The Manhattan 100: Our Methodology, Published First
How the list is built, what counts, what does not, and why we are publishing the criteria before the names.
We are publishing this before the list itself, deliberately. A ranking whose criteria appear only after the names have been chosen is not a ranking; it is a justification. If the method is worth anything, it should survive being stated in advance.
What the list measures
The Manhattan 100 is a list of people whose decisions materially shape business, capital and development in New York. It is a measure of consequential influence within the city, not a measure of wealth, fame or personal merit.
That distinction matters. A quiet operator whose decisions move a sector belongs on it. A well-known person whose decisions do not belong to New York does not.
What we look at
Scale of the decisions a person controls; how much of that consequence lands in New York specifically; evidence of consequential decisions within the assessment period rather than reputation carried forward; and whether the influence is documented in public record rather than asserted.
What does not count
Payment. Nobody can buy a place on this list, and nobody can pay to be removed from it.
This is the point on which the whole exercise stands or falls. We sell paid feature coverage, and we disclose it visibly on every piece where it applies. The list is separate, and it is separate in the only way that matters: no commercial relationship is visible to, or considered by, the people compiling it.
Social media following, personal wealth in itself, and inherited position without current decision-making authority also do not count.
How it is compiled
From public record — filings, published transactions, official appointments, reported coverage — supplemented by interviews. Every entry must be supportable from sources we can point to.
Corrections
If we get an entry wrong, we will correct it on the page and say what changed. If you believe an inclusion or omission is wrong, tell us and show us why.
Why publish this at all
Because a list that cannot explain itself is worth nothing to the reader and, over time, worth nothing to the people on it.