Editor’s note – May 2026

By Mike Klein

Where does Strategic fit into the “comms ecosystem?”  

“Who do you see as your competitors?”

“Why don’t you sell subscriptions?

Those are three of the questions I get from people in the industry as I share about Strategic and what we’re up to.

It’s actually the second question that answers the other two.

We don’t see other players in the communication space as our competitors.

Sure, there are other players that publish content, offer memberships, deliver training, organize events and advocate for the value of the communication profession.  

But we don’t compete against them. We complement them. And in some cases, we collaborate with them.

Take our relationship with IABC – the International Association of Business Communicators.  

We’ve been working closely with IABC since early in 2025.  

We share each other’s content – we publish articles from IABC’s thought leadership publication, Catalyst, and IABC republishes articles from Strategic in Catalyst.

IABC and Strategic also partner to deliver daily #WeLeadComms profiles – which highlights IABC members and non-members for their work as communication professionals, and also showcases IABC’s offerings to a global audience of more than 25,000 #WeLeadComms followers.

Next month, IABC and Strategic will announce our biggest collaboration yet – stay tuned for a formal announcement on 15 June.

Why don’t we see other players in our space as competitors?

Because we do things differently.

We publish daily, leaning heavily on our global columnist network.

We keep our content unpaywalled so it’s accessible to the AI engines and web crawlers.

We have unconferences instead of traditional conferences, and will have our first Innovation Sprint this autumn in London.

We have memberships that focus on making our members be heard, visible and published.

We spark conversations off of our platform so that they reach the broader profession, rather than trying to pull the profession onto our platform.

We support senior communication professionals in seeking sponsorship for professional certification.

We have a combination of a traditional awards program, a recognition program for global leaders in the profession, and #WeLeadComms, the largest program of its type in the world, recognizing communication pros every day for the courage, initiative and leadership we demonstrate through our work every day.

And, we do it with a team of two working remotely near the coasts of Ireland and Iceland respectively.

Naturally, we’re looking to grow. We’re looking for new partners, new sponsors, and new members.

But we’re not looking for competitors. Because we’re not here to compete – we’re here to make a difference for our profession.

If you’d like to be a part of what we’re building, reach out to me at editor@strategic.global.

Best from Iceland,

Mike

Mike Klein
Editor-in-Chief
Strategic

Written by: orlaclancy