Hey besties,
Here’s what had my group chats lighting up this week.
⚡ New comms playbook: OpenAI acquired TBPN. For the unaffiliated, this is a daily, live 3-hour tech streaming news show set to do $30M in revenue this year. A marquee of new media. OpenAI tells us why this matters to comms:
“[TBPN brings] strong editorial instincts, deep audience understanding, and a proven ability to convene influential voices across tech, business, and culture. […]
As I've been thinking about the future of how we communicate at OpenAI, one thing that's become clear is that the standard communications playbook just doesn't apply to us.”
A nose for news, a conveyor of conversation, the judgment for what's attention worthy. That's what TBPN built, and what OpenAI found so valuable. They couldn’t AI it. They couldn’t create it themselves. So they bought it instead.
🤖 PR for Your AI: I've long been a proponent of "doing PR for your AI" program. Basically meaning, you need to be talking about how you're automating rote work and doing more strategic work with AI. Two things on this stuck out for me this week:
One CEO literally said it: “If someone came to me and said ‘hey I just outsourced 20% of my job to an agent...’ let's just say they are much more likely to move up in the company than get moved out.
ServiceNow CMO launched “Stay Curious,” is a vertical video series on how their teams are transforming work with AI (mostly that boring stuff, like updating project messaging) to AI. Not hiding, but promoting AI use.
📰 New Media Hack: Kelsey Ogletree, CEO of Pitchcraft (great name, by the way), shared a simple way to find Substack authors: explore page → category → rising in [category] → "see all."
💡 Subscribe Now: Jennifer George bringing that BBE™️ (big bestie energy) with her daily drop of CCO-level knowledge. Cancel your MBA program, she's teaching you how to think like a business leader.
🍟 My brain’s fried: AI is awesome but also makes you feel incredibly overwhelmed and behind. There's a new word for that: AI Brain Fry.
🥴 Uncanny valley: I am no luddite, but I must admit I felt queasy listening to this Esther Perel podcast," “My AI Loves Me Better Than Anyone Ever Could.” Human relationships are hard… we can't deny this will be the future for many.
Chat soon,
Gab Ferree
Founder & Your Comms BFF, Off the Record
PS: Our last edition (Cesar Chavez v. Taylor Frankie Paul) was our most-replied to newsletter ever. One of my favorite responses came from comms consultant Molly Pedemonte (who also happens to be my IRL bestie). When examining Disney's decision to pull the newest season of The Bachelorette following troubling leaked video of the season's star, she said this:
Another interesting dynamic that I don't think anyone is talking about is the fact that this announcement came days after the new CEO of Disney was officially in role.
I watched new CEO Josh D’Amaro's annual shareholder meeting remarks [the following weekend] and it got my wheels turning.
What a highly symbolic decision to make days after becoming CEO... He led the parks division of Disney for a long time and comes from the most family-facing part of the org. And his platform (so far) is based on telling stories and creating experiences and cultivating fans through trust and magic.
What if it's a $50M sunk cost to reset expectations? I don't think it's that simple obviously...But it takes some serious guts to upend an intentional strategy to select an unhinged and unstable lead role (Taylor Frankie Paul) that could revive the dying franchise and compete with other reality TV like Love is Blind and Love Island.
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