Having offices around the world is a benefit to PR firms, but keeping staff connected and informed while in different time zones can be a challenge.

The battle for Newsday continues, but Rupert Murdoch appears confident that News Corporation will win the bid for the Long Island newspaper, despite Cablevision's recent $650 million bid.

PALO ALTO, CA: Facebook hired Elliot Schrage, former VP of global communications and public affairs at Google, as its new VP of communications and public policy.

I recently spent time with a Boston University (BU) PR class of 20 or so students to discuss the profession they are likely to enter.

n a recent Corporate Profile on Fiji Water, PRWeek's Kimberly Maul wrote about a number of plans the company recently put in action to spread the message that bottled water can be good for the environment.

Tom Cruise launched TomCruise.com this week, a Web site all about the movie star and famous Scientologist.

ATLANTA: Orkin Pest Control launched a cause campaign, Fight the Bite, with a goal of raising $100,000 for 10,000 insecticide-treated bed nets for use in Africa. PR firm Jackson Spalding is handling the campaign.

Sarah Lacy recently created an uproar during her controversial keynote interview with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at South by Southwest Interactive. Lacy talks to PRWeek about what the controversy means for journalists in the era of social media, and her upcoming book Once You're Lucky. Twice You're Good that chronicles the founders of some of the most talked about Web 2.0 startups.

NEW YORK: Staples kicked off its annual Back-to-School campaign May 1 with the addition of a new cause initiative, DoSomething101. com.

WASHINGTON: The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) is launching a voter registration effort during the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas, which begins May 31 and runs through November, with the aim of rallying support for reversing or blocking federal and state laws that prohibit gambling on online poker.