All the Internet's a Stage. Why Don't C.E.O.'s Use It?
CHIEF executives are inclined to avoid activities generally deemed to be high-risk: Sky diving. Cliff jumping. Motorcycle racing. And blogging. — Two years ago, when Jonathan I. Schwartz, then the president and chief operating officer …
Context & Ripple Effects
Executive blogging is being framed as a corporate-risk decision, not merely a communications tactic. A March critique, the case against CEO blogging, had already surfaced the reputational and disclosure concerns that make senior executives reluctant to publish directly.
Jonathan I. Schwartz’s prominence in the discussion gives the issue a concrete test case: executive-authored posts can create a direct public channel, while placing the executive—and the company—under the same scrutiny as any other publisher.
First-order effects
- Chief executives weighing blogs must trade greater direct access to customers and employees against personal exposure to public criticism and potential corporate communications risk.
- Jonathan I. Schwartz’s visible participation makes CEO blogging a more salient benchmark for peers deciding whether the channel is compatible with their role.
Second-order effects
- Corporate communications and legal teams gain a stronger role in setting editorial controls, since an executive’s personal voice can carry company-level consequences.
- Companies that keep executives off blogs leave more room for employees, media outlets, and outside commentators to define the public conversation around their leaders.
Third-order effects
- If executive blogging gains acceptance, corporate communications shifts from managed statements toward recurring, personality-led publishing in which individual leaders become durable distribution channels.
- The tension identified in earlier warnings about CEO blogs points to a lasting governance question: how companies preserve an authentic executive voice without treating it as exempt from disclosure and reputational controls.
The trend: Corporate leaders are beginning to treat direct online publishing as a strategic communications channel whose value depends on governance as much as personal visibility.