AI synthetic focus groups are helping PR teams pressure-test messaging and creative ideas — faster and cheaper than ever. Here's how it works.
www.prnewsonline.com/how-pr-teams...

Amid Crisis, Banana Ball Benefits from Uncharacteristic Serenity Banana Ball’s handling of one recent story holds just as many lessons about the value of restraint and discipline in communicating through a crisis.

The Savannah Bananas do backflips on the field — and apparently in the crisis comms playbook too. 🍌
Faced with nonprofit scrutiny, they responded with transparency over spin. The result: a sold-out 2026 season and 4.2M fans in the ticket lottery.
👇
www.prnewsonline.com/amid-crisis-...

This week's PR Roundup covers a CEO redemption arc that backfired, YouTube claiming the #1 spot in global brand influence, and a Nutella jar going viral aboard the NASA Artemis II spacecraft — zero budget, maximum earned media.

Friday comms reading for PR pros 👇
www.prnewsonline.com/pr-roundup-m...

Doris Fleischman was the first hire at Edward Bernays' PR firm, his equal partner in business and life, and a co-creator of the principles that define the profession today.

This Women's History Month, her story is worth revisiting.
prnewsonline.com/women-PR-history

OFFICIAL STATEMENT from Nestle Kit Kat: We can confirm that 12T of KitKat products were stolen while in transit between our factory in Central Italy and their destination in Poland. We are working closely with local authorities and supply chain partners to investigate. The good news: there are no concerns for consumer safety, and supply is not affected. Thank you

Kit Kat bars shaped like racing cars with the headline, 12 TONS OF KITKATS (OVER 400,000 BARS) STOLEN IN MAJOR EUROPEAN HEIST

This new remake of The Italian Job is wild!

PR Roundup: Air Canada Crisis, the Second Screen of March Madness, and CCOs are not Happy From an Air Canada air traffic control crisis at LaGuardia Airport, to a PR workforce stretched thin by expanding expectations, to fans rewriting the rules of live sports engagement during March Madne...

This week's PR Roundup:

✈️ Air Canada's LaGuardia crisis response: a masterclass in what not to do

🏀 March Madness + social media = proof that fan culture has officially moved platforms.

📉 CCO workload satisfaction: down 20 points since June.

Full read: www.prnewsonline.com/pr-roundup-a...

From the @semafor.com media newsletter: Beehiiv is preparing to launching podcasting tools. The company has been trying to recruit podcasters from Substack, Patreon to come over for the official launch.

www.semafor.com/article/03/2...

Happy Monday. Here's the latest on Mark Levin, Megyn Kelly, Nexstar, Brendan Carr, CBS, Peter Alexander, Politico, "Love Story," and more...

Today's Reliable Sources lead: The Pentagon goes quiet as the Iran war intensifies

The Pentagon has not held a press briefing about the war in Iran in a week and a half... cnn.it/4ccKwUG

"CEO Said A Thing!" Journalism "CEO said a thing!" journalism involves parroting the claims of a business leader or executive with absolutely no context, correction, or challenge whatsoever, no matter how elaborate the delusion.

Over at the newsletter I wrote about the unholy scourge that is "CEO said a thing!" journalism:

The Bachelorette cancellation is a masterclass in what NOT to do — and now ABC has to clean it up. 🌹
Domestic abuse allegations ignored. Millions in ad revenue gone. Contestants lawyering up.
www.prnewsonline.com/how-does-abc...

Wartime press attacks aren't new — but the coordination is something PR professionals should be watching closely. New on PRNEWS: what the current media-government standoff means for crisis communications and institutional trust.
🔗 www.prnewsonline.com/what-wartime...

PR Roundup:
In-N-Out earned 3M engagements at the Oscars without a single brand post.
Macy's CEO modeled what "owning the weather" looks like on an earnings call.
Lush turned a bath bomb into a full immigrant rights campaign.
Read the full breakdown: www.prnewsonline.com/pr-roundup-b...

Women's History Month: Betsy Plank, a PR Powerhouse Who Paved the Way for Generations Betsy Ann Plank, APR, Fellow PRSA, known as the “first lady of public relations,” dedicated more than 60 years of her life to the industry. She devoted much of that time to advancing PR education by p...

This #WomensHistoryMonth we honor Betsy Ann Plank — the "First Lady of Public Relations."

63 years in the industry. First female PRSA president.

Champion of PR education, students and the profession itself.

Her story is on PRNEWS now. Worth a read. 🔗 www.prnewsonline.com/womens-histo...

The comms industry changed more in the last 18 months than the previous decade. AI is reshaping how people discover and evaluate brands. The news cycle doesn’t wait.

So what does a modern communications stack actually look like?

www.prnewsonline.com/voice-speed-...

A profile of Wired's top editor, Katie Drummond, who created a politics team that landed major scoops and says Wired added 200K+ new paid subs in the past year (Katie Robertson/New York Times)

Main Link | Mediagazer Permalink

Press pics of an older man in a doorway give a misleading account of modern homelessness.

So a good project by Centre for Homelessness Impact, providing pics of real people suffering from the housing crisis.

Families, young people, temporary accommodation issues a major part:

Teenagers sue X over AI-generated naked images The lawsuit could lead to another potential penalty over X's controversial AI chatbot.

Three teenagers, two of whom are minors, are suing xAI over the production & distribution of naked images of themselves generated by X’s Grok AI chatbot.
The teens say X’s AI chatbot generated the images from real photos made public via X’s Grok account.

This week's PR Roundup breaks down three stories every communicator is watching:

→ Target's price pivot to win back "busy families"
→ The White House's quiet messaging shift on deportations
→ Why AI won't close your trust gap (new data)

Read it here: www.prnewsonline.com/pr-roundup-t...

If you are heading to @sxsw.com ...

SXSW is seven days long. The PR pros who get real ROI aren't the ones who pack the most in—they're the ones who planned ahead, networked intentionally, and knew when to stop.

Our latest piece covers all six strategies.
🔗 prnewsonline.com/6-ways-pr-pros-can-maximize-roi-from-sxsw/

lol

YouTube Adds Tool to Help Public Figures Report Fake Videos Social media companies are under pressure to crack down on so-called deepfake videos that use deceptive images of real people.

YouTube is adding a detection tool for government officials, political candidates and journalists to catch and report videos that use A.I. to display their likeness without permission, as social media companies and new laws start to address so-called deepfake videos.

Anthropic refused Pentagon demands to strip AI safety guardrails — even with ~$200M at stake.

It's a rare case of a company whose public values held up under real pressure. For PR pros, the strategic takeaways are significant.

New analysis from PRNEWS 👇
www.prnewsonline.com/anthropic-wa...

This week's PR Roundup:
🔴 Claude's outage during peak demand—and the crisis comms gap that followed
🍔 McDonald's CEO goes viral (not in the way they planned)
🌱 Why sustainability messaging still matters, even when it's unpopular

Full read here: www.prnewsonline.com/pr-roundup-c...

USA Hockey swept both Olympic hockey golds for the first time in history. Then a viral clip. Then silence.

In PR, silence tells a story — and it's not the one they want told.

New on PRNEWS: www.prnewsonline.com/a-golden-mom...

To avoid unhelpful headlines, CEOs should refrain from making comments like this:

"So many things happen every morning it’s scary."

Media tend to put fear statements into their headlines to attract attention and sell advertising. The FT, in particular, has a reputation for doing this routinely.

Meet Joseph Varney Baker — the first Black American to found a PR agency and a true pioneer of the profession. His story is essential reading for today’s communicators.

Read more via PRNEWS 👉 www.prnewsonline.com/joseph-varne...

This week’s #PRRoundup: crisis comms lessons from BAFTA, new data showing employees now outpace CEOs in brand trust, and Burger King’s long-overdue Whopper refresh.

Smart takeaways for modern communicators 👇
www.prnewsonline.com/pr-roundup-b...

The way we measure PR is changing — fast.

Here are the 10 KPIs every comms pro should be tracking in 2026, from sentiment and search influence to narrative momentum.

Check out the first few here, then read the full list at PRNEWS👇
www.prnewsonline.com/if-youre-not...

In honor of #BlackHistoryMonth, we’re celebrating the legacy of Inez Kaiser—the first Black woman to own a PR firm in the U.S. A true pioneer whose impact still shapes the industry today. Read more: www.prnewsonline.com/Kaiser-PR-ow...