A real list of the news portals, podcasts, and people that help keep up with CX and outsourcing—sources written by people who have run the operation.
Originally published on LinkedIn and adapted here for comfortable reading.
Clients, prospects, people I've worked with over the years, they all ask me the same thing eventually: how do you actually keep up with CX and outsourcing? I usually give a vague answer and promise to send a list later. I usually send a couple, but not a full list... So here it is, finally, and it's the real one, not the polished version I'd hand a client.
The sources that actually stuck with me are the ones written by people who have run a floor, not just consulted on one from a distance. That's the filter I used putting this together.
Where I read - BPO and CX News Portals
Nearshore Americas is still the one I open first most mornings. It covers Latin America and the Caribbean with actual reporting, not recycled press releases, and their Weekly Roundup newsletter is worth the inbox space on its own.
CX Network and CX Today both earn a spot too, though for different reasons. CX Network leans into leadership profiles and longer analysis pieces, useful when I want context rather than headlines. CX Today moves faster, more of a daily pulse on vendor moves and tech shifts in the contact center world.
ICMI rounds this out, less for the news and more for the training material and their yearly Top 25 Thought Leaders list, a decent shortcut for figuring out who's actually saying something new versus who's just posting a lot.
Customer Experience Magazine has been around for over 15 years, based in the UK, and covers CX, EX and DX with a genuinely global lens. And Execs In The Know sits on the more corporate end, strong on research and trend reports if you're trying to back up a pitch with data.
What I listen to - BPO and CX Podcasts CX Files, hosted by Mark Hillary 🤖 and Peter Ryan, is the one I never skip. Full disclosure, Ana and I got to sit down with them earlier this year, still one of my favorite conversations of 2026.
Punk CX with Adrian Swinscoe pulls in guests from Zendesk, TP and other big names, more provocative than most CX podcasts bother to be.
Doing CX Right with Stacy Sherman, MBA. CSP® is consistent and practical, good for a commute.
The Intuitive Customer, hosted by Colin Shaw and Ryan Hamilton, gets into the psychology behind why customers actually behave the way they do, more useful than another episode about AI hype.
Women in CX, hosted by Clare Muscutt , challenges a lot of the industry's comfortable assumptions, worth it even when it's uncomfortable.
If you run or manage a floor, Advice from a Call Center Geek with Thomas Laird is as operational as podcasts get in this space, he's still in the trenches running a BPO himself.
Two newer ones worth watching: Customer Xperience Alliance on YouTube, a UK-based CX community that just started publishing, and Customer X Factor from Ricky Allen, a Transcom veteran who only recently started sharing, but already brings the kind of operational depth you don't get from someone who's never run a floor.
None of this is exhaustive, and I'll probably think of three more names the moment I publish this haha... But if you're trying to actually understand where CX and outsourcing are heading, rather than just seeing the same three vendor announcements reshared fifty times, this is where I'd start.
What am I missing? Genuinely curious what's in your rotation.
This insight was first published by Jessica Pleffken on LinkedIn.
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