PR Strategy

Originally published January 2012. Updated June 2026. Ten PR tips for success, from a 22-year operator. Eight of the ten original rules still apply exactly as written.

Originally published: August 15, 2011 · Updated: June 16, 2026 In August 2011 I had just become a Business Insider contributor and posted a short summer reading list with three titles. All three still hold up. I am rest

Originally published April 18, 2011. Updated June 2026. Public relations gets used the right way and public relations gets used the wrong way — and the difference between the two has compounded across the last fifteen y

Originally published: April 12, 2011 · Updated: June 16, 2026 The San Francisco Examiner ran an editorial in April 2011 attacking the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency for spending $100,000 on an outside PR

Originally published: March 15, 2011 · Updated: June 16, 2026 The 2011 Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism State of the News Media report landed on March 14, 2011. The headline finding: for the first time, more Ame

Originally published: January 20, 2011 · Updated: June 16, 2026 The Council of Public Relations Firms released its Q4 2010 industry survey in January 2011 with the headline that new-business pipelines were widening and

Originally published: January 3, 2011 · Updated: June 16, 2026 In January 2011, The Holmes Report — now PRovoke Media — published its 2010 Agency Report Card on 5W. Paul Holmes wrote that 5W was among the most aggressiv

Originally published January 2011. Updated June 2026. "How much does a PR campaign cost?" Fifteen years ago I wrote on this page that the question was like asking "how much is a car" — it depends on

Beauty PR is the discipline of building and protecting brand reputation for beauty companies — skincare, makeup, fragrance, haircare, and wellness — a category 5W AI Communications has operated for two decades across pr

Originally published: December 9, 2010 · Updated: June 16, 2026 I wrote a day-in-the-life post in December 2010 describing one week at 5W. Holiday e-commerce strategy sessions. A Soho House lunch with a former client. T

Originally published: December 9, 2010 · Updated: June 16, 2026 I lost a client in December 2010 and wrote about being relieved. The setup: 5W had been hired by the international headquarters of a major global brand. Th

Originally published: December 1, 2010 · Updated: June 16, 2026 The International Public Relations Association published this piece in December 2010 as a member byline. The original headline: PR was reinventing itself f