What does a chief communications officer own?
A chief communications officer owns how a company speaks and how it is understood. The scope covers media relations, executive communications, crisis and issues management, internal communications and, at many companies, social and digital media. Korn Ferry's 2025 survey of senior-most communications executives at Fortune 500 companies named media relations, social and digital media, crisis and issues management, executive communications and internal communications as the main hiring priorities for CCO teams.
The job also has a strategic side. Korn Ferry's Richard Marshall, global managing director of its Corporate Affairs and Investor Relations Center of Expertise, described the 2025 CCO as a pivotal architect of corporate reputation and stakeholder trust in the survey's press release. In practice that means the CCO advises the CEO and the board on what to say, when to say it and what stakeholders will do with it.
A CCO's work usually sits on four fronts that run at the same time:
- Protecting reputation through steady media relations and a ready crisis plan.
- Giving the CEO and other executives a clear public voice.
- Keeping employees informed before outside audiences hear the news.
- Aligning messages for investors, regulators and community groups.
The full function is mapped in Everything-PR's guide to corporate vs internal communications, which shows where the CCO's remit ends and where a separate internal communications leader often begins.
How does a CCO differ from a CMO and other communications titles?
A CCO owns reputation and stakeholder trust across all audiences, while a chief marketing officer (CMO) owns demand generation and the customer journey. Titles below the C-suite follow no single standard, so the reporting line and the budget a role controls say more than the label. The table below summarizes the usual distinctions.
| Title | Typical focus | What to check |
|---|
| Chief communications officer | Reputation, media, crisis, executive and internal communications across all stakeholders | Whether the role reports to the CEO and sits on the executive committee |
| Chief marketing officer | Demand generation, customer acquisition, brand marketing and the customer journey | Whether communications also reports into marketing |
| VP of corporate communications | Runs the corporate communications function, often for a business unit or beneath a CCO | Whether the VP leads the full function or one part of it |
| Head of communications | A common label for the top communications leader at smaller or mid-size companies | Team size, budget and access to the CEO |
| Director of communications | Leads a team or workstream such as media relations or internal communications | Direct reports and the executive the role supports |
The CCO and CMO roles overlap on brand, content and thought leadership, and they work best as peers. Everything-PR compares the two in detail in its guide to CCO vs. CMO vs. marketing director. Pay and duties for the titles below the C-suite are listed in the PR job titles and descriptions reference.
Who does a CCO report to, and how big is the team?
Most CCOs report to the CEO or to an executive close to the CEO, and the share reporting directly to the CEO is rising. Korn Ferry's 2025 survey found 47% of Fortune 500 CCOs report to the CEO, up from 40% in 2023, and 51% serve on the executive committee or an equivalent senior leadership body. Committee seats varied by sector, with 56% in consumer markets against 36% in industrials.
The same survey describes how the function is built. Sixty-two percent of CCOs lead a centralized communications organization, and 54% manage budgets above $5 million. Team size ranged from fewer than 10 people to more than 250, with about half of respondents leading teams of 30 or more. Ninety-six percent of CCOs use outside communications agencies, and 96% use AI tools, although 29% reported no defined AI integration strategy.
Reporting lines are not settled across the market. Korn Ferry's 2023 survey found 9% of CCOs reported to the chief marketing officer, 13% to the chief human resources officer and 11% to the general counsel. A 2024 study by the Observatory on Corporate Reputation, reported by Axios, found that CCO-plus titles, which combine communications with another function such as marketing or corporate affairs, grew about 88% in the Fortune 1000 between 2019 and 2024. A communications title alone therefore says little about authority, and the reporting line matters more.
How much does a chief communications officer make?
Fortune 500 chief communications officers earned a median base salary of $400,000 to $450,000 in Korn Ferry's 2025 survey, up from $350,000 to $400,000 in 2023. Median total target compensation was $900,000 to $1 million. Nearly half of respondents earned seven-figure compensation, and about one in seven earned $2 million or more. The survey covered 78 Fortune 500 companies and collected data in August and September 2025.
Pay below the C-suite is lower and is tracked by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The agency reported a May 2025 median annual wage of $146,910 for public relations managers, and it notes that public relations and fundraising managers typically need a bachelor's degree and five or more years of related experience. The Korn Ferry figures describe the most senior communications job at very large companies, so they should not be read as a benchmark for smaller employers.
Two other Everything-PR pages put these figures in context. The PR Executive Compensation Index compiles pay disclosed in regulatory filings for communications and marketing services holding companies, and the highest-paid CEOs in PR and communications ranks the leaders of the industry's largest public companies.
What career paths lead to the CCO job?
Most CCOs reach the role by rising through corporate communications, with others arriving from politics, government, PR agencies or journalism. Axios research on Fortune 100 CCOs, published in June 2024, found that 43% started their careers in the corporate world, 24% in politics and government, 17% at PR agencies and 8% in journalism. The same research found that roughly 62% were promoted from within their company and 10% had spent their entire career there.
Those numbers cover the Fortune 100 only, and they describe where CCOs began, not the only way in. Four routes appear in the Axios categories and in Everything-PR's own coverage of the role:
- Corporate communications ladders, from manager to director to vice president.
- Government and political communications.
- Agency careers that end with a move in-house, covered in Everything-PR's guide to moving from agency to in-house PR.
- Journalism.
Whatever the route, Korn Ferry's survey shows what the job now demands: a broad remit, a seat close to the CEO and budgets that often pass $5 million. Everything-PR's PR and communications careers guide and 2026 salary map show the earlier rungs of the ladder.
What recent leadership changes are reshaping the role?
Ten Fortune 500 companies changed who leads communications, or whom that leader reports to, between September 2025 and October 2026, according to Everything-PR's compilation of dated company announcements and trade reports in Fortune 500 communications leadership: 10 recent changes. The cases show that where communications sits is an active decision, and companies are deciding it in different directions.
- Disney named Paul Roeder, its senior executive vice president and chief communications officer, effective March 19, 2026, reporting to CEO Josh D'Amaro.
- Cisco named Steve Clayton chief communications officer effective January 5, 2026, after 28 years at Microsoft, reporting to chair and CEO Chuck Robbins.
- Microsoft's chief communications officer Frank Shaw announced on September 11, 2026 that he will leave at the end of the year, and trade reports say communications is moving into the legal and external affairs organization led by Brad Smith, the company's vice chair and president.
- PepsiCo announced on October 13, 2026 that communications is set to move under general counsel David Flavell when chief corporate affairs officer Stephen Kehoe retires at the end of 2026.
- General Motors and Cigna each gave their communications chiefs, Lin-Hua Wu and Melissa Skottegaard, responsibility for marketing as well.
Individual promotions matter too. Everything-PR covered SKIMS' decision to promote Tracy Nguyen Romulus in SKIMS promotes Tracy Romulus to chief communications officer, a consumer brand's move to put an internal operator in the top communications job.
How can a communications leader prepare for a CCO job?
A communications leader can prepare for a CCO job by widening experience beyond one specialty and building a track record with senior executives. The steps below follow the hiring priorities that Korn Ferry's survey describes and the paths reported in the Axios research.
- Lead at least one crisis or high-stakes announcement from first draft to final message.
- Add internal communications and executive communications to a media relations background.
- Learn how the company makes money, and read the annual report and investor materials.
- Build a working relationship with the CEO's office and the board's reputation concerns.
- Manage a budget and a team, ideally including outside agencies, since 96% of Fortune 500 CCOs use them.
- Set measures that executives accept, such as time to respond in an incident, employee engagement and stakeholder sentiment.
Summary
The chief communications officer owns reputation and stakeholder communication, usually reports to the CEO or a senior executive, and leads a function that ranges from a handful of people to hundreds. Fortune 500 CCOs earned a median base of $400,000 to $450,000 in 2025, and BLS reports a $146,910 median for public relations managers one level down. Most CCOs rise through corporate communications, with others coming from government, agencies and journalism. Leadership changes at Disney, Cisco, Microsoft, PepsiCo, GM and Cigna show that reporting lines and remits are still being redrawn.
Related links: corporate communications hub, CCO vs. CMO comparison, Fortune 500 communications leadership changes, agency to in-house PR guide, PR job titles and descriptions, PR Executive Compensation Index, 5WPR corporate communications practice.
Sources
