May 22, 2025

In this week's back-to-work edition: how to influence chatbots, Zuck's declaration of war on the ad industry, our crisis of truth, the corporate rebrand, PR's seat at the table , and much more...

Image by Pascal Maramis

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1. “News” in 2025 is in the eye of the beholder - “People classify content as more or less ‘news-like,’ and this varies across platforms and sources, as well as from one person to the next.” (Nieman Lab)

2. Mark Zuckerberg just declared war on the entire advertising industry - “Zuck’s vision for infinite creative would wipe out the way the whole ad stack works.” (The Verge)

3. Are lawyers taking over the lead from crisis managers? “Lawyers have been encroaching into the area of crisis management for many years. But the trend is accelerating, with lawyers resolutely and purposefully expanding their role.” (Managing Outcomes)

4. PR pros have discovered how to influence the chatbots: Talk to a journalist - “As the sprawling public relations industry scrambles to figure out how to buffer its clients’ brands and reputations through the new medium of artificial intelligence chatbots, some firms have reached a surprising conclusion: The best way to get your client’s message into the output of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and the rest is by talking to journalists.” (Semafor)

5. The corporate rebrand: how to keep your identity, when all around are losing theirs - “With Aberdeen, Jaguar, and PwC attracting scrutiny and harsh judgement for their rebrands, what are the lessons to ensure corporate identity is on track, without alienating core customers?” (Management Today)

6. Feelings, Facts, and Our Crisis of Truth - “What we lose when the rigor of science and journalism give way to an aural and visual narrative culture.” (The Dispatch)

7. A New Report Takes On the Future of News and Search - “The Tow Center for Digital Journalism interviewed news and tech industry representatives about AI’s impact on platforms and publishers. They expressed some hope and a lot of trepidation.” (CJR)

8. The Unofficial LinkedIn Algorithm Guide for Marketers - “(The authors have) boiled down dozens of LinkedIn engineering articles and papers to distill out how LinkedIn works, how it evaluates your content step by step, and what you should do to improve your chances of being seen.” (Trust Insights)

9. Should PR Decline a Seat at the Top Table? “If the PR practitioner enters the board meeting with intelligence and then provides a judgement or response for others to endorse, they have become both producer and consumer.” (Nigel Sarbutts)

10. How to produce a statistic for a White House news release - “Crafting the headline figure for an American deal with Qatar requires ingenuity and optimism.” (Washington Post - $)

11. 2025 International Employee Communication Impact Study - “Change, crisis, and leadership: How employees in Australia, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the UK, and the US perceive internal corporate communications.” (Staffbase)

12. There are too many podcasters and influencers in the White House Briefing Room - “Compliments don’t go viral. Glazings don’t draw eyeballs. Conflict does. If Trump knows anything, it’s what draws the best ratings. This ain’t it.” (Spectator - $)

13. 2025 AI Predictions - Communicating with Robots, Connecting to People - “As trust shifts from institutions to machines, traditional narratives will fragment into millions of hyper-personalized storylines.” (Page Society)

14. What GenAI Tools Can and Can’t Do for Presentations - “Mastering strategic storytelling is more critical than ever in the age of AI. Here’s how generative AI tools can support — or undermine — your next presentation.” (MITSloan)

15. AI use damages professional reputation, study suggests - “New Duke study says workers judge others for AI use—and hide its use, fearing stigma.” (ArsTechnica)

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And finally, the most popular article from the last edition was Media Relations is Dying and We Should Let It Go by CommsCollectiv.