Dear {{ first_name | reader }},
This isn't a regular edition. No crisis debrief, no framework, no research findings. Just a tool and an honest explanation of why it exists.
A few weeks ago I built something. A structured AI skill, a set of instructions you install into Claude, that turns it into a sharp-elbowed press release editor.
The kind that refuses to start writing until it's asked you the uncomfortable questions. The kind that bans 'world-class' and 'innovative' and 'we are committed to transparency'. 🥱
The kind that forces you to answer who your real audience is – not the journalist but the person behind the journalist – and what exactly you want them to think, feel, or do differently.
It took a while to get right. It has been battle tested. I'm giving it away for free.
Here's why.
I wrote a few weeks ago about the line between intelligence and judgement, the argument that AI is absorbing the pattern-recognition, research, and formatting work of our profession, leaving the strategic calls to those who have the experience to make them.
Press releases were right there in my argument. I called it intelligence work. I'll go further: writing them is not a value-added activity. It never really was. It was always the thinking behind them that mattered; the audience, the angle, the judgement call about what to say and what to leave out.
But here's what I didn't say clearly enough: intelligence work done badly still causes damage.
A press release written by someone who doesn't understand the audience chain fails the organisation it was supposed to serve. A quote that sounds like it was written by a committee rather than a human being erodes credibility quietly, over time, in ways that are hard to trace back to the source.
The skill exists because there's a right way and a wrong way to do even the operational work. And because a generation of communicators (the one I wrote about, the one that deserves better tools than we had) shouldn't have to learn the hard way that 'innovative solutions provider' is a phrase that makes journalists delete emails.
So. Here it is.
How to install it (takes about a minute):
The skill is a .skill file designed for Claude (claude.ai). You'll need a free account if you don't have one.
Download the file from the link above.
Go to claude.ai and open Settings.
Find the Skills section and click Add Skill.
Upload the .skill file.
Done. Start a new conversation and ask Claude to help you write a press release. It will take it from there.
It works on the free plan. No technical knowledge needed.
One thing before you hit send on anything it produces.
This is a skill, not a ghostwriter. It will ask better questions than most briefing forms. It will flag the gobbledygook before it infects your draft. It will push you to think about the real audience, not just the journalist.
But the judgement is still yours. The answers to those questions are still yours. And whatever comes out the other end needs your eyes, your experience, and your sign-off before it goes anywhere near a journalist.
Generating and copy-pasting is not a communications strategy. It is a liability. The skill is there to make you think more clearly, not to think for you.
If you use it, I'd genuinely like to know what you think. Reply to this email. I read everything.
Have a great weekend.
Philippe
P.S. If you missed the long read on AI, judgement, and why I'm optimistic about the next generation of crisis communicators, it's here: https://www.wagthedog.io/p/long-read-what-ai-sacred-cows-and-the-next-generation-have-in-common — it's the context behind this tool.