This week's PR Roundup looks at how Vanity Fair and journalist Olivia Nuzzi decided to part ways after a public scandal, how Instagram is promoting its Teen Accounts through conversations with Usher and his kids, and what was the word of the year on social media in 2025?
Vanity Fair and Olivia Nuzzi Uncouple After Kennedy Scandal, Book Release
What happened: Vanity Fair and journalist Olivia Nuzzi have agreed to part ways just months after becoming the magazine’s West Coast editor. Nuzzi, who joined the publication on a contract basis in September 2025, will see her agreement lapse at the end of this year in what both parties described as a mutual decision made in the “best interest of the magazine.”
The decision probably does not come as a surprise to those who have followed Nuzzi’s saga, engaging in an affair with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who she covered at the time. The actions show a clear effort by the magazine to separate from a reporter who became distracted from editorial priorities. During her brief tenure, Nuzzi published only a single excerpt from her recently released memoir “American Canto,” which drew largely negative reviews and did little to improve her public standing.
Communication takeaways: With media trust at all-time lows, Vanity Fair needed to secure a safe place with its readership and put ethics first. Although internal and external reviews of Nuzzi’s past work found no evidence of bias or inaccuracies, the cumulative reputational risk proved unsustainable for Vanity Fair’s leadership.
The episode underlines the ongoing argument between personal controversy and professional credibility in the media industry—and the reputational decisions that publishers now must make when high-profile hires come with equally high-profile baggage.
Erin Clinton Haworth, Founder and CEO of Clinton Haworth Collective, spent many years working for Time, Inc.'s communication department and qualifies these actions as a “textbook parting of ways in the media world.”
"Vanity Fair and Nuzzi put out a joint statement late on a Friday with language that tempered the situation and allowed each party to walk away as unscathed as possible,” Clinton Haworth says.
She also doesn’t believe that the reputational damage for Vanity Fair will come from the agreement to let Nuzzi’s contract expire, but everything that led up to that decision having to be made. Clinton Haworth offers some next steps.
“If I were advising them, I’d suggest they focus on hiring journalists for their Hollywood beat, given how tumultuous the news cycle has been in the [political-turned]-entertainment world lately."
Instagram Helping Parents Talk to Their Kids
What happened: As Australia recently announced a social media ban for children under the age of 16, platforms in America tend to be approaching teen safety from an opposite end of the spectrum.
Instagram decided to tap into a universal parenting truth: teens open up more easily when they don’t have to make eye contact. So, on Dec. 11, the platform launched Carversations, a new content series that puts celebrity parents and their teens in the car for honest conversations about social media and online behavior. The first episode features singer Usher with his sons, Cinco (18) and Naviyd (16), offering a relatable look at how the family navigates digital life—and who actually spends the most time on Instagram.
Episode highlights:
- Teen Online Safety: How Instagram’s Teen Accounts features help Usher feel confident about what his sons see online.
- Time Limits: A family quiz on who has the biggest screen-time habit.
- Close Friends: Usher confirms he has a Close Friends list—but won’t quite say if the boys made the cut.
- DM Rules: The teens joke about whose DMs they’d slide into if they had access to Usher’s account for a day.
- Building Community: Usher explains how finding opportunities in music looks completely different in the modern social era.
- Raymond Fam Car Game: A nostalgic family game returns to spark one more “carversation.”
Communication takeaways: Produced by Meta, the series blends authentic parenting moments with practical discussions about online safety and connection. It’s a smart move for Instagram as it tries to show how families are using its tools in real time, without slipping into an “after-school special” vibe.
Meta spokesperson Liza Crenshaw says Carversations was created to help parents and teens learn how to be more transparent about online safety.
“Carversations [encourages] parents to have honest, judgement-free conversations with their teens about how families use social media,” Crenshaw says. “Usher and his sons were great partners, setting the tone perfectly on how open dialogue about social media use builds trust.”
Crenshaw says the series lets families enjoy fun content in an informational package, allowing them to learn about the platform’s built-in protections like Teen Accounts.
New Social Dictionary Reveals “Aura” Ruled Conversations in 2025
What happened: Sprout Social dropped its first-ever Social Media Dictionary, and this year the word “aura” owned the internet. The term generated more than 31.9 billion impressions, spawning offshoots like “aura farming” and “aura maxxing”—proof that niche communities aren’t just shaping culture, they’re steering the global vocabulary.
The report also shows how quickly brands are adapting. Pizza Hut leaned into the “6-7” trend on TikTok and walked away with more than $130K in estimated media value, while the Pittsburgh Steelers jumped into niche meme culture and saw an 11.7% engagement rate, dwarfing their baseline. For PR and social teams, these examples highlight a widening gap between brands that simply participate in trends and those that understand—and capitalize on—the communities fueling them.
Other key highlights:
- Labubu: 5.8M mentions (May–July 2025).
- 6-7: 3.8M mentions.
- GEO (Generative Engine Optimization): 116B impressions.
- Substack: 117B+ impressions across platforms.
Communication takeaways: For PR pros, the takeaway is simple: subcultures are no longer fringe; they’re the engine driving what eventually becomes mainstream.
According to Paul Quigley, General Manager of Listening at Sprout Social, social media didn’t just reflect culture in 2025—it created it.
“The Social Media Dictionary reveals that massive movements in culture often start from niche communities, like “aura” seeding from sports fans and fashion enthusiasts before going big,” Quigley says.
He also notes that paying attention to these trends is necessary.
“Tracking these emerging conversations is invaluable for predicting where social, and culture, is headed and how we can best engage with audiences and create relevant, meaningful content,” he says.
Nicole Schuman is Managing Editor of PRNEWS.