strategy are the discussions we had with Yahoo. I want to emphasize the point I've been making all along—Yahoo was a tactic, not a strategy. We want to accelerate our share of search queries and create a bigger pool of advertisers, and Yahoo would have helped us get there faster. But we will get there with or without Yahoo. "

-- On the Reorg : Actually, this is the one part where there's not much that wasn't in the press release.

• Kevin Johnson: Yahoo Offer Fair; Business As Usual; Thinking About Brands; The Culture Thing

@ EconCeleb: Harvey Levin: 'We Don't Want To Be A Red Carpet'

As managing editor of TMZ.com, Harvey Levin can be a celeb's best friend or worst nightmare—not that he's trying to be either. That's coming through loud and clear in our second keynote Q&A of the afternoon here at EconCeleb. Interviewer Charlie Koones , former president and publisher of Variety and former board member of our parent company ContentNext Media, put it bluntly from the start when he asked: "It seems like you one day said, 'Screw it. I'm not playing that game. Is that an accurate portrayal?" Levin was just as blunt: "Yes."

He explained the thinking behind the WB-AOL ( NYSE: TWX ) joint venture that borrows some of its psychology from his previous show Celebrity Justice : "If a publicist was pissed at a celebrity show, they could get the story pulled by saying you're never going to get on again if you run this story. ... (I decided) we can do an honest show and not be beholden to anybody. We're going to be really honest and tell real stories. ... It's not as if we don't work with publicists. We do. We tell them 'work with us once and if we screw with you never work with us again . Try us once and if we're fair with you, try us again."

Put another way: "We don't want to be a red carpet."

-- The agencies : Rafat told Levin and attendees during Q&A that we're missing the big agencies from today's lineup because they said they didn't want to appear with TMZ. That doesn't stop them from cooperating with TMZ, though, at least based on Levin's response. "Do agencies play a material role in what we're doing? Of course, they do."

-- What won't he do : "I won't do stolen documents, I won't do medical records if someone hands it." He tossed someone out of his office for trying to shop Michael Jackson documents because he was sure they were stolen from a law firm. "It would have been an amazing story. It was legit, it was a real story, it would have gotten huge traffic. I just wouldn't do it. ... When you're tempted to do it, as soon as you open the door to it, you're dead . You've got to feel like you can turn a story away and still survive." Even Levin can still be shocked: "When Britney Spears was in the hospital, it was shocking to me but we were contacted by medical personnel. ... You really have to draw the line." They don't skip medical stories—TMZ broke the Dennis Quaid story about his newborn twins being overdosed and might report on how Spears is doing anecdotally during a hospital stay. The hardest decision Levin's had to make: publishing Alec Baldwin's voice-mail tirade aimed at his daughter.

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