Stories by Seth Arenstein

PRNEWS has learned exclusively that APCO Worldwide will announce Monday that Arthur W. Page Society chair Charlene Wheeless will join its International Advisory Council as a senior counselor. The veteran communicator most recently was principal VP of global corporate affairs for Bechtel Corporation.

There’s a lot to like about today’s announcement of the NY CEO Jobs Council. Its initial goals of hiring 100,00 diverse workers by 2030 are worthy and the cache of member-CEOs seems untouchable. The question some critics ask is what are the Council’s plans for encouraging diverse workers to remain and rise beyond low-level positions?

PR pros know it’s a best practice to constantly monitor social and traditional media during a PR crisis. With the pandemic producing a flood of constantly changing news, communicators are wise to monitor constantly. Quick-changing stories this week seem to provide examples of the importance of 24/7 vigilance.

Everybody likes to take shots at government and social media. They’re easy targets at the moment. Still, when Hurricane Isaias headed toward the US east coast this weekend, government departments took to social to provide top-notch emergency information. We take a look at a few examples.

It’s the White House calling. Your expertise in strategic communication is needed. They want you to rush over right away. The question on the table is one you’ve handled many times before with CEOs and other C-suite members: What do you advise when the CEO’s 1:1 interviews are a disaster? Should the CEO continue to do interviews?

Each August, PRNEWS celebrates the opening of universities and colleges. We continue that tradition despite pandemic-fueled uncertainty surrounding the status of the first semester. As a result, you might have expected US colleges to reduce their social content. In fact, Shareablee data shows schools bolstered their Instagram posting 8 percent vs the same period last year.

Our latest survey of PR pros found them working harder than before the pandemic, but for a reason that left them thinking the future looks bright. In addition, more than 80 percent of survey respondents said the industry will rebound to its pre-pandemic size and that PR’s prestige has risen during the past five months. The pandemic has illustrated that businesses need strategic communication, respondents said.

As part of our pandemic interview series with new executives, we spoke with Elana Gold, the new chief marketer at Del Monte Fresh Produce. Hired during the pandemic, Gold discussed keeping customers at the apex of marketing during the pandemic as conditions change constantly and remote working is the norm.

When your brand is built on being kind, it’s important to actually be kind. Ellen DeGeneres is learning this lesson the hard way. Staff have come forward to claim the culture at her eponymous talk show is anything but kind. In a letter dangerously close to a non-apology apology, Ellen says she’s committed to fixing what ails her staff, though she offers few details. Time will tell if this PR crisis has caused significant damage to her kind reputation.

For many, it’s difficult living through an economic downturn. No doubt, times are hard, but there are signs that despite the chaos, some communication and marketing executives continue to look ahead with a positive attitude. We bring you several examples of PR and media pros who are confounding the naysayers and establishing new businesses in the midst of the pandemic and its economic morass.