How to sell to CFOs at Media & publishing companies
CFOs in media and publishing are primarily measured on profitability margins. They respond to outreach when it addresses cash flow management, especially during fluctuating revenue periods like ad sales cycles. Demonstrating an understanding of their need to optimize costs while maintaining quality content will capture their attention.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 563 media & publishing company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- fluctuating ad revenue
- high content production costs
- budget cuts impacting quality
- increased competition for audience
The playbook
- 01
Identify companies with declining ad revenue
Use industry reports or tools like eMarketer to find media companies experiencing a drop in ad revenue. Focus on those with a significant change in revenue over the past quarter. This indicates a potential need for financial solutions that can stabilize cash flow.
- 02
Pinpoint CFOs involved in recent layoffs
Search LinkedIn for CFOs at media companies that have recently announced layoffs. This often signals a need for financial restructuring. Craft your outreach to highlight how you can support their financial recovery and workforce optimization.
- 03
Craft messages around cost reduction strategies
When reaching out, focus your message on specific cost reduction strategies relevant to media operations, such as optimizing content production costs. Mention how other CFOs have successfully navigated similar challenges, which can resonate with their current situation.
- 04
Follow up after industry conferences
Monitor upcoming media industry conferences and reach out to CFOs shortly after these events. Reference key discussions or trends that emerged, showing that you understand the current landscape and can offer relevant solutions.
- 05
Schedule calls around quarterly financial reviews
Identify the timing of quarterly financial reviews for media companies and aim to schedule calls shortly before or after these dates. CFOs are often more receptive to discussions around financial strategy during these periods, as they are assessing their performance and planning adjustments.
Can media & publishing companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 563 media & publishing companies, sampled evenly across company sizes, to see how many authenticate their own email. It matters in both directions: a domain that does not authenticate is a domain whose team is used to mail going missing — and if your own domain is in the gap, yours is the mail going missing.
Publishes a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject — the domain actually asks receivers to act on failures.
The gap is the finding: 24.2% of 1–10-person companies against 82.9% of the largest — 59 points apart. Small companies are where the unauthenticated domains are, and small companies are who most cold outreach is aimed at.
Where does your domain sit?
Same three lookups, run live against your domain. Nothing is stored and nothing is emailed to you.
How this was measured
Company domains were sampled within employee-count bands, then queried over public DNS for SPF (TXT at the apex), DMARC (TXT at _dmarc.) and MX. One domain per company, deduplicated. Anyone can reproduce any single row of this with dig.
DKIM is deliberately absent. A DKIM key lives under a selector that cannot be enumerated from outside the domain, so a company with flawless DKIM under a name we did not guess would be counted as having none. That would measure our guess list, not the industry.
Domains with no MX record are excluded rather than counted as failures — parked and redirect-only domains would otherwise drag every figure down and make the result an artefact of the sample.
Sampled within bands, so this describes the population of companies, not of employees: a 10-person company counts once, as does a 10,000-person one. Each band is at least 60 domains; bands below that are not published. Figures are percentages of the sample, not of the whole industry, and we publish no company names — only counts.
Measured 2026-09-03. Re-measured monthly.
The full census across every industry — sortable, with sample sizes, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Subject lines that fit
- Navigating cash flow challenges
- Strategies for cost optimization
- Insights from recent layoffs
Questions
- Why do CFOs in media often ignore cold outreach?
- CFOs in media may ignore cold outreach due to the high volume of generic pitches they receive. They prioritize messages that directly address their unique financial challenges, such as fluctuating ad revenue or production costs, which makes personalized outreach more effective.
- What financial metrics do media CFOs focus on?
- Media CFOs typically focus on profitability margins, cash flow, and return on investment for content initiatives. They are also concerned with metrics related to audience engagement and advertising effectiveness, as these directly impact revenue.
- How can I get a CFO's attention in media?
- To capture a media CFO's attention, provide insights or solutions that are timely and relevant to their current challenges, such as strategies for managing cash flow during low ad revenue periods. Tailored messages that resonate with their specific situation are key.
- What common objections do media CFOs have?
- Common objections from media CFOs include concerns about the ROI of new initiatives and the potential disruption to existing workflows. They may also be hesitant to engage with vendors who do not understand the unique pressures of the media industry.
Or have it run itself
SoloRiff does every step above on its own — finds the companies, finds the people, writes each of them individually, and handles the replies. Drop your URL and watch it work before you sign up for anything.
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