What We’re Reading is a monthly roundup of current news, commentary, challenges, and trends that impact our industry and clients.

Every year, the Gartner Marketing Symposium brings together the foremost CMO leaders to take stock of where marketing is heading. This year in Denver, the conversations were sharp, the stakes were high — and one insight rose above all others.

I recently had the privilege of joining some of the sharpest minds in our industry at the Mirren Conference in New York — new business leaders, agency search consultants, and brand and communications executives, all gathered to wrestle with the questions defining our field right now.

What We’re Reading is a monthly roundup of current news, commentary, challenges, and trends that impact our industry and clients.

The 2026 PRWeek Crisis Comms Conference captured where crisis communications sits right now: in the middle of an always-on, fast-moving information cycle. Narratives form in real time, often before the facts are complete, and frequently in places organizations don’t control.

From United shifting to more upfront delay messaging and Nike’s backlash in Boston, to Coachella’s livestream-driven “parallel events” and the Unwell founder drama putting internal leadership on display, we explore how reputation is shaped in real time and the quieter trust builders that sustain it.