--- title: How TIME Picks the Person of the Year | TIME description: TIME editors explain the selection process and the need for secrecy in the magazine’s annual pick of Person of the Year canonical: https://time.com/video/KRfbqF0u/ og:title: How TIME Picks the Person of the Year og:description: TIME editors explain the selection process and the need for secrecy in the magazine’s annual pick of Person of the Year og:url: https://time.com/video/KRfbqF0u/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/KRfbqF0u/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How TIME Picks the Person of the Year twitter:description: TIME editors explain the selection process and the need for secrecy in the magazine’s annual pick of Person of the Year twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/KRfbqF0u/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # How TIME Picks the Person of the Year > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: How TIME Picks the Person of the Year [Watch (HLS stream): How TIME Picks the Person of the Year](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KRfbqF0u.m3u8) (3:33)  _Published 2009-08-12. TIME editors explain the selection process and the need for secrecy in the magazine’s annual pick of Person of the Year_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:08 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Who's Your Pick for Time's Person of the Year?](/video/VoHZogz0/) ### Who's Your Pick for Time's Person of the Year? [TIME Magazine's Person of the Year: The Choice](/video/g2AkZwa8/) ### TIME Magazine's Person of the Year: The Choice [Who Should Be TIME's Person of the Year 2011?](/video/3UapJ6fe/) ### Who Should Be TIME's Person of the Year 2011? --- ## Transcript >> We thank the world community for their great contribution-- >> I have a dream to be-- >> An iron curtain has descended across the Continent-- >> An indefinable mysterious power-- >> The Person of the Year is the person-- >> Who most affected the news-- >> For better or for worse. >> That is how TIME editors define the magazine's Person of the Year. And their annual pick, is one of the most anticipated announcements in journalism. >> It began with the editors feeling that they had missed the historic story of Charles Lindbergh-- >> I landed with the expectancy to see Europe. >> and they felt, why don't we put Charles Lindbergh on the cover and name him Man of the Year? >> The decision over who to choose as Person of the Year generates a lot of debate among staffers. But one thing editors do agree on-- >> It's not an honor-- >> Not an honor-- >> Not an honor. >> It's neutral. It's a recognition of somebody's effect on the world. Last year in choosing Putin, what I was thinking about and wanted to do was to kind of re- animate the definition. To say that it's not someone who does something for-- necessarily for good. Putin is a mixed figure. >> On the other hand in 2001, after the World Trade Center was attacked, TIME's editor decided not to put a bad guy on the cover. >> It came down to basically three people: Osama bin Laden, George Bush and Rudy Giuliani. For variety of reasons, the best and most interesting choice that I've realized would be Mayor Giuliani. >> But the main focus right now, obviously, is on saving as many lives as possible. >> There are a lot of people who felt that we had been less than faithful to the standard that we have always set out for Person of the Year. A lot of people pointed out that we put Adolf Hitler on the cover, he was Person of the Year, Ayatollah Khomeini-- The editors decided that Giuliani really embodied what was really most important, what we were vi-- what we learned about ourselves, which was that we could recover from these things; that this wasn't something that was gonna bring the United States to its knees. >> We haven't given up hope yet. We're all embracing each other; America is embracing each other. >> The list of potential candidates for Person of the Year gets started in September. >> We put out a call to everyone on our staff and really encourage people to think out of the box. >> We start to narrow it down and we start-- people make arguments well, you know, " That's a crazy choice" and " Here's why" and " Here's what makes the most sense ". And it becomes a dialogue, it becomes a debate. >> Part of the challenge of Person of the Year is to do something that is a little bit surprising. There's also the challenge of how you present something that they know already, in a new way. >> As the list of candidates gets winnowed down, so does the number of editors who are privy to the decision- making process. >> The, you know, the meetings tend to get smaller and more intimate. And really, you would always wanna preserve secrecy 'cause that's part of the interest. >> It's a little bit of a shell game in some ways. We have people working on parallel tracks. There are often three finalists or three contenders and at the end of the day, you can choose one at the last second. >> While a lot of people have passionate ideas about who TIME magazine should name, only one person makes the decision. >> Well the buck stops here. >> To find out who managing editor, Rick Stengel, chose as 2008's Person of the Year, go to TIME. com on December 17th or, look for TIME Magazine on newsstands, December 19th. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How TIME Picks the Person of the Year","description":"TIME editors explain the selection process and the need for secrecy in the magazine’s annual pick of Person of the Year","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/KRfbqF0u/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2009-08-12T18:04:26.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KRfbqF0u.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/KRfbqF0u/","duration":"PT3M33S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/KRfbqF0u/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```