Fortune 1000 CEOs Not Blogging

Posted on May 11, 2005

USA Today has an interesting article about why there are few blogging CEOs. USA Today says, "not a single blogger is known to be a Fortune 1000 chairman and/or CEO." The reasons include concerns over how to handle criticism to worries from corporate legal departments.

Winans International CEO Ken Winans says corporate bloggers are taking a big risk, because everyone from the Securities and Exchange Commission to "ambulance-chasing" lawyers are reading. It's a matter of time before one lands a company in court, Winans says.

"I'm not sure why anyone would sue me," says billionaire Cuban, who writes perhaps the most free-wheeling blog of anyone with deep pockets. "This is the USA, and freedom of speech is still protected," Cuban says in an e-mail, then points out that it was his stab at humor to ask why anyone in the USA would be compelled to sue.

SEC spokesman John Heine says he isn't aware of any SEC initiative specifically targeting executive blogs, but "we're always interested in everything."

"If someone writes on a blog at 3 a.m., is that a forward-looking statement?" asks Technorati CEO David Sifry, himself a blogger. "If that doesn't put fear into you, it should."

Some of the top executives actually blogging include General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, Sun's Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Schwartz and Jupitermedia CEO Alan Meckler. Steve Rubel at Micropersuasion.com says that the blog doesn't necessarily have to be written by the top executive at the company to have an impact.

The maverick CEOs - Mark Cuban, Bob Liodice, Alan Meckler and Bob Lutz - they all blog from the gut. They're naturals. Not every exec is a natural, but there's always someone in the rank in file who is. The moral of the story is, find someone who will blog from the gut whether they are at the top of the corporate food chain or the bottom.