b2b media has no teeth. we're here to bite.
Why I had to build The Intelligence Council
Most B2B media isn’t boring by accident. It’s boring because it’s bought.
You’ve seen it. The same recycled trend pieces. The “40 Under 40” lists in categories you could not have imagined existed. The same five “emerging innovations” in supply chain, learning platforms, or whatever this quarter’s conference circuit is peddling. It’s content built to offend no one, challenge nothing, and keep the ad dollars flowing.
This isn’t journalism. It’s not intelligence. It’s barely intelligent.
It’s content marketing with a press badge.
Let’s stop pretending it’s subtle. The B2B media economy isn’t broken. It’s rigged.
Trade publications no longer make money by informing readers. They make money by flattering vendors. Their job isn’t to provoke thought. It’s to pitch.
The business model is simple:
Vendors pay for access to your inbox.
Editors shape coverage to avoid upsetting sponsors.
Awards programs exist to fill seats at awards dinners.
And the “insights” you’re reading are just rewarmed press releases padded with stats from someone’s sales deck.
Editors cave to advertiser pressure. Journalists admit they’re told what not to cover. Some publications literally sell spots on editorial panels and coverage packages bundled with event sponsorships. Others just slap “special feature” at the top and hope no one asks too many questions.
What typically passes as “thought leadership” today, Madonna presciently warned us of in 1989: it “has no end and no beginning.” A CEO interview here, a platitude-ridden op-ed there. The result is content so safe, so defanged, so utterly pointless that it reads like it was ghostwritten by AI on Ambien.
Despite the massive upheaval in U.S. education, industry publications are running coverage that dances around controversy with the delicacy of a tenured provost. The education industry’s premier conference gave away their stage to a keynote speaker who doesn’t know the difference between AI and A.1.
Some, while still reporting real news, have built their business on sponsored “solutions” from the same vendors they cover. Even the “debates” are structured around advertiser talking points.
Award programs and rankings are a racket. Want to be named “Most Trusted InsurTech Innovator of the Year”? Just pay the entry fee, book the table, and don’t forget to smile for the LinkedIn photo. The point isn’t excellence. It’s self-congratulation on demand.
And in tech, the rot is visible from orbit. Media that once scrutinized startups now sells its content to OpenAI while covering the kind of content produced by OpenAI. No disclosures. One formerly reputable publication runs puff profiles that read like onboarding manuals for VC interns.
This is not a glitch. This is the system. A hall of mirrors where marketing masquerades as journalism, and nobody cares as long as the check clears.
And yet, B2B media has the potential to be a place where people in the arena—operators, strategists, investors—sharpen their edge. It doesn’t have to remain a mechanism for CMOs to make the case for their bonus based on the number of mentions they scored.
So I’m building something else.
The Intelligence Council doesn’t do “Top Women Under 50 in Claims Processing.” We don’t publish puff pieces about mediocre SaaS vendors because they booked a booth at our event in Vegas. And we don’t pretend every trend is worth chasing just because a consultant has a deck to sell.
We write like we’re speaking to the smartest person in the room. Because we are.
We’re building a new center of gravity for people who make decisions, take risks, and want the clearest signal in a noisy, compromised world.
We’re not here to be nice. We’re here to be necessary.
If that sounds like you, stick around.
If this resonated, and you’re working on something adjacent, let’s talk. I’m always up for sharp conversations, quiet collaboration, or big ideas.
Just reply here or email me directly: adil@intelligencecouncil.com
The Collapse
Nobody with a P&L reads today’s B2B media and walks away thinking, “Now I understand the market.” They walk away muttering, “WTF?”
The smartest people in your industry aren’t reading the drivel produced by trade media. They’re sending each other newsletters they’ve hacked together, talking in closed forums on Signal, and relying on trusted curators who don’t have to sell ad space to stay alive.
They’re not looking for coverage. They’re looking for clarity. The kind you only get from people who aren’t afraid to call bullshit.
In a world this chaotic: geopolitically unstable, technologically explosive, and economically unpredictable, real-time strategic judgment isn’t a luxury. It’s the difference between playing to win and falling behind without even realizing it.
And the trust collapse is real. The research makes it plain: in vertical after vertical, decision-makers no longer believe the media is serving them. Edelman’s 2024 Trust Barometer found that trust in media is now lower among business leaders than it is among the general public. In B2B specifically, trust in industry publications lags behind peer recommendations, internal research, and even LinkedIn posts.
While we don’t have data on B2B media overall, according to Marketing Science (a peer-reviewed journal) only 5% of influencer posts on Twitter/X which are sponsored, are disclosed. Only 5%. That’s structural failure.
Industry executives are busy. They still have a job to do, even if the media covering their industry is dead or dying. They still need content that tells them something they don’t already know.
I’ve spent the last ~25 years advising Fortune 1000 companies navigating chaos, competition, and complexity. The kind of strategic clarity they paid top-dollar for is exactly what’s missing in today’s B2B media landscape.
Not everyone can afford the $ and time to hire McKinsey, or even McKinsey’s AI Lilli, to get smart.
We bet the house on the thesis that there is a hunger for niche, B2B strategic intelligence that helps business leaders make money, save money, manage risk, and gain an edge, that doesn’t come with a six-figure price tag.
With >250,000 executive subscribers <100 days in, we believe we made the right bet. Our opens, clicks, shares and engagement rates are off the charts. It’s because we are delivering the very thing that so many need, but do not otherwise receive.
If you know someone at a company, a fund, a newsroom, who needs to read this or be part of this, send it their way. Or make the intro. You’ll know who.
adil@intelligencecouncil.com
The Fix
I founded Emerging Asia in 2006, and later built Emerging Strategy over the years, to provide clarity where there isn’t. This mission to deliver clarity has motivated me, driven me, and consumed me for over two decades. It’s the same conviction that is shaping how I build The Intelligence Council.
We didn’t launch The Intelligence Council with a PR push. We didn’t beg for coverage from the very outlets we’re on our way to replacing.
We just published.
We said what others wouldn’t. We named names. We pointed out when a strategy didn’t hold up. We told the truth and trusted the audience to find us.
Our editorial philosophy is simple:
If a company’s crushing it, we’ll talk about it.
If their strategy sucks, we’ll say so.
If someone’s paying, you’ll know.
And if nobody’s saying what needs to be said, we will.
We have no outbound ads/sponsorships sales team. Zero.
Our competitors average six ads salespeople per editorial person.
Companies that want to partner are already knocking at our door. And we will work with selected organizations who share our standards, and who know that real influence comes from proximity to clarity, not control over content. We offer rare, high-trust ways to work with us, that ensure our editorial integrity remains intact and our readers come first.
Executives today are drowning in data but starving for judgment. According to McKinsey, the average manager spends over 30% of their week searching for information, and nearly 60% say the data they use isn’t decision-ready.
We deliver McKinsey-Bain-BCG level strategic insights. Unlike traditional B2B media, we don’t just cover “what happened.” We tell our readers “why it matters,” “what you should do next,” and “what is likely to happen as a result.”
We dig in like short-seller research houses. The point is not to stir drama. It’s to sharpen understanding. For the people in the arena.
Every signal brief, every deep dive, every sentiment index is built to be read by the person actually making the call. The person who’s on the hook for the outcome.
We write for senior executives, and have accepted Jeff Bezos’ belief that senior executives should focus on making a few impactful decisions, not countless daily ones. We write with the research, clarity and persuasion skills necessary to help that kind of senior executive make an impactful decision.
No fluff. No flattery. Just judgment, well-argued.
That’s why our readers stay. Not because they like us. Because they need us.
We’re building in public, but we’re not building alone. If you want to help: as an advisor, as a connector, as a friend of the project… I’d welcome a conversation.
adil@intelligencecouncil.com
The Invitation
If you’ve read this far, you already know the difference.
You know what it feels like to open a newsletter and actually get smarter. To read something that sharpens your thinking, not just fills the feed. To get intelligence, not vibes.
We’re writing for leaders who are not looking for another inbox filler. We’re writing for the ones looking for an edge.
That’s what we publish.
This isn’t just a media company. It’s a break from the old world. A refusal to pretend that all ideas are equal. A platform for strategic clarity, delivered without hedging, flattery, or compromise.
The choice is simple. Our intended audience can continue reading the same puff pieces about what their competitor’s intern got an award for.
Or they can read what the smartest people in their industry are already reading.
I had to build this.
I hope you now understand why.
Check out our newsletters and feel free to sign up if something is relevant to you:
https://www.intelligencecouncil.com/current-newsletters/
This is a long game. But it starts with the right people. As a reader of my personal Substack, you’re one of them.
Adil Husain is the founder of The Intelligence Council and Managing Director of Emerging Strategy. He’s spent over two decades in the trenches of global business, advising multinationals, building remote-first teams, and helping clients outmaneuver competitors across markets they barely understand.
He’s not a pundit. He’s a strategist who got tired of watching business journalism get softer while the world got sharper. Through The Intelligence Council, Adil is building what B2B media should have been all along: a platform that rewards clarity, calls bullshit when it sees it, and arms decision-makers with judgment they can use.
He writes The Husain Signal to test ideas, challenge conventional wisdom, and draw smart people into orbit.
If you want to connect, collaborate, or argue, you can reach him at adil@intelligencecouncil.com
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