Ben Smith introduced Sam Corry, CEO of Taylor Herring, discussing the agency's history, evolution from media focus to consumer PR with an "entertain or die" mantra, and its recent internal shifts following the departure of founders Kath and James Herring after 24 years. Corry emphasized that Taylor Herring’s current strategy focuses on integrated, long-term brand building, and announced the launch of "Cited," a proprietary GEO tool developed with Publicis Group's Performix to leverage extensive consumer data and provide measurable ROI for clients. Corry also highlighted the rapid growth of St. Mark Studios, Taylor Herring's standalone brand experience agency, and stressed the industry's need for data tools to demonstrate measurable results.

Ben Smith welcomed Angie Moxham and Mark Borkowski to the weekly PR news review on the PRmoment Podcast.

On this week's show our panel discuss Farage and Jenrick, Grok's explicit AI images and alleged Wikipedia edits by Portland.

Mark Borkowski criticised the Reform party's recruitment of Robert Jenrick as a "massive PR own goal," which Angie Moxham agreed was simply to get headlines.

"Why oh why are they (Reform) taking on these lame ducks, these Tory party failures that were kicked out by the electorate."

"The public will remember Robert Jenrick dissing every aspect of Reform, and particularly Nigel Farage. Now they are buddies. They are in the same swill pit"

Regarding X's delayed restriction on explicit AI images, Mark Borkowski suggested the initial delay was due to arrogance that generated bad PR, while Angie Moxham notes the controversy secured more headlines for Grok and its image tool.

What does this story say about the society we now live in: where criticism of an AI tool generating explicit images of women, got derailed to become a (false) debate about free speech?

Finally, Mark and Angie discuss Portland's alleged "black hat" Wikipedia editing in an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

This week we’re chatting to Nicky Regazzoni, co-founder & co-CEO of The PR Network and Lesley Singleton, founder & CEO, Playtime PR about how to lead a virtual agency business.

The virtual or in the office debate has become the ultimate PR conversation starter, up there with AVEs and timesheets. Everyone’s got an opinion and the truth is there are some virtual agencies, some hybrid (3 or 4 days in the office seems like the norm atm) and some always in the office.

Employers, employees and clients just need to find what works for them and the world will continue to turn.

Both The PR Network and Playtime PR have run very successfully for many years with virtual teams.

On this show we talk today about what good virtual agency leadership looks like.

Nicky Regazzoni and Lesley Singleton identify that virtual leadership requires an emphasis on clear vision, intentional culture, trust, a "virtual open door policy," and clear, regular communication to compensate for the absence of physical presence and informal interactions.

Lesley and Nicky discuss talent acquisition through flexible working models, client/employee relationships, and the management of large-scale virtual operations, noting that while no single right answer exists for running a virtual business, it necessitates highly organised systems and a continuous execution of strategies.