Amy Rosenberg

There’s something about September that makes me want to get my s**t together.

Apparently Virgo season agrees.

This month’s Visibility Vibes start with that back-to-it energy before Libra season arrives later in September and turns more of our attention toward other people.

September is a good time for thought leaders and communicators to get a little more organized, then get back out there and connect with the people who can help move things along.

If you need a little motivation from the stars or a gut check from the skies, September’s PR horoscopes are up now. ⭐️

https://www.veracityagency.com/visibility-vibes/september-2026-pr-horoscopes/

Mine to Keep

As I become sick of my own soul-stripped voice, my fingers turn back to a fully-blank page, not the little box on the helper’s screen, and suddenly I’ve regressed back to that first day in PR, hands shaking as I set down the words “for immediate release,” the screen staring back at me, without any input to offer.

Telling myself I am not a born writer, I continuously harken back to second grade. I wrote simply about a princess whose magical red shoes took her places beyond our realm. An original perfectionist, a picture of the princess, clad in pink dress and red shoes, floated underneath a sky adorned with bluejays and a rainbow, each color carefully arched next to the other. I won second place in this contest, the only thing I ever entered.

My writing took a back seat to filling clear plastic containers with eraser dust and getting just the right angle on the yellow tetherball to sail it high above my competitor’s fingertips. Then I stumbled into a job that asked me to write. Not the purple prose kind, but the Hemingwayesque type that stuck to the facts and got to the point. Sometimes the hardest to grasp.

I learned on the job, appreciating harsh critique and refining my skill through practice. But nothing taught me better, or filled me better, than reading. My first boss said it simply: to learn how to write, you must read. This is not new advice, but the importance builds when it comes from your boss.

So I read here and there, poolside on a lounge chair or cozied up on an afternoon. But it wasn’t until I was saddled with postpartum insomnia that I read regularly to quiet my brain into sleep. The crutch became a ritual that became a lifeline to worlds beyond myself, deeply enhancing my life.

Today I feel that slipping away as I read, still nightly. My second most important possession has become a $99 kindle that offers a dark cocoon of escape, all the books at my fingertips. With so much access, I can flit around, quickly leaving them if the prose falls flat or the plot stalls slightly. Without feeling the bulk of the thing, the thickness in what's to come and the thinness in what has passed, my eyes skip ahead of the nuance, quickening their pace to get to the end, to the next adventure waiting in the queue.

Reading on print has become a decadent weekend activity, much like how writing with my own brain has become a luxury of the past. It was only 15 months ago that I published my second book when my foray into using AI to write really began. I wrote the whole dang book myself until coming to the end, when I included a chapter on AI at the risk of appearing archaic.

I practiced using the tools to have something to write about, handing pesky chapter introductions and trite conclusions over to my “boyfriend,” as I called it for a while. This brought more than ease to my workflow, the output seemed better than my own words.

After the book was published, AI helped me transform the chapters into blog posts. They were coming from my original work, so how off could they be? I hardly had to think, it was so easy. But the other day, I stumbled upon one of my AI-written posts out in the wild, and instantly recoiled. It sounded like the type of marketing copy that used to make me cringe.

And now here I am, staring at a blank screen, feeling the pull of the little helper that could surely say all this for me, just better and faster, right? Wrong.

I’m about to enter into a fight in which only the most dedicated, diligent, and perhaps unnecessarily stubborn will win. Those of us who fall easily to crutches, but still care about our writing skills, may have to protect our brains at all costs. This could mean completely abstaining from using AI to write at all.

I’m on a quest to build back the skills I have lost in this fast-paced, flat-screened society, and protect what’s mine to keep. I’ve done harder things. And besides, I simply can’t stand the sound of my AI-voice.

Why is no one talking about this?

Muck Rack’s State of PR survey is out and all anyone can talk about is our supposed stress level and preoccupation with AI.

Did anyone notice that our involvement with ESG and DEI has fallen to the BOTTOM OF THE LIST of what we spend our time on as PR professionals?

And did anyone else notice that we forecasted these entities as our LEAST IMPORTANT priority over the next five years?

Muck Rack, where did ESG and DEI rank previously, like before the anti-woke crusade?

State of PR survey: https://muckrack.com/resources/research/state-of-pr

The smartest person in the room isn’t always the best person to put in front of a reporter.

Some experts know so much that it’s hard for them to get to the point. Others are great speakers but don’t necessarily have much to say.

The best spokespeople can do both. They know their subject, but they can also figure out what matters to the conversation, answer the question in front of them and give a reporter something they can actually use.

I wrote about what makes a good spokesperson and how a little preparation can make someone much better in an interview without making them sound scripted.

Read it here: https://www.veracityagency.com/thought-leadership/why-some-experts-make-great-spokespeople-and-others-dont/

The Thinking Behind Great Writing

The best writers are more than writers. They're lifelong learners with an incredible ability to absorb complex information, ask thoughtful questions and connect ideas across disciplines. That's Josh Friesen.

Veracity's senior writer for more than a decade, Josh is also the founder of BlueHouse Writing. Whether we're tackling highly technical subjects or deeply nuanced stories, he interviews clients, synthesizes complex information and turns it into content that earns media placements, award wins and gets discovered across search engines and LLMs.

Our clients also genuinely enjoy working with him!

One of my favorite parts of writing these each month is noticing how the astrology shapes the theme.

August doesn't feel like a fresh start or an ending. It feels like the moment when creative ideas begin turning into real momentum.

That's the thread running through this month's PR Horoscopes: From Ideas to Action.

Whether you're pitching a new idea, building your reputation or simply figuring out what's next, I hope your sign gives you something to think about.

I'd love to hear whether yours resonates.

Read them here: https://www.veracityagency.com/visibility-vibes/august-2026-pr-horoscopes-from-ideas-to-action/

What do LLMs love?

Cailyn Tegel and I met up in Minneapolis for the PRSA Midwest District Conference, and this session validated a lot of what I've been learning about AI visibility.

Not every piece of content has the same chance of showing up in AI-generated answers.

One point Iris Shaffer of APCO shared aligned with what I've been researching: today's large language models generally can't access content that's behind subscription paywalls.

That doesn't diminish publications like The Wall Street Journal. They're still valuable for credibility, reputation and traditional SEO. But when it comes to content LLMs can actually access, Iris noted they often favor:

• Trade publications and niche industry websites.
• Clear, unbranded headlines.
• Smart brevity.
• Original research, data reports and comparison pages.
• Content backed by numbers and evidence.

It reinforced something I've come to believe: AI visibility isn't about chasing one tactic. It's about understanding how different types of content contribute to visibility in different ways.