Executive Summary
- CEOs read HBR, McKinsey, and the Wall Street Journal (320K, ~2M, and 4.5M subscribers respectively), attend Davos and HumanX, and trust peer networks (YPO, Vistage, World 50) more than any publication. Their first call on AI is to another CEO who has done it, not to a vendor or analyst.
- CFOs treat Gartner and Forrester TEI studies as the default ROI evidence, but the real influence sits in CFO Dive, CFO.com, and the WSJ CFO Journal. The AI:ROI Conference and Radiance are their dedicated events. They trust numbers, not narratives.
- CTOs and CIOs split their attention between analyst firms (Gartner, Forrester) and practitioner sources (Pragmatic Engineer at 1M+ readers, InfoQ, The New Stack). AWS re:Invent (60,000 attendees) and Gartner IT Symposium (9,000) dominate their conference calendar. They skim analyst quadrants but read developer surveys.
- CISOs operate in closed networks. Evanta/Gartner CISO Communities (14,000+ executives across 400 events in 2025), the Black Hat CISO Summit (invitation-only, Chatham House Rule), and CyberDefenseCon (100 CISOs, Ritz Carlton, invitation-only) matter more than any publication. NIST AI RMF, OWASP LLM Top 10, and CSA AI Controls Matrix are their reference frameworks.
- Chief AI Officers are a new and still-forming community. The RE-WORK Chief AI Officer Summit, the Chief AI Officer Exchange (sold out in 2025), and Corinium’s CDAO events are the primary gathering points. No dominant publication serves this role yet, which is an opportunity.
- General Counsel rely on Law360, The American Lawyer, and Above the Law for AI regulatory intelligence. Legalweek (6,000 attendees) and ILTACON (1,600) are the anchor conferences. The General Counsel Report (FTI/Relativity) found 87% of GCs now use generative AI, up from 44% in 2025.
1. CEO and Board Members
Where They Read
| Publication | Reach | Credibility | Accepts Contributed Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harvard Business Review | 320K paid subscribers; 40%+ are C-level or adjacent (Press Gazette, 2025) | High. The benchmark for strategic thinking. | Yes. Pitch to hbr_editorial@hbr.org. 3-6 month lead time. Very selective. |
| McKinsey Quarterly / McKinsey Insights | ~2M monthly unique visitors (estimate based on publishing volume) | High for strategy; readers know it is a consulting funnel. | External submissions accepted but rare. Contact McKinsey Publishing. |
| Wall Street Journal | 4.5M total subscribers (412K print, 4.1M digital). 70% of the American C-suite reads it. | Very high. The daily business intelligence briefing. | Op-eds accepted. Long lead time. Contributor guidelines on wsj.com. |
| Financial Times | 1.3M subscribers (1.2M digital). Strongest among global financial decision-makers (36% reach per Global Capital Markets Survey, 11 points above WSJ). | Very high, especially for cross-border deals and regulation. | Expert commentary accepted. Pitch to editors. |
| MIT Sloan Management Review | Smaller but prestigious. Heavy academic-practitioner crossover. | High. Research-backed. | Yes. Submit proposals under 1,500 words. Looking for research-grounded features under 4,000 words. |
Where They Convene
| Event | Attendance | Profile | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| WEF Davos | 2,500+ leaders; 800+ CEOs (January 2026) | Heads of state, Fortune 500 CEOs, tech founders | AI was the dominant topic in both 2025 and 2026. Jensen Huang, Dario Amodei, Larry Fink all spoke. Sets the year’s narrative. |
| HumanX | 6,500 attendees (April 2026, Moscone Center, SF) | CEOs, policymakers, investors. “Command Desk” track for executive AI leadership. | Rapidly becoming the “Davos of AI.” Less code, more strategy, governance, and capital allocation. |
| Fortune CEO Initiative / Fortune Global Forum | ~500 CEOs | Fortune 500 and Global 500 CEOs | Peer-level AI strategy discussions. Closed-door sessions. |
Newsletters and Podcasts That Reach Them
| Source | Subscribers/Reach | Why CEOs Care |
|---|---|---|
| Stratechery (Ben Thompson) | Premium subscription model; widely cited by tech CEOs | Deep strategic analysis of tech platform dynamics. CEOs share these essays internally. |
| Exponential View (Azeem Azhar) | 150K+ Substack subscribers, plus ~200K via enterprise distribution | Weekly analysis of exponential technologies including AI. Read by board members and strategy teams. |
| a16z Newsletter + Podcast | Ships 5x/week; significant VC and CEO readership | Sets Silicon Valley’s AI narrative. Marc Andreessen’s views filter into board conversations. |
Peer Networks
| Network | Membership | How They Use It for AI |
|---|---|---|
| YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization) | 25,000+ members globally | Private forums, chapter dinners. Members share vendor experiences and AI strategy candidly. |
| Vistage | 45,000 members across 40 countries | Monthly peer advisory groups. AI is now a standing agenda item in most groups. |
| World 50 / G100 | ~1,000 members (World 50); G100 restricted to CEOs of $10B+ revenue companies | The most exclusive. Invitation-only. Chatham House Rule. |
AI Thought Leaders CEOs Follow
- Jensen Huang (Nvidia) – market cap hit $5T in 2025; his GTC keynotes set the hardware narrative
- Sam Altman (OpenAI) – ChatGPT reached 800M weekly users; the most-quoted AI CEO
- Dario Amodei (Anthropic) – “Machines of Loving Grace” essay circulated widely in boardrooms
- Satya Nadella (Microsoft) – the enterprise AI deployment CEO; boards watch his moves
- Fei-Fei Li (Stanford HAI, World Labs) – the credible academic voice on responsible AI
Where They Go First for an AI Decision
The CEO peer network. YPO or Vistage members call another CEO who has already deployed AI before reading any report. Second stop: McKinsey or BCG strategy team. Third: HBR or board-level briefing materials from Gartner.
2. CFO and Finance Leadership
Where They Read
| Publication | Reach | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| CFO Dive | Daily newsletter; targeted exclusively at CFOs and senior finance executives | AI ROI frameworks, finance automation, compliance |
| CFO.com | Owned by Industry Dive since 2020. Digital successor to CFO Magazine (est. 1985). | Strategic finance leadership, AI cost-benefit analysis |
| WSJ CFO Journal | Section of the 4.5M-subscriber WSJ | Daily financial leadership intelligence |
| Gartner for Finance Leaders | Enterprise subscription model; used by most Fortune 500 finance teams | AI business case templates, benchmarking data, vendor evaluations |
| Forrester TEI (Total Economic Impact) Studies | Commissioned per-vendor; widely cited in board presentations | The de facto format for AI ROI justification |
Where They Get AI ROI Data
CFOs do not trust vendor claims. They trust, in descending order:
- Internal pilot results – their own numbers from a 90-day proof of concept
- Gartner/Forrester analyst models – especially Forrester TEI studies and Gartner Magic Quadrants
- Peer CFO benchmarks – from Deloitte CFO Signals (quarterly, ~140 CFOs) and L.E.K. Office of the CFO Survey (2025: 60% of CFOs call AI one of the most impactful technologies for finance)
- McKinsey/BCG industry reports – useful for board presentations but viewed as directional, not precise
Conferences
| Event | Attendance | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Radiance 2026 | 1,500+ CFOs (billing itself as the world’s largest CFO conference) | Accounts payable, treasury, risk, consolidation – AI woven through every track |
| AI:ROI Conference (Section, virtual) | Virtual; focused on heads of AI and CFOs | 10 sessions on driving measurable AI ROI |
| CFO Leadership Conference (Boston, June) | Senior finance executives | Practical leadership tactics including AI investment frameworks |
Newsletters
- CFO Daily Dive – curated daily across AI, compliance, risk, automation
- Fortune CFO Daily – macro trends, regulatory shifts, CFO commentary
- Deloitte CFO Signals – quarterly survey of ~140 large-company CFOs on confidence, priorities, AI investment
Where They Go First for an AI Decision
Their own P&L data. CFOs build the business case internally first, then validate against Gartner or Forrester benchmarks, then pressure-test with peer CFOs at Deloitte roundtables or Finance Alliance events.
3. CTO, CIO, and VP Engineering
Where They Read
| Publication | Reach | Audience | Trust Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Pragmatic Engineer (Gergely Orosz) | 1,073,000+ readers; #1 tech pub on Substack; 10M+ podcast downloads | Engineering managers, senior engineers, CTOs | Very high. Independent. No vendor influence. |
| InfoQ | Major practitioner publication; covers conference talks and deep dives | Senior developers, architects, VPs of Engineering | High. Practitioner-written. |
| The New Stack | Cloud-native and DevOps focused | CTOs evaluating infrastructure and AI ops | High for infrastructure decisions |
| CTO Magazine | Growing digital publication for senior tech executives | CTOs, VPs Engineering | Medium. Newer entrant. |
| McKinsey Technology / CIO Agenda | Enterprise subscription + free insights | CIOs at $1B+ companies | High for strategic framing; lower for technical depth |
Developer Surveys They Actually Trust
| Survey | Sample Size | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Stack Overflow Developer Survey (2025) | 49,000+ responses, 177 countries | Found 84% using AI tools but trust in AI accuracy fell from 40% to 29%. CTOs cite this in planning. |
| JetBrains Developer Ecosystem (2025) | 24,534 developers after cleaning | Language trends, tool adoption, AI usage patterns. Balanced by geography. |
| GitHub Octoverse (2025) | Platform-wide data (100M+ developers) | 36M new developers in one year. TypeScript surpassed Python. CTOs use this for talent strategy. |
| Global CTO Survey (2024/25 AI Edition) | CTO-specific | AI deployment challenges, cybersecurity, operational strategy from the CTO perspective. |
Conferences
| Event | Attendance | Why CTOs Go |
|---|---|---|
| AWS re:Invent | 60,000 (December 2025, Las Vegas) | Cloud and AI infrastructure. Agentic AI was the 2025 theme. |
| Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo | 9,000+ (October, Orlando) | CIO/CTO strategic planning. Analyst access. Peer networking. |
| NVIDIA GTC | Large (SF, March) | The “Woodstock of AI.” Jensen Huang’s keynote sets the technical direction for the industry. |
| QCon (London, SF) | ~1,500 per event | Practitioner-focused. Senior engineers and architects. High signal-to-noise. |
| MIT Sloan CIO Symposium | ~700 | “Human-AI Synergy” was the 2026 theme. Academic rigor meets executive practice. |
| CIO 100 Symposium | CIO-level (August, Frisco TX) | Awards, masterclasses, peer-led sessions for top CIOs. |
Newsletters and Podcasts
- TLDR Newsletter – daily tech news digest; massive reach among engineers and technical leaders
- The Changelog – developer-focused podcast and community; long-running, high trust
- Lenny’s Newsletter / Podcast – product and engineering leadership; strategic AI insights for business leaders
- Import AI (Jack Clark, Anthropic co-founder) – 116K+ subscribers; weekly analysis at the intersection of AI research and policy
Communities
| Community | Size | Format |
|---|---|---|
| CTO Craft | 6,000+ technology leaders | Slack community, monthly mentoring circles, conferences (London, Toronto). New for 2026: AI Leadership Lab add-on. |
| LeadDev | Large global network | LDX3 festivals (New York, London, Berlin). Targets heads, directors, VPs, CTOs. |
| Evanta CIO Communities (Gartner) | Part of 14,000+ executive engagement in 2025 | Local summits, dinners. Invitation-qualified. |
Analyst Reports: What They Actually Do With Them
CTOs and CIOs buy Gartner and Forrester subscriptions. The Gartner 2026 CIO Survey gathered data from 3,186 CIOs across 88 countries. They use Magic Quadrants for vendor shortlisting and Hype Cycles for timing decisions. But they trust practitioner sources (Pragmatic Engineer, Stack Overflow surveys, InfoQ) for what actually works in production.
4. CISO and Security Leadership
Where They Read
| Publication | Focus | Trust Level |
|---|---|---|
| Dark Reading | Enterprise security news and analysis | High. Daily read for most CISOs. |
| Cybersecurity Dive | Executive-focused security news | High. Part of Industry Dive network. |
| CSO Online (Foundry/IDG) | Security leadership, strategy, risk management | High. 2026 CSO Cybersecurity Awards recognize top practitioners. |
| The Record (Recorded Future) | Threat intelligence journalism | High, though vendor-affiliated (readers are aware). |
| SC Magazine | Long-running security publication | Medium-High. Broad practitioner audience. |
AI Risk Intelligence Frameworks
CISOs do not rely on publications for AI risk. They rely on frameworks:
| Framework | Publisher | Scope | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| NIST AI RMF 1.0 | NIST | Trustworthy AI principles; transparency, robustness, safety | Active. Revisions underway. New overlays for GenAI, agentic AI, and predictive AI in development. |
| OWASP LLM Top 10 | OWASP | Top vulnerabilities for LLM applications | v1.0 (2023), expanding in 2025 to include Agentic AI Security Framework. The most cited reference in CISO AI security planning. |
| CSA AI Controls Matrix | Cloud Security Alliance | 243 controls across 18 domains for GenAI governance | Released July 2025. Vendor-agnostic. The most comprehensive AI control framework available. |
| MITRE ATLAS | MITRE | Real-world AI attack techniques mapped to ATT&CK | Living knowledge base. Used for adversary emulation and red-teaming AI systems. |
| CSA MAESTRO | Cloud Security Alliance | Threat modeling for agentic AI (autonomous reasoning, tool use, multi-agent) | Released February 2025. First defense framework specifically for agentic AI. |
Conferences
| Event | Attendance | Profile |
|---|---|---|
| RSA Conference | 44,000+ (March 2026, Moscone Center, SF) | The largest cybersecurity conference globally. CISOs, practitioners, vendors, analysts. |
| Black Hat USA | 22,000+ (2025, up 13% YoY). AI security was the central theme. | More technical than RSA. Includes invitation-only CISO Summit under Chatham House Rule. |
| DEF CON | ~30,000 (2025) | Hacker community. CISOs attend to understand adversary capabilities, not for networking. |
| Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit | 3,000+ (October 2026, Aurora CO) | AI security, cyber resilience, data privacy, governance. Analyst-driven. |
Peer Networks
| Network | Format | Trust Level |
|---|---|---|
| Evanta/Gartner CISO Communities | 14,000+ executives across 400+ events in 2025. Local summits, dinners, virtual roundtables. | Very high. Personally qualified members. Closed-door. |
| CyberDefenseCon | 100+ global CISOs. Ritz Carlton, Orlando. Invitation-only. 95%+ of speakers are CISO peers. | Very high. Exclusive. |
| Black Hat CISO Summit | Invitation-only. Chatham House Rule. | Very high. Candid exchange among security leaders. |
| IANS Research | CISO advisory network | High. Connects CISOs with faculty advisors for real-time security guidance. |
| [un]prompted | AI security conference (March, SF). Intimate gathering for AI security practitioners including CISOs. | Emerging. Focused specifically on AI security. |
Where They Go First for an AI Security Decision
NIST AI RMF first for the governance framework. OWASP LLM Top 10 for the technical threat model. Then their CISO peer network (Evanta, CyberDefenseCon) to learn what peers have actually deployed and what failed.
5. Chief AI Officer / Head of AI
This is a role that barely existed before 2023. The community is forming in real time.
Who They Are
PixieBrix’s 2025 Global AI Leadership Directory and Constellation Research’s AI150 list track the most prominent CAIOs. Most dedicated Chief AI Officer roles currently sit inside large enterprises (Fortune 500) and public-sector institutions. The title covers a wide range: some are former Chief Data Officers, some are former CTOs, some are ML research leads elevated to the C-suite.
Where They Congregate
| Event | Format | Status |
|---|---|---|
| RE-WORK Chief AI Officer Summit (New York, London) | Conference with tracks on AI adoption, governance, ethics, decision-making | The most established dedicated CAIO event. 2026 editions in both NY and London. |
| Chief AI Officer Exchange | Chatham House Rules. Invitation-only. Both 2025 U.S. editions sold out. | High exclusivity. Open discussion format for advancing enterprise AI. |
| Corinium CDAO Events (multiple cities) | Chief Data & Analytics Officer summits across U.S., UK, Australia, Canada | The largest event series for data/AI leaders. Multiple cities per year. |
| Gartner Data & Analytics Summit | CDAO Circle Program within the broader summit | Analyst-driven. Good for benchmarking. |
| Ai4 | 12,000+ attendees (August 2026, Las Vegas) | America’s largest AI conference. Practical enterprise deployment focus. |
Publications and Communities
There is no single dominant publication for Chief AI Officers. They currently pull from:
- McKinsey QuantumBlack insights (AI strategy and operations)
- MIT Sloan Management Review (research-backed AI management)
- The Batch (Andrew Ng; 500K+ subscribers; foundational AI literacy for leaders)
- Import AI (Jack Clark; 116K+ subscribers; AI research and policy)
- Constellation Research AI150 (tracks top AI executives and their strategies)
The Opportunity
This is the least-served C-suite title. No publication owns the CAIO audience. No single conference dominates. The thought leaders they follow are still the general AI leaders (Altman, Amodei, Ng, Li) rather than CAIO-specific voices. Anyone who can become the trusted advisor for this emerging role has a first-mover advantage.
6. General Counsel / Chief Legal Officer
Where They Read
| Publication | Focus | Audience |
|---|---|---|
| Law360 | Litigation, deals, regulatory analysis. Dedicated AI Law and Legal Tech sections. | In-house counsel, law firm partners. Subscription-based. Broadly read across Am Law 200. |
| The American Lawyer (ALM) | Am Law rankings, law firm strategy, industry analysis | Managing partners, GCs at large corporations |
| Above the Law | Legal industry news with an editorial voice. Bob Ambrogi contributes AI coverage. | Broad legal audience. Younger skew. High traffic. |
| LawSites / LawNext (Bob Ambrogi) | Legal technology product reviews, AI ethics, industry analysis | Legal tech early adopters. Ambrogi shapes how GCs perceive new tools. |
| Artificial Lawyer | Dedicated legal AI publication | Legal innovation leaders, heads of legal tech |
| National Law Review | Legal analysis including AI regulation. Published 85 AI predictions for 2026 from legal professionals. | GCs, compliance officers, regulatory teams |
| JD Supra | Legal thought leadership distribution platform | In-house counsel researching specific compliance topics |
| Corporate Compliance Insights | AI risk, governance, regulatory compliance | GCs preparing for EU AI Act, state-level AI rules |
Key Intelligence Reports
- The General Counsel Report (FTI Consulting/Relativity, March 2026): 87% of GCs now use generative AI in their teams, nearly double the 44% reported in 2025. The most-cited data point in legal AI adoption discussions.
- CLOC State of the Industry (Corporate Legal Operations Consortium): Nearly a third of legal teams using AI; more than half plan adoption within two years.
- ABA Task Force on AI (December 2025): Concluded that “AI has moved from experiment to infrastructure for the legal profession.”
Conferences
| Event | Attendance | Profile |
|---|---|---|
| Legalweek (ALM, New York) | 6,000+ attendees, 400+ speakers (March 2026, Javits Center) | The largest legal technology conference. GCs, legal ops, law firm leaders. AI dominated the 2026 agenda. |
| ILTACON (ILTA) | 1,600+ technology decision-makers from law firms and legal departments (August 2026, Nashville) | Practitioner-built. Not vendor-driven. Deep technical sessions for legal technology strategy. |
| CLOC Global Institute | Legal operations professionals | Focus on efficiency, AI, and scaling in-house departments. |
| Berkeley Law AI Institute | Academic and practitioner | AI governance, legal practice innovation, regulatory frameworks (September 2026). |
| 2026 Legal AI Conference (L Suite) | GCs and CLOs | How in-house teams build scalable AI governance frameworks. Focused on AI regulatory adaptation. |
| ICAIL (International Conference on AI and Law) | Academic | First time in Asia (Singapore, June 2026). Research-oriented. |
Law Firm Client-Specific Channels
For reaching law firm leadership specifically:
| Channel | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Am Law 100/200 coverage (The American Lawyer) | Managing partners and firm leadership track rankings obsessively. AI readiness is becoming a competitive differentiator in client pitches. |
| Legal Tech News (ALM) | Dedicated legal technology publication reaching law firm CIOs and innovation officers. |
| Law.com (ALM platform) | Umbrella platform for The American Lawyer, Legal Tech News, Corporate Counsel, and regional publications. Accepts contributed content. |
| NAWL General Counsel Institute | National Association of Women Lawyers. GC-focused annual programming. |
| Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute | Research and analysis for law firm leaders. Publishes reports on AI adoption, pricing, and competitive strategy. |
Where They Go First for an AI Decision
In-house counsel call peers at other companies first. Then they check Law360 and Above the Law for recent regulatory developments. Then they engage outside counsel for a formal AI risk assessment. GCs are the most risk-averse C-suite buyer; they want to know what the regulator will say before they approve anything.
Cross-Cutting Analysis: Content Distribution Strategy
Channels That Accept Contributed Content
| Channel | Format | Lead Time | Audience | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harvard Business Review | Pitch first (hbr_editorial@hbr.org). 3-6 months. No guarantee of acceptance. | Long | CEOs, board members, strategy leaders | Very hard |
| MIT Sloan Management Review | Submit 1,500-word proposal. Features under 4,000 words. Research-grounded. | 2-4 months | CTOs, CIOs, business-academic crossover | Hard |
| Forbes Councils / Forbes Technology Council | Membership-based contributed content. Members can publish directly. | 1-2 weeks once member | Broad business audience | Medium (pay to play) |
| CFO Dive / CIO Dive / Cybersecurity Dive | Guest contributions and expert commentary | 2-4 weeks | Title-specific executives | Medium |
| Law.com / The American Lawyer | Expert commentary and guest articles | 2-4 weeks | GCs, law firm partners | Medium |
| Law360 | Guest articles (AI Law section published top guest articles of 2025) | 2-4 weeks | In-house and outside counsel | Medium |
| Above the Law | Guest posts accepted | 1-2 weeks | Broad legal audience | Medium-Low |
| JD Supra | Open publishing platform for legal thought leadership | Immediate | In-house counsel researching topics | Low (self-publish) |
| National Law Review | Contributor network | 1-2 weeks | GCs, compliance professionals | Medium-Low |
| InfoQ | Editorial submission | 2-4 weeks | Senior developers, architects, CTOs | Medium |
| Substack / LinkedIn | Self-published | Immediate | Depends on existing audience | Low barrier; hard to build readership |
Highest Trust / Highest Influence Channels
For CEOs: Peer networks (YPO, Vistage, World 50) > HBR > WSJ > McKinsey For CFOs: Internal pilot data > Gartner/Forrester > Peer CFO benchmarks > CFO Dive For CTOs/CIOs: Practitioner sources (Pragmatic Engineer, Stack Overflow) > Gartner > Peer communities (CTO Craft, Evanta) For CISOs: Peer networks (Evanta, CyberDefenseCon) > NIST/OWASP frameworks > Dark Reading For CAIOs: Peer events (Chief AI Officer Exchange, CDAO summits) > McKinsey QuantumBlack > The Batch For GCs: Peer counsel > Law360 > ABA Task Force guidance > Legalweek connections
The Trust Hierarchy
Across every title, the pattern holds: executives trust peers first, independent research second, and publications third. Vendor-funded content ranks last. This means the highest-value content distribution strategy is not publishing – it is getting invited to speak at peer-level events where Chatham House Rule applies and candor is expected.
What This Means for Your Organization
The data reveals three strategic priorities for content distribution.
First, peer networks are the primary channel, not publications. Every C-suite title trusts other executives who have made AI decisions over any written source. The implication: getting Brandon Sneider on stage at YPO chapter events, Evanta CISO dinners, Vistage groups, and Chief AI Officer Exchanges will generate more inbound than any number of published articles. These are invitation-based, high-trust environments where a 20-minute talk to 50 CISOs outperforms an article read by 50,000 strangers.
Second, the “honest broker” positioning maps directly to what these executives are missing. Every channel they read is either vendor-funded (Gartner, Forrester TEI), consulting-firm-funded (McKinsey, BCG), or general news (WSJ, FT). Nobody occupies the position of independent, evidence-rated analysis across the full AI landscape. The emphasis on rating source credibility, calling out what does not work, and citing specific studies with sample sizes fills a gap that exists in every C-suite information diet. Publishing in HBR or MIT Sloan Management Review with this approach would be distinctive.
Third, the legal vertical is underserved and directly relevant to the legal industry client base. General Counsel are the most risk-averse AI buyers, and their information sources are fragmented across a dozen publications. Law360’s guest article program, Legalweek speaking slots, and the Berkeley Law AI Institute are high-leverage channels for reaching the GCs who will influence enterprise AI policy. The 87% GC adoption rate (FTI/Relativity, March 2026) means these buyers are active now, not in the future.
The practical playbook: speak at peer events (where trust is built), publish in tier-one outlets (where credibility is established), and maintain a regular cadence on LinkedIn and Substack (where reach compounds over time). The findings in this research – evidence-rated, honest, specific – are precisely what these executives cannot find in their current information sources.
If you are building a content strategy around AI thought leadership and want to discuss which channels and messages will resonate most with your specific audience, I welcome that conversation.
Sources
Publications and Readership Data
- Harvard Business Review executive subscription and readership: Press Gazette, 2025
- Wall Street Journal circulation: Wikipedia / AAM data, 2025
- Financial Times readership: Global Capital Markets Survey, 2023
- Pragmatic Engineer subscriber count: Substack, 2025
- Import AI subscribers: Jack Clark / X, 2025
- Exponential View subscribers: LinkedIn / Azeem Azhar, 2024
CEO Networks and Conferences
- YPO and Vistage membership: Vistage, 2025; Chief Executive Network Guide, 2025
- WEF Davos 2026 attendance: Open The Magazine, January 2026
- HumanX 2026 attendance: BusinessWire, March 2025
- TIME100 AI 2025: TIME, 2025
CFO Sources
- L.E.K. Office of the CFO Survey: L.E.K. Consulting, 2025
- CFO conferences: CFO.com, 2026
- AI:ROI Conference: Section, 2026
CTO/CIO Sources
- Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2025: Stack Overflow, 2025
- JetBrains Developer Ecosystem 2025: JetBrains, 2025
- GitHub Octoverse 2025: GitHub, 2025
- AWS re:Invent attendance: Vendelux, 2025
- Gartner IT Symposium attendance: Vendelux, 2025
- CTO Craft community: CTO Craft, 2025
- Global CTO Survey 2024/25: The CTO Survey, 2025
CISO Sources
- RSA Conference attendance: StationX, 2026
- Black Hat attendance: Investing.com, 2025
- Evanta/Gartner CISO Communities: Evanta, 2025
- NIST AI RMF: NIST, 2025
- OWASP LLM Top 10: OWASP, 2025
- CSA AI Controls Matrix: Cloud Security Alliance, 2025
Chief AI Officer Sources
- RE-WORK Chief AI Officer Summit: RE-WORK, 2026
- Chief AI Officer Exchange: AI Data Analytics Network, 2026
- Corinium CDAO events: Corinium, 2026
- Constellation AI150: Constellation Research, 2025
Legal Sources
- General Counsel Report (FTI/Relativity): GlobeNewsWire, March 2026
- Legalweek attendance: Law.com, 2026
- ILTACON details: ILTA, 2026
- Bob Ambrogi / LawSites influence: LawFuel, 2026
- ABA Task Force on AI: LawSites, December 2025
- Legal conferences list: Darrow, 2026
Submission Guidelines
- HBR contributor guidelines: HBR, 2025
- MIT Sloan Management Review author guidelines: MIT SMR, 2025
- McKinsey Publishing submission: McKinsey FAQ, 2025
Brandon Sneider | brandon@brandonsneider.com March 2026