Best Practices

As the proliferation of AI-generated articles continue, the PR industry must be prepared for a future where combatting bad AI in journalism becomes part of the job description.

This week’s PR Roundup looks at how to the 24-Hour Economic Blackout went viral from a grassroots level, how AI is improving productivity for comms, and Sprout Social’s social listening platform for the Oscars.

The lessons from DeepSeek’s rise offer a blueprint for how brands, especially challengers, can capture attention, navigate controversy, and take over the conversation.

This week’s PR Roundup looks at whether or not Delta’s compensation to crash survivors is good PR, fun partnerships between brands and “The White Lotus,” and the Institute for Public Relations’s new report that looks at the most impactful research of 2024 for communicators.

A new C-suite outlook report from The Weber Shandwick Collective indicates that business executives have little confidence in their teams’ abilities to properly respond to an unexpected PR disaster. But communications professionals shouldn’t panic. Executives cited their team’s lack of resources to handle crises—which creates a tremendous opportunity for CCOs and their teams to bring value to C-suites and play a bigger leadership role in corporate structures.

Making crisis drills a regular occurrence can improve communicator response skills and boost team confidence.

Ahead of the season three premiere of HBO’s “The White Lotus” on Feb. 16, the network is leaning into multiple brand partnerships to help expand its audience.

This week’s PR Roundup looks at PRSA’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, The White House’s risky media relations move with The Associated Press, and how Shopify’s reputation received some major blows after not acting quickly enough in a crisis with Yeezy.com.

The vast majority of audiences tune out jargon. Nobody wants to hear from a robot. But more often than not, speakers are experts on something, and they really want to nerd out. Here’s some steps on how to find that balance and simplify complex messaging in speechwriting to move an audience.

The New York Times exposé published in December about Justin Baldoni’s alleged smear campaign against Blake Lively highlighted the dark side of PR. Then a week later, Baldoni filed a $250 million lawsuit against the New York Times, saying the media outlet got the story wrong. Ultimately, the legal questions in Baldoni’s suit concern media ethics. But in the meantime, the actors’ PR teams should keep these crisis communications tips top of mind.