Comms Bestie Group Chat [Sept. 26, 2025]

Hey!

All the comms hoopla this week gave me a headache. Anyone else? Here's what would've made it into our group chat:

🤖 The release comeback?: As president of the I Hate Press Releases Club™️, I'm wildly conflicted about PRs driving instant results in LLMs. But if it's working... ugh, maybe we should explore.

💌 Trend I love: Reporters sharing exactly how they want to be pitched. Today's edition: James Rundle at the WSJ breaking down his preferences.

📊 Good publishing news: Wired's subscriptions are up 94% YoY. Hot dog!

⛈️ Crisis simulation tool: Here’s a free AI Crisis Simulation GPT for you to play with. Hope it sparks ideas of how you can build hyper-specific tools just for your team.

📺 Currently: Watching Jimmy Kimmel's return monologue while trying not to spiral about the Pentagon's press pledge proposal. Don't publish anything not approved?! James Madison is rolling over.

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

PS: Last week's most-clicked was Jennifer George's breakdown of Gap's response strategy.

PPS: Will you be in Austin for MB (Live) Oct. 27-29 or Comms Week Nov. 12-14? Reply here and let’s meet up.