Inside PR 487: What makes it worthwhile to attend a conference

• • Shownotes

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When it comes to conferences, is less really more?

It’s conference season. And, like you, we want to get the most out of the conferences we attend. And we have become more demanding of the conferences we attend, given that we can get so much great content via Webinars and online courses.

So, let’s talk about why we attend conferences. What are they good for? How do you get the most out of them? Should conference organizers offer a different experience, based on facilitated discussions drawing on the expertise in the audience?

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows. Leave a comment on the blog, send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group, We’re also on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

#IPRMustKnow

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 486: Terry Fallis tells stories

• • Show Notes

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Think about what you heard yesterday. Do you remember the facts that you heard or do you remember the stories that you were told?

We’ve come a long way since the days when corporate executives were rehearsed in the art of “bridging” in order to keep returning to their predetermined key messages. Authenticity didn’t count as much then as it does in the art of social media.

Terry Fallis‘ career in communications has reaches back to those days. But he left them behind to be an early pioneer in social media (He was the original co-host of Inside PR). And along the way, he began writing. Six novels later, he’s an award winning best-selling author who advises executives and public figures on how to communicate effectively in the era in which we all have a voice.

Listen as he talks with Joseph Thornley about the importance of narrative and story telling.

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows. Leave a comment on the blog, send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group, We’re also on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

#IPRMustKnow

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Subscribe on the podcast app of your choice

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Will this discussion get us into trouble?

• • Show Notes

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Google’s HR problem

We offer our take on the James Damore memo on gender diversity and how Google handled it. Will this discussion get us into trouble? Will you unsubscribe? Will you judget us harshly?

Google expands speech recognition

News that Google extended speech recognition to an additional 30 languages and locales, serving an addition 1 billion people, underlines how rapidly Google is preparing for the era in which we will be interacting with our devices primarily by voice commands.

 

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows. Leave a comment on the blog, send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group, We’re also on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

#IPRMustKnow

Our hashtag is #IPRMustKnow. If you are tweeting or posting about the podcast, please include our hashtag so that we can find your post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on the podcast app of your choice

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 484: Bag O’ Chips TV

• • Inside PR, Show Notes

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Farewell to Anthony Scaramucci

We received a great deal of reaction to our discussion of the appointment of a communications novice to the White House Communications Director. And the day after our discussion, Anthony Scaramucci was fired! Cause and effect? Hardly. But the right move in light of his disastrous ten days in that position. Altogether now, communications professionals: A big sigh of relief.

Facebook Watch

Facebook is rolling out a new “Watch” tab on the mobile app to feature short form, more professional videos. But what will be on it? Variety profiled several early shows, which sounded to Joe like reality TV dreck. Gini, however,  is one of the lucky people with early access – and she reports that her “Watch” tab includes the Ellen DeGeneres Show, ABC News, Good Morning America, and the Tonight Show. So, there will be dreck there. As Martin says, it sounds like something created by Chuck Barris, known for his low brow game shows. However, Gini’s first set of feeds suggests that the algorithm will give people the kind of content they consume (if not deserve). If you click on dreck in your Facebook feed, expect to see dreck in your Watch tab. If you click on more intelligent news and videos on your newsfeed, expect to see something more thought provoking in the Watch tab.

The Future of Voice Search and AI

We have entered the era of voice search. And we talk about its implications. One thing is clear: voice search will require marketers to think differently about the content they create and the placement they seek in a voice search environment. Think about the way you interact with your voice devices like Alexa and Siri right now. Do you ask a question and then go to the first result you hear? Or do you ask it a series of questions? We think that success in the era of voice search will be rely on finding a way to be useful in a conversational mode – to have the most useful content that will surface as users interact with their voice interfaces.

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows. Leave a comment on the blog, send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group, We’re also on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

#IPRMustKnow

Our hashtag is #IPRMustKnow. If you are tweeting or posting about the podcast, please include our hashtag so that we can find your post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on the podcast app of your choice

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

483: Can any Tom, Dick or Anthony do what we do?

• • PR, Show Notes

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The White House has a new Communications Director – who is not a professional communicator.

Gini and Joe discuss what the demise of Sean Spicer and the appointment by Donald Trump of Anthony Scaramucci as White House Communications Director says to professional communicators and what it means for professional communications. Can any Tom, Dick or Anthony do what we as professional communicators do? Can they do it well? Do they even know what we do and what goes into it?

Do you feel belittled as a professional communicator when a person with no professional communications experience or expertise is appointed to one of the most senior communications positions in the world? Is being able to get yourself on television a critical skill for a communications executive? How important is it to be able to manage up? It’s nice that you like your boss. But, when telling truth to power, it’s better that you respect the boss.

The bottom line: This could get ugly.

Post Script: In fact, it did get ugly, really ugly. We recorded this prior to the publication of Ryan Lizza’s New Yorker interview with Anthony Scaramucci, with all of its vulgarity. The quotes in that article speak for themselves.

Inside PR 482: The state of political communication in Washington

• • Inside PR, Show Notes

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This week, Gini, Martin and Joe are doing something special – a joint episode of Inside PR and the Spin Sucks Fireside Chat. During her journeys on the speakers’ circuit, Gini met Tyler Brown, a long-time senior communicator at the Republican National Committee who has recently moved over to public affairs consulting. The confluence of political and corporate communications is a hot topic for all of us. So, Gini asked Tyler if he would share his experience and insights with us.

Tyler knows both the worlds of political and corporate communications. From 2009 through the 2016 US election season, he held a number of senior communications positions at the Republican National Committee. During that time, he served first as Northeast Regional Press Secretary, then Director of Rapid Response and Deputy Director of Communications. From 2012 through to the end of 2016, he was the Republicans’ Director of Digital Strategy. In January 2017, Tyler joined Mercury Public Affairs’ Washington office as Senior Vice President. His areas of practice at Mercury include digital, grassroots coalition building, and public affairs campaign management.

Our conversation covers a lot of ground. Join with Martin, Gini and Joe as we talk with Tyler about what he saw in eight years inside the Washington political machine and what that taught him that we all can use.

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows. Leave a comment on the blog, send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group, We’re also on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

#IPRMustKnow

Our hashtag is #IPRMustKnow. If you are tweeting or posting about the podcast, please include our hashtag so that we can find your post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on the podcast app of your choice

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 481: Really, we’re not making this stuff up.

• • Inside PR, Show Notes

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Dean Baquet inadvertently makes the case for a Public Editor at the New York Times. Google supports innovation in online news, but diverts attention from the real issue. The News Media Alliance calls for an antitrust exemption. Yep, that’s right. Solve the problem of market dominance by compounding the problem. Really, we’re not making this stuff up.

Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley tackle these issues in this episode of the Inside PR podcast. Gini Dietrich is traveling this week, but she’ll rejoin us next week.

Dean Baquet answers reader questions – and inadvertently makes the case for a Public Editor

Last month, the New York Times eliminated its public editor position. And we thought this was a bad move.

Last week, Dean Baquet published a column answering readers’ questions about the cuts to editorial staff and, in doing so, he inadvertently made the case for a Public Editor at the New York Times. The fact that Baquet had an answer for every question, and that these answers showed no self doubt or reconsideration of positions, illustrated that simply receiving and answering questions does not replace the Public Editor function. The Public Editor was a position inside the NY Times, with the perspective on what happened as the sausages were made, and the ability to comment freely from an independent perspective. That now is lost. And just like a government without checks and balances, real accountability is imperilled.

Google supports innovation in online news; but diverts attention from real issue

Google and Facebook have recently been moving to support innovation in online news publishing. Martin points to one of the most recent efforts, a US $800,00 contribution by Google’s Digital News Initiative toward the creation of RADAR, software that will generate local news stories for the The Press Association, a U.K.-based news agency. A little support for template, predictable stories. But that’s not what we need. This type of effort to support innovation only diverts attention from the real issue. We need support for the reporters who exercise judgment about sophisticated stories.

The News Media Alliance’s solution will compound the problem

Last year, the Newspaper Association of America rebranded itself as The News Media Alliance. Does new paint lead to a smarter organization? It doesn’t seem so, based on its effort to convince Congress to give news publishers antitrust exemption to enable them to negotiate with Facebook and Google. Doesn’t this remind you of the publishers negotiating with Amazon over the right to set book prices? And who was the loser? The reading public who found those $9.99 book prices replaced by $19 book prices.

The solution to the plight of news publishers isn’t to allow them to escape antitrust so that they can negotiate as a group. Instead, the real answer to the problem lies in challenging the dominance achieved in search and social by Google and Facebook respectively and the unfettered power they are allowed to exercise. If anything, Congress should focus on reining in these two dominant platforms. Then, maybe, we’ll be able to stop the erosion of competition and enable innovation by small companies. Just as Google and Facebook once innovated.

Think twice before you upload a large PDF to your Website

We offer a reminder to anyone responsible for running a Website to think about the size of documents they expect to be downloaded by the public. This came to mind with the recent increase in the price charged by Canada’s largest ISPs to people who exceed their monthly data cap. If you publish PDFs and other documents for download that will gobble up 50MB of a visitor’s monthly data allowance, they will not thank you. In fact, if they reflect on it, they may actually think that what you are doing is costing them money. And do we like people who cost us money? So, if you are in charge of a Website, please, please, please ensure that anything you publish on your site, whether it is documents for download, images or anything else, are compressed to the smallest usable size. Your visitors will appreciate you for this.

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows. Leave a comment on the blog, send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group, We’re also on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

#IPRMustKnow

Our hashtag is #IPRMustKnow. If you are tweeting or posting about the podcast, please include our hashtag so that we can find your post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on the podcast app of your choice

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

IPR 480: Walks like a Duck. Quacks like a Duck. Must be Facebook the news publisher.

• • PR, Show Notes

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When is a yellow rubber duck worth a thousand words? Facebook walks like a news publisher and quacks like a news publisher; must be a news publisher. No surprise here: Venture capitalist research features their portfolio companies. But what of disclosure? Marketing with social bookmarking. Social media innovation is alive and well. And IPR is on iHeartRadio.  Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley tackles these issues in this episode of the Inside PR podcast.

Yellow Rubber Duckie?

The giant yellow duck that visited the Toronto Waterfront on Canada Day underlined that, even in this digital world, old-fashioned, real life stunts still pay off.

Inside PR is on iHeartRadio

This may be self-serving, but we want to tell you that Inside PR is available on iHeartRadio. We know that one of you found us – because in the three episodes since we arrived on iHeartRadio, we have had exactly ONE download of each episode of iHeartRadio. We love you whoever you are. And if you are our lone iHeartRadio subscriber, let us know, because we want to give you a shoutout on the next episode.

Social media innovation is alive and well

You may think that the glory days of social media innovation ended when Facebook became dominant. However, a recent Marketing Land post reminded us that the pace of change in social media is still rapid. Change is the new normal. But so much change this year.

No surprise here. Research by venture capitalists may focus on their investment portfolio

Tom Webster of Edison Research published a critical analysis of the Mary Meeker Internet Trends report. He didn’t question her observations. But he did point out that the growth examples that she profiled tended to be Kleiner Perkins investments. There’s nothing wrong with this. But it does beg the question of adequate disclosure. As Webster says, “take the report for what it is — an extremely effective piece of content marketing, promoting the trends and interests of a company selectively invested in the space.” PR people are familiar with the FTC rules governing disclosure of sponsored posts. Would Mary Meeker’s presentation at the Code Conference have passed this test? No one is questioning Meeker’s ethics. But the fact that the highlighting of Kleiner Perkins investments was not explicitly spelled out for the average observer does provide a cautionary example.

Marketing with Social Bookmarking

Gini and Joe have been longtime advocates of social bookmarking as a tool, as a means of contributing to the community, and as a way to make transparent our interests and our research. So, we were happily surprised to see the name of Martin’s latest Lynda.com course – Marketing with Social Bookmarking. Martin talks with us about the course and we exchange tips about how we get the most out of social bookmarking. Yes, this is a shameless plug for our co-host, Martin Waxman.

Facebook adjust its news feed algorithm, reinforcing its role as a news publisher

Facebook’s recent adjustment to its news feed algorithm underlines again that Facebook is a news publisher, not just a neutral conduit, and they have an obligation to serve the public good. Follow us here. When you…

  • Boast a “news feed value” that states that “News feeds should be informative,” (All the news that’s fit to print?)
  • Call out “a tiny group of people … who routinely share vast amounts of public posts per day, effectively spamming people’s feeds,” (letters to the editor?)
  • Suggest that, “Our research shows that the links they share tend to include low quality content  such as clickbait, sensationalism and misinformation.” (editorial judgment)
  • State baldly that, “We want to reduce the influence of these spammers,” and you adjust your news feed algorithm to suppress distribution of their posts,

…you have committed an editorial act on a par with the editor of any newspaper. You are not just a platform or a conduit, you are a news publisher with all the responsibilities to society and the obligations that status carries with it. Facebook, it’s time to step up, admit that you are a news publisher and accept all of the responsibilities that come with that status.

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows. Leave a comment on the blog, send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group, We’re also on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

#IPRMustKnow

Our hashtag is #IPRMustKnow. If you are tweeting or posting about the podcast, please include our hashtag so that we can find your post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on the podcast app of your choice

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

******************************************************************

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 479: Did you hear our audiogram?

• • Inside PR

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Data Science in the Wild. Danny Sullivan checks out. Snapchat? Snap Maps.And are audiograms the next big promotional tool for podcasters? Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley are together for another episode of the Inside PR podcast.

Data Science “in the wild”

We start out this week’s podcast by looking back at last week’s discussion with Alex Sevigny about data science and PR. All of us learned something from Alex. In fact, Joe saw much of what Alex had talked about “in the wild” when he attended the Data Power Conference at Carleton University last week. He came away convinced that PR people with a background in the social sciences or communication can play in the data science pool, just as Alex had suggested. Our conversation with Alex was on Inside PR 478.  If you haven’t listened to it yet, we do hope that you will take the time to download and listen to it.

Danny Sullivan checks out

After 21 years researching and writing about search engine optimization and founding two companies dedicated to covering the area, Danny Sullivan is leaving the business. During his more than two decades in SEO, Danny was the go-to journalist who could be relied on to dig into the arcana of search engine operations and translate that into explanations that could be understood by the ordinary person. As such, he had tremendous influence over people like us. Danny, thanks for two decades of insight and inspiration.

Sullivan’s departure also prompts us to reflect on how PR pros can, in fact need to, embrace constant change, whether it’s through job changes or changes while staying within their current organizations. Depth and specialization are important. But they become most valuable when placed in the context of broader, relevant experience. And we have to develop that for ourselves by constantly reinventing ourselves.

Snap Maps

A few years back, Foursquare addicted many of us to checking into physical locations and then checking to see which of our friends were there. Foursquare has shifted its focus from check-ins, but the database it accumulated provides the basis for a viable business providing data to other services.
Now, Snapchat proves that we really do progress recursively, with the introduction of Snap Maps. Martin is loving it. Gini is intrigued. And we hear her discover something new in her Snap Map for the first time during the show. Based on her reaction, this may actually be a winner.

Audiograms help podcasters build audiences

Last year, NPR open-sourced their code for audiograms – a new way to embed excerpts of your podcast in social media. Recently, Martin was approached by a Toronto developer, Neal Pollock, about testing his new audiogram creation app. We’ve been testing the service for the past week – and believe that it has real promise to better engage people with our audio content. You can find a couple of our tests here and here on Twitter and here on Facebook. The service was intuitive to use and Joe was able to create and publish audiograms with less than 10 minutes work per instance. We’re going to continue experimenting with it and watching our traffic to determine if it brings us new listeners.

Neal and his partners are looking for testers who will try the service and provide feedback. It is in alpha phase. So, there are some rough edges. But if you are a podcaster and would like to test it, you can sign up for an account.

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows. Leave a comment on the blog, send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group, We’re also on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

#IPRMustKnow

Our hashtag is #IPRMustKnow. If you are tweeting or posting about the podcast, please include our hashtag so that we can find your post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on the podcast app of your choice

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

******************************************************************

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 478: Data Science for Public Relations

• • Inside PR, Show Notes

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Data Science for PR

This week, Martin Waxman, Gini Dietrich, and Joseph Thornley talk with Alex Sevigny, the Executive Director of the McMaster-Syracuse Master of Communications Management Program, about the importance of data science to the skillset of the well-rounded PR professional.

#IPRMustKnow

We also talk about upcoming updates to the Apple Podcasts app, which will support podcast series and give podcasters analytics so that they can learn more about how people are consuming their content.

And before we leave, we talk about the comfort to be received from Binky. It started as a joke, and then it took over the world. 🙂

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows. Leave a comment on the blog, send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group, We’re also on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

#IPRMustKnow

Our hashtag is #IPRMustKnow. If you are tweeting or posting about the podcast, please include our hashtag so that we can find your post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on the podcast app of your choice

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

******************************************************************

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.