What to watch today: Trump’s victory lap. President-elect Donald Trump is scheduled to take a bow for saving 1,000 Carrier jobs—though critics note the details are more complicated—in Indiana on Thursday. The stop is a sneak peak at how Trump may theatrically use the presidency’s bully pulpit, according to the Associated Press. The president-elect is also set to visit Cincinnati on the first leg of his "thank you" tour today.
Last night: Take a bow, Pat Ford. The longtime Burson-Marsteller executive received the Alexander Hamilton Medal at the Institute for Public Relations’ annual dinner in New York on Wednesday night with a gracious speech. Earlier in the day at the IPR Research Symposium, Golin CEO Fred Cook was blunt about what communicators need to do in the next half-decade: "My outlook on the future of PR is simply that PR needs more balls, and I translate balls to mean courage."
With @fordpat, the winner of the Alexander Hamilton Medal, @InstituteForPR's highest honor for practitioners. Congrats, Pat! #IPR60Years https://t.co/qa8bglTywB
— Josh Ferrari (@JoshFerrari) December 1, 2016
What Jim VandeHei’s media startup might look like. Many of the details about Politico cofounder Jim VandeHei’s next venture are under wraps, though it does have a name: Axios. Speaking at Recode’s Evening with Code Media event on Wednesday night, he said the outlet will initially be advertising-funded, but he expects it to eventually haul in very big—$10,000!—subscriptions. Former Playbook author Mike Allen and Fortune alum Dan Primack are among Axios’ first 27 employees.
Sandberg donating fortune to charity. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg is planning to give away about $100 million in the company’s stock to charities such as Lean In and anti-poverty group Second Harvest Food Bank, according to Securities and Exchange Commission documents cited by Recode. She’s also planning to rename her foundation after her late husband.
How Russia spread fake news before the election. Two U.S. intelligence officials gave BuzzFeed a deep dive into how they believe Russian counterparts weaponized fake news as pro-Trump propaganda during the presidential election. "This is beyond propaganda; that’s my understanding," one told the website.
