With numerous competing business priorities demanding attention, and government policy decisions often pushing sustainability to the back of the agenda, organizational communication professionals play a critical role in keeping sustainability front and center. We are uniquely positioned to connect sustainability to the organization’s purpose, values, and long-term success, ensuring it is viewed not as an isolated initiative but as an integral part of the company’s identity. Through strategic mes...
Aug 21, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 119
User-generated content is at a turning point. With generative AI models cranking out tons of slop, content repositories are being polluted with low-quality, often useless material. No website is more vulnerable than Wikipedia, the open-source reference site populated entirely with articles created (and revised) by users. How Wikipedia is handling the issue — in light of its strict governance policies — is worth watching, especially for organizations that also rely on user-generated content. Link...
Aug 18, 2025•21 min•Ep. 477
Swarms of consultants descend on companies that have engaged their firms, racking up billable hours and cranking out PowerPoint presentations that summarize the data they’ve analyzed. That business model is at risk, given the amount of that work that AI can now handle. Recognizing the threat, some consulting firms are actively reengineering their businesses, with McKinsey out in front. In this short midweek episode, Shel and Neville review the actions of several firms and agencies, and discuss w...
Aug 12, 2025•24 min•Ep. 476
In this episode, Chip and Gini explore the impact of AI on client expectations. They discuss how AI is perceived to speed up work, leading clients to have unrealistic expectations regarding turnaround times and pricing. The duo emphasizes the need for agencies to set realistic boundaries and manage expectations from the outset. They share stories about AI’s inconsistency, particularly in generating imagery and written content, and stress the importance of educating clients on the limitations and...
Aug 11, 2025•20 min
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 for many people, and declining usage led Google to sunset it. But RSS feeds never went away. Many websites still make them available; they’re baked into most blogging utilities; and podcasting relies heavily on RSS feeds for distribution of audio and video files. As algorithms determine what you see in social networks, and newsletter subscriptions re...
Aug 04, 2025•20 min•Ep. 475
In this episode, Chip and Gini focus on the issue of employees over-servicing clients. They discuss the reasons behind over-servicing, including fear of client dissatisfaction and insufficient initial project scopes. The hosts emphasize the importance of educating employees on the long-term negative impacts, both on agency profitability and client relationships. They advocate for involving employees in strategic planning and scoping processes to ensure accurate budgeting and foster accountabilit...
Aug 04, 2025•18 min
In this episode, host Chip speaks with Emily Allard, the founder of 24 Sports Marketing. Emily shares her journey from being a professional softball player to starting her own sports marketing agency focused on women’s athletics. She discusses the challenges and opportunities in promoting women’s sports, emphasizing the importance of storytelling and education in digital marketing. They also delve into the growth of women’s sports, the impact of key personalities, and the need for strategic and ...
Jul 30, 2025•27 min
“Artificial intelligence will not save us. But it might help us understand who we are.” – Monsignor Paul Tighe In one of our most thought-provoking FIR Interviews to date, we speak with Monsignor Paul Tighe , Secretary of the Section of Culture of the Dicastery for Culture and Education at The Vatican, about the ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence and the role of the Church in shaping global conversations around technology. As AI continues its rapid development and deployment across al...
Jul 29, 2025•43 min
In multiple ways, Artificial Intelligence is redefining the role of the public relations professional. Some of that change is the result of new tools that automate processes that once consumed copious amounts of time. One such tool reviews services that solicit expert commentary at journalists’ requests, then crafts responses. The marketing of this tool, dubbed Synapse by its Lithuanian founders, has sparked a considerable amount of controversy over ethical considerations. Neville and Shel discu...
Jul 28, 2025•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 474
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 nothing to diminish the truth of McLuhan’s prescient statement. For today’s employees, the medium for most information is the digital interfaces the company provides. There’s an interface for the intranet, for email, for internal social networking and collaboration, for emergency alerts, for calendaring, and for all manner of resources employees need to ...
Jul 22, 2025•17 min•Ep. 473
In this episode, Chip and Gini discuss the importance of having a clear vision for where an agency is headed while also acknowledging the need for strong operational skills. Continue Reading → The post ALP 277: You don’t need to be a visionary, but it helps to have a vision for your agency appeared first on FIR Podcast Network ....
Jul 21, 2025•19 min
Communication leadership takes many forms, each requiring its own set of skills and vision. At its core, it involves leading a communication team—setting direction, fostering talent, and ensuring excellence in execution. On a broader scale, communication leaders play a critical role in guiding the entire organization’s messaging, advising executives, and shaping the narrative both internally and externally. Beyond the organization, communication professionals often step into industry leadership,...
Jul 18, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 118
New research reveals that B2B decision-makers have increasingly recognized the importance of trust. The study also showed that companies that measure trust as a board-level KPI are over three times more likely to report more substantial profits than those that don’t, yet only 22% of companies state that trust is a board-level KPI. In this brief midweek episode, Neville and Shel analyze the data and explore opportunities for communicators to enhance organizational trust. Continue Reading → The po...
Jul 16, 2025•16 min•Ep. 472
In this episode, Chip and Gini discuss the frequent occurrence of receiving offers to buy agencies and how to handle these communications. Continue Reading → The post ALP 276: How to handle unsolicited agency acquisition emails appeared first on FIR Podcast Network ....
Jul 14, 2025•22 min
There's a new brand of influencer. Faceless creators wield their influence while never appearing on camera, while VTubers -- virtual YouTubers -- employ AI-generated avatars instead of showing their faces. This is no flash-in-the-pan trend. One network of faceless creators grew from 5,000 to 21,000 creators in just three months, with some raking in as much as $40,000 per month from brands eager to add their content to the mix. There are numerous reasons this shift is happening, from social netwo...
Jul 07, 2025•15 min•Ep. 431
How do we prove the real value of communication in an age of fragmented media, AI-driven analysis, and relentless demand for results? In this episode of FIR Interviews, we talk with Richard Bagnall, chair of AMEC, the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication, and a global authority on comms measurement, about the newly released Barcelona Principles 4.0 – the most comprehensive update yet to the world’s leading framework for communication neasurement and evalu...
Jul 02, 2025•47 min
Copyright challenges and intellectual property issues are consistently recognized as a serious, top-tier concern when it comes to Artificial Intelligence (AI). It may not be the top concern — that's usually related to fake news and the trustworthiness of content, followed by privacy concerns — but many creators are upset and worried about the integrity of their work when it's used as fodder for new training models. The courts will inevitably weigh in — in fact, one already has, with a federal co...
Jun 30, 2025•13 min•Ep. 470
In this episode, Chip and Gini discuss the challenges of dealing with team members who may not be enthusiastic about the clients or the work your agency is doing. Continue Reading → The post ALP 275: How to handle your team when they don’t love your clients appeared first on FIR Podcast Network ....
Jun 30, 2025•18 min
In this episode, Chip and Gini discuss how agency owners should handle situations when an employee resigns. Continue Reading → The post ALP 274: Turning employee departures into opportunities appeared first on FIR Podcast Network ....
Jun 23, 2025•19 min
A growing body of research suggests employees are more disconnected than ever. What are internal communication teams getting wrong? Also in this long-form monthly episode for June 2025: Buzzstream interviewed over 150 digital PR pros to assess the state of digital PR. It looks a lot like it did five years ago. Social media has overtaken television as Americans' primary source of news. Chief Communication Officers are in a precarious position, expected to anticipate and address political and soci...
Jun 23, 2025•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 469
In this episode, Chip speaks with Ken Jacobs, principal of Jacobs Consulting and Executive Coaching, about providing constructive feedback to team members. Continue Reading → The post CWC 111: Providing your team with constructive feedback (featuring Ken Jacobs) appeared first on FIR Podcast Network ....
Jun 18, 2025•32 min
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 asset that significantly influences financial performance and long-term success. A strong positive reputation fosters trust among consumers and B2B customers, leading to increased customer loyalty, premium pricing power, and greater resilience in times of crisis. It also makes the company more attractive to top talent, reducing recruitment costs a...
Jun 17, 2025•25 min•Ep. 467
In this episode, Chip and Gini highlight the challenges and potential pitfalls of over-relying on AI for content creation in PR and marketing. Continue Reading → The post ALP 273: Ensuring AI is an asset — not a liability — for your agency appeared first on FIR Podcast Network ....
Jun 16, 2025•19 min
Episode 117 is the first-ever live webcast of the monthly IABC Circle of Fellows. IABC Fellows Shel Holtz and Brad Whitworth moderated the session, an interactive conversation with a panel of nearly a dozen Fellows from around the globe, including members of the 2025 Class of Fellows . The discussion was wide-ranging, covering topics including top communication challenges for the rest of the 20202s, AI, disinformation, and much more. The Fellows panel – collectively representing hundreds of year...
Jun 12, 2025•59 min•Ep. 117
In this episode of FIR Interviews, we welcome back a long-time friend of the podcast, award-winning journalist and media researcher Craig Silverman, for his third appearance – this time to talk about his new venture, Indicator . Craig is best known for his work on media accuracy, verification, and exposing digital misinformation, including reporting at ProPublica and BuzzFeed News, and as founder and editor of "Regret The Error" and its subsequent book. Now, with co-founder Alexios Mantzarlis, h...
Jun 11, 2025•45 min
In this episode, Chip and Gini delve into the challenge of agencies being brought in late on client projects. Continue Reading → The post ALP 272: Why agencies get brought in too late by clients — and what to do about it appeared first on FIR Podcast Network ....
Jun 09, 2025•19 min
Pick a superlative, and it probably applies to Mary Meeker, the venture capitalist and former Wall Street securities analyst best known for her annual Internet Trends Reports. These reports, released in the form of presentation decks, were the culmination of deep research Meeker conducted. Her last report was published June 12, 2019 at Recode's Code Conference, but she just released a new one dedicated entirely to AI. With credibility as strong as hers, it's likely that this report will become t...
Jun 05, 2025•25 min•Ep. 467
Not only are AI chatbots still hallucinating; by some accounts, it's getting worse. Moreover, despite abundant coverage of the tendency of LLMs to make stuff up, people are still not fact-checking, leading to some embarrassing consequences. Even the legal team from Anthropic (the company behind the Claude frontier LLM) got caught. Also in this episode: Google has a new tool just for making AI videos with sound: what could possibly go wrong? Lack of strategic leadership and failure to communicate...
May 26, 2025•1 hr 44 min•Ep. 466
One of many career paths in the field of professional communication leads to colleges and universities: It is not uncommon for communication practitioners to move from the conference room to the classroom, where they help mold the next generation of communicators. All of the panelists participating in episode 116 of “Circle of Fellows” have chosen that path and will discuss the various dimensions of teaching — including making the transition from the business world to the hallowed halls of acade...
May 24, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 116
Seemingly unrelated trends paint a clear picture for PR practitioners accustomed to achieving their goals through press release distribution and media pitching. The trends: People trust each other less than ever; people define what news is based on its impact on them, becoming their own gatekeepers; and video podcasts have become so popular that media outlets are including them in their upfronts. In this short midweek FIR episode, Neville and Shel find the common thread among these trends and ou...
May 21, 2025•26 min•Ep. 465
