Sponsored Take of the Week:
Once again, there is another another Sponsored Take of the Week through TWiPRT’s partnership with Meredith and the Media. Dustin Siggins from Proven Media Solutions put together a great take that arms comms pros with real data to say “no” to AI-generated content and why the C-suite should want real takes from real people.

His take is based on the new PAN study that showed how AI is tanking consumer trust in brands, and of course there’s more. Dustin puts it best himself, “And if the C-Suite continues to say, “well, AI can do that!” - remind them what PAN proved: a “better AI” will only let you tread water in the sea of sameness. Real people with real voices are piloting your rescue helicopter.”

I highly recommend clicking here for a bit to give this a read (and then come back to get the rest of the takes!).

Resource of the Week:
For those in Health/Health Tech, Ruth Reader put out a call for what types of stories Second Opinion readers want to read

The Rest of the Takes:
AI
- I have noticed a downtick in AI / PR takes among our community, and the WSJ’s Christopher Mims takes it a level further to say that “Readers are over it, at least for now.”
- We have talked a lot about what I can do, but Stephanie had a great take on what it cannot do for PR pros.

PR Misc.
- Kimeko provided a great reminder on what off the record, on background, on the record and embargoed all mean.
- Jennifer asked if we should rename “communications” to something else
- Danny Groner is known for deep, insightful takes, including this latest one about a recent PR event that did not surprise him, but was still disappointing.
- Kristen wrote a great take on the importance of….newsletters! I may be biased, but I 100% agree with this. I am sure I’ll write a Take of the Week soon on this topic, it’s something I deeply believe in for the future of PR/Comms.
-Ash and Lizzy wrote about why narrative matters over numbers in a funding announcement.

Media relations:
- Getting reporters to respond to pitchers is one thing, but Jodi dives into how PR people can become sources that reporters go to when they need help.
- Megan wrote about why we should respond when a reporter says “no”
- I would think this is common sense that we cannot have a new source added to a story once it’s published, but just in case - check out Sophie’s take on the topic.

That’s it for this week’s takes, thanks for reading.

-Brian
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bkramer/