April 10, 2025
In this week's mega "catch-up" edition: It's chaos out there, marketing's "woke" rebrand, LinkedIn superusers, the cult of content, surviving the big "switch-off", the voice of Trump, and much more...
How actual ‘fake news’ caused a market whiplash - “Unsourced “headlines” about a potential “90-day pause in tariffs” sent markets into a state of turbulence Monday morning as investors sought any indication of a reprieve from the Trump administration’s new levies. The problem: It wasn’t true.” (CNN)
It’s chaos out there—and CEOs are staying off the radar while they shore up alliances with partners - “They hope the tariffs are lifted and the trade war is short. They worry about blowback to their brands and relationships. They want regulatory easing without regulatory chaos. They’re trying to stay focused on the rapid and seismic shift in technology brought about by AI.” (Fortune)
Marketing’s ‘woke’ rebrand has ultimately helped the far right - “Our industry must reckon with how we’ve trivialised activism by turning it into comms strategy – only to abandon it.” (The Guardian)
2025 Global Communication Report - “‘Mind The Gap,’ addresses the unprecedented upheaval the PR industry is experiencing due to artificial intelligence, hybrid work, the evolving media landscape, and political polarization.” (USC Annenberg)
Meet the LinkedIn superusers - “More users are chasing high follower counts as the professional network expands its reach.” (FT - $)
The road to CEO enters its influencer era. How social media is reshaping leadership - “This evolution has fundamentally reshaped executive communication, allowing leaders or those with CEO aspirations to showcase their thought leadership and share insights, spotlight employees and company culture, recognize team wins, and discuss industry trends.” (Fortune - $)
How the U.S. Public and AI Experts View Artificial Intelligence - “The public and experts are far apart in their enthusiasm and predictions for AI. But they share similar views in wanting more personal control and worrying regulation will fall short.” (Pew)
When might we expect the questions? “An expectation of questions combined with questions around interview length and other requests that clearly showed they’d never watched the show led to the op being discontinued.” Anyone involved in media relations should train (at some point) as a journalist. (Martin Kimber / Sky News)
The financial fallout of corporate and reputation crises - “Revealing insights from the SenateSHJ Crisis Index 300” (SenateSHJ)
The Cult of Content - “The system that rewards influence is allergic to originality.” (Sandra Macele)
Thought leadership messaging framework - “It’s based on the double-diamond design method: you expand out from your ICP at the top, through their problems, to the symptoms they experience. Then you converge back through the obstacles that get in their way.” (Jamie Griffiths)
People say they prefer stories written by humans over AI-generated works, yet new study suggests that’s not quite true - (The Conversation)
‘I can’t cope with it any more’: newsrooms scramble to retain audiences amid the big switch-off - “In an international survey last year, 39% of respondents said they selectively avoid news to some degree.” (The Guardian)
Which types of people aren’t big fans of “impartial” news? People who don’t have power - “A new study finds that the poor, those with less education, young people, and women are less likely to prefer “impartial” news sources over those that align with their own views.” (Nieman Lab)
Virtual reality: The widely-quoted media experts who are not what they seem - “One commentator contacted by Press Gazette does not exist and another declined to share credentials or other proof.” (Press Gazette)
Evolving Immersive: The 2025 Immersive Entertainment & Culture Industry Report - “This Report, which follows upon the work established in the 2019 & 2020 Immersive Industry Reports we have previously published, is intended as a reintroduction of what the Immersive Experience industry is and where it is headed.” (Gensler)
Steven Cheung Is the Voice of Trump - “The White House communications chief has a strategy: relentless aggression.” (The Atlantic)
And finally, the most popular article from two weeks ago was Don’t Describe the Issue in Your Response by JJFYI. See you next week, and probably for many weeks to come as your faithful editor seeks to replenish his butchered pension.