# Tara McDonagh

Tara McDonagh advises communications teams on making corporate communications a recognized, strategic business function. McDonagh's writing argues for treating communications as an organization-wide discipline—not just public relations, internal communications, or brand storytelling.

- Profile: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/creators/tara-mcdonagh/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taramurraymcdonagh
- LinkedIn followers: 20,408
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKUBH_zHriKzMcZkro1xW1A
- Topics: leadership
- Based on 15 dated posts, latest 2026-09-24

## Main ideas

- **Corporate communications is the umbrella function, not a branch of PR**: Tara McDonagh rejects descriptions that treat corporate communications as a subset of PR or internal communications. In one post, the function is either the overarching umbrella that contains internal communications, public relations, executive communications, and often community affairs, investor relations, corporate citizenship, events, social media, public affairs, and creative or design—usually led by a chief communications officer reporting to the CEO—or a corporate-level centre of excellence with communicators embedded in business units who connect back to it. Naming the function after only one part hides the rest of the work and keeps the field from being understood at full scope. In a second post, they turn the point into a practical naming argument and call on communicators to set expectations themselves.
- **“Brand storyteller” titles undersell what corporate communications does**: Tara McDonagh objects to “brand storyteller” as a title for corporate communications roles. The term fits someone whose role is genuinely limited to writing and storytelling about the brand; otherwise, it describes one small piece of a larger function that includes PR, internal communications, and other responsibilities. The field already struggles to be taken seriously as a source of critical business advisors, so an oversimplified title adds to the misunderstanding. They agree that storytelling is not simple; the objection is about scope, not difficulty.
- **Communications expertise should be assumed, not continually re-earned**: Tara McDonagh starts with a comparison: you assume a CFO knows math, even though you also know math, and defer to them on budget allocation, investment income, and margin. Yet the head of communications is constantly questioned, their assessments challenged and their expertise treated as opinion. McDonagh wants communications leaders' expertise to be assumed rather than continually earned, and frames the change as something communicators must initiate rather than wait for.
- **The “I get paid too much” problem is a business case, not a status complaint**: Tara McDonagh describes hearing the same concern again from communications leaders: they are asked to take on work an entry-level person could do, and saying so out loud feels as if it will not look good. They link the pattern to two years of cuts and reject the idea that the leader is arrogant or elitist. The issue is how company resources are used. McDonagh then tells the story in the first person, from a corporate communications leadership role: a first attempt with a trusted boss was shut down, so they rebuilt the case around the business.
- **Internal communications answers to the whole business, not to HR**: Tara McDonagh says internal communications does not exist to support the HR function. Its purpose is to connect employees to business goals so they are aware of and engaged in those goals, ideally enthusiastic about them, and make daily decisions that connect to them—affecting engagement, connection, and productivity. From that premise, McDonagh argues that all business areas are equal in internal communications: HR information is not inherently more important than telling employees about product, sales, customers, financial results, or protecting the brand in a crisis. Even when internal communications reports through HR, they say, it happens to report there but is not part of HR; it partners with the entire organization.
- **A communications strategic plan turns the argument into a deliverable**: Tara McDonagh connects the push to be seen as critical business advisors with a communications strategic plan. In a trust recession, they write, it is hard to believe anyone talking about their own work, so the post hands the claim to a client instead. The plan is not just a document: it aligns communications with organizational goals and becomes the basis for team structure, resources, and standing.

## Work to read

- [Corporate Communications is the umbrella, not a sub-function](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/taramurraymcdonagh_i-vehemently-disagree-with-some-people-out-activity-7498364032119136256-HwHW)
- [Name the function after everything it does, not just part of it](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/taramurraymcdonagh_that-sounds-crazy-like-calling-finance-activity-7500900419645382656-BaDo)
- [Why “brand storyteller” undersells the job](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/taramurraymcdonagh_if-you-put-brand-storyteller-in-your-title-activity-7495102314605621248-1mYe)
- [Assume communications leaders know what they are doing](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/taramurraymcdonagh_when-you-meet-a-cfo-do-you-assume-they-know-activity-7508874916062986240-UFQD)
- [The leader who said “I get paid too much”](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/taramurraymcdonagh_you-dont-want-me-to-do-that-i-get-paid-activity-7501262838964015104-hXTY)
- [Internal communications does not exist to support HR](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/taramurraymcdonagh_internal-communications-does-not-exist-to-activity-7498726568920272896-QfIE)
- [A client says it: Southern New Hampshire University](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/taramurraymcdonagh_the-past-two-weeks-ive-talked-about-advancing-activity-7494015159556861952-9jBr)

## Brand relationships

- **Southern New Hampshire University** (client)

## Partnerships

Tara McDonagh’s seven LinkedIn posts present advisory and consulting work: helping communications leaders restructure teams, build strategic plans, and argue for their function’s standing as a business-critical discipline. The engagement model is a working relationship with a communications leader, not a media placement, sponsored post, or channel buy. No rate card, media kit, audience spec sheet, or partnership terms appear. In a post describing client feedback, Tara says longer client accounts exist and writes, “Just ask.” Brands considering a paid partnership should contact them directly to confirm scope, deliverables, and availability.

## Alternatives

- Becca Chambers: Choose Becca Chambers for a session on the breadth of communications and how individual voices can make a brand more visible. One post spans PR, employee and executive communications, crisis work, and other functions; another argues that personal accounts can reach audiences better than corporate pages. Together, those ideas give a webinar a clear focus on communicating the value of the function and building visibility.

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AI-assisted summary of public posts. Audience demographics are not available. Engagement appears only where we checked recent posts. Method: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/methodology/