Microsoft Empowers Employees to Shape Company Story Amid Fragmenting Media Landscape

Microsoft is shaking up its communications team in response to an increasingly 'fragmented and noisier' media environment, CEO Satya Nadella said. The company's communications function will now report directly to President Brad Smith, who leads the corporate, external and legal affairs group.

Nadella wants employees closer to Microsoft's products and customers to play a bigger role in telling the company's story. He believes that 'in many ways, the people closest to the work have the best opportunity to shape how Microsoft is understood.'

Microsoft's communications team will sit alongside legal, regulatory, and public policy functions within Smith's organization. The move marks a change from relying mainly on a central communications team to shape Microsoft's public messaging.

Longtime Microsoft communications chief Frank X. Shaw announced his departure earlier this month but will remain with the company through year-end as an adviser to Smith and interim communications leader Brent Colburn.