For Immediate Release
Episodes
FIR #494: Is News’s Future Error-Riddled AI-Generated Podcasts, or “Information Stewards”?
29 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the long-form episode for December 2025, Neville and Shel explore the future of news from two perspectives, including The Washington Post's ill-adv...
FIR #493: How to (Unethically) Manufacture Significance and Influence
22 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For somebody who posts on X or other social media platforms to become recognized by the media and other offline institutions as a significant, influen...
FIR #492: The Authenticity Divide in Omnicom Layoff Communication
15 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this short midweek episode, Shel and Neville dissect the communication fallout from the $13.5 billion Omnicom-IPG merger and the controversial pre-...
AI and the Writing Profession with Josh Bernoff
10 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Josh Bernoff has just completed the largest survey yet of writers and AI – nearly 1,500 respondents across journalism, communication, publishing, an...
FIR #491: Deloitte’s AI Verification Failures
09 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Big Four consulting firm Deloitte submitted two costly reports to two governments on opposite sides of the globe, each containing fake resources gener...
FIR #490: What Does AI Read?
01 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Studies purport to identify the sources of information that generative AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude draw on to provide overviews in resp...
FIR #489: An Explosion of Thought Leadership Slop
17 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the long-form episode for November 2025, Shel and Neville riff on a post by Robert Rose of the Content Marketing Institute, who identifies "idea in...
FIR #488: Did a Soda Pop Make AI Slop?
10 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For the second year in a row, Coca-Cola turned to artificial intelligence to produce its global holiday campaign. The new ad replaces people with snow...
FIR #487: Beyond the Churn — Slower Publishing, Deeper Thinking, Better Outcomes
05 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when the AI conversation turns from a quiet side road into a crowded superhighway? Recently, Martin Waxman -- digital strategist and Link...
FIR #486: Measuring Sentiment Won’t Help You Maintain Trust
27 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sentiment analysis has become a default metric for communicators. If sentiment is positive, trust must be high. But if your company's words are diverg...
FIR #485: Is It Time to Stop Trying to “Go Viral”?
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Things change fast in the digital world. On the other hand, business tactics can be slow to adapt. Crafting content with the intent of "going viral" h...
FIR #484: Is Olivia Brown the Tilly Norwood of PR?
13 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hollywood erupted in debate and discourse when a company unveiled a completely AI actress, Tilly Norwood. The public relations industry may be having ...
FIR #483: How Tylenol Handled a High-Profile Falsehood
09 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kenvue's stock tumbled when U.S. President Donald Trump, with Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., standing behind him, decla...
FIR #482: What Will It Take to Stop the Slop?
29 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We've all heard of AI slop by now. "Workslop" is the latest play on that term, referring to low-quality, AI-generated content in the workplace that lo...
FIR #481: The Em Dash Panic — AI, Writing, and Misguided Assumptions
24 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this short midweek episode, Neville and Shel dive into one of the hottest debates in communication today: what happens to tone and authenticity whe...
FIR Interview: Generative Engine Optimisation with Stephanie Grober
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
GEO – generative engine optimisation – is suddenly everywhere. Is it the new SEO, a passing fad, or simply good communication practice in disguise...
FIR #480: Reflections on AI, Ethics, and the Role of Communicators
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this reflective follow-up to our FIR Interview in July with Monsignor Paul Tighe of the Vatican, Neville and guest co-host Silvia Cambié revisit s...
FIR #479: Hacking AI Optimization vs. Doing the Hard Work
01 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Posts and videos featuring Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) hacks and formulas are flooding the web. We reported recently on one such hack focusin...
FIR #478: When Silence Isn’t Golden
25 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For a while, businesses were flexing their social responsibility muscles, weighing in on public policy matters that affected them or their stakeholder...
FIR #477: Deslopifying Wikipedia
18 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
User-generated content is at a turning point. With generative AI models cranking out tons of slop, content repositories are being polluted with low-qu...
FIR #476: Rewiring the Consulting Business for AI
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Swarms of consultants descend on companies that have engaged their firms, racking up billable hours and cranking out PowerPoint presentations that sum...
FIR #475: Algorithms Got You Down? Get Retro with RSS!
04 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It has been 12 years since Google shut down Google Reader, its popular RSS news reader. The rise of social media newsfeeds had rendered RSS useless fo...
FIR Interview: Monsignor Paul Tighe on AI, Ethics, and the Role of Humanity
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
“Artificial intelligence will not save us. But it might help us understand who we are.” – Monsignor Paul Tighe In one of our most thought-provo...
FIR #474: AI is Redefining Public Relations
28 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In multiple ways, Artificial Intelligence is redefining the role of the public relations professional. Some of that change is the result of new tools ...
FIR #473: The Digital Employee Experience is the Message
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It has been more than 60 years since Marshall McLuhan told us that the medium is the message. The decades that have passed since then have done nothin...
FIR #472: The Evolution of Trust
16 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
New research reveals that B2B decision-makers have increasingly recognized the importance of trust. The study also showed that companies that measure ...
FIR #471: Can You Be Influential and Anonymous at the Same Time?
07 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There's a new brand of influencer. Faceless creators wield their influence while never appearing on camera, while VTubers -- virtual YouTubers -- empl...
FIR #470: Creative Commons Proposes an AI Copyright Solution
30 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Copyright challenges and intellectual property issues are consistently recognized as a serious, top-tier concern when it comes to Artificial Intellige...
FIR #469: Is Internal Communication Failing?
23 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A growing body of research suggests employees are more disconnected than ever. What are internal communication teams getting wrong? Also in this long-...
FIR #468: New Threats to Reputation
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
While a company's reputation doesn't appear as a line item on a profit and loss statement or a balance sheet, it is nevertheless a critical intangible...
FIR #467: Mary Meeker’s 2025 AI Trends Report
05 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Pick a superlative, and it probably applies to Mary Meeker, the venture capitalist and former Wall Street securities analyst best known for her annual...
FIR #466: Still Hallucinating After All These Years
26 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Not only are AI chatbots still hallucinating; by some accounts, it's getting worse. Moreover, despite abundant coverage of the tendency of LLMs to mak...
FIR #465: The Trust-News-Video Podcast PR Trifecta
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Seemingly unrelated trends paint a clear picture for PR practitioners accustomed to achieving their goals through press release distribution and media...
FIR #464: Research Finds Disclosing Use of AI Erodes Trust
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Debate continues about when to disclose that you have used AI to create an output. Do you disclose any use at all? Do you confine disclosure to uses o...
FIR #463: Delivering Value with Generative AI’s “Endless Right Answers”
07 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Google's first Chief Decision Scientist, Cassie Kozyrkov, wrote recently that "The biggest challenge of the generative AI age is leaders defining valu...
FIR #462: Cheaters Never Prosper (Unless They’re Paid $5 Million for Their Tool)
28 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A Columbia University student was expelled for developing an AI-driven tool to help applicants to software coding jobs cheat on the tests employers re...
FIR #461: YouTube Trends Toward Virtual Influencers and AI-Generated Videos
24 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Videos from virtual influencers are on the rise, according to a report from YouTube. And AI will play a significant role in the service's offerings, w...
FIR #460: The Return of Toxic Workplaces and the “Big Boss” Era
14 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The tide is turning. For several years, workers have enjoyed a seller's market. Unemployment has been low, and companies have competed for the best em...
FIR #459: AI Transforms Content from Passive to Interactive
09 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson discuss the evolving landscape of podcast consumption, particularly in light of Satya Nadella's innovat...
FIR #458: Preparing Managers to Manage Human-AI Hybrid Teams
03 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The most common refrain we hear about society and the rapid advances in Generative Artificial Intelligence is, "We're not ready." We're not ready for ...
FIR #457: Communicating Tariff Impacts
28 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There are few business leaders who won't need to explain to various stakeholders the impacts of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and the trade wa...
FIR #456: Does AI Put Communication Expertise At Risk?
24 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s not just jobs that AI will affect. It’s the perception that employees have important expertise. After all, if AI can do the work, it&...
FIR #455: Traditional PR is Dead (Again)
17 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the early days of Web 2.0, several pundits told us that traditional PR was dead, especially for startups, where founders would be better served by ...
FIR #454: When the Media Rewards Spectacle Over Substance
10 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At the now-infamous press conference that turned out to be an orchestrated ambush of Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Real American's Voice cor...
FIR #453: Humor Us — How Playful Teasing Strengthens Brand Relationships
04 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It may seem counterintuitive, but playful teasing between brands and customers can produce unexpected benefits. Inspired by research from Duke Univers...
FIR #452: Communicating in Chaos
24 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
“We are once again at a moment in time where things will not — and cannot — be the same again. However it unfolds, the only certainty is cha...
FIR #451: Return-to-Office-Obsessed Execs Are Minimizing the Employee Voice
17 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Leaked audio of Jamie Dimon reveals an executive who has dug in his heels and has no interest in listening to the voice of the employee. In the clip, ...
FIR #450: Senior Leaders Doubt Communicators’ Abilities
13 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Listen to communicators talk about their impact on their organizations and you would be forgiven for thinking that executives find their communication...
FIR #449: Employees’ Use of Shadow AI Surges
06 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Employees everywhere are using AI to save time and be more productive. The thing is, many of them are using tools their employers have not approved an...
FIR #448: Has Night Fallen on Change Management and Enterprise Social Networks?
29 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Change leadership consultant Caroline Kealey thinks change management is dead. Communication leader Sharon O’Dea thinks Enterprise Social Networ...
FIR #447: Decisions, Decisions: The Struggle to Communicate in the Age of Ubiquitous Malignancy
27 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer characterized the current communication environment as one infected by grievance. Another commentator claimed that we...
FIR #446: Navigating Grievance — Insights from the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer
20 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this short midweek episode, Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson unpack the findings of the latest Edelman Trust Barometer, revealing a global crisis of g...
FIR #445: Media Relations in a Turbulent Media Landscape
14 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The media landscape is in turmoil. It may not be exactly the turmoil we hear about, though, based on research release in a new Poynter Institute repor...
FIR #444: Preparing for Trump 2.0
09 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Media outlets around the world -- and in particular in the U.S. -- are strategizing how to cover the incoming Trump Administration. Some are even plan...
FIR #443: From RSS to ChatGPT — FIR’s 20-Year Tech Communications Chronicle
03 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For Immediate Release launched on January 3, 2005. Episode #1 explained what podcasting is, then looked at the role blogs played in the tsunami traged...
FIR #442: Justin Baldoni’s Attack on Blake Lively Explains Why PR is a Dirty Word
26 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Astroturfing, smear campaigns, social media manipulation, unauthorized release of private information, defamation, character assassination, whisper ca...