The world’s biggest PR agency laid off five percent of its global staff. It’s a sign of the headwinds facing the industry, including reduced opportunities for earned media, which is what PR agencies spend a lot of their time trying to achieve. We’ll explore what’s happening in the PR agency world in the long-form FIR episode for December 2024. Also in this episode, an update on the social media landscape, with Reddit surpassing X (formerly Twitter) in the U.K.; a look at some of the key findings in “AI Activated,” the latest relevance report from the USC Annenberg School; there’s a waiting list for an app that’s being called a feed reader for the fediverse; communicators are gearing up for challenges that face them as Donald Trump prepares to return to the U.S. presidency; and there’s new information about how businesses are adapting to Artificial Intelligence. In his Tech Report, Dan York, recounts his trip to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the United Nations’ internet governance body’s meeting; he also shares his thoughts on efforts to protect children from social media’s harms.

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, January 27.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat most Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET. To obtain the credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request them in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this podcast are Shel’s and Neville’s and do not reflect the views of their employers and/or clients.

Links from this episode:

• Reddit launches AI-powered Reddit Answers to upgrade platform search


• Bluesky promises to shake up social media. It might finally succeed.


• From Fox News to NBC, Legacy Media Wants In on TikTok


• Bluesky Is Different From X. For Now.


• USC Annenberg Relevance Report


• Navigating AI’s Impact On Marketing: Lessons From USC’s 2025 Relevance Report


• USC’s Relevance Report 2025: What It Means For The PR Industry


• The 2025 Relevance Report: AI Activated


• Edelman Staff Cuts Reflect Industry at a Crossroads


• Edelman Lays Off 330 As It “Simplifies” Structure For Greater Integration


• Edelman layoffs: MD Lisa Kovitz and other long-time execs among those affected


• The 7 biggest PR challenges for 2024 and beyond


• Vox Media Announces Layoffs, Lifestyle Properties To Face Restructuring


• No More Stalled Promotions, RIFs: Be Your Own PR Firm


• Announcing Surf, The First Browser for The Open Social Web


• About Surf Social


• Flipboard’s new app is a discovery engine for the decentralized web


• Flipboard’s Surf app is a big new idea about the future of social


• Flipboard just launched Surf, which is sort of like an RSS feed for the open social web


• The Trump to-do list: How communicators are getting ready for the MAGA takeover


• PR Pros Remain Mostly Calm Amid Uncertainty Over Trump Agenda


• Rollbacks and Repeals: How a New Administration Effectuates Policy Changes


• “The bar for engagement has been raised:” Execs on their hopes and fears for a second Trump term

Raw transcript:

Hi everybody and welcome to episode number 441 of four immediate release. This is our long form episode for December, 2024. I’m Shell Holtz in Concord, California. And I’m Neville Hobson in Kru and Somerset in England. It’s the week before Christmas as we are recording this, and in a few days time, it will be Christmas for those of you who celebrate like me no snow here and no white Christmas expected here in the uk talking to friends in in Colorado the other day that they’ve not got snow where they are, but it should have some.

So if you’re celebrating Christmas and expecting a white one, the UK in the south certainly is not the place to be. Nevertheless don’t count on it in San Francisco either. No, don’t count on it there either. So today is actually as we’re recording this, which is on Saturday the 21st, December, it’s the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere, the shortest day of the year.

And here in the uk we were lucky to see eight hours of sunlight today. The good news in the [00:01:00 ] south of England, less the further north you go. The good news, though, is that from now on the daylight time grows more every day as we get closer to the summer. That was actually a crossword clue this morning in the New York Times, is that the days starting today will be what from now on and the answer was longer, right?

That’s correct, yes. So it’s great. So to our show today, we’ve got some great stuff to talk about. But first let’s do a quick rundown to remind you of what we have covered in between these monthlies. What have we talked about since the monthly episode for November, which was three episodes ago. Or four, counting that one.

And we’ve done three basically since then. Now we’re doing this monthly. So episode 4 38 which we published in early, the early beginning of December. That was about Google’s AI overviews, which many are saying are turning upside down. Search engine optimization or SEO. [00:02:00 ] So we looked at the data, we took a look at the data and the trends, and had a good chat about that.

And recommend, we recommended some actions communicators can take to ensure that web properties still get attention