Flack Pack

Is PR suffering at the hands of the White House communications operation? We explore the issue this week.  We explore a poll done by USC’s Center for Public Relations that asked PR pros whether they thought the actions of the White House comms shop were harming their own credibility as public relations advisors.  The survey presented a popular result, but, based on the people responding, we’ve got our questions about the findings. We interview Fred Cook, Director of USC’s public relations think tank to find out what’s going on, and then we hear from Seth Arenstein, the editor of PR News in Washington, D.C., to get his take on the poll results. Additional Link: PRWeek story about the USC poll

On the Labor Day special edition of Flack Pack, we’re examining the job outlook for flacks. Anthony D’Angelo, APR, Fellow PRSA, 2018 Chair of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), talks about the jobs forecast for PR pros, breaks down the state of each industry sector, and reveals the job he would apply for if he were a college graduate today.  Learn more about Anthony D’Angelo here. Read the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report about America’s PR industry. Looking for a job? Start in the PRSA JobCenter

Wondering why you're not getting returns on your social media efforts? You may need to try harder...or maybe you need to be more patient. Hailley Griffis is the PR Manager at Buffer (and host of The Science of Social Media podcast!), a social media scheduling tool. That basically means she knows all the ins-and-outs about the ever-changing social media landscape. If your social media results aren't what you think they should be, now's a good time to tune into the Flack Pack.

[solidcore] is a hot and rapidly growing boutique fitness company and the Flack Pack got a chance to sit down with founder and CEO Anne Mahlum to chat about the company's evolving PR strategy. [solidcore]'s first studio opened in Washington DC’s Adams Morgan neighborhood in 2013. Since then, it’s expanded into more than 25 cities with plans to expand into at least 12 more—all across the country. How does [solidcore] strategize its communications with all of this growth? Find out in this episode!

Want to hear from the Grammar Girl? This week, we hear from Mignon Fogarty, Wonder Woman of words, to talk about her award-winning podcast, the importance of grammar in PR and the kinds of mistakes she most often sees.   You can subscribe to her podcast, _Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. _Fun Fact: Mignon has released more than 630 episodes since the podcast was born.

This week we're talking truth to PR people who manage media for corporations with a veteran business reporter and columnist for The Washington Post. He thinks business reporting is dead. LINKS: 'No comment': The death of business reporting, The Washington Post

How can you get creative with PR and podcasting? Ask Mac Rogers, a playwright who put together fiction podcasts for GE. For this week’s Flack Pack episode, we sat down with him in Philadelphia during Podcast Movement 18 to talk about his history with them, tips for getting started and why they can be so effective. Mac's two GE podcasts: The Message and LifeAfter. LINKS: http://www.macrogers.org https://www.gideon-media.com Mac's Twitter: @macwrites

News releases have been a staple of public relations for ages. How important are they today? On Flack Pack episode 13, we hear from Lachlan Markay, a White House correspondent for The Daily Beast, about his take on news releases and what makes them good or bad.

How have journalists’ jobs over the past couple of decades? On this week's Flack Pack, Washington Media Group's founder and chairman, Greg Vistica, sat down with old friend and retired journo, Jerry Ceppos, to talk about the evolving nature of journalism and his transition to educating the next generation of comms professionals.

The changing media landscape has led to the need for communications strategists to get more creative in delivering their message to their audience. On this week's episode, we talked to an expert about it. Robert Bluey, VP of Comms. at The Heritage Foundation and editor-in-chief of the think tank's news organization, The Daily Signal, discussed the changing identity of media and why creating your own content is so valuable.

Did you know there's a public relations museum in New York City? We took a trip to the Big Apple to speak with Shelley Spector, the museum's founder, about its backstory, collection and plans for the future. Listen up to hear all about PR history — and how the museum is preserving and sharing it.

It's Father's Day Weekend, so we'll be talking about the Father of Public Relations! Lucas Held and Shelley Spector join us to talk about the life and legacy of Edward L. Bernays. You should listen up because Lucas Held is the grandson of Edward Bernays and Shelley Spector was Bernays' longtime colleague and friend. Both of them have a lot of memories to share with us.

You hear it all the time—we're in an increasingly globalized economy. But what does that mean for public relations? Whether you're in government, a nonprofit, a global corporation, or trying to enter a new market, you'll want to hear Flack Packer Crystal Zhao interview Priya Doshi. Priya Doshi has 20 years of international strategic communications experience. She's created and implemented strategies for a number of governments and nonprofits including the Swiss and British Embassies and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She's currently a professor at the American University School of Communication.

The 2018 AP Stylebook is out and we've got the scoop on the changes every writer needs to know. We break it down with Rob Reinalda, executive editor of Ragan Communications, publishers of Ragan.com and PR Daily, and Alysha Love, a former digital journalist and editor for CNN and Politico, now with her own business, Payette Media House, in Boise, Idaho.

This is a special edition of Flack Pack featuring Gregory Vistica, former investigative journalist, author, and CEO of Washington Media Group. He joins Flack Packer Summer Johnson today to talk about Michael Wolff and Wolff's book, "Fire and Fury." Before creating Washington Media Group, Gregory Vistica was a noted investigative journalist for Newsweek, 60 Minutes II, The New York Times Magazine and The Washington Post. He is also the recipient of the George Polk Award, a Peabody and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, among other awards and recognitions. Mr. Vistica also wrote the books, “The Education of Lieutenant Kerrey,” a book about Senator Bob Kerrey and Vietnam, and “Fall From Glory: The Men Who Sank the U.S. Navy,” a contemporary history based on his breaking the Tailhook scandal.

This week, Flack Packer Robert Johnson hosts a roundtable with bright public relations students from American University. Four of the best gathered around a table during finals week—talking shop, solving problems, and making a pitch for a job in this crazy business of ours.

Author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR, David Meerman Scott, joins us today to talk to us about just that—the new rules of marketing and PR.

Podcasting guru Rob Walch—also the VP of Podcaster Relations at Libsyn—wants to know if podcasts are on your client’s media pitch list. He says they should be.

American University School of Communication Professor Pallavi Kumar reveals what the industry should expect from this year’s class of young PR pros.

Welcome to Washington's official public relations podcast! We will be dropping an episode every Friday about public relations strategies, crisis management, and more.