PR Public relations news

• The Scoop: HBO pokes fun at self after yet another rebrand

  16-05-2025 17:29
  
  YouTube’s podcast rise requires rewriting pitching playbook; Colts’ video misfires a lesson in respecting sensitive topics.
  In a move that might make some viewers roll their eyes, Warner Bros. Discovery is once again renaming its streaming platform. The company is returning to “HBO Max,” undoing the 2023 decision to drop “HBO” from the name in favor of just “Max.”
   
  [RELATED: Do you know a top woman in HR? Nominate by Aug. 15]
   
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• 3 ways to start a story

  16-05-2025 12:00
  
  2025 Pulitzer Prize winners show us how to craft that critical first sentence.Tom Corfman is a senior consultant with RCG.
  Bret Stephens, who received the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2013, offered a tip that’s useful to any storyteller, including public relations and internal communications teams.
  “A wise editor once observed that the easiest decision a reader can make is to stop reading,” he wrote in 2017, after he jumped from The Wall Street Journal to The New York
  
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• 2025 Internal Email Communications Benchmarks

  16-05-2025 12:00
  
  When it comes to internal communications, email remains the most widely used and measurable channel — but are your messages actually getting through?
  The post 2025 Internal Email Communications Benchmarks appeared first on PR Daily.
  
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• Navigating Trump’s second term requires becoming ‘first movers’

  15-05-2025 13:00
  
  Public affairs teams must move from reactive crisis management to proactive strategic planning.
  Since President Donald Trump began his second term, brands have been tested by a whirlwind of policy changes, from sweeping executive orders on tariffs to abrupt pushbacks on social issues.
   
  [RELATED: Join Ragan's Communications Leadership Council, exclusively for leaders in employee and internal communications]
   
  Many communicators, especially in the nation’s capital, have felt overw
  
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• How consumer data and ‘techstyle’ drive new Samsung campaign

  15-05-2025 12:00
  
  Plus, the value of having comms in the room at the beginning of your advertising campaign.Data is one of the most powerful drivers of PR campaigns today, whether that’s finding compelling stories to pitch to the media or adjusting strategy based on consumer behavior.
  But Samsung’s new campaign has data as its very foundation, helping to understand how customers interact with its products to, in turn, draw new customers. This impacts everything from commercials to journalist interacti
  
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• The Scoop: Transportation Sec undercuts Newark Airport safety claims with offhand comment

  14-05-2025 16:41
  
  Also: UnitedHealth Group uses IR message to convey confidence in new CEO; NFL says diversity program suspended due to performance, not politics.
  Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy spent the weekend insisting Newark Liberty Airport is safe despite recent technical failures and staffing shortages. However, a recent off-the-cuff comment during a lengthy radio segment may have undone all of that messaging legwork.
   
  [RELATED: Earn recognition for your incredible comms efforts]
   
  Duffy str
  
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• Harnessing culture through humanity

  14-05-2025 12:00
  
  Why brands should take a holistic approach to developing culture.
  Defining your organization’s culture is critical for not only for employee morale and productivity, but also for engaging customers, brand trust and adding value to your overall mission.
  But actually defining what culture is can be a little trickier, said Marcus Collins, clinical assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan during Ragan’s Employee Communications and Culture Conference.
  “We all t
  
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• 4 steps for building a proactive anti-deepfake strategy

  14-05-2025 12:00
  
  Understand online audience behavior and information flows.
  In order to build a proactive strategy for risk management, brands need to understand their audience and how information flows to prevent crisis from deepfakes and AI.
  Understanding how people think along with audience analysis is a passion for Simon Paterson, the U.S. head of counter disinformation for crisis and risk at Edelman.
  His past experience advising national defense institutions led him to become an expert in crisis communicati
  
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• Creator partnerships: Healthcare’s secret weapon against misinformation

  13-05-2025 13:00
  
  Regulatory scrutiny, targeted outreach make creator-driven content effective.
  Since the pandemic, health misinformation has spread rapidly across social media, and many healthcare brands are struggling to keep up. With as many as 50% of Gen Z turning to TikTok for medical advice, false claims often outpace facts.
  Amaris Modesto, SVP of creator marketing at Edelman, believes strategic creator partnerships are key to combating this issue. By leveraging voices people already trust, healthcare brand
  
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• The Scoop: Apple wants to raise prices on iPhones – but avoid Amazon’s fate

  12-05-2025 16:50
  
  Plus: Subscribers shell out big bucks for Substacks; government and airlines try to reassure about Newark Airport’s safety.When Amazon even suggested showing the impact of tariffs on certain prices last month, reprisal from the White House was swift, with the press secretary dubbing it a “hostile and political act.” Amazon ultimately denied that the move ever would have been rolled out externally. The snafu was quickly smoothed over with a phone call between President Donald Tr
  
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• The rise of journalists on Substack with Alexis Benveniste

  12-05-2025 12:00
  
  These newsletters are growing in power.Amanda Coffee is CEO of Coffee Communications and ex-Under Armour, PayPal and eBay.  
  Alexis Benveniste had a successful run at traditional media brands including Bloomberg, CNN, The New York Times and The New York Post before going freelance.
  She represents a new wave of seasoned journalists who are becoming entrepreneurial and launching their own media brands. Benveniste debuted her Substack “Extra Credit” earlier this year and
  
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• The great realignment: Recalibrating risk for corporate social impact storytelling

  12-05-2025 12:00
  
  Things are changing — not ending.Megan Tuck  is SVP and leader of Bliss Impact, The Bliss Group.
  The effects of the corporate rebrand of DEI are being felt everywhere, from communications and HR departments to the C-suite and operations teams. I recently had an “a-ha” moment about this during a conversation with Lily Zheng, a FAIR strategist who is pioneering an alternative framework to organizational DEI. I asked what they think about these changes, and their question bac
  
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• The Scoop: Pope Leo XIV humanizes himself with introduction

  09-05-2025 17:27
  
  Plus: A’ja Wilson lands first shoe deal with Nike, but fan reaction is mixed.
  White smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel on May 8, signaling the Bishop of Rome had been chosen after just two days of conclave.
  Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope in history, soon greeted a crowd of people eagerly waiting to hear his first words as the new leader of the Catholic church.
  Born Robert Francis Prevost, a Chicagoan, former Bishop of Peru and a Villanova University graduate, he addressed the people
  
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• Jayli Barkley of Riverside County District Attorney’s Office grounds government messaging in real life

  09-05-2025 12:00
  
  For Jayli Barkley, communications work because they come from lived experience.Authenticity is Jayli Barkley’s superpower.
  Barkley is the principal district attorney information specialist for the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, where she oversees division operations, project management, directs internal communications and leads the office’s social media efforts.
  As a public sector communicator, she leads with integrity and humanity—because she’s not ju
  
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• Buffett’s farewell: Reflecting on his simple words and succession surprise at Berkshire

  09-05-2025 12:00
  
  Buffett’s communications style was unmistakable, even as he retires.
  Abby Trexler is managing director at Vested.
  Warren Buffett’s announcement that he will retire at 95 closes a remarkable chapter in American business history. Personally, it was a sad day in our house this week when we heard the news. We are big Buffett fans; we even have a handwritten note from Warren answering a question we wrote him about, asking why a chapter was removed after the 1962 edition of Ben Graham&rsqu
  
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• How PR pros can turn data into stories that stick

  08-05-2025 13:00
  
  Data-driven storytelling can spark press, boost engagement and build trust.
  Data might not tug at heartstrings on its own, but in the right hands, it can become a storyteller’s most powerful tool.
  For Michael Kaye, director of brand marketing and communications at ARCHERand OkCupid, those statistical insights offer an informed way to spotlight human behavior and create culturally relevant narratives.
  Whether the goal is to land press coverage, shape brand messaging or create social content
  
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• Zenith Awards to honor greatness in PR, marketing and mixternal comms

  08-05-2025 12:00
  
  The new program will recognize the strategy, creativity and innovation driving the communications industry forward.
  Communicators are having a moment – and it’s not a quiet one.
  Today’s comms professionals are stepping into the spotlight. They’re guiding corporate reputation in a world of global mistrust, navigating sweeping changes in the media world and helping organizations tackle everything from cultural flashpoints to AI integration.
  Whether embedded in a global bran
  
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• These are the social media platforms wealthy Americans gravitate toward — and why

  08-05-2025 12:00
  
  Go beyond the stats with psychographics.Social media use is ubiquitous in American life. But wealthy Americans — those with a household income of $250,000 or more each year — have some unique quirks.
  And because this is such a coveted demographic for so many marketers and PR professional, it behooves us to understand where these high-income individuals spend their time and where they can best be reached.
  New data from Morning Consult explains how wealthy Americans differ from the gen
  
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• 36 podcasts for comms and PR pros, for when you’re strategizing and/or spiraling 

  08-05-2025 12:00
  
  Tune in for tips on PR, internal comms, social media strategy and more.
  While comms and PR pros are thinking on behalf of their organizations, they often forget to feed their own minds and tend to their professional development. Between media monitoring, policy development, social pivots, crisis responses, and the constant content churn, who has time to stay sharp, news savvy and inspired? 
  Podcasts can be a helpful medium by which to absorb a knowledge nugget or two while your hands are bu
  
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• Post-crisis reflection is a critical tool for communicators

  08-05-2025 11:43
  
  University of West Virginia’s Naumann-Blevins’ sophisticated approach to mitigating crises.
  Readiness and response are core principles of crisis communications.
  But there’s another R-word not being addressed enough, according to Karen Naumann-Blevins, an adjunct professor in crisis communications at the University of West Virginia.
  Reflection is often left out of the major talking points, she said. But it can greatly shape a company’s crisis communications strategy.
  
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• The Scoop: Surviving Europe’s boycott means showing up locally

  07-05-2025 17:20
  
  Also: New York Times digital subscription hike signals opportunities beyond the front page; Marvel intentionally spoils ‘New Avengers’ reveal.
  European consumers are boycotting American products in response to President Donald Trump’s aggressive trade policies and rhetoric, according to a recent analysis by the European Central Bank.
  The bank found that tariffs and political tensions have triggered what may be a lasting shift in consumer sentiment, the New York Times reported.
  
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• Meet your Ragan Training content team

  07-05-2025 12:05
  
  Get to know the Ragan team behind our new learning portal.Last week, our existing Ragan Training hub— an on-demand, subscription-based hub collecting videos and resources from Ragan conferences and webinars— transformed into a full-fledged learning portal.
  The Ragan Training learning portal integrates the hallmark features of an effective learning portal such as micro-learning modules with knowledge checks and quizzes, transcript dashboards for learners (and their managers) to track
  
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• Developing positive company culture during change

  07-05-2025 11:25
  
  Why a strategic plan is a must.
  Comms teams need a strategic plan for change that accounts for company culture and varying job roles, including those with hybrid and remote positions.
  When a business experiences massive change or growth, it’s normal to navigate through some uncomfortable territory, said Elizabeth Whittington, senior director of executive communications at St. Jude’s Research Hospital.
  Whittington dealt with this directly when St. Jude’s workforce grew by 40% in
  
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• The Modern Leader series: Decoding the ‘Now’: What employees really need to thrive

  07-05-2025 10:00
  
  As The Grossman Group celebrates 25 years, Ragan is partnering with them to share the top attributes they see in modern leaders today.
  Modern leadership attribute No.9: Decoding the ‘Now’: What employees really need to thrive
  Imagine your team not just working, but truly coming alive. The workplace isn’t simply changing — it’s being reinvented in real time. Employees today are seeking more than a job; they’re looking for a meaningful journey that connects
  
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• Navigating Pride in a polarized world

  06-05-2025 13:00
  
  New research offers PR strategies for brands looking to sustain credible Pride messaging.Brands are grappling with the complexities of how – or if – to observe Pride Month.
  Major retailers and consumer goods makers in particular face scrutiny from both sides of the political spectrum – from backlash over inclusive advertising to criticism from LGBTQ+ communities when support feels inconsistent.
   
  [RELATED: Join Ragan's Communications Leadership Council, exclusively for lea
  
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• How communications can break out of the order-taker trap

  06-05-2025 12:00
  
  Data from Ragan’s 2025 Comms Benchmark report points the way to a more strategic role for communicators.There are two persistent challenges communicators face year after year when carrying out their strategic plans: too few people and not enough money.
  This year is no different, according to Ragan’s 2025 Communications Benchmark Report. In fact, the data shows it’s actually a little worse.
  The Communications Benchmark Report, now in its seventh year, is a signature research pro
  
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• Benchmarking for Internal Communicators

  06-05-2025 12:00
  
  Benchmarking is what gives your data meaning.The post Benchmarking for Internal Communicators appeared first on PR Daily.
  
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• Monthly fresh ideas for improving employee engagement

  06-05-2025 10:00
  
  How small, monthly actions rooted in psychological principles can transform your workplace into a more connected, motivated and engaged environment all year long.
  Employee engagement measures an employee’s mental and emotional connection to their work, team and organization. The term was introduced in 1990 by William A. Kahn, a professor of organizational behavior at Boston University. Kahn found that employees were more engaged when they felt their work was worthwhile (psychological meani
  
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• The Scoop: The chaotic web of social media journalism as seen in one California county

  05-05-2025 16:42
  
  Plus: TikTok faces big privacy fine in EU; lessons from the fall of the MCU.Stanislaus County is home to 500,000 residents in California’s Central Valley. Like most communities across the country, traditional media has receded from this rural area, leaving inhabitants to cobble together their own news sources as best they can.
  The results can lead to misinformation — and even armed confrontation.
  An in-depth report from the New York Times examines how a powerful web of alternative me
  
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• AI SEO: An audience-first approach to showing up in AI results

  05-05-2025 12:42
  
  The way we think about search is changing. In a pre-AI world, SEO and public relations were overlapping but ultimately separate disciplines
  But now, AI overviews have distorted the roles of each function and communicators need to adapt to form relevant, creative and meaningful content that resonates with readers, drives results and marries both search and awareness.
  “The silo and breakup of these (two areas) isn’t relevant anymore,” Jordan Leschinsky, head of strategy at c
  
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• What PR pros must know about today’s pay-to-play media reality

  05-05-2025 12:00
  
   The lines are getting murkier than ever.Ronjini Joshua is CEO of Silver Telegram.
  As media outlets increasingly monetize editorial real estate and social platforms erode trust, PR professionals are the last line of defense in helping brands earn authentic visibility and protect credibility at all costs.
  The line between earned and paid media is increasingly blurred — by emerging “media” platforms offering guaranteed placements for a fee, by social media creators who blur
  
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• The Scoop: Kohl’s outlines path forward after new CEO fired for cause

  02-05-2025 17:02
  
  Also: Trump’s Public Broadcasting funding cut could create media challenge; Belichick’s CBS interview offers media training reminders.
  Kohl’s fired its new CEO Ashley Buchanan on Thursday, saying it made the decision for cause.
  The company said his termination stemmed from serious policy violations, not anything related to its operations. The Wall Street Journal reported that Buchanan allegedly directed the company to “enter into a ‘highly unusual’ business de
  
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• FleishmanHillard’s Thomas Bennett on building a career from pro sports to SVP

  02-05-2025 12:00
  
  Fleishman Hillard SVP shares the keys to growing the next generation of communicators.Thomas Bennett is a senior vice president at FleishmanHillard, where he helps the global communications agency grow by building real connections with new clients and uncovering fresh opportunities. He also leads the firm’s Black Employee Resource Group, working to create a more inclusive and supportive community .
  Over Bennett’s more than 20-year career, he has worked across PR, sales, marketing and
  
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• Decode your execs: Managing upward for communicators 

  02-05-2025 12:00
  
  A few tips for building better relationships with execs, earning their trust and providing actionable feedback.
  Comms leads are expected to make executives sound good, keep messaging clear and consistent, and ensure internal messaging doesn’t turn into an unread email graveyard. 
  Executives have big ideas, strong opinions, and — let’s be honest — a tendency to believe their own press releases. Your job is to translate their vision into something employees and the pub
  
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• Making complex, technical stories more human

  01-05-2025 13:00
  
  Focus on personal relevance and trust to make technical topics relatable and engaging.
  In healthcare communications, complexity is inevitable. It takes skill to break down topics ranging from regulations to scientific breakthroughs in language the average person can understand.
  But for Christopher Hippolyte, EVP and deputy head of corporate affairs at Syneos Health Communications, success starts with turning the technical into something deeply human.
  “To capture hearts and minds, you need
  
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• These are the phrases that drive communicators nuts

  01-05-2025 12:30
  
  From ‘leverage’ to ‘thrilled,’ communicators are done with these overused phrases.Much like clothes, words and phrases used in communications have trends. One day everyone is talking about unprecedented times and the next we’re all navigating challenging headwinds.
  These terms might start out fine – even good. But over time and with overuse, these terms have begun to fray the nerves of many communicators.
  On LinkedIn, more than 250 communicators and journalist
  
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• Your insight needed: How you use business acumen in comms

  01-05-2025 12:18
  
  Take this brief survey and help shed light on an important area of the industry.Communicators truly step out of a role as order takers and into their full strategic power when they understand not only their own role in communications, but when they demonstrate their business acumen. By integrating their area of specialty into a general knowledge of the needs of the business, communicators can become true strategic partners.
  To better understand communicators’ knowledge of business acumen,
  
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• The Scoop: Amazon clarifies tariff pricing report after Bezos’ ‘good guy’ call with Trump

  30-04-2025 17:18
  
  Also: Starbucks CEO addresses poorer-than-expected earnings call; Coca-Cola outlines playbook for countering misinformation.
  Amazon came out forcefully this week to deny reports that it planned to display tariff-related import charges alongside product prices – a feature the company says it never approved and has no plans to implement on any of its platforms.
   
  [RELATED: Become part of the go-to list of agencies! Enter by April 30]
   
  Punchbowl News, a Capitol Hill-focused ou
  
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• Social media reigns despite disruption

  30-04-2025 12:00
  
  Social media remains the top channel for external communications, but watch out for video and AI content.Despite the on-again, off-again ban on TikTok in the U.S. and shifting moderation policies from Facebook, X and other major platforms, social media retains its position at the No. 1 channel for external communications.
  Data from Ragan’s 2025 Communications Benchmark Report, a signature research project conducted for members of Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council, finds the c
  
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• Behind the headlines: Helping my friend through a 48-hour media firestorm

  30-04-2025 12:00
  
  A PR pro stepped up when a confrontation with a congresswoman went viral.Brad Gorman is the founder of Gorman Strategies. Follow him on LinkedIn.
  “You’re on after the pope.”
  That’s what a CNN producer said in my ear at 11:45 p.m., just moments before I coached a friend through his first-ever TV interview — one that would be seen live by half a million Americans.
  Hours earlier, he was just a voter asking a question.
  This became a real-time case study in power, public
  
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• Aligning AI with organizational values and brand

  30-04-2025 12:00
  
  Steps to create ethical and trustworthy decisions regarding AI.
  Communicators need to gain a true understanding of how AI is being used and what purpose it serves to build trust among clients, stakeholders and colleagues.
  This can be achieved with transparency and ethical messaging throughout the decision-making process, industry leaders said during Ragan and PR Daily’s recent AI Horizon’s Conference.
  Discussing the most pressing concerns for comms teams, Brian Snyder, chief innovati
  
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• 3 ways to adapt to the media landscape

  30-04-2025 12:00
  
  You’ve got to evolve.Keenan J. Emery is account director at Method Communications. 
  There’s been quite a bit of PR hand wringing about the shifting media landscape, and while it’s true that smaller Substacks, newsletters and LinkedIn are quality options with increasing credibility, I believe it’s more of a changing of the guard than a cataclysmic shift. We’ve seen media heavyweights like Alex Konrad (formerly at Forbes) and Ron Miller (formerly at TechCrunch) l
  
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• Meet the inaugural instructors of Ragan Training’s new learning portal

  29-04-2025 14:18
  
  Courses from these comms leaders are available to Ragan Training subscribers beginning April 28.
  Today, our existing Ragan Training hub— an on-demand, subscription-based hub collecting videos and resources from Ragan conferences and webinars— transforms into a full-fledged learning portal.
  The Ragan Training learning portal integrates the hallmark features of an effective learning management system such as micro-learning modules with knowledge checks and quizzes, transcript dashboard
  
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• How to appropriately use AI in media relations

  29-04-2025 13:00
  
  Best practices and what to avoid when using tech in your interactions with newsrooms.
  AI tools are becoming commonplace in media relations, but concerns about authenticity are raising red flags
  Qwoted, a network connecting media with brands, experts and small businesses added a “Flag for AI” option for journalists shortly after ChatGPT launched. In late 2024, the company incorporated a tool to check pitches for AI-generated content.
   
  [FREE REPORT: What PR pros need in 2023]
  &nb
  
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• The Scoop: The PR struggle to make sorghum a hot new food trend

  28-04-2025 17:00
  
  Plus: Video podcasts boom; the wide-ranging impacts of broken American-Canadian trust.If you’ve heard of sorghum, you may think of it as something used to feed pigs, or perhaps as a component in ethanol.
  But the American-grown grain has the potential to become the next quinoa, especially as tariffs enhance the importance of grown-in-America products. Notably, it has twice as much protein as quinoa and four times as much as rice or corn – a major boon in a protein obsessed world. Sorg
  
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• The New Rules of Internal Comms: Personalized, Unified and AI-Powered

  28-04-2025 12:00
  
  You can’t fix comms with an old-school omnichannel.The post The New Rules of Internal Comms: Personalized, Unified and AI-Powered appeared first on PR Daily.
  
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• Stop worrying about whether content is AI-generated

  28-04-2025 12:00
  
  Outcomes matter more than inputs.Log onto LinkedIn on any given day, and you’re bound to see impassioned debates about how to tell if something is AI-generated.
  If it has an em dash, it was AI! If it uses the phrase “in today’s challenging environment,” a robot did it! On and on, tips for sniffing out AI that begin to sound more like articles of faith than helpful advice, a search for human connection in a time of technological uncertainty.
  As a writer and editor who read
  
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• Bob Safian on securing a guest on a top business podcast

  28-04-2025 12:00
  How to pitch podcasts the right way.Amanda Coffee is CEO of Coffee Communications and ex-Under Armour, PayPal and eBay.  
  Bob Safian is a renowned journalist, media executive and business strategist, known for his deep insights into leadership, innovation and navigating change.
  As the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company, Safian has been at the forefront of media trends around entrepreneurship and disruption. Today, he serves as the host of Rapid Response and editor-at-large for
  
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• The Scoop: Pete Buttigieg balances outreach with base reassurance after ‘Flagrant’ appearance

  25-04-2025 16:20
  
  Also: Discord co-founder eases leadership transition; Chinese factory posts threaten brands.
  Pete Buttigieg made a strategic PR play by appearing on “Flagrant,” a self-described “unruly,” traditionally “anti-woke” podcast with a mostly male audience that hosted President Donald Trump a month before last year’s election.
  During the nearly two-hour episode, he discussed a wide range of topics – from his military service and time as mayor of South Ben
  
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• A simple tip for finding stories of unsung heroes in your organization

  25-04-2025 12:00
  
  Author Michael Lewis shows you how to spotlight the essential but unsung people in your business.
  Jim Ylisela is co-founder of RCG.
  When I was running the newsroom at Northwestern’s Medill School, I’d begin every quarter by assigning my graduate journalism students beats around Chicago: police and fire, housing, City Hall, arts and culture, we had it covered.
  The students would be filing stories on deadline for newspapers in the region, so to help them prepare, I asked them to write
  
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