21,345 founders and comms leaders start their weekend with The Colab Brief.
Join them to receive weekly insights into the media, communications, and PR industry, written by journalists themselves.

📬 In this Edition

With the noise floor higher than it’s ever been in media, it’s always made sense that publicity-minded CEOs would vie for all the attention they could get. At least it did, before the administration started targeting its critics in unprecedented ways. Thus, a major chunk of the noise floor has been squelched—or as the headline of an outstanding new Business Insider piece puts it, “Welcome to the Great Silencing.”

The BI piece describes the simple calculus that operates on a level unfit with  American free speech. It cites PR pros who said that “CEOs are declining press and other speaking opportunities, even on seemingly benign topics, for fear of irking the White House and beyond.”

"They're afraid of getting flagged or on a list that would imply they shouldn't be engaged by the government," Marin Richardson, CEO of Disrupt PR in Austin, told BI. "It's just such a polarizing climate."

She’s not being hypothetical. Two of Richardson’s clients have turned down interview offers with major media outlets in recent weeks, though one of the opps was somewhat politically sensitive.

It’s no wonder why the silence. The FCC convinced Disney /ABC to toss Jimmy Kimmel off the air for several days, while the president has gone after billionaire George Soros and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. 

Like it or loathe it, this is the reality we live in, made all the more complicated by media outlets from The New York Times and CBS failing to take a tough stand or do their job.

So it seems the CEOs of media properties are afraid to talk, too.

Here’s my take as a longtime reporter and editor: It’s easy to say CEOs shouldn’t be afraid and just shake it off. But they have every good reason to be gun-shy. They’re put in place to grow the bottom line of their companies first and foremost. If opening one’s mouth, even in a benign way, causes a dent in reputation or triggers a boycott, then the obvious and even prudent strategy is to stay on the sidelines and wait until cooler heads prevail. 

If they ever do. 

But wait: Can’t you have that cooler head? As nature, news and content websites abhor a vacuum, I’d suggest that creative PRs talk their high-level clients back down to earth and strategize them into bylines, headlines and deadlines. 

A few thoughts here:

Coach your clients. A big part of the PR pro’s work, even in the best of times, is to help clients express themselves as clear and amiable when they’re in front of the press. Tell them that they don’t have to address any question that makes them feel uncomfortable.

“Stay in your lane” of expertise. That’s the phrase used in the BI piece by Gary Rich, founder of leadership-coaching firm Rich Leadership in New York. Makes sense, right? Even at parties, we all get in trouble spouting opinions about things we really don’t know much about—and it only gets worse when we think we do. 

Meet the moment—with positivity. Messages of civility, conversation and hope are sadly absent in today’s landscape. It feels odd to say that even this tack has its risks, but if your client wants to be the one who says, “We’re all in this together: Let’s talk this out and lift each other up,” she’s likely going to have the stage all to herself. 

Backlashes against sincere words of encouragement that point the way forward do exist in some dark corners of America but they’re very rare. Encourage your CEO or exec client to be the adult in the room. It should only take one quick review of their own career path for them to realize that career success stemmed from a thoughtful balance of risk and reward. 

And where others have been overly cautious, there’s a risk there, too: They’ll forfeit easy opportunities for exposure to people with enough courage and creativity to sidestep the fear. 

Meanwhile, here’s hoping that the news outlets you’ll pitch that deal in hard news will be able to do the same. Bad press? White House attacks? Boycotts? All possible. But it was another president in a time of crisis who declared that we only thing to fear is fear itself. 

Or, as the indominable Dan Rather would end his CBS newscasts, “Courage.” 

I get dozens of pitches a week about Gen Z, and at both ADWEEK and Mashable, I received hundreds. In my experience, the Gen Z angle is an easy/trendy way to get coverage—and brands cling to their so-called Gen Z identity to stay relevant and in the news. And I get it: Stories with “Gen Z” in the headline get clicks. Hot newsletters often aggregate them. 

But not every trend is a Gen Z trend, nor is every brand for Gen Z. 

If you’re pitching a Gen Z story, you need to prove otherwise. The trend or brand can’t just be Gen Z because it taps into the Gen Z value of “authenticity”—seriously, find another buzzword. 

Want to prove it to me? Show me the data! Show me that whatever you’re pitching actually resonates with Gen Z and doesn’t merely relate to a TikTok trend. I love it when a brand conducts its own research and can present me with the data or insights that demonstrate how whatever they’re doing targets Gen Z.

Two articles jumped out at me this week: One from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) about AI and news, and one from Axios about who audiences trust when companies speak.

The AI comfort gap

RISJ’s new report on generative AI and news has one really important stat: only 12% of people are comfortable with stories written entirely by AI.

This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise—readers want to feel like there’s human judgment behind the words. That includes journalists and the comms pitches we receive, which in many ways contain the same elements of a news report: facts, quotes, framing, and, ideally, a bit of discernment.

Since the arrival of ChatGPT, however, there’s been a steady creep of PR emails unmistakably written by AI. They’re technically fine, but feel sort of sanded down or over-polished. The texture’s gone. And with it, the sense that a person actually thought about what’s being communicated.

If journalism now has to prove the human in the process – which it definitely does – PR should, too. A comms audience might be smaller than a reporter’s readership, but the credibility stakes are the same. AI is a great time-saver but if you want to keep journalists like me interested, don’t have machines do all the work. 

When the CEO should speak

Axios reported last week that in a crisis, people want to hear from the CEO – not a brand account, not a media representative, not corporate comms. An actual individual with a name and a stake in the outcome. Only 8% of those surveyed said they trust a company spokesperson most, compared with 22% who put their confidence in the chief executive.

Makes sense to me. The brands that handle crises best aren’t necessarily the ones with perfect statements. Rather, someone senior is visible, accountable and human. A leader who talks like a person will do more to protect a reputation than a dozen sanitized lines approved by legal.

I can see why that might be uncomfortable for comms teams. It means coaching the boardroom to speak like themselves and being okay with a little imperfection. But the survey confirms what most journalists already know: Audiences don’t want polish, they want sincerity.

I was trained as a reporter to read fast, think fast and separate what matters from what doesn’t in a second. That instinct never really goes away, which is why a subject line has very little time to earn my attention.

Most don’t. My inbox is full of emails headed “Press Release,” or “New Partnership,” or “Update.” The story might be solid. But by announcing themselves like administrative memos, the emails have already lost me.

Part of this may stem from the fact that I’m now a features writer rather than a news journalist. An intriguing angle is far more likely to draw me in than an announcement. Which is why, in my case, the subject line should serve as a headline to one reader—me. It should signal story, not process. “Net zero food waste start-up raises $10 million” tells me what happened; “Turning potato peels into clean power has become a major investment opportunity” gives me the shape of a narrative.

A good hook does three things fast: It shows scale, it hints at tension or change, and it feels written by a human who wants the story to be read. Hyperbole is fine if it’s earned; enthusiasm beats caution every time, especially when there’s a quote or report to back it up. But fabrication is, of course, a no-go.

You must also consider your audience. You might not have time to personalize every press release. I get that. But a little tailoring pays off. If you know a journalist likes to humanize tech stories, then put a person in the hook. It sounds obvious, but you’d be amazed at how many emails fall flat because they forget there’s an actual reader at the other end.

Ultimately, a subject line’s job isn’t to sell. It’s to make me pause mid-scroll and think: There’s a story here

It’s a fair question, even if it sounds opportunistic: Does the often slow season between Thanksgiving and Christmas give PR pros an opportunity to gain a journalist’s attention? Unless you’re dealing with reporters who work at the mercy of breaking news, the holidays could indeed open doors for you. But keep in mind that while timing is one thing, it’s also high season for the human touch.  

Here are five ways to get the positive attention of a media professional – and pitfalls to avoid– in the month between Nov. 27 (Thanksgiving) and Jan. 1 (New Year’s Day):

1) Honor the season by making it personal. Why not reach out just to send well wishes or touch base personally? Avoid anything generic—and wherever possible, honor the reporter as a person first. Mention the names of their kids, pets and spouse. If you don’t know them that well, mention recent articles they’ve done and why they’re resonating with you. Then…

2) After getting personal, ask permission to pitch. For example: “If it’s OK, I’d like to send along xxxxx.” Otherwise, you’ll render everything you’ve just done to make things warm and fuzzy as the PR equivalent of a ruse to sell stale holiday fruitcake.

3) Know that it’s slow and show up to help. Think like a reporter, always. Sources are scarce during the holidays, so offer to lend a hand. Even if this occasionally means stretching beyond the story you’re trying to land by making a call or two on their behalf, remember the long game: creating a relationship where your pitches will be read first.    

4) Show up and/or give. So what smacks of zero thought? Sending a generic holiday card, which hits the trash can with an eye roll in half a sec. Instead, show up (if distance permits) at a holiday party where you know your fave journalists might hang. And/or, send a gift card for coffee or e-commerce, hard for any scribe to ignore this time of year.  

5) Do your holiday homework. In this age of AI-powered search engines, it takes seconds to figure out what a reporter has just published. So if you’d rather cut to the chase of the pitch, do so knowing that this season, being slower than most, is an ideal time to be seen and heard as you target for effectiveness. 

Though if the reporter is off for an extended vacation of their own, that’s a different story. 

Want your pitch analyzed by a real, top-tier journalist? Submit your pitch at the form below, and we’ll pick one or two weekly for our writers to assess. 

— > Submit your pitch < —-

On a high level, my feedback for this pitch is as follows: Keep it casual, keep it brief and put exactly what you’re pitching up top.

As the pitch is written, the reporter has to slog through lots of information before getting to the pitch (coverage of [company name]’s Series A final closeout and a company profile). I’d move that information up to the second paragraph and add who at [company name] is available for an interview.

Once you make the story pitch clear, I’d like to read some brief background on [company name] and what makes the company newsworthy. And when I say brief, I’m talking a couple of sentences about the company and a sentence about each founder (the latter part broken up by bullet points for easy scanning). Then offer to provide more information or to hop on a call, assuming the reporter is actually interested in coverage. 

I also might suggest pitching this story to Rebecca first, since she previously covered the company at the publication and likely is already familiar with [company name]. 

Grade: C+

⛔ The PR Blacklist: What journalists don’t want pitched this week.

Please stop with the awful AI headlines.

AI has a headline problem. More to the point: PR professionals have an AI headline problem, and so do the journalists getting pitched AI-centered stories. The problem? Headlines covering AI stories are usually boring, pedantic, or relatable – sometimes all three. It’s a shame, because sometimes the story past the headline is fascinating. 

It’s time to stop focusing on what the AI has learned to do, or how it learned to do it, or how proficient it has become. The AI isn’t actually the star of the show here. The star is the reader. So, when crafting a headline around an AI-related story, ask yourself: What does the end-user get? How is someone’s life made easier or enriched by what this AI can do? How can I paint a picture of a blissful, utopian existence, made possible by this AI development? 

Not to worry, the headline doctor is: IN

Bad: Lucinity Secures Patent for Federated Learning AI, Enabling Secure Data Sharing

HEY! WAKE UP! Yeah, I don’t blame you for falling asleep during that one. “Enabling secure data sharing” is about as interesting as plain Cheerios for breakfast. 

Good: Your Bank Just Got Smarter: New AI Tech Fights Crime While Keeping Your Data Private

We just made AI sound like Batman, and you’re totally reading that pitch/story. 

Who's going where and why it matters. Not just job shifts - power dynamics, layoffs, and who's headed out. 

🧳 Matthew Garrahan departed from the Financial Times after nearly 30 years, where he was head of digital platforms and strategy, to join Redbird Capital Partners as operating partner for news and entertainment, based in London.

🧳 Korie Dean departed from The News & Observer to join The Assembly NC as higher education reporter covering North Carolina.

🧳 Todd Wallack joined The Washington Post from WBUR as education accountability reporter on the National Desk.

🧳 Lauren Lumpkin moved within The Washington Post to the National Desk as K-12 reporter.

🧳 Laura Meckler was promoted at The Washington Post to senior national education writer.

🧳 Collin Campbell departed from NPR as podcasting strategy chief to join Apple.

🧳 Adam Rubenstein joined The Free Press as deputy editor; previously edited at The New York Times.

🧳 Mike Butcher soft-launched Pathfounders, a new independent tech media brand on startups and VC; previously at TechCrunch.

🧳 Michael Calderone joined TheWrap as media editor, overseeing industry coverage and “The Media Front” column; previously at Vanity Fair and Politico.

🧳 Corbin Bolies joined TheWrap as media reporter.

🧳 Booth Moore joined TheWrap as fashion journalist.

🧳 Tom Lowry joined TheWrap earlier this year as SVP for editorial strategy.

🧳 Rachel Tashjian joined CNN as senior style reporter based in New York, reporting on fashion and cultural shifts; previously fashion critic at The Washington Post.

🧳 Catherine Rampell will join The Bulwark as economics editor next month; currently on maternity leave and co-hosting The Weekend Prime.

Something else on your mind? Say hello. 

Software was supposed to make work easier. Instead, most teams are buried under it.

That’s SaaD – Software as a Disservice. Dozens of disconnected tools waste time, duplicate work, and inflate costs.

Rippling changes the story. By unifying HR, IT, and Finance on one platform, Rippling eliminates silos and manual busywork.

Companies like Cursor, Clay, and Sierra have already left outdated ways of working behind – gaining clarity, speed, and control.

Don’t get SaaD. Get Rippling.

Is SaaD hurting you?

Like The Colab Brief?