7 hours ago - Business

Axios C-Suite: CEOs are being covered like celebrities

Jim VandeHei

Illustration of a man in a puffer vest surrounded by a multitude of cell phones with cameras flashing. — Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

The media machinery that once tracked movie stars and politicians is tracking you, too.

Why it matters: Bad behavior, dumb comments and company scandals that were once easy to contain are now viral content waiting to happen. And most comms teams are still thinking Bloomberg, not TMZ.

The big picture: This isn't fringe. Outlets like Puck were purpose-built for it. Co-founder Jon Kelly pushes reporters to make CEOs heroes or villains in corporate narratives.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gets New York Times style pieces on his leather jacket and action figure memes.
Former Disney chief Bob Iger is locked in a legal fight to kill an unauthorized biography, using the same lawyer who repped President Trump in the Stormy Daniels case.

A layer deeper, there's a host of less-obvious but growing group of influencers targeting business leaders, often less famous ones.

Becca Platsky's "Corporate Gossip" podcast dropped its take on Trump-adjacent World Liberty Financial — promising "this episode has it ALL" — in the same week as a TikTok series about "the messy personal lives of CEOs."

The hard reality: When UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson was murdered outside a Manhattan hotel in December 2024, millions of Americans openly celebrated it on social media.

That viral response illustrates where anti-CEO sentiment lives now.

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Axios C-Suite: CEOs are being covered like celebrities

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