Comms Bestie Group Chat [August 8, 2025]

Hey,

If we were in a comms group chat, these links would’ve made it in. What did I miss?

🙏 Help shape Comms + AI training: Off the Record is teaming up with Axios HQ to build an AI training just for comms pros. But first, we need your input. Take this 5-minute survey to help us make it super relevant to what you need. 150+ comms besties have already weighed in… and you can too!

Speaking of Axios HQ, they invited me to join a convo next week on building comms influence in the age of AI. Save your spot, it’s free.

🏈 NFL is buying into ESPN: The NYT reports the NFL is taking an equity stake in ESPN which… makes total sense. But how do you maintain editorial independence when the league owns the network? Will we no longer get dayslong hot takes on NFL player scandals?!

📰 A solution to the AI vs journalism death spiral? Cloudflare’s CEO floated a (shockingly reasonable) idea: what if AI companies had to pay to cite publisher content? A “scrape per play” model (my words, not his) is still early, but it might be a way to stop the bleeding. Listen on Hard Fork.

🤖 The most useful AI tool roundup: a16z’s AI partner Olivia Moore tests dozens of AI products a week and shared her go-to recs with use cases. Bookmark this.

👖 Old news by now, but still group chat worthy: More than a week later, American Eagle responded to the jeans/genes controversy. It's giving... literally nothing.

🪳Random for the road: Gross, but validating. Preggo cockroaches need more sleep.

Chat soon,
Gab Ferree
Founder & Your Comms BFF, Off the Record

PS: Last week’s most clicked was WSJ’s David Benoit on how you should never try killing a story.

PPS: I was humbled to be the first guest on The Middle, a new podcast about navigating who you were and who you’re becoming (hello job loss and reinvention, it me 🙋‍♀️ ).