Stories by Seth Arenstein

With PR increasingly becoming a strategic asset to business, CMOs and their teams need to augment their skillset to keep pace with the newest trends and technologies, Page’s new chair Charlene Wheeless argues. During an interview with PRNEWS prior to starting her tenure, Wheeless said she envisions “a powerful new opportunity for CCOs to be relevant, central leaders in transformation.” Page will respond with new skills and leadership training, she said.

Every company and organization should have an up-to-date crisis plan. In addition, holding periodic crisis simulations and post-simulation analyses are important. Still, one of the keys to crisis management, and one that’s often overlooked, might be the personalities sitting around the table in the C-suite. And don’t forget the corporate politics involved, argues Jim Lindheim, a former Burson-Marsteller chairman.

Considered one of the founding fathers of modern public relations, though he eschewed such superlatives, Harold Burson passed away today, aged 98. This pioneer of the profession is remembered for his generosity as a mentor, as well as his gentle manner. He was also known as a visionary and possessor of one of the keenest minds in the business.

Ethics has long been a hallmark of public relations. In this fourth and final installment of PRNEWS’ 2020 predictions, the theme of ethics seemed to dominate. Whether it be in technology, storytelling or writing, several of our prognosticators emphasized ethics’ importance in the coming year.

With CES beginning today in Las Vegas, we take a look at technology and tech-related issues for PR pros as the year begins.

In this third in a series of Intrado Digital Media-sponsored articles about measurement, we look at the hurdles of measuring media ROI. The first two articles in the series appeared in the November 2019 and December 2019 editions

With CES 2020 beginning, we asked our data partner Shareablee to look at the technology influencers who were most active on social media during the past year. Several famous tech names made the list.

At nearly 200 years old, Western Union is anything but a stuffy, conservative company, reluctant to change. In an interview with the company’s new communications chief, we discuss how Western Union is raising awareness of its new businesses.

In this third set of 2020 predictions, communicators anticipate strong demand for mergers and acquisitions of PR firms, a rise in personalized stories and PR pros increasing their use of sophisticated data as audiences become more difficult to reach. Other predictions include a fierce response from healthcare to political criticism and an increase in relationships with non-traditional media outlets.

In the second of a multi-part series of predictions, several PR pros anticipate a rise in the need for crisis communications in 2020. They also see rises in diversity and inclusion as well as transparency. There also will be a need for storytelling that allows consumers to escape from the noise of the 2020 elections.