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Economic stats, including lowest unemployment since 2000, rising incomes, and a stock market that is setting records, offset negatives of the Trump Administration.
The business community feels it has a friend in the White House and can plan more confidently for the future. Jobs have been added in every month for more than seven years.
President Trump, the most communicative president in history, has made numerous verbal and even policy mistakes but the boisterous economy is what he should be graded on.
Liberal-oriented media have been too tough and even unfair with him from the day he announced his candidacy. This has hurt the credibility of media.
A pro-business Administration is good for all segments of industry including PR.
PR firms documenting net fee incomes for the O’Dwyer rankings have shown strong growth for more than ten years running. Most of what comes under the heading of “PR,” including press and social media relations, has shifted to the agencies where creativity and diversity of tasks flourish.
Women Show Clout
The year past posted a high water mark on the influence of women in government and business including PR. Among those carrying the flag for women are Meryl Streep and Gloria Steinem.
Streep, appearing in Boston Dec. 7 at the #metoo conference attended by 16,000 women, said women must seek “50/50 by 20/20,” meaning equal numbers of women and men in board rooms by that date.
Steinem saidt the usual board is “three women and 12 other people. Gender stereotypes are learned and normalized at an early age."
Streep plays Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham in “The Post,” a movie set in the President Nixon era when the Watergate scandal broke that led to his resignation.
We expect to hear more in 2018 from American Women in PR, an offshoot of a group that started in Canada.
AWPR wants PR to be seen as a “profession” and not as an “industry.” It wants equal pay/titles with men.
With $300 yearly dues, AWPR is up against PR groups that have large female memberships—PR Society of America, Int’l Assn. of Business Communicators and New York Women in Communications.
Cellphone Dangers Probed by CBS-TV
Another topic we have covered, health threats coming from cellphones and other sources of pulsed radiation, got a boost Dec. 15 when national CBS-TV News aired a segment titled calling attention to a warning issued by the California Dept. of Public Health.
The segment noted that about 95% of the U.S. population are cellphone users but few are aware of warnings that come with the phones.
Advice to use the phone in speaker mode or with ear buds is in the instructions for Apple phones but is buried in fine print.
Other advice from the state is don’t carry a cellphone in a pocket or sleep near one. Keep the phone “at arm’s length” and remove headsets when not on a call, it says.
AB InBev has hired Donna Lorenson as chief communications officer and elevated the PR function to the senior leadership structure in the aftermath of the Bud Light marketing disaster.
Tunheim handled the Minnesota USA World Expo bid committee, which on June 21 congratulated Serbia for landing the 2027 event.
United Minds, management consultancy, has launched Myriant, a business resiliency offering to help clients deal with the challenges during this era of misinformation, polarization and geopolitical upheaval. 
ImageShield, which guards against online image abuse, is looking for a communications pro to handle its PR and marketing campaigns.
Who knew that there is a real paper company, Pennsylvania Paper & Supply, inside the iconic building seen at the opening of every episode of “The Office?” 
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