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In each edition of PR News we highlight takeaways from select articles as well as additions to the PR News Resources Center, available to subscribers only at: http://www.prnewsonline.com/subscriber-resources/

There have been a slew of PR crises this summer, so we asked Hill + Knowlton head of crisis/risk Kevin Elliott and kglobal crisis SVP Scott Sobel for their take on several: the response to the PA Grand Jury report; Les Moonves and CBS; MoviePass; Elon Musk: and the death of Jordan McNair, a football player at the University of Maryland. While Elliott and Sobel agree on the importance of a rapid response and transparency, the particulars of the responses and tactics in the various crises divided these experts in several cases.

For many communicators, September is the traditional kick-off for budget season. With this in mind, we departed from our usual roundtable format of a single question and asked senior communicators to discuss budget best practices and budget priorities and expectations for 2019.

A few years ago it seemed breaking down silos between sales and marketing was one of the hot topics in PR. In a way, reducing silos also can be used to build an SEO team, as Randy Hui of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network argues. But don’t forget the importance of education, he adds.

A new study from PR News and Dataminr finds nearly 40% of PR professionals lack immediate access to breaking information. Roughly the same percentage admits developments about their brand caught them off-guard.

Each month we ask communicators to turn over their toolkits and tell us what falls out. In other words, What tools and technologies are most effective to have when doing your job? We also ask

If you think you know what it means to be a CMO, think again. Big shifts in business have necessitated a reimagining of this role.

Communicators at colleges have had anything but a slow summer. None have had to work harder than those at Harvard, where the school is enmeshed in a lawsuit that claims it holds Asian-American applicants to a higher standard than those of other ethnic groups. The results of a trial, set for October, could reverberate around the country.

The political talk shows take a lot of criticism. In fact, they can be a great way for new PR pros to supplement their knowledge base. The major takeaway, argues veteran PR pro Arthur Solomon, is to learn how not to speak and write like the pundits who populate these shows.

Snapchat’s foray into ecommerce has proved to be very successful, as shown by its most recent campaign with Adidas. The two companies collaborated on the new Snapchat show “Fashion 5 Ways,” which was used to market a pre-release of Adidas’ new Falcon W shoe on Aug. 21. While watching the show, users were able to swipe up and buy the shoe directly in the app, with ecommerce company Shopify powering the shopping experience. The shoes sold out in six hours. Here are some best practices from the campaign.