Stories by Seth Arenstein

In this new series, PRNEWS asks young communicators about their view of the industry and of life, what skills they’ve acquired and what they wish they’d known about before beginning work. Our first young PR pro is Cedric F. Brown. He offers his perspective on diversity, useful skills and how Jackie Robinson and Ofield Dukes inspire him.

Onclusive and Shareablee announced a strategic partnership to offer marketing and communication teams solutions for earned, owned and social media insights.

In light of the Jan. 6 violence at the U.S. Capitol and the social, racial and economic unrest of 2020, we asked Cristina Alesci, Chobani’s first chief corporate affairs officer, how CEOs are thinking about promises many companies made last year, as well as what a veteran journalist brings to a corporate setting.

Proving that there’s no time off for some PR pros, we asked those on Twitter Sunday, right after Dr. Deborah Birx’s interview on “Face the Nation,” about how they’d advise her. More than one dozen PR pros gave her a lot of good communication, crisis and reputation advice for free.

PR pros can learn plenty from the NY Mets’ handling of a recent employee sexual misconduct episode. While the team moved quickly to dismiss the employee, it botched the follow-up, failing to own the incident and attempting to pass it off as a failure that couldn’t be avoided.

It seemed that most of the nation stopped today to watch the inauguration. With nearly wall-to-wall coverage on the incoming president and VP, is it wise to think about pitching a non-political story now? As with so much of PR and communication, there’s no definitive answer.

We had a good feeling about Linda Thomas Brooks, who was named PRSA’s CEO today, before we met her. The last line of her bio did the trick.

Pizza Inn took a stand on the 2020 presidential election, stating that it’s unsure if the contest was legitimate. It’s a stance that a significant portion of the public disputes, in addition to several dozen court cases that upheld the election. Why would a brand intentionally alienate potential customers?

With emergency approval of vaccines, the need to communicate the importance of prompt vaccination seems obvious: Without 75-80 percent of Americans vaccinated, herd immunity, leading to a return to normalcy, will not be reached. And now, with the discovery of an additional, more contagious virus strain, getting Americans vaccinated promptly seems even more critical.

It seems safe for communicators to assume live events won’t return, at best, before late summer or Q4. That leaves some eight to nine months for companies to continue to stage virtual activities, including trade shows, press conferences, media interviews and other events.