Editor’s note – March 2026

31 March 2026

Today marks two massive milestones for Strategic.

 

First, #WeLeadComms, the world’s largest recognition program for communication leaders and a proud member of the Strategic platform, has reached the 25,000 follower mark on LinkedIn, just over five years since I founded the program in 2021.

 

Over the last five years, #WeLeadComms went from literally nothing – no budget, no platform, and no followers, into an initiative that has recognized more than 1300 communication leaders, initiatives and communities for the courage, initiative, and leadership they generate on a daily basis.

 

Rather than recognize people for the things they have done, #WeLeadComms inverted the whole industry recognition paradigm to focus on what people are doing.  And unlike traditional awards programs, #WeLeadComms has recognized professionals at all levels and stages of their careers: CCOs and Interns, established corporate managers and job seekers.

 

We’ve also recognized a group of professionals with unprecedented diversity, covering every communication discipline, well over 50 countries, and people with a variety of backgrounds, specialisms and perspectives.

 

There are a lot of people to thank for this.  Our current flagship partner, IABC, which provided the initial inspiration for the initiative and has evolved into a firm supporter.  The #PRethics Community, which also continues to support us, and the other sponsors who have supported us over the years: the Centre for Strategic Communication Excellence, Sparrow Connected, LumApps, Soundbite.AI, and Workshop.

 

Together, we’ve changed the nature of recognition in our industry – not replacing traditional awards and honors, but extending the power of recognition across the full range of traditional boundaries.

 

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The second major milestone is a bold step for Strategic.

 

At a time when earned media is expected to become a primary driver of public messaging and reputation, Strategic Magazine is aiming to become an earned media engine for the communication leadership community.

 

It’s a unique niche – between the self-publishing platforms of LinkedIn, Medium, and Substack, and the traditional communication publishers like Haymarket and Ragan.

 

Our focus is on curating and sharing insights – about the work communication leaders and vendors do, the impact it can have, and the stories that demonstrate the value we can deliver.

 

To take this to a new level, we have introduced individual memberships and corporate partnerships to Strategic – combining priority placement of articles in our news feed with discounted access to our training, events, and community offerings.

 

Why have we introduced two kinds of membership? And why are we giving members “priority placement?”

 

Timing. To support those who want to use our platform to grow their influence and drive interest and action to meet their schedules and deadlines. 

 

At a certain level, Strategic Magazine has been very successful since our relaunch at publishing content daily from our global network of columnists and contributors – diverse, insightful, and relevant articles, case stories, and opinion pieces. And we will continue to publish content from all kinds of contributors to support our daily content flow.

 

But there’s more we can do – and there’s more support we can provide. And we need additional resources to support publishing and amplifying more content, to grow our global following beyond our current base of dedicated readers and participants, and ensure timely publication of content for those who need that.

 

You can find out more about our individual memberships and corporate partnerships here.

 

This will not change the quality of what we offer, but will increase the diversity and timeliness.

 

As an insight-based platform, we don’t mark some content as “sponsored.” We are instead transparent in the way we identify authors and contributors – because in our industry, a good proportion of those who publish their opinions are doing so for commercial reasons.

 

We’re here for that.  We want our profession to thrive. We want good ideas to have a chance to circulate and get picked up by the AI tools and search engines, and recognized as published rather than self-published content.

 

Your support has been incredible so far. And with the new memberships and partnerships, we can take Strategic to a new level.

Written by: orlaclancy