The Role of Corporate Executives
in Business Journalism
and Corporate Communications
Chris Roush is the Walter E. Hussman
Sr. distinguished professor at the
University of North Carolina–Chapel
Hill School of Media and Journalism.
He served as the School’s senior
associate dean from 2011 to 2015
and as the director of its master’s
program from 2007 to 2010. He is the
founder of the Carolina Business News
Initiative, which provides professional
training in business journalism, and he
created the School’s undergraduate
major in business journalism. He
is the author or coauthor of nine
books—five corporate histories and
four books about business journalism.
His textbook Show Me the Money:
Writing Business and Economics Stories
for Mass Communication is in its third
edition and is the leading textbook in
business journalism education. He also
has founded and run various websites,
including Talking Biz News, a website
about business journalism. In 2010,
he was named Journalism Teacher
of the Year by the Scripps Howard
Foundation and the Association for
Education in Journalism and Mass
Communication.
© Business Expert Press 978-1-94858-043-4 (2018)
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Chris Roush
UNC-Chapel Hill School of Media and Journalism
Abstract: The interaction between corporate executives
and business journalists is one of the most important in
today’s society as corporations become more influential.
That relationship has been adversarial throughout most
of the past century, but there are new strategies that
­executives can use to help them deliver their ­message.
In addition, with media undergoing a dramatic change
and many news organizations de-emphasizing business
news coverage, it’s imperative for e ­ xecutives to play a
more proactive role in communicating with ­reporters
and editors. Executives, particularly chief ­ executive
­officers, have taken on a more public role in the past few
decades, and it’s important for journalists to ­properly
­assess and evaluate their performances to maintain their
important role as a watchdog in society.
Keywords: business journalism, corporate
communications, corporations, executives, journalism
The relationship between corporate executives and the
media that cover their companies has been one where
both sides disagree about the role the other should play in
communicating news and information. Many ­corporate ex-
ecutives believe that business news ­media predominantly
portray their operations in an ­unfavorable light and ignore
the good that their businesses p ­ rovide to society. Business
reporters and editors argue that ­corporate executives of-
ten fail to tell the truth about their ­businesses or hide be-
hind corporate spokesmen and spokeswomen, leaving
society with an incomplete p ­ icture of the impact of their
companies. Executives also use other tactics i­nterpreted
as being adversarial to the business news ­media. In 2018,
Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Z ­ uckerberg was criticized for not
immediately speaking to the media when it was disclosed
his company had a­ llowed another business to obtain data
about its customers. Zuckerberg chose to make his initial
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 The Role of Corporate Executives in Business Journalism and Corporate Communications
comments in a Facebook post and in con-
gressional testimony before he ever spoke to
the media (Madani and Visser 2018).
Business executives complain that the
­reporters covering their companies lack an
understanding of their operations ­because
“they haven’t sufficient financial b
­ ackground,”
wrote Pulitzer Prize–winning business j­ ournalist
Joseph A. Livingston (1976). He added that
reporters have their own complaints:
On the other side, reporters respond
that businessmen are available when
they want publicity but are scarce
when the reporter wants information
about something that the business-
men would rather not see in print
or hear on the air. Furthermore, the
argument runs, if businessmen want
fair and accurate reporting, wouldn’t
it behoove them to take time to talk
to newspeople? (Livingston 1976)
Another Pulitzer Prize–winning business
journalist, Vermont Royster, echoed similar
complaints about the relationship in the
Wall Street Journal in 1979. He noted that oil
industry and energy ­industry ­executives had
remained silent in the wake of ­controversies
in their businesses. “The views and com-
ments of these chief executives would have
made news, had they been forthcoming,”
wrote Royster (1979). “In at least two cases
their views were ­actively sought. I ­cannot
tell you the reasons why they ­declined. But
I ­suspect it was ­because these chief execu-
tives were terrified” (­Royster 1979). Royster
also noted that many ­business news stories
are “woefully i­ncompetent or biased, or
both” (Royster 1979).
Others writing about corporate execu-
tives and their role emphasize that their job
is to court the business news media. Writing
in Harvard Business Review, Rakesh Khurana
(2002) argues that CEOs must have the “gift
of tongues,” which means having the ability
to “inspire employees to work harder and
gain the confidence of investors, analysts,
and the ever skeptical business press.”
2 © Business Expert Press 978-1-94858-043-4 (2018)
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The business news media are seen as
­analyzing and evaluating executives and com-
panies for investors, analysts, and ­potential
and current employees, m ­ aking i­ nteraction
between journalists and c­ orporate executives
a necessity in ­society. “The CEO has become
the personification of the corporation, and
the changing environment has forced the
corporation and the CEO into the public
arena,” wrote James E. ­Arnold (1988) in
Public ­Relations ­Quarterly. In ­addition, nearly
every ­executive ­believes that media coverage
­influences the reputation of their c­ orporation,
according to a study by Ansgar Zerfass of the
University of Leipzig and Muschda Sherzada,
head of corporate communications at About
You GMBH. (Zerfass and Sherzada 2015).
Corporate executives and business jour-
nalists would both benefit from exploring
the origins of their feelings about each
other and the history of their relation-
ship. Such a review shows that both sides
of the argument have some truth, and that
both sides can do better in developing a
­relationship with the other side and under-
standing the needs and issues of the other.
A 1994 study—compiled by a j­ ournalist and
a ­retired CEO—by the Freedom F ­ orum First
Amendment Center argued for b ­ etter rela-
tions between the two sides and concluded,
“There is no doubt that the ­ relationship
between business and the news media
­
would be improved if journalists would be
fair and executives would tell the truth”
(Haggerty and Rasmussen 1994). As that
study nears its 25th anniversary, there has
been no concentrated effort to address the
situation. As one corporate executive wrote
in 1976, “Considerable effort on both parts
is required for them to attain tolerance,
appreciation and understanding for one
­
another” (MacNaughton 1976).
This article will trace the evolution of
how corporate executives, particularly
CEOs, have been viewed by the business
news media and how corporate executives
have ­ influenced how they are p ­ortrayed
in stories. It will also assess the impor-
tance of communication between corporate
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The Role of Corporate Executives in Business Journalism and Corporate Communications
executives and the media and suggest ways
that both sides can improve the relationship.
Historical Examples
Modern business journalism has its roots in
the 15th and 16th centuries with a powerful
business family, the Fuggers. Jacob Fugger
was a banker in Augsburg, ­Germany, who
began using a system of letters b ­etween
correspondents placed throughout Europe
to determine whom to loan money to and
at what rate. The letters i­ncluded ­detailed
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
Steinmetz (2015), the “richest man who ever
lived.” Some of the earliest newspapers in
the United States, known as price currents,
were also used for business purposes, con-
taining the latest prices of goods produced
in the country as well as of those arriving on
ships from Europe, Africa, and other places.
The Industrial Revolution in the 19th
century led to dramatic economic growth
in the United States and the creation of the
country’s first large corporations. As these
companies began to impart more i­ nfluence
on society, media began to scrutinize their
operations and the effect they had on
­consumers. This led a group of journalists
known as the muckrakers to begin report-
ing about big business, which coalesced
the adversarial relationship that already
existed between politicians and journalists
into that between corporate executives and
­reporters and editors.
The most detailed reporting about a com-
pany and a corporate executive during this
time was the series of stories published in
McClure’s Magazine by Ida Tarbell about
the Standard Oil Co. and its leader, John
D. Rockefeller. Tarbell used court records,
sources within the company, congressional
testimony, correspondence with other oil
companies, and interviews from rivals who
were forced out of business to explain how
Rockefeller and his company had created
a monopoly in the oil industry. Her series
of articles began in McClure’s in November
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1902. Although Rockefeller never talked to
Tarbell, he complained about her ­stories to
­another magazine, stating they were “without
foundation. The idea of the Standard forcing
anyone to sell his refinery to us is a­ bsurd,”
according to ­Weinberg (2008). Tarbell pro-
ceeded to u ­ ncover more about Standard Oil
and turned her reporting into a best-selling
book. ­ After T­arbell wrote a b ­iography of
Rockefeller for ­McClure’s, ­Standard Oil hired
a public r­elations e ­xecutive. A prominent
New York ­public relations ­executive urged
Tarbell.
It’s likely that Tarbell’s coverage, which
many historians consider to be fair and
in many instances positive toward Stan-
dard Oil, would have been different if
­Rockefeller had spent the time to discuss
with her the strategy behind building Stan-
dard Oil. Rockefeller might have come off
as a more sympathetic executive if her sto-
ries had included some rationale from him.
However, the impact of her coverage on the
public’s perception of a corporate e­ xecutive
and big business is irrefutable. In 1911, the
U.S. Supreme Court ordered the breakup of
Standard Oil.
Other journalists wrote critically about
companies and company executives during
this time. Charles Edward Russell (1908)
focused on beef and tobacco companies.
He wrote, “We have given our praise to
the money-getters. Then shall we profess
astonishment that men do extreme things
to get money—now that we are all discov-
ering what that means to the rest of us?”
(Russell 1908). Corporate executives were
rarely quoted in business news stories dur-
ing the early 20th century, and when they
felt their companies were being attacked,
they reacted by hiring spokesmen or ­using
money to exert influence. Sherman Morse
wrote in the American Magazine that p ­ ublic
relations staff would lead to companies
disclosing information that they had pre-
viously withheld but warned that public
­relations could also help companies obtain
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