Are you ready for the new reputation imperative?
Insights
Global Gateway Advisors
June 12, 2026
Corporate reputation is facing a stress test. New data from RepTrak show declining reputation scores across sectors and a growing reluctance among stakeholders to trust, support and advocate for organizations.
We spoke with Lyndsey Tierney, vice president, advisory at RepTrak, about why reputation can no longer be treated solely as a communications function and how AI, geopolitics, economic uncertainty and shifting audience expectations are reshaping how organizations earn trust and support in 2026.
ICYMI: The AI jobs debate is no longer just a tech story. We examined what communications leaders can do now to build credibility as questions about automation, reskilling and workforce impact intensify. Read it here.
What’s driving reputation today
Reputation has always been difficult to earn. Right now, it’s becoming harder to hold. RepTrak’s latest data show U.S. reputation scores hit their lowest point since 2017 this past March.
The forces driving that decline are layered: Economic uncertainty has reduced the touchpoints people have with companies; anti-American sentiment has created new risk for multinationals; and AI has introduced a new layer of reputation risk that most companies are just beginning to understand.
A conversation with Lyndsey Tierney, vice president, advisory at RepTrak, about navigating a ‘lower-forgiveness’ environment
In this COMPASS Q&A, we spoke with Tierney, whose firm tracks the reputation of more than 6,000 companies across 30+ industries. She shared her perspective on why reputation is a growing priority for CEOs, stakeholder behavior trends from RepTrak’s latest data, and how AI influences corporate reputation.
The following has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Q: Why has reputation become a bigger priority for CEOs and executive teams?
TIERNEY: We’ve definitely seen an increase in interest. CEOs are asking, “Are we doing anything to manage reputation?” Clients want data, but they also want help to act on that data, build reputation councils, expand into new stakeholders and understand where risk exists. Last week alone, I presented to three different CEOs. That didn’t always happen a few years ago.
Q: Your latest data show reputation declining across industries. What are you seeing?
TIERNEY: It’s not isolated to one or two industries. Virtually every industry faces a challenge right now. It’s a very difficult environment for companies to be communicating in.
Q: What does that mean for stakeholder behavior?
TIERNEY: We’re seeing fewer ambassadors, people who strongly support companies, and more fence sitters and detractors. There’s been a significant drop in willingness to buy, trust and give companies the benefit of the doubt. The result is a behavior pullback. We’re operating in a less resilient, lower-forgiveness environment right now.
Q: One trend that surprised many companies is growing anti-American sentiment. What are you seeing?
TIERNEY: We’ve seen a huge increase in concern about American-headquartered companies. If you’re based in the U.S., you need to be aware of this and prepared for it. Make sure you understand how to localize your communications and not just lean into the idea that you’re this big U.S. company. Think about what that really means locally, and understand some of those sensitivities.
Q: How has AI changed the way reputation is formed?
TIERNEY: We’re seeing fewer people recall traditional earned, paid and owned media. At the same time, more people are using AI to research companies, compare products and gather information before making decisions. AI is increasingly becoming a source of information for the same stakeholders communicators care most about.
Q: Can you give an example of what that risk looks like in practice?
TIERNEY: One example we can look at is that of a leading electric automotive manufacturer, which AI scores lower than its actual customers. We can look at this at an individual factor level: Product quality is the number one most important factor for this company’s reputation among customers, and customers rate them well on it.
But AI is giving them a 64.6 on that same factor, a pretty average score, significantly behind customers. Part of the reason is that AI is only going to the company’s website 12% of the time. Everything else is being formed by earned media that AI is scraping. As more people get their information from AI, that gap becomes a real risk.
Q: What do companies get wrong about AI and reputation?
TIERNEY: The goal isn’t simply getting people to use AI more. It’s understanding what AI is saying about your company and how that information is shaping perceptions. As AI adoption grows, the real question is whether those systems are surfacing accurate, impactful information about your organization.
Q: What’s the biggest lesson for communicators right now?
TIERNEY: Every touchpoint matters. Understand what’s most important to your reputation, make sure you’re ready to tell that story simply, and then bang that steady drumbeat consistently. That’s what moves the needle right now.
Key upcoming events
Talent + Workforce
- Aspen Ideas Festival (Aspen, June 25-July 1) One of the world’s most celebrated gatherings of bold thinkers, the festival brings together hundreds of leaders from business, technology, public service, science and the arts for wide-ranging conversations on the ideas shaping tomorrow — from the AI revolution and geopolitics to leadership, culture and the economy. Speakers include Ken Burns, documentary filmmaker; Fareed Zakaria, journalist and author; and Katie Couric, journalist and co-founder of Katie Couric Media.
- Semafor World of Work (Washington, D.C., July 22) In partnership with Gallup, this invitation-only gathering explores how AI, economic uncertainty and shifting employee expectations are reshaping organizations, with discussions focused on workforce trust, employee engagement, talent strategy, AI adoption and organizational resilience. Speakers include Jon Clifton, CEO of Gallup; Katy George, corporate vice president of workforce transformation at Microsoft; and Claire MacIntyre, chief people officer at Sam’s Club.
Sports Business
- WSJ Sports (New York City, July 15-16) Join investors, team owners and senior executives to explore the transformation of sports into a trillion-dollar asset class, with discussion on rising team valuations, media rights, sports betting, performance technology and emerging investment opportunities across the sports ecosystem. Speakers include Michele Kang, CEO of Kynisca; Gerry Cardinale, managing partner of RedBird Capital Partners; and Mark Shapiro, president and COO of TKO.
- CNBC Game Plan (New York City, July 16) Held during Fanatics Fest, this annual gathering brings together athletes, team owners, investors and executives to explore the future of sports, media and entertainment, with conversations focused on the trends, technologies and business models shaping the industry’s next chapter. Speakers include LeBron James, NBA player and philanthropist; Adam Silver, commissioner of the NBA; and Lindsey Vonn, Olympic gold medalist and entrepreneur.
AI + Tech
- Raise Summit (Paris, France, July 7-8) One of the world’s largest AI leadership gatherings, this summit brings together 9,000 executives, investors, founders and policymakers to explore how organizations can move from AI ambition to implementation at scale, with discussions focused on enterprise adoption, workforce transformation, governance, regulation and the practical challenges of deploying AI across industries. Speakers include Yann LeCun, executive chairman of AMI; Carolina Parada, head of robotics at Google DeepMind; and Guillaume Princen, head of international at Anthropic.
Health
- HLTH Europe 2026 (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, June 15-18) The continent’s premier healthcare innovation event, where global expertise meets local insight to tackle Europe’s most pressing challenges — from AI-driven diagnostics to reimagining patient care at scale. Speakers include Gianrico Farrugia, CEO of Mayo Clinic; Elena Bonfiglioli, Global GM of Health & Life Sciences at Microsoft; and Freddy Abnousi, VP of Health Technology at Meta.
- Healthcare of Tomorrow (Washington, D.C., June 17-18) U.S. News & World Report’s exclusive annual forum for hospital and health system executives to discuss AI’s transformation of care delivery, post-acute care and policy shifts, while gaining behind-the-scenes insight into the methodology powering the Best Hospitals rankings.
- BIO International Convention (San Diego, June 22-25) The world’s largest biotech gathering brings together 20,000 industry leaders from pharma, startups, academia and government across 130+ sessions spanning AI and digital health, cell and gene therapy, oncology and rare disease, with exclusive partnering meetings that make it the premier destination for business development in the life sciences. Speakers include Bradley Campbell, CEO of Amicus Therapeutics; Sandeep Menon, Chief Development Officer at Alnylam; and Jean Bennett, Professor Emerita at Penn Medicine.
Bookmark Global Gateway Advisors’ event tracker, updated weekly.
Media news
- Fortune releases its annual Most Powerful Women list. Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser leads the 29th edition, five years after becoming the first woman to head a major Wall Street bank. See the full list.
- A new chapter for The Verge? Status’ Oliver Darcy reported that the tech outlet’s editor-in-chief has been meeting with potential investorsas Vox Media prepares to spin off several brands not included in its recent deal with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
- The Economist launches AI app. The outlet has become the first major consumer news publication to launch a native app inside ChatGPT. The new offering, “The Economist – Graphs,” allows users to interact with polling data from the publication’s Trump approval tracker through charts and visualizations.
- NPR’s shrinking newsroom. The public broadcaster laid off 10 staffers and is buying out 18 others who voluntarily accepted offers as it tries to make up for the discontinuing of federal subsidies for public media.
- Turmoil at CBS continues. Editor-in-chief Bari Weiss is taking on 60 Minutes, installing former New York Times tech columnist Nick Bilton as the show’s executive producer. She also fired on-air correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi, as well as an executive editor and senior producer. In response, 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley accused Weiss of “murdering” the program, while questioning Bilton’s “slender” qualifications. Pelley was fired days later following a confrontation with management over the changes.
- “Hallie Jackson NOW” goes local. For the first time, the national show, normally streamed on NBC News NOW, will air on NBC Bay Area / KNTV, weekdays from 2-3 p.m., giving residents more access to coverage around California primary elections.
- Bloomberg expands personal finance coverage. Bloomberg Money, which launched on Tuesday, offers a dedicated digital hub, newsletter, data tools and a weekly television program hosted by Tom Keene and Scarlet Fu, covering everything from investing and retirement to real estate, taxes and spending.
- Tech’s in-house media boom. First, OpenAI acquired the popular podcast TBPN. Now, Feed Me’s Emily Sundberg reports that New Yorker writer Adam Iscoe has joined Notion as part of a growing trend of tech companies hiring journalists and storytellers to explain AI and build direct relationships with audiences.
- Politico doubles down on energy. The outlet is folding E&E News, the standalone energy publication it acquired in 2020, into a broader energy expansion that includes new newsletters focused on AI-driven power demand, energy policy and geopolitics. The move reflects how energy has evolved from a niche specialty into a central business, technology and national security story.
Media moves
- Dakin Campbell (formerly Business Insider) was hired by The Information to cover the money behind artificial intelligence, while Grace Kay (formerly Business Insider) was hired to cover Elon Musk’s businesses.
- Brian Kahn (formerly Bloomberg) joined WIRED as a senior science editor.
- Ken Brown (formerly The Information and The Wall Street Journal) joined CNBC as managing editor of digital and editorial strategy. Meanwhile, Diana Ransom was promoted to deputy managing editor of money & success.
- Ethan Smith (formerly The Wall Street Journal) was hired by The Ankleras a news and features editor.
- Anna Silman (formerly Business Insider) was hired by The Wall Street Journal, covering culture and power.
- Mohammed Hadi was promoted to news director at The New York Times, while Lisa Friedmanhas transitioned to the energy beat on the business news desk.
- Mansur Shaheen was named managing editor of Health Payer Specialist, a Financial Times publication.
- Corbin Bolies (formerly The Wrap) was hired by Varietyto cover the intersection between AI and the entertainment industry.
- Ella Feldman was hired by Bloomberg News as a reporter and will begin her rotation on the wealth team. Rebecca Joneswas appointed senior editor on the Asia-Pacific news desk, focusing on AI initiatives and live coverage strategy across the region.
- Melissa Hancock (formerly Arabian Banker and Arabian Gulf Business Insight) joined Fortune to write Fortune Gulf Brief, a new weekly newsletter covering business and economic developments across the Middle East. Meanwhile, Sharon Goldmanis departing the outlet to go independent.
- Simon Hernandez-Arthur (formerly PayPal and CNN) will lead Axios Communicators.
- Ellen O’Brien joined Inc. Magazine as news editor.
- Jordan Hart has departed Business Insider.
- Emilia David (formerly VentureBeat) will be joining Information Security Media Group (ISMG) as an associate editor covering enterprise AI and technology later this month.
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Featured Insights
Are we entering an AI jobs apocalypse?
Insights
Global Gateway Advisors
May 28, 2026
The “AI jobs apocalypse” went from think-piece to mainstream cultural moment in seven days.
The Pope, two of the most-watched CEOs in finance, the founder of the company that started the AI race and two flagship business magazines — and many others — are now in open argument about whether millions of jobs are about to vanish.
The real challenge is no longer predicting the future of work, but explaining how your organization plans to navigate it as scrutiny intensifies. Here’s what communications leaders should be doing now.
ICYMI: We dove into how workplace discussions around mental health have become litmus tests for trust, transparency and employer credibility. Read it here.
This is no longer a tech story
In a matter of weeks, the AI jobs debate expanded from top-tier business press to the mainstream dialogue, splitting into two camps.
Camp 1: Apocalypse Now. Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, released earlier this week, compared unchecked AI to a “new Tower of Babel” and warned of accelerating unemployment. The Economist’s latest cover called for readers to prepare for an AI jobsapocalypse.
Camp 2: Apocalypse Overblown. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon argued in a recent New York Times op-ed that fears are “overblown,” citing internal estimates that AI may automate hours without eliminating jobs. Sam Altman walked back earlier warnings about job loss, admitting he’d expected greater entry-level impact.
Yes, but. Sandwiched in between these POVs lies a third middle camp. MIT Technology Review recently notedthat current labor data doesn’t support either extreme — and that the more pressing challenge is preparedness.
And that’s the camp effective communicators should occupy. The most credible position is neither optimism nor catastrophizing, but demonstrated readiness.
What this means for communicators
- Talk about workforce development as much as AI adoption. Reskilling is central to the conversation. The Commerce Department just committed $25 million to AI workforce training. Stakeholders will increasingly judge organizations not just on adoption, but on whether they’re helping employees adapt alongside it. Reskilling opportunities are expanding as online education platforms grow and shift their courses toward skills needed to stay competitive in the AI era. Per 2U’s CEO Kees Bol, “As AI reshapes roles faster than ever, we need to bring high-quality learning closer to the world of work.”
- Name the transition plan. General commitments to “investing in people” are no longer sufficient. Stakeholders want specifics: retraining programs, internal mobility pathways, timelines and accountability. If AI is changing hiring plans or headcount projections, say so. As Altman put it this week: “It is better for us to be going in the direction of too much transparency.
- Address the entry-level pipeline directly. Entry-level job postings in the US have fallen 35% in the preceding 18 months, and some employers now say they won’t hire junior talent at all. As Indeed Chief Economist Svenja Gudell warned at the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit this month: “In three to five years you’re not going to have the people with three to five years of experience, because you never hired them to begin with.” Organizations need to explain how early-career employees will build skills and advance in an AI-first environment.
- Be deliberate about augmentation versus replacement. Stakeholders increasingly view workforce outcomes as a strategic choice. The question is no longer whether AI can replace work. It’s whether your organization is intentionally using it to make people more capable.
- Don’t overlook other AI risks. Workforce disruption dominates headlines, but employee privacy concerns, data governance questions and energy consumption are all quietly accumulating. They can quickly become reputation challenges if left unaddressed.
Regardless of who is right, AI has a reputation problem
Public sentiment has already shifted from anxiety to anger. Nearly a third of employeessurveyed by Writer and Workplace Intelligence admitted to sabotaging their company’s AI rollout in some way. Among Gen Z, that figure rises to 44%.
Gallup finds only 18% of Gen Z feels hopeful about AI — down nine points in a year — while 31% report outright anger. Commencement speakers are being booed for praising the technology. Morgan Stanley has called growing public resistance a “binding constraint.”
This debate is no longer confined to corporate boardrooms. As the U.S. and China race to lead in AI development, both are increasingly confronting questions about how the technology will reshape work. A recent Wall Street Journal report detailed the lengths Chinese officials are willing to go to avoid unrest tied to AI adoption, including warning employers against layoffs as they deploy new technologies.
The bottom line
Whether the AI jobs apocalypse arrives or proves overblown is beside the point. Employees, policymakers, investors and communities are already demanding answers. For communicators, the challenge is no longer explaining what AI can do. It’s building trust in how it will be used.
Navigating the AI narrative for your organization? Let’s talk. Reach out to insights@gga.nyc to set up a conversation.
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Featured Insights
Workplace mental health has a credibility problem
Insights
Global Gateway Advisors
May 21, 2026
Workplace mental health entered a new phase in 2026 shifting from what companies offer to whether employees find those commitments believable.
Recent Glassdoor data find mentions of burnout in reviews are up 65% year-over-year and 2.5x higher than pre-pandemic levels. Additionally, burned-out workers who once job-hunted their way out of their situations have stopped trying — not because things have improved, but because the labor market has left them nowhere to go.
Employees are now increasingly judging companies not by whether support for mental health issues like burnout exists, but whether leadership communicates it credibly, models it visibly and creates environments where people feel comfortable accessing tools and talking about it.
At the same time, economic anxiety, AI disruption and a difficult entry-level job market are shaping a generation of workers with very different expectations around trust, transparency and employer credibility.
The result: Workplace mental health is no longer just an HR initiative. It has become a strategic leadership and workforce trust priority.
ICYMI: We spoke with Noah Greenberg, CEO of Stacker, about why the future of thought leadership is shifting from coverage to citation and the growing importance of the corporate newsroom. Read it here.
The workplace mental health credibility gap
For employers, workplace mental health is both an employee engagement and reputation challenge.
The employee engagement angle:
- Employee engagement fell for the second consecutive year in 2025, the first back-to-back decline in Gallup’s history. Only 20% of employees worldwide are actively engaged.
- Nearly half of U.S. employees say they’ve left a job for reasons tied to their mental health.
- Just 65% of employees trust their senior leadership, according to the Qualtrics XM Institute’s 2025 Customer and Employee Trust Indices. The business case is straightforward: Trusted leaders drive engaged employees, engaged employees drive satisfied customers and satisfied customers drive profit.
- Nearly all large employers now offer Employee Assistance Programs, yet annual utilization rates often remain below 5%, according to the nonprofit mental health advocacy organization Mental Health America.
The reputation angle:
- The same Glassdoor data show burned-out employees are 76% less likely to give positive overall reviews and 78% less likely to recommend their employer. In a tight talent market, that reputational drag shows up in employer rankings and candidate pipelines.
- Companies on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list generate 8.5x more revenue per employee than the U.S. market average, and have delivered 3.5x higher cumulative stock return over the past 27 years compared to the 1,000 largest U.S. public companies by market capitalization, according to a 2025 report from Great Place To Work.
- “The internal is now permanently external,” PR News warned in its 2025 predictions. Every gap between what leadership says and what employees experience now plays out publicly — in talent markets, on review platforms and in how customers and investors interpret organizational character.
- Case in point: Internal emails and layoff memos routinely leak to the media. In March, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei apologized after a memo leaked in which he called OpenAI staff “gullible.”
What this means for communicators
- Build a standing narrative, not a calendar. Mental health messaging that only appears in awareness months signals exactly what employees suspect: It’s performative.
- Pair every change announcement with human support. Nearly 6 in 10 employees say workplace stress rises during organizational transitions, yet only 12% have had access to mental health resources during those periods, according to research from TalentLMS and WorkTango.
- Prepare managers, not just employees. Nearly half of managers say they don’t know how to access mental health care through their employer-sponsored insurance, according to the 2025 NAMI Workplace Mental Health Poll. If managers can’t navigate the resources themselves, they can’t communicate them credibly to employees.
- Equip executives to lead visibly. When leaders speak openly about mental health, they normalize it. When they don’t, silence is its own message.
- In action: At Salesforce, where executives openly discuss their therapy use, program utilization rates are three times higher than industry averages and their Mental Wellness Day policy reduced burnout-related resignations by 28%.
The bottom line
The organizations getting this right don’t necessarily have better programs. They understand that workforce trust is now a core reputation asset — and they manage internal credibility with the same rigor as external brand stewardship.
When what companies say matches what employees experience, the data is clear: Lower turnover, higher engagement and stronger performance. When it doesn’t, the gap rarely stays internal for long.
Mental Health Awareness Month
Globally, one in seven people — roughly 1.1 billion — are living with a mental health disorder.
The impact of these conditions on the workplace is staggering: According to the WHO, an estimated 12 billion working days are lost annually to depression and anxiety alone, costing approximately $1 trillion in lost productivity globally.
These numbers make the workplace credibility gap more than a talent issue — they reflect a global public health reality that organizations, communicators, and leaders can no longer treat as background noise.
Likewise, one in seven young people experience a mental health condition, yet most go unrecognized and untreated. Closing this gap requires solutions built by young people, not designed for them.
Global Gateway Advisors co-created OK Today with AFS Youth Assembly. It is a global, youth‑led mental health initiative focused on reducing stigma and equipping young people with the tools to support each other through peer‑to‑peer conversation, education, and leadership. Learn more about its mission.
Interested in partnering with OK Today or learning more? Reach out at OKToday@gga.nyc.
Key upcoming events
Leadership + Ideas
- Fortune COO Summit (Scottsdale, June 1-2) Fortune’s editors and top COOs from around the world will explore the strategies shaping the next generation of enterprise execution, from building shock-proof supply chains and human-AI workforces to harnessing agentic AI to reimagine workflows and operating models. Speakers include Venkatesh Alagirisamy, COO of Nike; Ayesha Molino, COO of MGM Resorts International; and Janelle Sallenave, COO of Chime.
- WSJ CEO Council Summit (London, UK, June 9-10) Drawing on the geopolitical and economic fault lines reshaping global business, this summit convenes CEOs of Europe’s leading banks, pharmaceutical companies and retailers to confront mounting risks — from AI disruption and energy constraints to eroding global institutions and escalating conflicts — and chart a path from uncertainty to opportunity. Participants include Fernando Fernandez, CEO of Unilever; Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament; and Kai-Fu Lee, CEO of 01.AI.
- Aspen Ideas Festival (Aspen, June 25-July 1 ) One of the world’s most celebrated gatherings of bold thinkers, the festival brings together hundreds of leaders from business, technology, public service, science and the arts for wide-ranging conversations on the ideas shaping tomorrow — from the AI revolution and geopolitics to leadership, culture, and the economy. Speakers include Ken Burns, documentary filmmaker; Fareed Zakaria, journalist and author; and Katie Couric, journalist and co-founder of Katie Couric Media.
AI + Tech
- Axios AI+NYC (New York City, June 3) Expect exclusive conversations with top innovators and visionaries on the next wave of AI transformation and its impact on business and the world. Speakers include Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM; Ariel Ekblaw, CEO of Aurelia Institute; and Jim Lanzone, CEO of Yahoo.
- Bloomberg Tech (San Francisco, June 3-4) Led by the outlet’s Emily Chang and Tom Giles, this summit brings together leading CEOs, investors and innovators harnessing technology to change the world — covering everything from industrial robots and consumer electronics to data center buildout and the race to artificial general intelligence. Speakers include Daniela Amodei, president and co-founder of Anthropic; Fei-Fei Li, CEO of World Labs; and Alexandr Wang, chief AI officer of Meta. Contact us to meet up on site!
- Fortune Brainstorm Tech (Aspen, June 8-10) Returning for its 25th anniversary, this cross-disciplinary summit brings together the CEOs, investors and innovators tackling the most urgent challenges spanning industries and geographies — debating big questions and defining what comes next as global alliances shift, industries face upheaval, and intelligent technology advances at a breakneck pace. Speakers include Boris Cherny, head of Claude Code at Anthropic; Meg Whitman, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard; and Andrew Yang, CEO of Noble Mobile.
- Semafor Tech (San Francisco, June 10) A one-day AI-focused gathering that cuts through the hype to examine how emerging technologies, from quantum computing to humanoid robotics, will reshape markets, labor and geopolitics, with founders, investors, researchers and policy figures focused on what comes next in the real economy. Speakers include Daphne Koller, CEO of Insitro; Jeetu Patel, Chief Product Officer of Cisco; and Pete Shadbolt, Chief Scientific Officer of PsiQuantum.
- AI Summit London (London, UK, June 10-11) Now in its 10th annual edition and headlining London Tech Week, this summit moves past AI theory and into bottom-line impact — spanning 10 stages, 14 tracks and hands-on labs designed to help enterprises build, deploy and scale AI with confidence. Speakers include Anne-Claire Gerbaldi, Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer of AstraZeneca; Wendy Ng, AI Futurist at Marks and Spencer; and Anthony Hills, EMEA Enterprise Director at NVIDIA.
Health
- HLTH Europe 2026 (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, June 15-18) The continent’s premier healthcare innovation event, where global expertise meets local insight to tackle Europe’s most pressing challenges — from AI-driven diagnostics to reimagining patient care at scale. Speakers include Gianrico Farrugia, CEO of Mayo Clinic; Elena Bonfiglioli, Global GM of Health & Life Sciences at Microsoft; and Freddy Abnousi, VP of Health Technology at Meta.
- Healthcare of Tomorrow (Washington, D.C., June 17-18) U.S. News & World Report’s exclusive annual forum for hospital and health system executives to discuss AI’s transformation of care delivery, post-acute care and policy shifts, while gaining behind-the-scenes insight into the methodology powering the Best Hospitals rankings.
- BIO International Convention (San Diego, June 22-25) The world’s largest biotech gathering brings together 20,000 industry leaders from pharma, startups, academia and government across 130+ sessions spanning AI and digital health, cell and gene therapy, oncology and rare disease, with exclusive partnering meetings that make it the premier destination for business development in the life sciences. Speakers include Bradley Campbell, CEO of Amicus Therapeutics; Sandeep Menon, Chief Development Officer at Alnylam; and Jean Bennett, Professor Emerita at Penn Medicine.
Bookmark Global Gateway Advisors’ event tracker, updated weekly.
Media news
- An audience of AI agents. The Economist will now be writing for two distinct audiences: humans and AI — restructuring its marketing and editorial surfaces so AI answer engines can find, parse and surface its content cleanly, while preserving the human judgment and voice that subscribers actually pay for.
- James Murdoch buys half of Vox Media. The $300 million deal includes New York Magazine and Vox Media Podcasts — the latter considered one of the company’s most valuable assets thanks to star hosts like technology journalist Kara Swisher, who supported the deal, saying: “I always thought James had great instincts on the digital business, but then Rupert would always come in and f**k it up.”
- Fierce Publications sold in $1.5b deal. Apollo Funds agreed to acquire Questex, publisher of Fierce Pharma, Fierce Biotech, Fierce Healthcare and Fierce CRO.
- ABC claims government overreach threatens press freedom. In the most aggressive defense yet from a broadcast network, ABC filed with the FCC accusing regulators of a “chilling effect” on free speech by targeting political content they disagreed with — specifically the talk show The View.
- Business Insider announces cuts. Less than 5% of global newsroom staff will be affected as the organization seeks to focus on areas that drive more readership.
- NPR trims. The public broadcaster is restructuring its newsroom as it must close an $8 million shortfall in its $300 million annual budget following the elimination of federal subsidies for its member stations, offering buyouts to 300 employees. NPR CEO Katherine Maher said the network projects a $15 million decline in station fees this year and expects corporate sponsorship revenue to fall as well.
- Bloomberg expands to books. A forthcoming newsletter, On Books, will feature weekly reviews and recommendations to “expand your thinking.”
Media moves
- Fortune has hired Sebastian Herrera (formerly The Wall Street Journal) as a technology correspondent. The organization also hired Aaron Andrews (formerly Forbes) as senior director partnerships.
- Dhruv Mehrotra is returning to WIRED after several years at Bloomberg.
- Forbes hired careers writer Courtney Connley-Hampton, education writer Lisa Chambers and small business writer John Schroyer.
- Brianna Abbott (formerly The Wall Street Journal) is going freelance full-time as a health reporter.
- The Financial Times named Chris Johnston (formerly Business Insider) its Asia companies and markets news editor.
- Mark Wilson is leaving Fast Company after 15 years. He will be joining the design team at Hark as Lead Writer.
- Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng announced she is leaving the organization by the end of June to pursue a more tech-oriented position.
- Matt Phillips returned to Axios as a markets correspondent and co-author of the Axios Markets newsletter after a stint at Sherwood News.
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Featured Insights
The corporate newsroom just got a lot more important
Insights
Global Gateway Advisors
May 8, 2026
For years, communications success meant earning media coverage. Now, as more people turn to AI instead of traditional search for answers, it means earning citations. What your organization publishes determines whether you’re part of the answer or left out of the conversation.
ICYMI: Our most recent edition explored how events are becoming one of the most powerful venues for influence in 2026 and featured a Q&A with Diane Brady, Executive Editorial Director at Fortune. Brady previewed the Fortune 500 Innovation Forum, taking place November 16-17 in Detroit. Read it here.
From coverage to citation
The corporate newsroom is having a moment. Owned content has sometimes been a secondary asset — useful for SEO and sales enablement, but ultimately less valuable than an earned placement in the right outlet. That calculus is changing.
As fewer people read the news and more query AI, the role of thought leadership is shifting. Companies should stop treating content as bait for media placement and start treating it as authoritative input into how systems and decision-makers form answers.
The old model optimized for awareness and coverage. The new standard is citation: by people, advisors, AI systems and the internal leaders who shape strategy.
A conversation with Noah Greenberg, CEO of Stacker, about what it takes to become a reference source in the age of AI
In this COMPASS Q&A, we spoke with Noah Greenberg, CEO of Stacker, an earned syndication platform that connects media outlets with original research and insights from third-party organizations. He shared his thoughts on what it takes to build content that earns lasting reference value in an AI-mediated world.
The following has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Q: What’s the fastest way for a piece of content to become irrelevant?
GREENBERG: Publish a figure for March and never update it for April or May. [LLMs] are really smart and that’s not going to stick. As soon as a piece of content is no longer seen as fresh, LLMs are pretty good at removing it from answers.
Q: Do you have data on this?
GREENBERG: We analyzed this at Stacker and found that content syndicated to local news outlets had roughly twice the citation half-life of content published elsewhere. That speaks more to the type of site than the type of content, but the freshness principle holds across the board.
Q: So what does it actually take to become a reference source, not just a publisher?
GREENBERG: You need to be putting out unique data or subject matter expertise that only you can provide. Indeed and Glassdoor can show how job growth is shifting based on their own data. Lyft can tell stories about where people are commuting. Instacart can tell you the most popular groceries in every state.
Q: What if you don’t have proprietary data?
GREENBERG: Take public datasets like CDC health statistics or walkability scores and do your own analysis. If you show your methodology and do it well, that’s the kind of content that earns citations. It reminds me of early SEO, when someone would complain they weren’t showing up first on Google, and you’d pull up their page and say: You don’t deserve to show up first. Look who is. They have the best piece of content. Yours is twentieth at best.
Q: How does that change who the most important comms or marketing people are?
GREENBERG: One thing that’s really stuck with me is that the most valuable role in the age of GEO might be the product marketer, someone who understands what makes your product unique, what people are searching for and how to connect those two things. That’s increasingly going to be the brand newsroom’s job.
Q: If a company wanted to increase its chances of being cited tomorrow, what’s the most practical advice you’d give?
GREENBERG: Two things: First, make sure the data in your content changes over time. Ten years ago, you could publish a generic buying guide and it would perform. That doesn’t work anymore. LLMs aren’t looking to cite things when the answer is the same today as it is next year. Second, get that content republished. If you syndicate a strong piece across hundreds of sites, you dramatically increase the surface area for it to be cited.
Q: Are there any companies whose newsroom strategies you particularly admire?
GREENBERG: HubSpot, with what they’ve done through The Hustle and their YouTube acquisitions, is educating entrepreneurs and business builders better than most traditional media. Hone Health’s blog, The Edge, has done a fantastic job of owning a content space that Men’s Fitness or Women’s Health would have occupied a decade ago. And GoodRx stands out. They’ve hired doctors and economists and they’re putting out content that only they can tell. They’re getting significant GEO citations as a result.
The bottom line
- Treat freshness as a feature. Static content fades. Build processes to update core content regularly.
- Invest in original, proprietary content. If your content could have been written by anyone, it won’t be attributed to your organization.
- Think like a product marketer. The question is no longer “What’s the story?” Instead, it’s “What makes our perspective uniquely ours?”
- Distribution amplifies authority. Getting content republished across authoritative outlets increases its surface area for citation.
How we can help
Contact us to discuss ways to build newsroom strategies for your organization that earn reference value. From content audits to editorial frameworks to thought leadership positioning, we help you show up where it matters most.
Join Noah and the Stacker team at Cited 2026, their inaugural gathering for senior marketing, content and communications leaders — taking place June 10 in New York City. The single-day event brings together practitioners from HubSpot, Tripadvisor, Salesforce, The Points Guy and more to explore how great content drives measurable business results in the age of AI. Request your spot here.
Key upcoming events
Talent + Workforce
- Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit (Atlanta, May 19-20) Join senior executives, CHROs, technologists and culture leaders to examine how AI, demographic shifts and evolving employee expectations are reshaping the future of work, with Indeed serving as the event’s Founding and Data Partner. Speakers include Dr. Bernice A. King, CEO of The King Center; Hannah Pritchett, Chief People Officer of Anthropic; and John Santora, CEO of WeWork.
- Fortune COO Summit (Scottsdale, June 1-2) Fortune’s editors and top COOs from around the world will explore the strategies shaping the next generation of enterprise execution, from building shock-proof supply chains and human-AI workforces to harnessing agentic AI to reimagine workflows and operating models. Speakers include Venkatesh Alagirisamy, EVP and COO of Nike; Ayesha Molino, COO of MGM Resorts International; and Janelle Sallenave, COO of Chime.
AI + Enterprise Execution
- Axios AI+NYC (New York City, June 3) Expect exclusive conversations with top innovators and visionaries on the next wave of AI transformation and its impact on business and the world. Speakers include Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM; Ariel Ekblaw, CEO of Aurelia Institute; and Jim Lanzone, CEO of Yahoo.
- Bloomberg Tech (San Francisco, June 3-4) Led by the outlet’s Emily Chang and Tom Giles, this summit brings together leading CEOs, investors and innovators harnessing technology to change the world — covering everything from industrial robots and consumer electronics to data center buildout and the race to artificial general intelligence. Speakers include Daniela Amodei, president and co-founder of Anthropic; Fei-Fei Li, CEO of World Labs; and Alexandr Wang, chief AI officer of Meta. Contact us to meet up on site!
- Fortune Brainstorm Tech (Aspen, June 8-10) Returning for its 25th anniversary, this cross-disciplinary summit brings together the CEOs, investors and innovators tackling the most urgent challenges spanning industries and geographies — debating big questions and defining what comes next as global alliances shift, industries face upheaval, and intelligent technology advances at a breakneck pace. Speakers include Boris Cherny, head of Claude Code at Anthropic; Meg Whitman, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard; and Andrew Yang, CEO of Noble Mobile.
Health
- Financial Times US Pharma and Biotech Summit (New York City, May 14) Amid mounting policy, regulatory, and investment uncertainty, participants will explore how the U.S. biopharmaceutical industry can sustain innovation and accelerate the path from breakthrough science to patient access. Speakers include Fiona Marshall, president of biomedical research at Novartis; Jane Grogan, executive vice president and head of research at Biogen; and Greg Meyers, executive vice president and chief digital and technology officer at Bristol Myers Squibb.
- World Health Assembly (Geneva, Switzerland, May 18-23) The 79th World Health Assembly brings together delegates from WHO member states to review global health policies, agendas, and budgets for the upcoming year.
- STAT Summit West (San Francisco, May 19) As advances in AI, biotech and health tech generate unprecedented volumes of biological data, industry leaders will explore how new technologies are reshaping drug discovery and the economics of bringing treatments to market. Speakers include Anne Wojcicki, CEO of 23andMe; Neil Kumar, CEO of BridgeBio Pharma; and Ted W. Love, former chair of Biotechnology Innovation Organization and former CEO of Global Blood Therapeutics.
- Reuters Digital Health (Chicago, May 21-22) As AI becomes embedded in care and health systems race to modernize, join healthcare decision-makers to explore how to turn digital innovation into real-world impact — advancing adoption, strengthening infrastructure, and improving patient access and outcomes. Speakers include Natalie Davis, CEO of United States of Care; Maggie Helms, senior vice president and chief digital and AI officer at Intermountain Health; and Karthik Raja, senior vice president and chief analytics and AI officer at the Ascension Data Science Institute.
Bookmark Global Gateway Advisors’ event tracker, updated weekly.
Media news
- Inside the minds of independent media. Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie and Head of New Media Hanne Winarsky are launching “Open Tab,” a new interview series where they’ll sit down with an independent media founder each week at a favorite local spot to discuss what it really takes to build a sustainable media business. Episode one premieres today.
- Silicon Valley & The World. Following the success of its World Economy Summit, Semafor announced a new annual convening bringing together top AI founders, senior government officials and global decision-makers — with an advisory board that includes Satya Nadella, Jensen Huang and Ruth Porat — in November 2026.
- The Ankler is splitting with Substack. The entertainment industry-focused publication — one of the platform’s largest, with 150,000 paid subscribers — is moving to its own in-house technology infrastructure, with subscriptions now handled by Passport, a new paywall provider operated by Automattic, the company behind WordPress, and media analyst Ben Thompson. Substack currently takes 10% of publisher subscriptions sales.
- Business Insider is getting into the shopping guide business. “Valued,” will be in the form of a weekly newsletter, with “practical product picks, smart shopping advice and the inside scoop on sales.” Basically its own play on The New York Times’ Wirecutter and a bid for affiliate link revenue.
- James Murdoch eyes Vox. His company, Lupa Systems, is in talks to acquire parts of Vox Media, the controlling company of New York Magazine and a sprawling podcast network that generated more than $80 million last year with hosts like Scott Galloway and Brené Brown. The purchase would give Murdoch a foothold in the U.S. media landscape alongside his father and brother, whose trust includes Fox News and The Wall Street Journal.
- Axios released its Q1 2026 Media Platforms Insights Report. Read the full report here (paywalled). Key themes this quarter:
- Platforms are doubling down on feed control and bot detection as AI-generated content erodes user trust.
- Creator platforms like Substack, Beehiiv and Patreon are converging into full-stack publishing tools.
- AI companies — led by OpenAI — are moving aggressively into advertising as infrastructure costs demand new revenue.
- Meta is on track to surpass Google in global ad revenue for the first time.
- The line between Hollywood and social media continues to blur, with Netflix, Disney+ and YouTube all racing toward vertical video.
Media moves
- Shashank Joshi was named Washington bureau chief for The Economist.
- New York Magazine hired Michael Calderone (previously The Wrap) as deputy editor of its Intelligencer vertical.
- Rachel Siegel (formerly The Washington Post) was hired by CNN as a business reporter.
- The Wall Street Journal hired Kara Voght (formerly The Washington Post) as a features reporter covering politics, power and culture. Meanwhile, Sebastian Herrera, who covered tech, has left the outlet.
- Edmund Lee (formerly The New York Times) was hired by Reuters as media editor.
- TechCrunch reporter Becca Szkutak has left for a role at the Association for Advancing Automation.
- Prashant Rao was promoted to global managing editor at Semafor.
- WIRED hired Brian Kahn (formerly Bloomberg) and Sophie Kleeman (formerly Business Insider) as senior editor on the science desk and senior editor on the business desk, respectively.
- Courtney Connley-Hampton (formerly CNBC) was hired by Forbes to cover careers.
- AP News technology and business reporter Michael Liedtke and media reporter David Bauder both accepted buyouts after several decades with the outlet.
- Phoebe Liu (formerly Forbes) is joining The Information to lead its coverage of Nvidia.
- Morning Brew hired Jamila Huxtable (formerly NPR) as a reporter for its new Founder Brew newsletter.
- Business and technology reporter Shannon Carroll shared that she was laid off by Quartz.
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Featured Insights
500 CEOs walked into a room + Fortune's Diane Brady on C-suite events
Insights
Global Gateway Advisors
April 23, 2026
The most important conversations in business and politics are increasingly happening not in briefing rooms or boardrooms, but at events. These carefully curated gatherings are where senior leaders convene, relationships form and agendas get set.
Consider what’s happening this month alone. Last week, more than 500 CEOs and global leaders gathered in Washington for Semafor’s World Economy Summit, one of the most significant concentrations of global business leadership of the year (keep reading for our takeaways).
Meanwhile, nine of the 40-plus side events at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner this weekend are being hosted by media startups less than a decade old, a sign of how rapidly the landscape for influence and access is being reorganized.
For communicators and senior leaders, this shift has significant strategic implications.
ICYMI: We explored four AI workforce narratives — and why they don’t tell the full story. Read it here.
The room is the strategy
C-suite events have long served a convening function. What has changed is their role as primary vehicles for shaping narrative, building relationships and signaling institutional relevance.
Legacy media brands built their events’ credibility on reach. However, newer entrants — Semafor, Punchbowl, Axios, Puck — are building theirs around access and convening power: the ability to put the right leaders in a room and make that room matter. Sponsoring or appearing at these events is no longer a brand play. It is increasingly a reputational, relational and commercial one.
The same dynamic is playing out at the CEO level. As institutional trust in traditional structures has fragmented, senior leaders have become the most credible spokespeople for their organizations and events provide the stage for their credibility to be expressed and tested.
Go deeper: What it means to lead with trust right now?
What we heard at Semafor World Economy Summit
We were on the ground at the Semafor World Economy Summit in Washington, D.C. last week. The agenda was jam-packed with five days of candid, on-the-record conversations with some of the world’s top CEOs, finance ministers and policymakers.
Four themes stood out:
- Uncertainty is the new normal: Business leaders who once kept Washington off their calendars are now regulars, working to make sense of a fast-changing economic landscape: record investment and technological innovation on one hand, and persistent geopolitical turbulence and low consumer confidence on the other. As Eurasia Group’s Ian Bremmer noted, while markets are performing well, ”There’s going to be a really rocky transition to get from an American-driven globalization … to that post-American hedge.”
- Trade and tariffs dominated the agenda. GM CEO Mary Barra voiced what many in the room were feeling: “I need clarity, and then I need consistency.” Foreign officials advocated for greater certainty. French Minister of Economy, Finance and Industrial, and Digital Sovereignty Éric Lombard advocated for a “genuine free trade agreement” with the U.S. in the wake of Trump-era tariffs on U.S. imports. “We are ready to [make a] deal anytime,” he said.
- AI’s impact on work is more complex than headlines suggest. Recruit Holdings and Indeed CEO Hisayuki “Deko” Idekoba made a compelling case that workforce shrinkage, not AI, is the more immediate challenge facing employers. The struggle to backfill retiring workers, he said, is “a way bigger impact than AI impact today.” Indeed’s own research underscores the point: Of 20 million fewer U.S. workers projected over the next 15 years, 80% will be due to an aging population, and just 20% to AI-related job displacement.
- The real currency is interpretation, not information. With facts more accessible than ever, the advantage no longer belongs to those who have the most data, but to those who can make sense of it. Leaders who can cut through complexity, frame what matters and communicate it clearly are the ones shaping the conversation.
This was our second year at Semafor World Economy, and the growth was hard to miss: 500+ CEOs and leaders, 400 registered media and thousands of attendees. But the numbers only tell part of the story.
Beyond the mainstage, the format allows for incredible access. Business leaders moved seamlessly between dedicated CEO programming, bilateral meetings, media engagements, and policy discussions, making it an extremely efficient use of executive time in the nation’s capital.
Congratulations to the Semafor team on a standout event!
A conversation with Diane Brady, Executive Editorial Director, Fortune
In this COMPASS Q&A, we spoke with Diane Brady, Executive Editorial Director at Fortune, to understand how major media brands are thinking about this moment and preview the outlet’s premier event, the Fortune 500 Innovation Forum, taking place November 16–17 in Detroit.
The following has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Q: What is the vision for this year’s forum?
BRADY: The theme is really around innovation and America leads — not in a hubristic sort of way, but really about the great American experiment of innovation. More than 200 companies in the Fortune 500 are over a century old. We want to take a deep dive into the conditions for innovation in those companies, in those sectors and talk to senior leaders about what comes next.
Q: What tracks and conversations are you building around?
BRADY: The tracks that are most interesting to us include partnering for innovation because part of America’s strength has been its ability to attract talent, partners and capital from around the world. We’ll also look at the strength of capital markets, leadership in the age of AI, lean manufacturing and workforce and talent. This is going to be our biggest event of the year. We’re expecting at least 350 senior leaders, and the content strategy is strong.
Q: Why Detroit?
BRADY: We deliberately did not want to race to Washington in June, as a lot of companies are doing. Detroit was the capital of innovation, the engine that drove the last century. And it’s a testament to the power of revitalization and resilience. If you look at Detroit today, yes, there’s the auto sector, but it’s also the country’s leading center for robotics, a hotbed of entrepreneurship, and sits right next to the largest trade point for business in North America. I can’t think of many places more emblematic of how innovation is baked into the DNA of this country.
Q: Who should be in the room?
BRADY: We’re targeting CEOs and senior C-suite leaders, from the largest companies in America, including major private companies. We’re also partnering with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Points of Light around civic engagement, so there will be volunteerism and community activations built into the program. At our heart and soul, Fortune is a news organization. This is the most exciting news opportunity we’ll have all year.
What this means for communicators
The rise of the C-suite event as a primary influence venue creates both opportunities and obligations for communications leaders.
Presence is a signal. Which events senior leaders attend, and which they don’t, communicates institutional priorities. In a fragmented media environment, convening power has become a proxy for credibility.
Preparation is the work. The most effective leaders at these events are not those who deliver the most polished remarks. They’re the ones who can speak with precision and specificity about their industry, their decisions and the tradeoffs they’ve navigated.
The conversation doesn’t stay in the room. What gets said on stage and in the hallways travels. Event appearances are increasingly source material for reporting, investor perception, employee communications, and onsite conversations with peers and current and prospective customers and partners. Communicators need to treat them accordingly.
The bottom line: The events landscape is changing faster than most organizations’ strategies for navigating it. Leaders and teams must engage with it deliberately, not just reactively, to have a meaningful advantage.
Key upcoming events
Marketing + Media
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Marketing Vanguard Summit (Chicago, May 7) Join marketing and business leaders, cultural figures and academics to examine how CMOs can lead through ambiguity and drive enterprise value. Participants include Mark Kirkham, CMO of PepsiCo Beverages U.S.; Jill Kramer, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer of Mastercard; and Maggie Schmerin, Chief Advertising Officer of United Airlines.
Global Economy + Policy
- The Wall Street Journal Future of Everything (New York City, May 4-5) The Journal’s flagship innovation conference explores how emerging technologies are reshaping business, culture and daily life. Speakers include Barry Diller, Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC; Joanna Stern, Chief Technology Analyst at NBC News; and Ariel Ekblaw, Founder of the MIT Space Exploration Initiative and CEO of Aurelia Institute.
- Milken Global Conference (Los Angeles, May 4-7) Join global decision-makers, experts, and innovators to tackle urgent challenges — from geopolitics to AI — while advancing solutions for a more sustainable, equitable and resilient future. Speakers include José Andrés, chef and founder of World Central Kitchen; Jill Biden, former first lady of the United States; and Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia.
Talent + Workforce
- Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit (Atlanta, May 19-20) Join senior executives, CHROs, technologists and culture leaders to examine how AI, demographic shifts and evolving employee expectations are reshaping the future of work, with Indeed serving as the event’s Founding and Data Partner. Speakers include Dr. Bernice A. King, CEO of The King Center; Hannah Pritchett, Chief People Officer of Anthropic; and John Santora, CEO of WeWork.
AI + Enterprise Execution
- Reuters Momentum AI New York (New York City, April 27-28) Learn how to move AI from experimentation to execution over two days of practical, case-driven conversations focused on scaling responsibly, building trusted systems and turning strategy into measurable impact.
Health
- Financial Times US Pharma and Biotech Summit (New York City, May 14) Amid mounting policy, regulatory, and investment uncertainty, participants will explore how the U.S. biopharmaceutical industry can sustain innovation and accelerate the path from breakthrough science to patient access. Speakers include Fiona Marshall, president of biomedical research at Novartis; Jane Grogan, executive vice president and head of research at Biogen; and Greg Meyers, executive vice president and chief digital and technology officer at Bristol Myers Squibb.
- World Health Assembly (Geneva, Switzerland, May 18-23) The 79th World Health Assembly brings together delegates from WHO member states to review global health policies, agendas, and budgets for the upcoming year.
- STAT Summit West (San Francisco, May 19) As advances in AI, biotech and health tech generate unprecedented volumes of biological data, industry leaders will explore how new technologies are reshaping drug discovery and the economics of bringing treatments to market. Speakers include Anne Wojcicki, CEO of 23andMe; Neil Kumar, CEO of BridgeBio Pharma; and Ted W. Love, former chair of Biotechnology Innovation Organization and former CEO of Global Blood Therapeutics.
- Reuters Digital Health (Chicago, May 21-22) As AI becomes embedded in care and health systems race to modernize, join healthcare decision-makers to explore how to turn digital innovation into real-world impact — advancing adoption, strengthening infrastructure, and improving patient access and outcomes. Speakers include Natalie Davis, CEO of United States of Care; Maggie Helms, senior vice president and chief digital and AI officer at Intermountain Health; and Karthik Raja, senior vice president and chief analytics and AI officer at the Ascension Data Science Institute.
Bookmark Global Gateway Advisors’ event tracker, updated weekly.
Media news
New platforms and voices
- Meet: “Monitoring the Situation.” The new Andreessen Horowitz-backed media company will exist entirely on X, where hosts including Mark Halperin, Jayden Clark, Jack Farley, Amit Kukreja, Steven Sinofsky, Jesse Genet and Nathan Laben will make sense of what’s happening “RIGHT NOW” across technology, business, politics and culture.
- The “New Things” Newsletter. Written by veteran tech correspondent Joanna Stern, the twice-weekly newsletter (once-weekly for non-paying subscribers) is “Tech journalism. For Humans. Who like fun.” Subscribe here.
- Brian Williams is back. In a forthcoming Netflix-based podcast, the veteran anchor will chat with today’s leading cultural figures about their work, life and the moment we’re living through.
- Maria Sharapova takes on podcasting. In an industry dominated by men, the former tennis star’s new show, “Pretty Tough,” created in partnership with Vox Media, will focus on “the pursuit of excellence without apology.” Upcoming guests include Chelsea Handler and National Football League CFO Christine Dorfler.
Legacy brands adapting
- Forbes gets into wine. Launching this summer, the new vertical will feature original coverage and reviews, as well as a sommelier-led wine club and eCommerce store. The move can be attributed to Forbes’ goal of relying less on website traffic, which was down 37% year-over-year in the first quarter of this year.
- Dow Jones targets the “Era of Volatility.” In response to the energy supply shocks in recent history, the organization launched “Crisis Monitor: Middle East,” a weekly briefing designed to help navigate the intersection of energy security and geopolitical risk.
- The WSJ Newsroom ranks itself high on AI usage. While many newsrooms are still finding their footing around the technology, staff at The Wall Street Journal are ranking themselves as intermediate or above in AI tooling. Much of this can be attributed to the way AI was introduced to staff, including how its usage was framed, with leadership encouraging experimentation instead of listing what was and wasn’t allowed.
- The Economist to put its writers on camera. Breaking with its 183-year tradition of anonymous bylines, the outlet will introduce correspondents from studios in New York and London through Economist Play, a new initiative featuring interviews and policy debates, debuting this summer.
Contraction
- The Financial Times offers buyouts. The New York Times’ Ben Mullin broke the news on X, adding that compensation will be based on tenure, with the cap raised from £100,000 to £120,000 for this year only.
- The BBC to cut nearly 10% of roles. Between 1,800 and 2,000 jobs will be eliminated as part of an effort to save £500 million (roughly $670 million USD), amid declining revenue from TV license sales, the broadcaster’s primary source of income.
Media moves
- Fortune hired Robert Bikel (previously Fast Company and NBC News) as showrunner of “Fortune Daily” and announced that Ellie Austin will host the daily show, in addition to her role as editorial director of Fortune Most Powerful Women. Allie Garfinkle was made editor of the Term Sheet newsletter, which she has been writing for two years — her coverage will shift to longform, scoops and analysis.
- Meanwhile, Fortune Asia appointed Andrew Staples (previously The Economist) and Lee Williamson (formerly the South China Morning Post) as editorial directors, leading both editorial and events strategy. Yuko Tsukada (previously Bloomberg), was hired as head of Fortune Brand Studio.
- Bloomberg News named Kelly Gilblom as U.S. health team leader.
- Eleanor Hawkins announced she is leaving Axios Communicators for a new opportunity.
- CNBC hired Joanna Ossinger (formerly Bloomberg) as head of digital news in the Asia-Pacific region.
- Hugo Lowell (previously the Guardian) joined Wired as a senior correspondent.
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Featured Insights
Four AI workforce narratives communicators should be shaping
Insights
Global Gateway Advisors
April 9, 2026
AI has become a near-universal business priority. In the fourth quarter of 2025, 68% of S&P 500 companies mentioned AI on earnings calls, more than double the share just two years earlier.
But while the narrative is everywhere, the underlying transformation is not.
Across companies, there is a growing disconnect between AI investment, AI storytelling and how work actually gets done.
ICYMI: In our last newsletter, we spoke with Tonia Ries, a trust and business strategist, about how the definition of a “trusted leader” is evolving. Read it here.
1. Automation vs. augmentation: Both are true. Neither tells the whole story.
The dominant public debate frames AI as either a job killer or a productivity superpower. Both narratives are incomplete. The automation framing overlooks that most work will be reconfigured rather than eliminated. The augmentation framing routinely understates the organizational friction, uneven adoption and change management involved in realizing those gains.
And the impact of workforce demographic changes challenges both. In a recent article for the World Economic Forum, Indeed and Recruit Holdings CEO Hisayuki “Deko” Idekoba argued that aging populations, not AI, will define the future of work.
With labor forces shrinking across advanced economies, “AI is not a job killer. It is a job transformer.” As Deko notes, the real risk isn’t mass unemployment, but misallocating scarce talent in economies where workers are becoming more precious, not more expendable.
The opportunity for communicators: Vague reassurances don’t hold. The communications job is to push leaders toward specificity: what is changing, for whom, on what timeline, and build the internal and external language to deliver that consistently.
2. Reskilling won’t be enough.
Upskilling programs are everywhere, but they are inadequate as a standalone answer. The research is consistent: 84% of companies have not redesigned jobs or workflows around AI. Training employees to use AI tools while keeping them in outdated workflows produces incremental gains, not transformation.
The opportunity for communicators: Be honest about whether reskilling is accompanied by genuine workflow redesign. Communications built around reskilling programs that aren’t backed by structural change could backfire when employees realize the gap between the promise and the reality.
3. The talent pipeline problem is real but often misread.
Many companies are laser-focused on hiring AI and technical talent while simultaneously eliminating entry-level roles that have historically served as the pipeline for that talent. A Stanford analysis of payroll data shows a 13% drop in employment among younger, entry-level workers in AI-exposed roles, even as experienced hiring holds steady.
The opportunity for communicators: The talent narrative is shifting from a focus on technical skills toward judgment and decision-making capabilities. Companies that communicate AI transformation through the lens of what they’re building — rather than just what they’re cutting — will be better positioned with employees, recruits and the public.
4. AI as justification for layoffs: A credibility risk hiding in plain sight.
AI was cited in 55,000 layoffs in 2025, but research suggests that current AI platforms aren’t yet capable of fully replacing those workers. Indeed Hiring Lab research found that only about 25% of jobs are likely to be highly transformed by AI, rather than eliminated.
In New York State, where employers are now required to disclose when layoffs are technology driven, none of the 160 companies filing notices checked the technology box. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy noted that his company’s major 2025 cuts were “not really AI-driven.”
When leaders use AI as a forward-looking cover for financially-motivated restructuring, they signal to employees and the public that they view AI primarily as a headcount reduction tool. That framing erodes trust, undermines future AI adoption and fosters the cynicism that makes workforce transformation harder.
That credibility challenge is already spilling into the broader public conversation. As The Wall Street Journal reported this week, major AI companies are increasingly on a “charm offensive” to soften public backlash and respond to growing anxiety about AI’s real-world impact.
The opportunity for communicators: Advocate internally for accurate attribution for workforce changes. When restructuring is driven by overhiring, business model shifts or cost pressures, say so. Precision here is not a liability. Credibility is the asset.
Go deeper: AI transformation is a leadership problem, not a workforce problem
The research consistently points to something most organizations underestimate: The primary barrier to AI transformation is leadership clarity, not employee readiness.
- Employees are already using AI tools, expect their work to change and are eager to build new skills. What’s missing is direction.
- Without clear priorities, ownership, and ambition from the top, organizations default to isolated use cases instead of systemic change.
That creates a clear opening for communications leaders. AI transformation is not just a technology story – it’s a strategy, values and trust story. And those are shaped as much by narrative as execution.
The ability to clearly articulate how and why your organization is using AI — and what it means for your people — is an opportunity for real competitive differentiation.
THE BOTTOM LINE
AI is already reshaping how companies talk about work, often faster than it’s reshaping the work itself. For communications leaders, the mandate now shifts from messaging to narrative integrity: building a clear, credible narrative about what is changing, why it matters, what it means for employees and where the organization is actually headed.
That means equipping leaders internally and externally with language, proof points and consistent framing that can hold up across employee communications, media interviews, investor conversations and moments of scrutiny.
What that means in practice:
- Get upstream. Be in the room before workforce decisions are made, not brought in to explain them after. Close the gap between story and reality.
- Pressure-test AI narratives against what employees will actually experience. If reskilling, restructuring or AI attribution aren’t grounded in real change, employees, media and other stakeholders will spot the disconnect quickly.
- Push for specificity. Employees are sophisticated enough to know when “AI will augment your work” means nothing. Lean into specific timelines, roles and commitments.
- Protect credibility. When restructuring is financially-motivated, say so. Using AI as shorthand for cost-cutting may work in the short term, but creates long-term trust deficits.
- Reframe the workforce story. The real shift isn’t just who is being replaced, it’s about what capabilities organizations are building.
Leaders who navigate this well won’t just implement AI more effectively. They will communicate the transformation with clarity and earn trust in the process.
Key upcoming events
Marketing + Media
- Adweek Social Media Week (New York City, April 14-16) Marketers, creators and brand leaders will convene to navigate platform fragmentation, AI disruption and the evolving business of attention, examining how social drives culture, commerce and measurable impact. Speakers include Rob Gaige, Global Head of Insights at Reddit; Sean Atkins, CEO of Dhar Mann Studios; and Jessica Yellin, Founder of News Not Noise.
-
Marketing Vanguard Summit (Chicago, May 7) Join marketing and business leaders, cultural figures and academics to examine how CMOs can lead through ambiguity and drive enterprise value. Participants include Mark Kirkham, CMO of PepsiCo Beverages U.S.; Jill Kramer, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer of Mastercard; and Maggie Schmerin, Chief Advertising Officer of United Airlines.
Global Economy + Policy
- Semafor World Economy Summit (Washington, D.C., April 13-17) More than 400 global CEOs, as well as investors and policymakers, gather for five days of conversation examining the forces reshaping the world economy — from AI and geopolitics to capital flows, climate and future industries. Speakers include Deko (Hisayuki) Idekoba, CEO of Indeed and President & CEO of Recruit Holdings; Roger Lynch, CEO of Condé Nast; Henry M. Paulson Jr., Chairman of the Paulson Institute and former U.S. Treasury Secretary; Dennis Mathew, Chairman & CEO of Optimum; and Patrice Louvet, President & CEO of Ralph Lauren.
- CNBC Invest in America Forum (Washington, D.C., April 15) Top investors, policymakers, and CEOs examine how economic policy is translating into real-world consequences for American business and accelerating investment in technology and AI infrastructure. Speakers include Marc Rowan, Co-Founder and CEO of Apollo Global Management; Scott Strazik, President and CEO of GE Vernova; moderated by Sara Eisen, Co-Anchor of CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” and “Money Movers.”
- The Wall Street Journal Future of Everything (New York City, May 4-5) The Journal’s flagship innovation conference explores how emerging technologies are reshaping business, culture and daily life. Speakers include Barry Diller, Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC; Joanna Stern, Chief Technology Analyst at NBC News; and Ariel Ekblaw, Founder of the MIT Space Exploration Initiative and CEO of Aurelia Institute.
Talent + Workforce
- HR Brew The Talent 2030 Collective (New York City, April 21) Join HR leaders for a day of conversations on how to recruit, develop and retain top talent amid economic uncertainty, from AI in hiring to skills-based workforce strategy and long-term employee wellbeing. Speakers include Dr. Benjamin Granger, Chief Workplace Psychologist at Qualtrics; Daniel Chait, CEO and Co-Founder of Greenhouse Software; and Amber Grewal, Chief Growth Officer at Eightfold.
- Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit (Atlanta, May 19-20) Join senior executives, CHROs, technologists and culture leaders to examine how AI, demographic shifts and evolving employee expectations are reshaping the future of work, with Indeed serving as the event’s Founding and Data Partner. Speakers include Dr. Bernice A. King, CEO of The King Center; Hannah Pritchett, Chief People Officer of Anthropic; and John Santora, CEO of WeWork.
AI + Enterprise Execution
- Reuters Momentum AI New York (New York City, April 27-28) Learn how to move AI from experimentation to execution over two days of practical, case-driven conversations focused on scaling responsibly, building trusted systems and turning strategy into measurable impact.
Health
- Fierce Pharma Engage (San Diego, April 22-24) A gathering of senior leaders in pharma marketing, PR and communications, medical affairs and business development and licensing focused on strategic collaboration, candid conversation and meaningful connection. The event matches profiled senior executives with solution partners for discussions that address their most pressing challenges.
Bookmark Global Gateway Advisors’ event tracker, updated weekly.
Media news
Expansion and experimentation
- Semafor Gulf ramps up publishing. Following its first year of profitability, the outlet is expanding to an 11-person editorial team and moving to a five-day-a-week publishing schedule. Co-Founder and CEO Justin B. Smith pointed to the Gulf’s growing global importance and Semafor’s ambition to become the “business and economic news platform of record” in the region.
- Business titans face off. CNN is launching “The 1 on 1,” a new show featuring business leaders interviewing one another. The first episode pairs chef-entrepreneurs Eric Ripert and José Andrés, followed by Pinterest CEO Bill Ready and Venmo Co-Founder Iqram Magdon-Ismail.
- McClatchy journalists “revolt” amid AI tool use. Dozens of Sacramento Bee staffers said they would withhold their bylines from stories produced using McClatchy’s new generative AI tool, which repurposes reporters’ existing work. “Our managers describe this to us as an experiment,” said reporter Ariane Lange, “and we responded, ‘Yeah, it is an experiment, and the imperiled guinea pig is our credibility.’”
Acquisitions
- OpenAI buys TBPN. In its first foray into media, the tech company purchased the popular tech industry talk show for an undisclosed amount. The show was on track to make more than $30 million this year despite its relatively modest audience of around 70,000 per episode. Noting OpenAI’s atypical nature, Fidji Simo, the company’s CEO of applications, said in a memo that the standard communications playbook simply doesn’t apply.
- LinkedIn explored beehiiv acquisition. In a recent newsletter, Semafor media editor Max Tani discussed rumors around potential M&A discussions in late 2025, though neither party responded to request for comment. If true, it would underscore the continued influence of newsletters among professional audiences and reflect a broader media M&A trend driven less by profit than by reputational clout and messaging, Tani notes.
Media in motion
- The Atlantic + Seabourn. The magazine and luxury cruise line announced a three-year partnership that will bring the former’s writers and editorial programming aboard select voyages starting this fall. As part of the deal, passengers aboard those routes will receive digital access while onboard, as well as a three-month subscription after returning home.
- The New York Times + Delta. All of the Times’ journalism and content – including games and cooking – will be available to Delta SkyMiles members through seatback screens and personal devices connected to WiFi. Once signed in, flyers will retain their access for 24 hours.
And, several new newsletters
- Axios is testing a C-suite newsletter. Written by Axios co-founder Jim VandeHei, it will feature insights from top business leaders. In a recent edition, Sam Altman shared three tips for AI implementation over the next 6-12 months. To request access, email csuite@axios.com with your name, title and company; approved readers receive their first edition on Saturday.
- Business Insider launches “Vibe Mode.” The weekly newsletter will track the rise of vibe coding — that is, a non-technical way of utilizing AI to write code — and what it means for work, startups and the economy.
- Marketing Vanguard debuts. Written by Jenny Rooney, ADWEEK’s new CMO-focused newsletter will cover leadership, strategy, talent, technology and creativity, with contributions from senior marketers across the Marketing Vanguard community.
Media moves
- The Atlantic hired Kelsey Ables, Janay Kingsberry, Will Oremus, and Matt Viser, all formerly at The Washington Post, as staff writers
- Hope King joined the beehiiv Media Collective and launched Macro Talk’s first newsletter, MacroTalk.News. Sign up here.
- The Financial Times’ George Hammond is now the deputy bureau chief on the West Coast. He will continue covering venture capital and AI. The outlet also appointed Mel Unsworth (previously END Clothing) as chief technology officer.
- Victor Swezey returned to Bloomberg News as a rotational reporter starting with the Management + Work team, where he will cover changing workplaces and the decisions made by corporate executives.
- Kelly Gilblom was named U.S. health team leader at Bloomberg News, managing a team of eight reporters, covering all aspects of the U.S. healthcare system.
- Business Insider hired Stephen Council (previously at SFGate) and Rya Jetha (formerly at The San Francisco Standard) to cover AI and emerging tech.
- Matt Brittin (formerly at Google) was hired as the BBC‘s new director general.
- CIO Dive hired Paige Gross (previously at States Newsroom) to cover enterprise technology and AI.
- Ruth Reader (formerly at Fast Company and Politico) joined Second Opinion Media.
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Featured Insights
What it means to lead with trust right now
Insights
Global Gateway Advisors
March 26, 2026
The trust problem has changed. The tools communicators have relied on — narrative, reputation, brand consistency — were built for a different era. Today, people are living through real disruption: information is messy, change is relentless, and conflicts are out in the open.
Rapid AI adoption is accelerating that pressure, and rising skepticism means audiences are actively looking under the hood. In that environment, authentic storytelling matters more than ever — but the story has to be structurally true.
Trust is now a structural asset. Trust today is built on credibility around how power is used, how decisions are made, and whether the systems behind the words actually match them. A new report from UK-based Echo Research makes this concrete: more than a quarter of FTSE 350 market value is priced on leadership credibility, governance, and delivery.
That puts communicators in a new position — not just crafting the story, but pressure-testing whether the organization can stand behind it.
ICYMI: In our last newsletter, we unpacked six practical ways for strategic communicators to sharpen their focus and stay credible, discoverable and quotable. Read it here.
In this COMPASS Q&A, we spoke with Tonia Ries — trust and business strategist — about how the definition of a “trusted leader” is evolving.
Her focus: decision-making discipline, aligned incentives, and transparency. She covers where trust breaks down, the risks introduced by AI-enabled systems, and what communicators need to know when advising leaders at high stakes.
Tonia brings more than three decades of experience in management, strategy, marketing, research and media. She helps organizations understand how trust operates at the intersection of leadership, systems and decision-making.
Q: When you look at the current environment, what does it actually mean to be a “trusted leader” today — and what’s changed from even a few years ago?
RIES: Trust has shifted in both structure and tone: from building an image to designing an architecture, and from delivering certainty to providing steadiness.
A few years ago, trust was still treated as something you could earn with credibility, brand, and strong messaging. Today, that’s not enough. People are living through real disruption: information is messy, change is relentless, and conflicts are out in the open. Many feel fearful, exposed, and tired — leaders themselves included.
Today, the trust test for leaders is less about “Do people like and believe me?” and more about “Can people see I’m using power responsibly?” That means being transparent about how decisions are made: what you’re prioritizing, where the tradeoffs are, who will be accountable. It also means being honest about your own lack of certainty: “Here’s what we know, here’s what we don’t and here’s how we’ll adjust as we learn more.”
Trust deepens when people feel they belong. Leaders earn trust by sharing the values behind tough decisions, and creating real ways for employees and customers to have voice, dignity, and recourse, especially when the stakes are high.
Q: Where do you see C-suite leaders most challenged when it comes to building and sustaining trust — particularly when trust is shaped by systems, incentives, and power, not just personal credibility?
RIES: Trust failures don’t usually come from a lack of communication; they more often happen when there are structural issues such as misaligned incentives or power imbalances. Leaders may say the right things, but if the metrics reward short-term wins, people will make short-term choices, even if those choices undermine values.
That’s why trust failures feel personal even when they’re rooted in structural problems: people experience mixed signals as unfairness. “We say we care about safety, but we punish the messenger.” “We say we value inclusion, but decisions are made by a small group behind closed doors.”
The leadership challenge is to make sure that the system matches the narrative. Are governance, decision rights, and incentives aligned with the trust story you want to tell and the values you want to nurture? Does your organization suppress truth-telling or protect it? Trust-building is often seen as a “soft skill,” but these are concrete operational and management questions for leadership to address.
Q: How does trust show up in business performance and outcomes in tangible ways, especially in high-stakes sectors like health and technology?
RIES: Trust removes friction, which impacts costs, efficiency, scalability and legitimacy. When it is strong, information moves faster, problems surface earlier, and decisions are easier to implement because people believe the organization is competent, honest and accountable. When trust is weak, every decision costs more: more oversight, more escalation, more rework, more churn, more time spent managing backlash instead of solving the problem.
In high-stakes sectors like health and tech, trust is part of the core operational infrastructure. It shapes whether innovation can scale, whether employees or partners surface risks early and whether teams coordinate well when things get complicated. It increases adoption rates and improves product development cycles.
Trust also shapes outcomes when something goes wrong—a patient safety issue, a product failure, a data breach. Stakeholders decide quickly whether to lean in with collaboration or suspicion, backlash or boycott. You can’t wait until you’re in a crisis before you think about whether you’ll have their trust.
Q: You’ve written about the erosion and distortion of trust signals. What indicators still matter most for leaders — internally with employees and externally with stakeholders — and which signals are increasingly misleading?
RIES: In a world where anything can be gamed or generated, the signals that matter are the ones that are hard to fake. Signals that are increasingly seen with suspicion are those that can be manufactured quickly: high engagement, polished narratives, and “trust us” promises. What can’t be faked is a track record of fair decisions, accountable leaders, and respectful treatment of people and communities.
Internally, one of the most important signals is whether truth can travel upward. Do people feel safe raising concerns? Do issues get addressed early, or do they get buried until they become crises Another signal is whether inclusion is real: who is listened to, who is protected and who bears the cost of mistakes.
Externally, the durable signals are consistency and follow-through. Do people see a clear connection between what you say and what you do over time? When you make a mistake, do you explain it, own it and fix it—or do you minimize and move on?
Q: Many organizations are optimizing aggressively for efficiency, speed and scale. Where do you see leaders unintentionally trading away trust in the process and what’s a better way to think about those tradeoffs?
RIES: Leaders often trade away trust when they skip over explanations, compress timelines and limit conversation in the name of efficiency. It can happen quietly: decision-making centralizes, communication gets thinner and people find they are expected to accept outcomes they can’t understand or challenge. That can look efficient in the short run, but speed without fairness weakens legitimacy—and legitimacy is what keeps people cooperating when they’re anxious or disagree with the outcome.
Trust is not the enemy of efficiency, as long as you design for speed in a way that people can understand it and feel they are part of it. Make your decision process transparent, create clear escalation paths and build feedback loops so that people can actually weigh in and change outcomes.
When people experience the system as fair and understandable, you get speed that lasts: less resistance, fewer surprise flare-ups and more willingness to collaborate under pressure. Over time, that is far more efficient and scalable.
Q: As AI-enabled agents and automated systems take on more responsibility, what trust risks do leaders tend to underestimate and what governance principles matter most to prevent power from concentrating in ways that feel opaque or unfair?
RIES: Automation concentrates power, so the most important thing governance has to do is to define responsibility. AI systems can quickly create new routines with real impact, shaping hiring decisions, customer outcomes and information flow. The trust risks are predictable: opaque decisions, unclear ownership and questions about potential bias. People don’t just fear decisions that are wrong: they fear decisions that can’t be understood or challenged.
The governance principles are straightforward: keep decision rights legible; tie accountability to specific individuals; require explainability for high-impact decisions; create oversight and auditability; and give affected people real mechanisms for appeal, override and correction.
AI also affects people’s sense of safety—jobs, privacy and the credibility of information itself. To gain full buy-in for AI-based initiatives, leaders will need to acknowledge and address those concerns and help their employees and customers navigate change.
Q: For leaders navigating high-stakes change or scrutiny right now, what’s one trust-related principle or discipline you think is most important to get right?
RIES: Leaders build trust when they make their decision-making process transparent. Tell us about what you prioritized, who you consulted and what would make you change course.
They don’t need to have all the answers; pretending to have certainty can quickly backfire. What people need is steadiness: clear principles, visible accountability and a real path for questions to be heard and harms to be repaired.
Q: For leaders navigating high-stakes change or scrutiny right now, what’s one trust-related principle or discipline you think is most important to get right?
RIES: Reputation still matters because AI can’t mediate the lived experience people have with your brand or organization over time. You can use AI to automate how I interact with your organization, but a strong reputation is tested and built through decisions that can’t be automated: how you treat people, whether accountability is real, whether actions consider the interests of all stakeholders, and whether you fix problems and repair harm quickly and transparently.
A good reputation is earned when you deliver on your promises over time. And that’s also the kind of leader people trust, and the kind of organization they want to do business with.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Trust is no longer a communications output – it’s a leadership discipline expressed through decisions, governance and accountability. For communicators, the mandate is to translate how the organization operates into clear, credible narratives that align words with action. As AI accelerates scale and introduces new opacity, scrutiny of decision-making will only intensify. Earned media is already shifting from what organizations say to how they act. The advantage goes to leaders and teams who can articulate tradeoffs, demonstrate accountability and communicate with precision and consistency-building durable credibility in environments where trust is continuously tested.
Key upcoming events
Marketing + Media
- Adweek Social Media Week (New York City, April 14-16) Marketers, creators and brand leaders will convene to navigate platform fragmentation, AI disruption and the evolving business of attention, examining how social drives culture, commerce and measurable impact. Speakers include Rob Gaige, Global Head of Insights at Reddit; Sean Atkins, CEO of Dhar Mann Studios; and Jessica Yellin, Founder of News Not Noise.
Global Economy + Policy
- Semafor World Economy Summit (Washington, D.C., April 13-17) More than 400 global CEOs, as well as investors and policymakers, gather for five days of conversation examining the forces reshaping the world economy — from AI and geopolitics to capital flows, climate and future industries. Speakers include Deko (Hisayuki) Idekoba, CEO of Indeed and President & CEO of Recruit Holdings; Roger Lynch, CEO of Condé Nast; Henry M. Paulson Jr., Chairman of the Paulson Institute and former U.S. Treasury Secretary; Dennis Mathew, Chairman & CEO of Optimum; and Patrice Louvet, President & CEO of Ralph Lauren.
- CNBC Invest in America Forum (Washington, D.C., April 15) Top investors, policymakers, and CEOs examine how economic policy is translating into real-world consequences for American business and accelerating investment in technology and AI infrastructure. Speakers include Marc Rowan, Co-Founder and CEO of Apollo Global Management; Scott Strazik, President and CEO of GE Vernova; moderated by Sara Eisen, Co-Anchor of CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” and “Money Movers.”
Talent + Workforce
- WSJ CPO Council Summit (Palo Alto, March 25-26) A gathering of top Chief People Officers and other HR senior executives examining how AI is reshaping the workforce, from talent strategy and hiring to organizational resilience and large-scale change management. The program features expert speakers, peer discussions, and curated experiences designed to help leaders prepare for a future in which work is increasingly driven by AI. Our client Julia Anas, Chief People Officer, Qualtrics, will lead a discussion on “Employee Listening — and the Credibility Gap.”
- HR Brew The Talent 2030 Collective (New York City, April 21) Join HR leaders for a day of conversations on how to recruit, develop and retain top talent amid economic uncertainty, from AI in hiring to skills-based workforce strategy and long-term employee wellbeing. Speakers include Dr. Benjamin Granger, Chief Workplace Psychologist at Qualtrics; Daniel Chait, CEO and Co-Founder of Greenhouse Software; and Amber Grewal, Chief Growth Officer at Eightfold.
AI + Enterprise Execution
- Reuters Momentum AI New York (New York City, April 27-28) Learn how to move AI from experimentation to execution over two days of practical, case-driven conversations focused on scaling responsibly, building trusted systems and turning strategy into measurable impact.
Health
- Fierce Pharma Engage (San Diego, April 22-24) A gathering of senior leaders in pharma marketing, PR and communications, medical affairs and business development and licensing focused on strategic collaboration, candid conversation and meaningful connection. The event matches profiled senior executives with solution partners for discussions that address their most pressing challenges.
Bookmark Global Gateway Advisors’ event tracker, updated weekly.
Media news
- Semafor rolls out a new global CEO podcast. Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson and Penny Pritzker will host The CEO Signal show/podcast. The show builds on The CEO Signal newsletter, featuring candid conversations with the leaders running the world’s biggest companies.
- CNBC launches a new business show. Starting this week, CNBC’s Morgan Brennan is hosting Morning Call, at 5am ET. The program will deliver market-moving insights and break down unfolding global developments, in addition to setting the business agenda for the trading day ahead.
- Nexstar merges with rival TV station owner. The FCC greenlit Nexstar’s $6.2B merger with Tegna, creating the largest local TV station operator in the country.
- Axios restructuring. The outlet cut 11 staffers across national, local, news desk, visuals, and social teams, including April Rubin and Maxwell Millington.
- CBS News announces more cuts. CBS News announced a new round of changes – laying off 6% of staff and shuttering CBS Radio – as Bari Weiss remakes the broadcast network.
Media moves
- Adam Banicki was promoted to General Manager, Video at Fortune, and has joined the Senior Leadership Team.
- Stephanie Ruhle is departing the 11:00 p.m. ET slot at MS NOW to anchor a new two-hour morning show on the network airing at 9:00 a.m. ET. Other MS Now changes include: Alicia Menendez moves from 7:00 p.m. ET (“The Weeknight”) to 12:00–2:00 p.m. ET; Ali Velshi takes over 11:00 p.m. ET; Luke Russert joins “The Weeknight” at 7:00 p.m. ET; “Morning Joe” shortens to 6:00–9:00 a.m. ET.
- NOTUS is expanding its newsroom, with notable additions including Washington Post alumni Jeff Stein, Paul Klane, Dana Milbank, Paige Cunningham, Sam Fortier, Andrew Van Dam and Missy Khavmongsa. Also joining the team is POLITICO’S Joe Gould and The Hill’s Al Weaver.
- Endpoints News is adding Karen Weintraub and Kevin Miller as editors.
- Bloomberg News hired Victor Swezey as a Rotational Reporter.
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Featured Insights
Six ways to sharpen your brand strategy playbook
Insights
Global Gateway Advisors
March 4, 2026
Distribution is fragmented, media is consolidating, AI is reshaping discovery and buyers are forming opinions long before companies enter the room. To be sure, none of this is new, but the implications are getting harder to ignore.
In 2026, the advantage belongs to organizations that are tightening, not reinventing, their communications playbook: reinforcing owned channels, showing up consistently in consequential moments and making it easier for journalists, stakeholders and AI systems alike to understand and accurately represent who they are.
In today’s issue, we’ll unpack six practical ways for strategic communicators to sharpen their focus and stay credible, discoverable and quotable.
ICYMI: Our last newsletter explored Reddit’s ascent, and how your organization can leverage the platform to shape narrative, build credibility and influence what surfaces in search and AI-generated answers. Read it here.
We are also closely following the conflict in the Middle East and its implications for organizations, employees and communities. As with other geopolitical developments, we are monitoring both on-the-ground conditions and how companies and leaders are responding.
Revisit the crisis response framework to ensure your organization is prepared to respond effectively in moments of instability and uncertainty. Key elements include maintaining a dedicated issues management and monitoring team, engaging early and often with employees in affected regions, and coordinating with security and risk partners as conditions continue to evolve.
Six ways to sharpen your brand strategy playbook
1. Double down on owned media
Owned media shapes how your company is discovered, evaluated and cited. Communicators should consistently publish material that signals authority and credibility to journalists, analysts and AI systems alike.
Timeliness drives discovery. When issues move quickly, the most recent content is what gets surfaced, sourced and reused.
Keep it simple. High-impact owned content does not need to be elaborate:
- Weekly Q&As with rotating executives – five focused questions suffice
- Short case studies showing how a product or service in action
- Brief market notes on trends your team is already tracking internally
In practice: Audit what already exists on your channels. Update strong pieces with current data and fresh examples.
The bottom line: This is not about volume. It’s about maintaining a steady drumbeat of clear, quotable material that others can reference and build on.
2. Use LinkedIn as a core publishing platform
LinkedIn is a distribution workhorse, not just a social media site. When used thoughtfully, it shapes how your organization and leaders are understood in the market.
The shift: Repurpose what you publish on your site. Turn Q&As, case studies and explainers into native LinkedIn posts.
The edge: Timeliness. Posts tied to what is happening now travel further than generic thought leadership. The algorithm favors relevance, and the editorial team at LinkedIn amplifies smart, current commentary.
The multiplier: Do not rely on the company page alone. Build an employee lift plan. In the first hour after posting, ask a small group to add thoughtful comments and reposts. Comments drive distribution; employees extend reach.
Encourage senior leaders to leave one to two substantive comments each week on timely industry news. Audiences prefer hearing directly from executives, not brands. CEOs who are active on LinkedIn humanize their companies, build trust and extend influence — and their posts typically outperform corporate accounts in engagement and shares. Joining existing conversations increases visibility without requiring leaders to originate every post.
Short-form, direct-to-audience video can also be effective, helping extend dwell time — a key driver of conversion and performance.
The bottom line: Companies that show up consistently in consequential moments build reach and credibility.
Go deeper: Leaning into LinkedIn
3. Re-embrace B2B publications
Trade publications are consolidating and fewer titles may survive. The strongest will carry outsized influence within their industries.
These outlets remain trusted sources of technical depth and sector-specific insight for target audiences. They often provide the space for nuanced storytelling that mainstream business media does not. Just as importantly, they frequently seed narratives that later surface in broader coverage.
They are also increasingly cited in AI systems because of their specificity and subject matter authority. As buyers increasingly self-educate before engaging sales, these publications shape early perception.
For brands, this makes them strategic partners. Not just for reach. For credibility and durable discovery.
In action: Re-engage the outlets that matter most in your sector. Contribute informed perspectives tied to current developments. Offer access to executives who can speak with depth and clarity. Build relationships before you need them. When news breaks, the strongest trade reporters should already know who to call at your organization.
The bottom line: Credibility starts inside your industry before it spreads beyond it.
4. Prioritize community credibility over scale
In niche markets, credibility often outweighs scale. Industry benchmarks consistently show that smaller, domain-focused creators generate materially higher engagement rates than celebrity personalities, particularly within specialized communities.
In B2B, micro-influencers are rarely traditional “creators.” They are analysts, newsletter writers, independent consultants, podcasters and respected LinkedIn operators whose audiences include concentrated decision-makers.
In action: Identify who already shapes opinion in your vertical or region. Engage them through co-authored insights, event panels, limited content collaborations or appearances tied to timely developments.
The bottom line: When trusted parties validate a company’s perspective, trust compounds faster than the brand’s voice alone.
5. Rethink newsletters (or start one, you’re not too late!)
A newsletter creates a portable, owned channel that builds habit and reinforces authority over time.
More than distribution, it signals what your company pays attention to, how it interprets events, and where it stands. Journalists, stakeholders and AI systems can follow that signal over time.
What strong newsletters do:
- Stay focused rather than promotional
- Offer interpretation, not just links
- Establish a consistent cadence
- Serve as source material for posts, panels, audio and video
The bottom line: In a fragmented distribution environment, email remains one of the few channels you control completely.
Go deeper: The Substack Playbook (and subscribe to ours while you’re at it).
6. Optimize content for AI and social search
Optimizing for AI systems and social search is less about hacks and more about clarity. As this space is evolving quickly, discovery patterns will change.
AI systems favor content that is well organized, factual and easy to extract. That means:
- Descriptive subheads
- Clear definitions
- Real-world questions and Q&As
- Straightforward prose free of jargon
It may also require auditing your CMS and tagging structure so content is logically organized and machine-readable.
In action: Identify the 5-10 questions you want your company or executives to surface for.
Test those queries in ChatGPT, Claude and Copilot. Test what appears — and what is missing.
Then determine what to:
- Publish on your site
- Frontload on LinkedIn or other platforms
- Contribute to relevant publications
The same principles apply across Reddit, Quora, TikTok, YouTube and Pinterest. Lean into explicit keywords in titles and captions, evergreen explainers and high-performing posts resurfaced with intention.
Before publishing, ask:
- Is the core idea clear in the first three sentences?
- Could this be quoted without editing?
- Does it explain what something is, not just why it matters?
- Would an analyst reuse this as background?
- Is our positioning consistent?
The bottom line: Clarity is the new optimization strategy.
Key upcoming events
Marketing + Media
- Adweek Social Media Week (New York City, April 14-16) Marketers, creators and brand leaders will convene to navigate platform fragmentation, AI disruption and the evolving business of attention, examining how social drives culture, commerce and measurable impact. Speakers include Rob Gaige, Global Head of Insights at Reddit; Sean Atkins, CEO of Dhar Mann Studios; and Jessica Yellin, Founder of News Not Noise.
Global Economy + Policy
- Semafor World Economy Summit (Washington, D.C., April 13-17) More than 400 global CEOs, as well as investors and policymakers, gather for five days of conversation examining the forces reshaping the world economy — from AI and geopolitics to capital flows, climate and future industries. Speakers include Henry M. Paulson Jr., Chairman of the Paulson Institute and former U.S. Treasury Secretary; and Anne Wojcicki, Founder and CEO of 23andMe Research Institute.
- CNBC Invest in America Forum (Washington, D.C., April 15) Top investors, policymakers, and CEOs examine how economic policy is translating into real-world consequences for American business and accelerating investment in technology and AI infrastructure. Speakers include Marc Rowan, Co-Founder and CEO of Apollo Global Management; Scott Strazik, President and CEO of GE Vernova; and Sara Eisen, Co-Anchor of CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” and “Money Movers.”
Talent + Workforce
- WSJ CPO Council Summit (Palo Alto, March 25-26) A gathering of top Chief People Officers examining how AI is reshaping the workforce, from talent strategy and hiring to organizational resilience and large-scale change management. The program features expert speakers, peer discussions, and curated experiences designed to help leaders prepare for a future in which work is increasingly driven by AI. Our client Julia Anas, Chief People Officer, Qualtrics, will lead a discussion on “Employee Listening — and the Credibility Gap.”
- HR Brew The Talent 2030 Collective (New York City, April 21) Join HR leaders for a day of conversations on how to recruit, develop and retain top talent amid economic uncertainty, from AI in hiring to skills-based workforce strategy and long-term employee wellbeing. Speakers include Dr. Benjamin Granger, Chief Workplace Psychologist at Qualtrics; Daniel Chait, CEO and Co-Founder of Greenhouse Software; and Amber Grewal, Chief Growth Officer at Eightfold.
AI + Enterprise Execution
- Reuters Momentum AI (New York City, April 27-28) Learn how to move AI from experimentation to execution over two days of practical, case-driven conversations focused on scaling responsibly, building trusted systems and turning strategy into measurable impact.
Finance
- WSJ CFO Council Summit (Palo Alto, March 23-24) A forum for senior finance leaders navigating volatile markets, shifting trade policy and the early impact of AI on the workforce, featuring conversations on capital allocation, regulatory uncertainty and how AI is beginning to reshape the modern enterprise.
Health
- Reuters Pharma USA 2026 (Philadelphia, March 16-17) A cross-functional gathering of pharma professionals from commercial to medical affairs to AI. This event will reflect on the state of the pharma industry, featuring impactful keynotes, open-book case studies and timely panel conversations.
- STAT Breakthrough Summit East (New York City, March 19) An industry forum focused on the forefront of biotech, life sciences and medical research and development. Participants will examine recent discoveries, innovative concepts and the critical partnerships driving medical progress.
- Fierce Pharma Engage (San Diego, April 22-24) A gathering of senior leaders in pharma marketing, PR and communications, medical affairs and business development and licensing focused on strategic collaboration, candid conversation and meaningful connection. The event matches profiled senior executives with solution partners for discussions that address their most pressing challenges.
Bookmark Global Gateway Advisors’ event tracker, updated weekly.
Media news
- Fortune to launch daily video business show. According to a LinkedIn jobs ad, the forthcoming show will focus on “must-know weekly business news across core coverage areas, and Fortune 500 coverage.”
- CNBC restructuring. The organization will unify TV and digital operations ahead of a planned paywall launch, resulting in roughly a dozen layoffs as parent company Versant Media navigates its post-spinoff transition from Comcast.
- Semafor launches China edition. Joining its regional newsletters on the Gulf and Sub-Saharan Africa, Semafor debuted a China-focused weekly briefing delivering executive-level insight on the country’s economic, political and technological influence. “We’ve found that our audience is tired of simplistic stories about China — whether a reductive Washington national security lens or a triumphalist Beijing tale of economic growth. Leaders, in particular, need to understand the depths of a complex bilateral relationship and a world re-ordering itself around both China and the United States,” said Ben Smith, Editor-in-Chief of Semafor.
- Semafor also has a new business podcast. On Compound Interest, journalists Liz Hoffman and Rohan Goswami chat with the people behind the world’s most important companies, unpacking how core parts of the economy operate. Listen to their first episode featuring Dara Khosrowshahi on robotaxi ‘mission control’ and Uber’s next billion-dollar business here.
- Yahoo Finance partners with Coinbase. Users will now be able to move directly from researching crypto tickers to executing trades, part of a broader push to expand crypto coverage and integrate digital assets alongside traditional markets.
- Business Insider launches CMO newsletter. Written by senior correspondent Lara O’Reilly, CMO Insider will deliver weekly scoops, analysis, and insider insight on the pressures shaping modern marketing, from the rise of the creator economy to AI-driven disruption, hitting inboxes every Wednesday, starting today.
Media moves
- Jenna Goudreau (formerly CNBC Make It) joins Forbes on March 9 as executive editor of the new service desk.
- Miranda Nazzaro (previously FedScoop) returned to The Hill as senior technology reporter.
- Bloomberg named Jillian Ward executive editor for North America technology coverage and Sarah Frier as managing editor for big tech.
- Washington Post reporter Dylan Wells will begin writing a newsletter on the creator economy this month, while Washington Post Intelligence hired Benjamin Guggenheim (formerly Politico) to write a newsletter on artificial intelligence and tech policy.
- Emily Ngo (formerly Politico) was hired by NBC News as a newsletter writer and editor.
- Salvador Rodriguez, deputy tech editor at CNBC, and tech reporter Steve Kovach are among those departing due to a restructuring.
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Featured Insights
Assessing Reddit’s rise
Insights
Global Gateway Advisors
February 18, 2025
Reddit, once considered a niche forum, is now a critical platform for shaping reputation, surfacing information in search, and synthesizing human perspective within AI systems. It influences everything from product decisions to public perception during high-profile moments to what appears in AI-generated answers. For communicators and brand leaders, that shift is too significant to be ignored.
ICYMI: Our last newsletter explored the current state of corporate activism amid escalating political tension and scrutiny. Read it here.
Reddit meets the moment
Founders and college roommates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian built Reddit to be the “front page of the internet.” Two decades later, that vision is coming to fruition.
Two forces have propelled the platform into this moment.
- Audiences are weary of feeds shaped by algorithms and flooded with AI-generated content. They’re hungry for real community and connection. “We give people this core human need to feel like they can belong to something,” former Reddit CMO Roxy Young toldBusiness Insider in 2025. “At the core of Reddit is authentic human conversations.”
- AI is reshaping how information is retrieved and summarized, increasing the value of first-person discussion as source material.
Reddit sits at the intersection of both shifts: a pseudonymous network of communities whose conversations shape not just culture, but discovery. Brands (which once avoided Reddit due to its reputation as “fringe”) are taking note and actively engaging with the platform.
A quick breakdown
- Reddit is organized into subreddits that are distinct communities with their own cultures, rules, and volunteer moderators who enforce them.
- There are more than 100,000 active subreddits, ranging from broad topics like r/funny, with more than 6 million weekly visitors, to highly niche forums dedicated to specific professions, hobbies, health conditions, geographic regions, and the obscure.
- Redditors can choose to autogenerate their usernames, and the platform does not require them to display real names publicly. This allows people to be candid in a way they wouldn’t be on platforms tied to real-world identity, such as LinkedIn.
- Users “upvote” content they find valuable and “downvote” what feels spammy or irrelevant, determining what rises to the top.
- Upvotes earn users “karma,” a visible reputation score that signals credibility and, in some communities, is required before posting or commenting.
Even if you’re not using Reddit, you’re using Reddit
- Google almost anything and a Reddit thread will likely be among the first results beneath the AI Overview. This is thanks to a $60 million annual deal between the two companies that allows Google to train its AI models on Reddit posts.
- Reddit has also partnered with OpenAI in a deal reportedly worth $70 million yearly.
By the numbers: Data from analytics firm Profound indicates that from August 2024 through June 2025, Reddit ranked as the most frequently cited domain in Google AI Overviews (21%) and Perplexity (46.7%) responses, and the second most cited source in ChatGPT (11.3%).
- According to its 2025 annual report, Reddit reaches 121.4 million daily active users, up 19% year over year. Revenue grew 69% in 2025 to $2.2 billion, with ad revenue rising 74%.
Why it matters: For communicators, the implication is clear. Reddit increasingly shapes what audiences see, trust, and act on.
- “The conversations on Reddit are driving people’s decision-making, and that’s why it’s an important place for brands and marketers to be,” Young said.
To unpack what this means in practice, Global Gateway Advisors spoke with Grace Close, a product marketing manager at Reddit, about how companies should approach the platform today.
As Close explained, brands cannot simply enter a conversation and talk about themselves. On Reddit, they need to listen first and understand the community before engaging.
What makes a conversation influential
Reddit’s research into which conversations resonate most strongly within communities and are more likely to surface in search and AI-generated answers points to a few consistent patterns:
- Start in the right place. Every issue or industry has its own home, sometimes several, on Reddit. The first step is identifying which communities matter for your organization and engaging there.
- Helpfulness > promotion. Reddit is centered around real questions and thoughtful answers. Brands earn credibility and trust when they solve a problem or clarify confusion.
- Allow for nuance. Influential discussions include a mix of perspectives, both positive and critical. Communities reward honesty and transparency over polished messaging.
- Human-first language. Posts and comments that read how people naturally speak are more likely to be picked up by LLMs.
Organic vs. paid: How brands engage
Reddit isn’t one-size-fits-all. Brands can participate organically inside communities or use paid tools to expand reach, but either way the platform rewards participation, not promotion.
Organic: When brands do engage, it works best when it’s grounded in real expertise. That might mean responding to questions, clarifying a point of confusion, or hosting an AMA (ask me anything) led by a credible subject matter expert.
In action:
- Duolingo’s VP of engineering fielded questions about product development, language teaching, monetization, and growth.
- Endo, a pharmaceutical company that has since merged with Mallinckrodt, invited users to ask questions of a Xiaflex patient and a physician specializing in hand conditions.
- An engineering manager at Spotify discussed a new feature.
Paid: Brands can target specific subreddits, use keyword targeting to appear alongside relevant discussions, and place ads directly within conversation feeds. They can also amplify AMAs or expert discussions to extend reach beyond a single community.
- Unlike traditional display ads, these placements sit inside active conversations, boosting visibility in a natural, relevant context.
Yes, but: The playbook you use for Google or Facebook ads likely won’t work on Reddit. Users are notoriously skeptical and quick to call out anything that feels inauthentic. If your strategy misses the mark, it can quickly attract critical comments and shift the conversation in a negative direction.
We’re advising our clients on how to monitor Reddit conversations and determine when engagement makes strategic sense. If your organization is exploring similar questions, we welcome the opportunity to connect.
Key upcoming events
Enterprise Leadership
- WSJ CFO Council Summit(Palo Alto, March 23-24) A forum for senior finance leaders navigating volatile markets, shifting trade policy, and the early impact of AI on the workforce, featuring conversations on capital allocation, regulatory uncertainty, and how AI is beginning to reshape the modern enterprise.
- WSJ CPO Council Summit (Palo Alto, March 25-26) A gathering of top Chief People Officers examining how AI is reshaping the workforce, from talent strategy and hiring to organizational resilience and large-scale change management. The program features expert speakers, peer discussions, and curated experiences designed to help leaders prepare for a future in which work is increasingly driven by AI.
AI + Policy
- Axios AI+DC (Washington, D.C., March 25) This half-day event focused on the future of AI, featuring conversations with leading innovators and business leaders on the next phase of AI transformation and its global impact.
Cybersecurity
- RSAC Conference (San Francisco, March 23-26) Join industry leaders, government officials, and security experts at one of the world’s largest cybersecurity gatherings to examine emerging threats, innovation, and digital resilience. Speakers include Rob Lee, CEO and Founder of Dragos, Inc.; Mea Clift, Principal Executive Advisor for Cyber Risk Engineering at Liberty Mutual; and Abhijith B R, Founder and Director of Offensive Security at Adversary Village and BreachSimRange.
Health + Life Sciences
- ViVE (Los Angeles, Feb. 22-25) Co-created by HLTH and CHIME, ViVE brings together health system, payer, and technology leaders to examine how digital tools, data, and emerging innovations are reshaping the business of healthcare. Participants include Tom Mihaljevic, MD, CEO and President of the Cleveland Clinic; Mary Varghese Presti, CVP and Chief Operating Officer for Health and Life Sciences at Microsoft; and Sarah London, CEO of Centene Corporation.
- CNBC Cures Summit (New York City/Virtual, March 3) The inaugural CNBC Cures Summit, convening leading investors, policymakers, and biotechnology executives to accelerate progress in rare disease research and the future of medicine. Speakers include Fidji Simo, CEO of Applications at OpenAI; Leonard S. Schleifer, MD, PhD, Co-Founder, President and CEO of Regeneron; and Boomer Esiason, broadcaster and rare disease advocate.
- HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition (Las Vegas, March 9-12) Join global health and tech leaders to explore how AI, data and new delivery models are transforming care, with hundreds of sessions and stakeholders from across the healthcare ecosystem.
Bookmark Global Gateway Advisors’ event tracker, updated weekly.
Media news
- Anderson Cooper leaving CBS. After nearly two decades, Cooper is stepping away from the network. He will remain at CNN, where he renewed his contract this past December. His exit is the latest shakeup at CBS amid continued restructuring under editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.
- A skeletal Washington Post. After cutting more than 300 staffers, eliminating its sports desk and significantly reducing its foreign desk — including laying off the Ukraine bureau chief and the entire Middle East team — the outlet has increasingly relied on wire stories. It was also forced to issue a correction after describing the South Caucasus — a region comprising the sovereign nations of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia — as part of Russia.
- Making AI Work. This new seven-part newsletter from MIT Technology Review explores how to apply large language models across industries, offering practical, sector-specific guidance.
- Bloomberg expands to seven-day coverage. Beginning Feb. 28, the network will launch “Bloomberg This Weekend,” extending its live business and global news programming across Saturdays and Sundays. The show will be hosted by David Gura, Christina Ruffini, and Lisa Mateo. In other news, the company reported 6% revenue growth in 2025.
- CBS News staffers “jumping ship.” Roughly a quarter of eligible “CBS Evening News” staffers — including six of 20 producers — have accepted voluntary buyouts ahead of expected layoffs under editor in chief Bari Weiss.
- Axios partners with OpenAI to champion local news. The collaboration will help Axios expand into nine new local communities at a time when nearly 40% of U.S. local newspapers have closed over the past two decades. Reporters will use OpenAI tools to streamline workflows and surface local trends, freeing up more time for original reporting, and will participate in OpenAI Academy training to support responsible AI use.
Media moves
- Laura Bratton (formerly Yahoo Finance) will now be covering AI applications and all things enterprise software for The Information, as well as writing the Applied AI.
- Longtime Bloomberg reporter Josyana Joshua is joining the money team (formerly known as the personal finance team).
- Joanna Stern (previously The Wall Street Journal) is starting her own consumer tech media company.
- WIRED’s Kate Knibbs will now be covering prediction markets.
- Madison Mills will now be covering artificial intelligence for Axios, and co-authoring its AI+ newsletter.
- Taylor Telford, a corporate culture reporter; Danielle Abril, who covered technology and work; Evelyn Larrubia, the business and technology investigations senior editor; Chris Velazco, personal technology reporter; and Sarah Ellison, who reported on the media industry, were among the 300+ employees laid off by The Washington Post.
- The Financial Times hired Patrick Foulis(formerly The Economist) as a contributing editor.
- Dai Wakabayashi was named Asia editor for the biz news desk at The New York Times.
Featured Insights
Is corporate activism back?
Insights
Global Gateway Advisors
January 30, 2025
Ongoing immigration operations and two fatal shootings in Minnesota have led to outrage across the U.S., once again forcing companies and leaders to weigh whether and how they should speak out on current events after a year of largely staying silent. Organizers behind a “national shutdown” today (Jan. 30) which calls for “no school, no work and no shopping” seek to apply more pressure on businesses and institutions.
As we’ve seen with this week’s events, with the right preparation, leaders can communicate during moments of social and political tension with confidence, clarity, and speed.
1. Shifting perspective on staying silent
Corporate leaders are confronting a set of fundamental questions: Should we say something? If so, what? And to what end? In this context, success depends on clarity of objective, message, and audience.
In Fortune’s CEO Daily, Diane Brady wrote that executives who have long been silent on the administration’s immigration crackdown appear to be reaching a breaking point. She noted that conversations at the World Economic Forum in Davos included frequent commentary about the relative silence of leaders in response to global events, indicating a potential shift ahead. Similarly, Andrew Ross Sorkin questioned in The New York Times’ DealBook how the business community chooses to use its voice, noting that many companies stay silent on issues deemed “too political.” He added that “at some point, business leaders — not just those in Minneapolis — need to raise their hands.”
2. Testing a collective public response
More than 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies — including Target (which faced backlash after an ICE raid at one of its stores), Best Buy and General Mills — did just that, issuing an open letter. It called for “immediate deescalation of tensions and for state, local, and federal officials to work together to find real solutions.”
In the WSJ CEO Brief, Lila MacLellan described the response as a “Rorschach test about the state of corporate leadership.” Some welcomed the show of a united front and the willingness of business leaders to speak up. Others criticized the approach as “hollow” and “vague,” arguing that it lacked any specific recommendations or clear course of action, in contrast to the more forceful corporate responses following the killing of George Floyd in 2020.
3. Speaking directly with employees
Prominent CEOs have taken a more direct approach in communicating with their employees:
- “What’s happening with ICE is going too far,” ChatGPT’s Sam Altman wrotein a Slack message to employees. “There is a big difference between deporting violent criminals and what’s happening now, and we need to get the distinction right.”
- Apple CEO Tim Cook emailed employees that he was “heartbroken” in a letter to employees, calling for de-escalation. He faced scrutinyfor attending a screening of a new Melania Trump documentary at the White House that same day.
- In a video message, incoming Target CEO Michael Fiddelke told staff, “The violence and loss of life in our community is incredibly painful. I know it’s weighing heavily on many of you across the country, as it is with me,” he continued. “We are doing everything we can to manage what’s in our control, always keeping the safety of our team and guests our top priority.”
4. Vocal companies are taking a stand
Patagonia issued the most explicit statementto date: “We can’t stand by while our communities are targeted by government-sanctioned violence.” The company added, “We are witnessing the militarization of our cities, the expansion of unchecked enforcement power, and a campaign of terror against communities of color and immigrants,” and directed people to contact their senators and tell them to vote against a bill that will increase DHS and ICE funding.
5. Justifying your commitments
Canadian social media management platform Hootsuite posted a letter from CEO Irina Novoselsky explaining its ongoing contracts with ICE after sustained media attention. Starting with “what we are watching unfold right now is wrong,” Novoselsky balances that their services ensure public “voices remain visible” in this time where trust is being lost and that the company works with many clients “without endorsing specific actions or policies.” In 2020, under different leadership, Hootsuite backed out of ICE contracts after negative employee response.
The bottom line: Responding to societal events is a discipline, not a reflex. This moment exposes not a lack of conviction, but a lack of clarity. Organizations are being pulled between expectations to engage and lessons learned from perceived overreach in the past and in the current political environment. The result is a wide spectrum of responses, each with their own risks – and regardless of the plan, executives should be prepared for questions from employees.
During tense social movements, effective communication is not about choosing between silence and statement. It is about aligning intent, authority, and action. Organizations that do this well are less reactive, more credible, and better positioned to navigate sustained scrutiny.
Communications decisions should be guided by a clear framework:
- Do we have relevant authority?
- Is there an impact on our employees or operations?
- Does this align to our organization’s mission or values?
- Would our customers expect us to respond?
- Are we willing to commit to an action?
Answering those questions, in that order, can help guide your communications approach.
If recent events have raised questions inside your company or organization, Global Gateway Advisors’ Crisis Frame is built to help communicators lead through disruption with clarity, speed, and control.
Reach out to crisisframe@gga.nyc to schedule a conversation.
Key upcoming global leadership, tech and health forums
AI, leadership + organizational strategy
- Charter Leading with AI (New York City/virtual, Feb. 10 + San Francisco/virtual, Feb. 24) An in-depth look at how organizations can break out of AI’s “messy middle,” featuring insights from practitioners, strategies for redesigning work for AI, and guidance for leaders shaping the future of talent, technology, and organizational transformation. Our client Hannah Calhoon, head of AI innovation and VP of AI at Indeed, will speak on a panel at the NYC event focused on using AI to lead teams. If you’re planning to attend, let us know.
- WSJ Tech Council Summit (Palo Alto, California, Feb. 10-11) Senior technology leaders gather to explore how the C-suite is deploying AI, overcoming scale challenges, and driving transformational change across their organizations. Participants include Tim Crawford, CIO strategic advisor at AVOA; Sasan Goodarzi, CEO of Intuit; and Kathy Kay, EVP and CIO at Principal Financial. Qualtrics’ Chief Security Officer Assaf Kerem will lead an Exchange Session for attending CIOs and CSOs at the event.
- Leaders in AI Summit (Austin, Texas, Feb. 17-18) Senior data and technology leaders gather to discuss how organizations are operationalizing AI across data strategy, transformation, and large-scale implementation. Speakers include Kumar Melam, Head of Data Science at Cardinal Health; Vino Kingston, Data & AI Transformation Strategy and Integration Leader at Lockheed Martin; and Anh Selissen, Chief Information Officer at the Texas Department of Transportation.
Health + digital innovation
- ViVE (Los Angeles, Feb. 22-25) Co-created by HLTH and CHIME, ViVE brings together health system, payer, and technology leaders to examine how digital tools, data and emerging innovations are reshaping the business of healthcare. Participants include Tom Mihaljevic, MD, CEO and President of the Cleveland Clinic; Mary Varghese Presti, CVP and Chief Operating Officer for Health and Life Sciences at Microsoft; and Sarah London, CEO of Centene Corporation.
Bookmark Global Gateway Advisors’ event tracker, updated weekly.
Media news + moves
Media disruption and growth
- Impending cuts roil The Washington Post. Employees expect up to 300 jobs will be eliminated, with some desks possibly closing entirely. Desperate staffers have appealed to owner Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sanchez and Tom Hanks. The paper is in the midst of an “existential meltdown,” according to The Intelligencer. More here
- Semafor raises $30 million. The three-year-old media startup plans to use the cash to hire more journalists, launch a CEO-focused China newsletter, and expand its live-events business, particularly its annual World Economy Summit in Washington, D.C. This latest round of funding values the company at $330 million. More here
- Endpoints News expands coverage to China. The organization is hiring a senior journalist to cover the country’s biotech industry. More here
- CNBC launches “Leaders Playbook”: The show, which airs on Wednesdays at 10 p.m., features senior media and technology correspondent Julia Boorstin in conversation with top CEOs and business leaders about how they think, navigate crisis, and lead. More here
- CNBC launches rare disease-focused newsletter. The weekly publication will provide insight into the biggest headlines impacting the rare disease community, which affects roughly 1 in 10 Americans. More here
- TechBrew rebrands. The newsletter, which will now be published Monday through Friday, will be less product-focused and more impact-focused. More here
Platforms, audience and engagement
- Live, laugh, LinkedIn. At a time when the discourse around social media suggests decline, LinkedIn continues to grow. Revenue reached $17 billion in 2025, up from $7 billion in 2020, with membership doubling over the same period. Part of that growth reflects the platform’s real-name policy, which helps preserve trust and encourages better behavior. More here
- Reddit gains on TikTok. The online discussion platform has overtaken TikTok to become the UK’s fourth most visited social media service, reflecting shifts in search behavior and Gen Z usage. More here
New formats and emerging influence
- Vox partners with Seth Matlin on new media franchise. Geared toward business and marketing executives, it will include video podcasts with top thought leaders and several live events, ranging from multi-day summits to “intimate discussions and dinners.” More here
- The new generation of lobbyists. Last year, we spoke at length about newsfluencers. Now, this group of young, chronically online communicators is entering and reshaping the lobbying space, often without the constraints of newsroom ethics or disclosure requirements, as power brokers seek to capitalize on their audience loyalty and access. For example, Alex Bruesewitz, a 28-year-old former Trump campaign aide, tweeted to his 640,000 followers that marijuana should be classified as a less dangerous drug, calling it a “no-brainer.” What was not as obvious: He was paid $300,000 by a political action committee. More here
- Polymarket partners with Dow Jones. This will allow the predictions platform to provide its data across Dow Jones content, including The Wall Street Journal. “We’re making prediction market data accessible to our users, because it’s a rapidly growing source of real-time insight into collective beliefs about future events,” Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour said. This comes as Polymarket competitor Kalshi inked similar deals with CNN and CNBC. More here
- Forbes is launching its own prediction market. Unlike other prediction platforms, ForbesPredict, which was created in partnership with tech startup Axiom, is intended to drive engagement rather than wagering, allowing users to earn tokens tied to participation, rather than monetary bets. “This was really an appealing way for us to think about how we can bring in our reader and our audience’s voice as another view into the news,” said Forbes chief innovation officer Nina Gould, describing the approach as the “gamification of following a story.” More here
Media moves:
- Vox hired Benj Sarlin(previously The Washington Post and Semafor) as a senior editor for policy, politics, and ideas.
- Brad Davis and Debbie Strong were promoted to deputy executive editors on the innovation team at Business Insider and Mia de Graaf was made executive editor on the Life team. Chief revenue officer, Maggie Milnamow, and global head of sales, Orlando Reece, are leaving the organization.
- Axios hired Liz Alesse (formerly ABC News) as its first general manager of Axios Local, while promoting Ben Berkowitzto head of news.
- Karey Van Hall (previously USA Today and Politico) was hired by Semaforas its new Washington editor.
- WIRED hired Miles Klee (most recently Rolling Stone) as a senior writer on the culture desk, while Rob Reddick, UK science editor, is leaving the organization.
- The New York Times hired Brian O’Keefe (formerly Esquire) as DealBook’s managing editor, while Rich Barbieriis taking on a new role as international business editor, overseeing coverage in Europe and Asia.
- Longtime pharma trade reporter Dan Stanton went in-house to Sartorius.
- Morning Brew hired Vincent Ryan (previously CFO Leadership) as editor of CFO Brew, while reporter Patrick Kulpwill now write AI-focused feature stories for a range of the outlet’s newsletters.
- Brit Morse (formerly Fortune) joined The Weekas a senior editor.
- Sabrina Rodriguez (previously The Washington Post) has been hired as a politics reporter by The Wall Street Journal, while Ben Glickmanwill begin covering biotech.
- The Information hired Jyoti Mann (formerly Business Insider) to cover Meta and Eli Rosenbergto cover the AI boom in San Francisco.
- The Deep View hired Sabrina Ortiz (formerly ZDNET) as a senior AI reporter.
- CNET senior reporter Imad Khan departed the news organization.