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The Role of Corporate Executives in Business Journalism and Corporate Communications
The Role of Corporate Executives in Business Journalism and Corporate Communications
in Business Journalism
and Corporate Communications
Chris Roush
UNC-Chapel Hill School of Media and Journalism
comments in a Facebook post and in con- The business news media are seen as
gressional testimony before he ever spoke to analyzing and evaluating executives and com-
the media (Madani and Visser 2018). panies for investors, analysts, and potential
Business executives complain that the and current employees, m aking i nteraction
reporters covering their companies lack an between journalists and c orporate executives
understanding of their operations because a necessity in society. “The CEO has become
“they haven’t sufficient financial b
ackground,” the personification of the corporation, and
wrote Pulitzer Prize–winning business j ournalist the changing environment has forced the
Joseph A. Livingston (1976). He added that corporation and the CEO into the public
reporters have their own complaints: arena,” wrote James E. Arnold (1988) in
Public Relations Quarterly. In addition, nearly
On the other side, reporters respond every executive believes that media coverage
that businessmen are available when influences the reputation of their c orporation,
they want publicity but are scarce according to a study by Ansgar Zerfass of the
when the reporter wants information University of Leipzig and Muschda Sherzada,
about something that the business- head of corporate communications at About
men would rather not see in print You GMBH. (Zerfass and Sherzada 2015).
or hear on the air. Furthermore, the Corporate executives and business jour-
argument runs, if businessmen want nalists would both benefit from exploring
fair and accurate reporting, wouldn’t the origins of their feelings about each
it behoove them to take time to talk other and the history of their relation-
to newspeople? (Livingston 1976) ship. Such a review shows that both sides
of the argument have some truth, and that
Another Pulitzer Prize–winning business both sides can do better in developing a
journalist, Vermont Royster, echoed similar relationship with the other side and under-
complaints about the relationship in the standing the needs and issues of the other.
Wall Street Journal in 1979. He noted that oil A 1994 study—compiled by a j ournalist and
industry and energy industry executives had a retired CEO—by the Freedom F orum First
remained silent in the wake of controversies Amendment Center argued for b etter rela-
in their businesses. “The views and com- tions between the two sides and concluded,
ments of these chief executives would have “There is no doubt that the relationship
made news, had they been forthcoming,” between business and the news media
wrote Royster (1979). “In at least two cases would be improved if journalists would be
their views were actively sought. I cannot fair and executives would tell the truth”
tell you the reasons why they declined. But (Haggerty and Rasmussen 1994). As that
I suspect it was because these chief execu- study nears its 25th anniversary, there has
tives were terrified” (Royster 1979). Royster been no concentrated effort to address the
also noted that many business news stories situation. As one corporate executive wrote
are “woefully incompetent or biased, or in 1976, “Considerable effort on both parts
both” (Royster 1979). is required for them to attain tolerance,
Others writing about corporate execu- appreciation and understanding for one
tives and their role emphasize that their job another” (MacNaughton 1976).
is to court the business news media. Writing This article will trace the evolution of
in Harvard Business Review, Rakesh Khurana how corporate executives, particularly
(2002) argues that CEOs must have the “gift CEOs, have been viewed by the business
of tongues,” which means having the ability news media and how corporate executives
to “inspire employees to work harder and have influenced how they are p ortrayed
gain the confidence of investors, analysts, in stories. It will also assess the impor-
and the ever skeptical business press.” tance of communication between corporate
executives and the media and suggest ways 1902. Although Rockefeller never talked to
that both sides can improve the relationship. Tarbell, he complained about her stories to
another magazine, stating they were “without
Historical Examples foundation. The idea of the Standard forcing
Modern business journalism has its roots in anyone to sell his refinery to us is a bsurd,”
the 15th and 16th centuries with a powerful according to Weinberg (2008). Tarbell pro-
business family, the Fuggers. Jacob Fugger ceeded to u ncover more about Standard Oil
was a banker in Augsburg, Germany, who and turned her reporting into a best-selling
began using a system of letters b etween book. After Tarbell wrote a b iography of
correspondents placed throughout Europe Rockefeller for McClure’s, Standard Oil hired
to determine whom to loan money to and a public relations e xecutive. A prominent
at what rate. The letters included detailed New York public relations executive urged
explanations of business conditions in
Rockefeller to respond to the articles, but
various cities and countries and allowed
Rockefeller never spoke publicly about
Fugger to become, according to author Greg Tarbell.
Steinmetz (2015), the “richest man who ever It’s likely that Tarbell’s coverage, which
lived.” Some of the earliest newspapers in many historians consider to be fair and
the United States, known as price currents, in many instances positive toward Stan-
were also used for business purposes, con- dard Oil, would have been different if
taining the latest prices of goods produced Rockefeller had spent the time to discuss
in the country as well as of those arriving on with her the strategy behind building Stan-
ships from Europe, Africa, and other places. dard Oil. Rockefeller might have come off
The Industrial Revolution in the 19th as a more sympathetic executive if her sto-
century led to dramatic economic growth ries had included some rationale from him.
in the United States and the creation of the However, the impact of her coverage on the
country’s first large corporations. As these public’s perception of a corporate e xecutive
companies began to impart more i nfluence and big business is irrefutable. In 1911, the
on society, media began to scrutinize their U.S. Supreme Court ordered the breakup of
operations and the effect they had on Standard Oil.
consumers. This led a group of journalists Other journalists wrote critically about
known as the muckrakers to begin report- companies and company executives during
ing about big business, which coalesced this time. Charles Edward Russell (1908)
the adversarial relationship that already focused on beef and tobacco companies.
existed between politicians and journalists He wrote, “We have given our praise to
into that between corporate executives and the money-getters. Then shall we profess
reporters and editors. astonishment that men do extreme things
The most detailed reporting about a com- to get money—now that we are all discov-
pany and a corporate executive during this ering what that means to the rest of us?”
time was the series of stories published in (Russell 1908). Corporate executives were
McClure’s Magazine by Ida Tarbell about rarely quoted in business news stories dur-
the Standard Oil Co. and its leader, John ing the early 20th century, and when they
D. Rockefeller. Tarbell used court records, felt their companies were being attacked,
sources within the company, congressional they reacted by hiring spokesmen or using
testimony, correspondence with other oil money to exert influence. Sherman Morse
companies, and interviews from rivals who wrote in the American Magazine that p ublic
were forced out of business to explain how relations staff would lead to companies
Rockefeller and his company had created disclosing information that they had pre-
a monopoly in the oil industry. Her series viously withheld but warned that public
of articles began in McClure’s in November relations could also help companies obtain