What is Behind the CMO?

Behind the CMO is a free newsletter and resource hub for Chief Marketing Officers and senior marketing leaders, founded by James Murray in January 2025. It publishes strategic frameworks, career intelligence, and industry analysis for the people running marketing.

Who is Behind the CMO for?

CMOs, VPs of Marketing, and Heads of Marketing — primarily at SaaS companies, B2B enterprises, and high-growth startups. It covers the practice and politics of running marketing at a senior level rather than entry-level marketing tactics.

Does Behind the CMO cost anything?

No. The newsletter, all resources, and the public Content API are free. There is no paid tier and no paywall. Revenue comes from newsletter sponsorship.

How often does Behind the CMO publish?

Twice weekly: a Monday Brief covering the week's most important developments, and a Strategic Deep Dive with an original framework or analysis.

Can AI agents access Behind the CMO programmatically?

Yes. A public, unauthenticated Content API is documented at https://www.behindthecmo.com/developers/ with an OpenAPI 3.1 specification at /openapi.json. Every article is also available as plain markdown by appending .md to its URL.

This Week

Monday Briefing: ChatGPT Is Now Half the Market

SEP 28, 2026 8 MIN READ

leadership

The Decisions You Both Think You Own

Marketing is primarily responsible for pricing at 28.2% of companies and revenue growth at 42.5%. The middle of that list is where two executives both think they decide.

OCT 1, 2026 | 13 MIN READ

leadership

Plan for the Budget You Won't Get

Marketing budgets sit at 7.8% of revenue, 18% below the mean allocation of four years ago. The AI line got funded anyway, out of lines nobody was defending.

SEP 24, 2026 | 13 MIN READ

career

The Job Is Splitting. Pick a Side.

Chipotle named a chief brand officer and a chief digital officer in the same press release and put the digital half under the president and technology chief. Meta split the same seat nine weeks later.

SEP 17, 2026 | 12 MIN READ