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How did you respond to the COVID-19 pandemic? The Museum of PR would like to know and memorialize what you did to respond to the COVID-19 crisis.
The Museum, in a partnership with the Page Society, Institute for Public Relations, PR Council and Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Georgia, plans to document the industry’s response to COVID-19.
Using the “History Responds: Communications in the Time of COVID” banner, the partners want to gather objects, papers and materials to chart pandemic activity.
“We plan to compile and curate the first in a series of collections documenting how PR practitioners at agencies, businesses and other institutions responded to the major societal crises of our time,” said Shelley Spector, co-founder of the Museum.
She believes that lessons learned from COVID-19 “will have applications in other crises, such as cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure, runs on financial institutions and other widespread disruptions to daily life.”
Edelman and United Airlines are the founding contributors to the effort.
For information about donating material, go to https://www.prmuseum.org/historyresponds.
Sleepy Joe is killing the partisan press. Donald Trump’s endless cycle of attacks, lies, distractions, diversions, disinformation and misinformation was music to the ears of the partisan media.
President Biden’s low-key and “just the facts” presidency is killing web traffic, social media engagement and app user sessions for the entire media, but especially far-right outlets, according to a study by Axios.
The report found that traffic to right-wing sites like Newsmax and The Federalist dropped 44 percent from February through May, while left-wing Mother Jones and Raw Story dipped 27 percent.
The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Reuters traffic fell 18 percent.
App visits to conservative Fox News and Daily Caller tumbled 31 percent. Liberal BuzzFeed News and The Atlantic dipped 26 percent.
Axios notes that traffic to opposition media traditionally rises when a new party takes office, but today’s right-wing outlets are more personality-driven and linked to Trump.
His ban from Facebook and Twitter has crippled their efforts to gin up controversy.
Boring Biden has forced the media to focus more on breaking news, rather than relying on the madness of The Donald, which is not such a terrible thing.
Corporate welfare at Moderna. The COVID-19 vaccine maker, which has received $6B in US funding related to development and purchases of its shot, announced June 18 that it is getting tax incentives from its home state of Massachusetts to hire at least 155 high-tech manufacturing workers and retain them through 2025.
That is ridiculous for a company as rich as Moderna, which may chalk up more than $18B in vaccine-related revenues this year.
Moderna earned $1.3B during Q1 2021 on revenues of $1.9B.
It accounts for $2.3M of the $19.5M that the Bay State doled out to 28 life sciences companies to create 1,259 jobs.
Moderna has nearly doubled its work force to 1,500 during the one-year period ended March 31, 2021.
In announcing the tax bonus, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel hailed Massachusetts as “the global leader in the biotech industry.”
Having a manufacturing plant in Norwood and R&D center in Cambridge has allowed Moderna “to work with state and local partners and to leverage the incredible innovation and diverse talent from the Massachusetts life sciences and technology sectors,” according to Bancel.
Does Moderna really need a tax break to remain in Massachusetts?
A huge PR opportunity looms for a firm that is willing to take some heat by promoting Immigration & Customs Enforcement... Disgraced New York mayor Eric Adams couldn't wait to make another pilgrimage to Israel to stick it to his successor Zohran Mamdani... Hats off to Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett for writing his always engaging and witty annual reports over the years.
The ADL plans a Mamdani Monitor to track down any whiff of antisemitism from the policies and appointments made by his administration. It should have given him a chance to live up to Election Night promise... Brendan Carr, Alden Global Capital, Alphabet, Meta and Elon Musk make Reporters Without Borders' roster of Press Freedom Predators.
Andrew Cuomo's political career is not dead yet... Steve Bannon says Republicans should learn from Zohran Mamdani and his Working Families Party and Democratic Socialists of America, instead of mocking them... Internet advertising model is on the way out, says Tim Berners-Lee... Gannet rebrands as USA Today Inc. What about its other 200 papers?
Thomas Jefferson warned about the dangers of an imperial president who would deny an election loss in a bid to cling to power. Sound familiar?... Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says reporters don't need his permisson to take a photo of the Pentagon's 9/11 memorial, as long as they are not on the job... Kirkland and Ellison lawyers need some negotiating tips. 
Shareholder activitism is poised to hit an all-time high for 2025... Kamala Harris’ “107 Days” reads like an autospsy of her failed presidential run. Democrats need to look forward, not backward... The Reagan Foundation dishonored The Gipper by providing PR cover to tariff-loving Trump.
