The Public Relations Podcast

Launching a company from stealth sounds exciting. In reality, it’s usually messy, rushed, and full of competing voices. In this episode, Richard Midson is joined by  Andrew Healey from Water & Wall (New York)  to unpack a real fintech launch that had  everything happening at once : a new company reveal, a multi-million dollar seed round, strategic partners, and multiple stakeholders who all ne...

Most AI conversations in PR are theoretical. They talk about where things are going and what you might need to prepare for. This conversation is about what is happening in AI today and how to use it today.  In this episode of  The Public Relations Podcast , I speak with  Ben Jacobson  from  Inbound Junction. Ben talks us through how he is approaching a current B2B tech campaign and explains how PR...

There is a growing gap between what people think PR jobs need and what agencies and in-house comms teams actually hire for. In this episode, I pause the usual interview format to share some early findings from the research behind our sister show  Getting a Job in PR . Based on conversations with agency owners and comms leaders, this episode breaks down the small but decisive things that make candi...

Most PR and comms teams say they are “data-driven” Very few actually are. In this episode, Richard Midon is joined by Komal Lath from Tute Consult in Mumbai to talk through how PR work changes when you stop relying purely on instinct and start using real audience data to shape campaigns. Komal shares details of a recent cosmetics brand refresh campaign she worked on in which one national message w...

Most PR teams have faced this problem. You have a smart client, they know their audience, they want to target that audience directly and rightly so, but the trades just aren't biting at the moment, distracted by other things. What do you do? In this episode, Amanda Proscia from Lightspeed PR explains how her team broke that deadlock and turned a niche brief into hundreds of national and global...

PR is changing, and you can see it in the news stories. Cut through the staggering amount of noise in the marketing and PR space and you start to spot a few items that show a genuine shift in the way things are happening. Things that will impact PR and strategic communications in the future. I read a lot of newsletters, and as I say, there is a lot of noise. But I picked out four stories that seem...

NOTE: This was recorded in late October 2025 AI is already inside the tools you use. Waiting it out is no longer an option. In this episode, I speak with Karen Sutherland, author of  Artificial Intelligence for Strategic Communication , who, at the time of the recording, was fresh from a Marketing AI Conference in the US. We cut through the noise and talk about how PR and comms teams are  actually...

AI is already inside every corner of PR and comms, but very few teams have real safeguards in place. In this episode, I sit down with Dr  Lukasz Swiatek  from UNSW (The University of New South Wales) to talk through the real risks facing agencies and in-house teams. Luk researches the impact of AI on communication and education and he lays out the pitfalls that PR teams keep tripping over. Accurac...

I’ve been getting a lot of messages lately from people asking the same thing: “How do I get a job or a better job?" So far in the podcast, I've tended to focus on campaigns people are running, but I also want to do some episodes featuring interviews with agencies and recruiters around the world to find out what they're looking for. My first guest is Brooke Kruger , Partner at KC Partners in San Fr...

"Advertising Value Equivalents" are supposed to be dead, yet CFOs keep asking for them. Meanwhile, clients want backlinks, CMOs want digital metrics, and AI is rewriting the measurement rulebook daily. So how do PR and comms teams actually prove value in 2025? In this episode, I talk with  Neha Bahri (Bconnect Communications)  and  Tarunjeet Gujral (Nucleus PR / PRPOI)  about what’s real...

Do you think they ever really cancelled Jimmy Kimmel? Or was it a smart PR move to kill a firestorm? Put the politics aside for a second. Here’s what happened:- - Jimmy Kimmel made comments about Charlie Kirk. - Backlash exploded. - His show was pulled “indefinitely”. - The funeral went ahead. - Kimmel returned. The moment his show was axed, a good chunk of the fire just blew out. - No protests du...

“I never planned to become a campaigner…” That’s what George told me. He’s a sports reporter. A good one. But then he tragically lost six-week-old baby. And suddenly, George found himself in the national media pushing for change. Today I sat down with him — to not only learn his story but also to help him shout louder in future. We talked about a huge number of things. How to keep the media intere...

Season 9 of The Public Relations Podcast is underway. Soft launch this time. No big fanfare. Just notes from the front line of comms. People I’m helping. Conversations I’m having with other comms pros. Tools I’m testing. AI experiments, too. And, the podcast keeps opening doors, and I'm getting to help people this time, which will allow me to share what I'm seeing myself on the frontline too, not...

Here is the full version. Helen Barnett (a former UK national news editor) and myself recently tried to use AI to turn a corproate story into something the mass media would use. It wasn't always easy but it did show some of the powerful strengths of AI as well as some of it's weaknesses. We decided to not just give our opinions but to test it. Apart from some editing to remove gaps, this i...

(The short version - The long version will be in Episode 23) Join me and Helen Barnett, a former editor at a national UK newspaper (https://www.helenbarnettmedia.co.uk/), in this special episode of the podcast. Helen and I (I'm a former radio news editor) try to find the best way to use AI to write a press release. We don't quite get there...BUT..... We do uncover a lot of pitfalls along the way a...

I want to prove that PR, comms and narrative marketing works in 2025, in (sort of) real-time. But how? I've been thinking about this a lot over the past year. We all know the pressures today:- “Where’s the ROI on comms?” Clients want metrics. Execs want proof. AI is starting to flood the market with generic content. You and I know comms and narrative marketing work, but how do we prove that to...

In this episode, I unpack a real conversation with a PR freelancer trying to pivot into a new sector — and getting knocked back with that brutal line: “You don’t seem like you’ve done this before.” But here’s the twist: in her original industry, she was deeply embedded — known, trusted, and networked. She just couldn’t see the value in what she’d already built. We talk about: Why moving sideways i...

We all know influencers are curating their lives — yet we still buy what they recommend. Why does that emotional trust stick, even when it’s fake? In this episode, I unpack a conversation I had with university students about influencer culture, social capital, and what it reveals about how consumers make decisions. Are you giving people a story worth believing in? If you would like to discuss any...

Are you getting your "goals" wrong? In the old days of book PR, your goal was to raise awareness in order to sell copies — but not anymore. There’s a new goal. It’s the same in many sectors, where the objective has shifted but people sometimes miss the change. Kourtney Jason is from Pacific & Court in Brooklyn, USA, an agency that specialises in book PR in 2025. They realised that bo...

If you want the truth about where AI is taking PR — and what it’s already capable of today — this is the episode for you. In this episode, I talk to Jeroen Bos — a friend, technologist, and the man leading innovation at Pr.co, a well-known platform in the PR space. We talk about what Jeroen himself is trying with his team, what barriers they are coming up against, what’s working, what’s not, and h...

In a world where AI can run entire campaigns, is there anything left for human PR pros to do? Yes—but only if you’re willing to operate in the grey zone. In this solo episode, I break down where AI is taking over comms—and where it can’t . This isn’t about fighting the machines; it’s about focusing on the work AI won’t touch : high-risk decisions, morally complex stories, and trust-based influence...

"BUT! We can just get AI to do our PR and comms? We can automate it?" It's an argument being put forward by a growing number of organisations — even if no one quite knows how to do that yet. And that’s the rub. Is it actually possible? Can you get AI — or perhaps a junior plus AI — replace experienced comms pros? That was one of the big questions I discussed with  Komal Lath  (founde...

Why is PR still being treated like it's 1985 – and how do you fix it? If your clients or organisation still thinks PR is just about "media coverage”, then you are not alone. It's backed up by the new PR Agency Insight Survey 2025. In this full episode below (15 mins), I'm chatting with two PR leaders from India’s independent agency scene – Komal Lath ( Tute Consult ) and Tarunjeet...

"We need a quote in 30 minutes, or we're dropping the story." The problem you have is that your client is in back-to-back meetings today. Do you tell the journalist you can't help and potentially lose a contact and possibly your client, or find another way?  In this episode,  award-winning former entertainment journalist turned PR agency founder   Kayley Hamilton  has been trying...

Every PR pro knows the struggle—proving ROI. You  know  your work has impact, but when your boss or client asks for hard numbers, the conversation gets awkward. In this episode, we challenge the idea that PR  can't  demonstrate return on investment. I talk to Liz Riley from NextPR, who says they have the answer. We break down: 📊 The  real  way to track PR-driven traffic and leads (beyond vanity m...