Stories by Justin Joffe

A beach-ready bike safety campaign. A long-term commitment to Puerto Rico’s hurricane relief. A virtual reality experience to curb binge drinking. These are just a few of the campaigns championed by the finalists at PR News’ CSR awards, an elite group of brands that have spearheaded highly successful CSR campaigns and initiatives over the last year. PR News’ 2019 CSR winners will be celebrated at a luncheon ceremony on March 15 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

A map of arts organizations of color. An empowerment initiative for female rabbis. A social-led effort to curb teen bullying.mThese are just a few of the campaigns championed by the finalists at PR News’ nonprofit awards, an elite group of brands that have spearheaded highly successful nonprofit campaigns and initiatives over the last year. PR News’ 2019 Nonprofit winners will be celebrated at a luncheon ceremony on March 15 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Ahead of its Q4 earnings call (after markets close on Wednesday, January 30), Facebook seems to be making more news than ever. Communicators will do well to keep abreast of these announcements, as they signal a greater push toward repairing user trust on the platform.

Each year, PR News recognizes outstanding female communications leaders at its Top Women in PR luncheon. The 2019 event, at the Grand Hyatt in New York City on Jan. 25, saw nearly 300 top female communicators celebrate the 2018 accomplishments of their colleagues and friends.

Maintaining valid influencer relationships for your brand will only continue to be a crucial media relations strategy in 2019. But in this time of bots and paid followers on social, what’s the best way to make sure those relationships are on the level? How do you know you’re working with an influencer whose digital persona, and engaged followers, are legit?

We asked some influencer marketing experts to find out.

This week Gillette launched “We Believe,” a timely screed against toxic masculinity that updates its decades-old tagline to “The Best Men Can Be.” Its former tagline is reframed as a question: “Is this the best a man can get?” With more than 4 million views already, the ad has audiences divided on whether or not the campaign is a genuine push for social good, an opportunistic rebranding, or both.

Here at PR News, media relations is a daily focus. It’s not just one of the key beats that we report on and  program events around—our media relations content also provides an opportunity for the rare conversation between editorial and comms, two different sides of the same media coin. That’s why we host our annual Media Relations Conference in D.C. every December. Here are some of the key takeaway’s from last month’s show at the historic National Press Club.

While it’s tempting to call 2019 the year of trust, we’ll have to wait and see. Still, those who make sure that trust and transparency is at the core of their brand identity will likely see many happy returns. To that end, Google started the year off by announcing two features—one that just launched and one that’s rolling out in July—intended to help repair trust and improve the experience for end users. As it turns out, they’re both tremendously valuable tools for communicators, too.

Here are some of the tools that communicators will be speaking about at our Crisis Management Summit, Feb. 27-28 at the Eden Roc on Miami Beach

Here are 10 terms that can make communicators sound smart when discussing how using a cryptocurrency might help their businesses.