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Top Media Figures Followed by Fortune 500 CEOs

Insights • January 28, 2026

At Rational 360, we influence decisionmakers. As the media landscape around decisionmakers shifts to new platforms, the driving factors for influence are less about the “what” and more about the “who.” Journalists and media figures are trusted sources of information decision-makers rely on – and an audience also ripe for PR and digital outreach. To make communications more impactful and target outreach where it counts, we set out to find which journalists are most followed by CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.

Process:

• Rational 360 leveraged the 2025 Fortune 500 List to identify the top CEOs with a social media presence (Exactly 71 of Fortune 500 CEOs had a Twitter/X account).
• Next, Rational 360 identified which accounts were most commonly followed by these CEOs. The number of CEOs following an influencer is represented as a percent of each. Finally, this list of influencers was then filtered to individuals who are media figures, further qualified by the question, “Could someone pitch a story to this figure?” Outlets were determined based on where each figure works or is most active, as of 9/2/2025.

Results:

• These are the top three media figures influential to Fortune 500 CEOs:
  • CNBC’s Jim Cramer (followed by 24% of CEOs)
  • CNBC anchor and New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin (followed by 17% of CEOs)
  • Bloomberg Originals’ host and executive producer Emily Chang (followed by 16% of CEOs)

If CEO decisionmakers are an important audience for a public affairs campaign, these three media figures deserve special consideration.

Top Insights:

• The number of Fortune 500 CEOs active on Twitter/X has decreased since last year’s list. 14% of Fortune 500 CEOs are on Twitter/X, compared to 20% last year.
• Fortune 500 CEOs have become more attentive to The New York Times compared to CNBC – 2024’s most engaged outlet. 35% of CEOs follow The New York Times, compared to 28% last year, while 21% follow CNBC, down from 25% last year. While CEOs increasingly turn to The New York Times, the top journalists they follow are at CNBC, Bloomberg, and CNN News.
• 35% of Fortune 500 CEOs on Twitter/X follow media figures who cover technology, which is now the leading beat, as opposed to last year’s top beat of business. 31% follow business figures, and 19% follow finance influencers.

(Note: Some media figures have the same percent influence. In this case, those that are tied have been assigned the same numerical rank and ordered alphabetically. Interested in learning more about our process or influencing your own list of decisionmakers? Contact us for more information.

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