This month in PR (January 2025)

31st January 2025 9 min read

Richard Bailey Hon FCIPR is editor of PR Academy Insights. He has taught and assessed undergraduate, postgraduate and professional students.

Profession

CIPR unveils new 2025-2029 strategy

Maja Pawinska Sims: Meta Global Affairs Chief Nick Clegg Steps Down (3 January)
‘Meta president of global affairs Nick Clegg, who has been with the social media giant for nearly seven years, has announced he is leaving the firm this year.’

Purpose, sustainability and ESG

Jeremy Cohen: Six trends to watch: a Blurred view on sustainability in 2025 (3 January)
‘Whilst populists look to unwind regulation, regulation with teeth will simultaneously start to bite in 2025. The impact of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) will start to be felt beyond the EU, for foreign-owned entities with a significant EU presence or even supply chains that run through the continent.’

Careers, teams and skills

Katie Macaulay: Are You Sitting (Too) Comfortably? The Surprising Cost of Complacency (16 January)
‘Complacency isn’t just a business risk; it’s a creative dead end. By staying vigilant, curious, and open to growth, we ensure ‘good enough’ never becomes our standard.’

Farzana Baduel with Gemma Moroney: Shaking up creativity [podcast] (11 January)
‘Kent County Council paid for my school year to do this psychometric testing to tell you what career you should have and mine came out with PR, lawyer, and something else I can’t remember now. I’m argumentative.’
Kirsty Leighton: From Start-Up to Global Success: The Joys and Challenges of Running a Multi-Award-Winning PR Agency (no date)
‘Success isn’t just about the clever campaigns you create — it’s about the team you build. Surrounding yourself with talented, motivated people who believe in your vision is everything.’

Gender, diversity and wellbeing

Andy Green: The facts about the Blue Monday meme on its 20th anniversary (17 January)
‘It’s that time of year again, ‘Blue Monday’ on January 20th, the third Monday of January, and symbolically the ‘most depressing day of the year’. And I’m a proud parent of the meme, launching the first ‘Blue Monday’ back in 2005 and now celebrating its 20th birthday.’
Advita Patel: Is DEI dead? 3 powerful strategies inclusive leaders embed DEI into organisational DNA (17 January)
‘What if this is a moment to reimagine and evolve it? To move beyond performative actions and superficial measures? To embed inclusion so deeply into our workplace cultures that it becomes the air we breathe, not a box we tick?’
Ana Adi with Liz Bridgen: Women in PR [podcast] (13 January)
‘What you’ve got to remember is that public relations can’t be done without people, and a lot of these people – especially at junior levels – are ignored in academic research. But they’re the ones doing that work.’

Public and third sectors

Joanne Cochrane: Awareness Days – have they had their day? (6 January)
‘Awareness Days won’t go away anytime soon but I think communications teams can show their worth by prompting and challenging colleagues a bit more and encouraging them to make the awareness event relevant for their communities.

Politics and public affairs

Stuart Thomson: 2025: The Time To Think Long Term in Public Affairs (9 January)
‘The period immediately following the election saw a flurry of announcements, but the real work is now taking place as the government looks to deliver on its manifesto commitments and address pressing policy challenges.’
Julio Romo: Elon Musk’s Political Alignments: Strategic Moves or Reputational Risk? (7 January)
‘Elon Musk’s political endorsements reflect a complex interplay of personal beliefs, business strategy, and global competition. While these actions may secure short-term benefits in deregulation, tax relief, and incentives, the long-term reputational risks to his companies are slowly growing.’

Reputation, risk and crisis

Amanda Coleman: Managing the top risk (19 January)
‘The final thoughts on risk is that all of us have a huge risk which is that of complacency. We believe it won’t happen here or that we can’t be affected. It was an attitude in existence as the Covid-19 pandemic was spreading around the world.’
Kevin Ruck: Why ignoring employees in a crisis can create a double crisis (18 January)
‘The focus in a crisis is understandably media management, but ignoring employees can turn an external crisis into a double crisis by allowing it to negatively impact employee engagement.’

Media, digital and AI

Andrew Bruce Smith: Why all PR and comms professionals should be using AI reasoning models (27 January)
‘Right now, you have 3 key reasoning models to choose from: OpenAI’s 01, Google Gemini’s 2.0 Flash Thinking and DeepSeek’s DeepThink R1.’
Neville Hobson: 20 Years of FIR: A Podcasting Journey (5 January)
‘One of the most fascinating shifts over the years has been the growing influence of podcasts. Once a niche medium, podcasting has become a platform where news is broken, elections are influenced, and audiences are engaged at a deeply personal level.’