The first monthly episode of “For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report” features co-hosts Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz discussing the following topics:

* How China is shaping the future of shopping — it’s online, social, and highly appealing to Gen Z

* Media coverage of local news is evaporating. Should business pick up the slack?

* Customer reviews are the new content marketing, says Jay Baer

* Movements mean more than brand purpose. Just look at Pornhub’s new movement to save the bees.

* The UK government has added 12,000 pieces of information to Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa

* When you think of Augmented Reality, do you think of audio? You should.

* Dan York reports on MindNode 6, WordPress 5.2, Pocket, Minnesota’s “Right to Repair” legislation, and Mozilla’s move away from IRC.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog.

The next episode of For Immediate Release will be posted on Monday, April 29.

Links from This Week’s Episode

* The Future of Shopping Is Already Happening in China

* Warren Buffett Sees Most Newspapers as ‘Toast’ After Ad Decline

* For many rural residents in U.S., local news media mostly don’t cover the area where they live

* Why is LinkedIn producing original journalism? LinkedIn editor-at-large Jessi Hempel explains.

* The job of the future is editor in chief

* Alabama News Center

* FIR Interview with Ike Pigott on the Alabama News Center

* Customer Reviews are the New Content Marketing

* Purpose is Dead. Long Live Movements!

* Pornhub Wants to Save the Bees With (What Else?) Bee Porn

* Patagonia Takes A Stand Against Companies That Aren’t Working To Better The Environment

* UK government adds ‘12,000 pieces of information’ to Google Assistant and Alexa

* This Augmented Reality Audio Podcast Brings the Camino De Santiago to Life Everywhere

* Bose brings audio AR shades and festival content to Coachella

Links from Dan York’s Report