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PR News will celebrate the winners and honorable mentions of its 2016 Agency Elite Awards at its annual Platinum PR/Agency Elite Awards luncheon at New York’s Marriott Marquis on Oct. 19, 2016. The Agency Elite Awards benchmark excellence in PR agencies’ key practice areas, from advocacy, crisis communications and social media to measurement, media relations and reputation management.

One of the first lessons you learn in tech PR is to avoid making announcements that conflict with major news events. Don’t make an announcement during an Apple event, the saying goes. But what if you could use Apple’s star power to your advantage? Another company’s news is your chance to earn coverage as a thought leader.

We’re pretty sure Wells Fargo didn’t commit its recent goof for the benefit of teachers at the nearly 500 colleges and universities in the U.S. that have programs in PR, advertising, strategic communications and integrated marketing communications. Still, the financial brand’s inexcusable print ads, which seemed to urge youngsters to forego careers in the arts in favor of positions in science and technology, provided excellent lecture material for instructors teaching the estimated 51,000+ students enrolled in PR, advertising and strategic communications courses.

An undisclosed IT problem disrupted the British Airways’s check-in process at airports around the world causing lengthy delays. But for many that were stuck on the ground, the lack of information from the brand was less than ideal. Unlike other outages experienced by airlines like Delta and Southwest, British Airways focused on responding to people individually on Twitter with generic statements.

PR veteran Arthur Solomon has changed his mind about Hillary Clinton holding a press conference, which he thought she should do many weeks ago. The reason for this change of mind is that she is excelling at another method of reaching the public: answering media questions from local reporters during her campaign stops and individually with selected national reporters.

A PR professional’s work is never done—especially considering the breakneck speed of digital communications. And on top of press and media relations duties, communicators are now also expected to stay on top of a growing list of social media accounts and metrics. With those hefty expectations in mind, we asked the PR News community for tips on effectively juggling a communicator’s responsibilities.

The right here, right now nature of live streaming can be freeing when used by individuals: Measuring success is often an afterthought, if considered at all. But for brands and communicators tasked with foraging in this relatively new space, live streaming brings its own baggage to the content production process. Of course, Facebook Live’s usefulness isn’t limited to B2B PR folks. Communicators from all disciplines should consider turning to Facebook Live as their go-to when creating short-form mobile video for Facebook, especially given that Facebook puts so much algorithmic weight behind live videos.

The European Commission’s ruling Aug. 30 that Apple must fork over $14.6 billion (plus interest) in unpaid taxes, due to Ireland having granted illegal preferential aid to Apple over 20 years, was certainly a heavy blow for the tech behemoth. But when it comes to a public response, the decision has given Apple a powerful ally: the United States government.

As the pool of full-time journalists continues to wane, today’s PR professional has to spend increasing amounts of time writing pitches that stand out from the masses. And for all of that effort, when a story does get picked up by a major outlet, it’s buried by a constant stream of other stories—often without enough time for it to generate adequate impressions for the resources spent. Which begs the question: Is it still worth it for PR professionals to prioritize earned media, or should they pour all of their resources into newer media channels instead?

Your first inclination when hearing the story about Mylan and its EpiPen is to categorize it. Put it in a place alongside similar tales. That’s normal. It’s what the human brain does to make sense of incoming stimuli. The EpiPen saga seems like an easy one to handle. We who follow news of brands, particularly in the pharmaceutical space, have seen it before.