We can understand why the Romney/Ryan campaign might forget to cancel the obviously automated publication of its official victory website after Tuesday’s election. In this case, the team’s oversight inspired little more than snickering and/or sadness among observers. But it also serves as a useful example of the headaches that automated content, messages and responses can create for PR teams.

Automation can be a great tool, especially in the world of social media. But real-world circumstances change quickly, and a failure to re-align one’s messages in the moment can amount to a big PR fail. Let’s review some recent examples:

• Progressive Insurance responded to a massive PR headache (taking a deceased client’s estate to court to contest benefits) by…sending out a series of automated responses on Twitter. There’s no better way to confirm your status as a heartless corporation than by responding to tragedy with robotic corporate messages. You can type “our heart goes out to…” all you want, but members of the public are surprisingly adept at calling out this sort of thing.

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Diffusion, a London-based PR and Communications agency, has launched its first international office in New York. A four-strong Madison Avenue team will implement campaigns across traditional and social media channels for brands in the consumer, technology and mobile space. Diffusion’s three launch clients include mobile phone recycling pioneer SellCell.com and mobile software specialist Antenna. The agency’s US operations will be led by Diffusion co-founder Ivan Ristic and supported by Dan Tudesco, who is a new addition to the team. (Release)

Marketwire has announced the appointment of three new members to its management team: James Delaney becomes Marketwire’s chief operating officer; Jeff Bennett has been appointed senior vice president, client experience; and Victoria MacDonald is the company’s new vice president of human resources. (Release)

Harvey Kipnis has been named CEO at G2 USA. Kipnis most recently served as regional director for OgilvyOne North America; he was also chief growth officer for Ogilvy North America, and he spent 11 years in various positions at Digitas. (AgencySpy)

Jen Nedeau will join Bully Pulpit Interactive as a director on Monday. She has worked in publishing, new media and issue advocacy, and recently spent two and a half years at Time Inc. working on digital strategy and public relations for Time, Fortune, CNNMoney and Money. (Homepage)

Lindsey Benoit has been named director of communications at Women’s Health. She had been associate director at SELF. (mb)

For all the talk of smartphones and tablets, you’d think every American plugs into an iPad after work each day and that millions of PCs currently sit in the corners of our homes gathering dust. Yet a recent survey conducted by Makovsky reveals that most Americans will stick with Old Reliable when it comes to their most significant expenditures: healthcare.

Despite the vast technological advances driving the evolution of healthcare around the world, healthcare communications remains a very traditional field. The message to PR pros operating in the industry is clear: Most patients prefer old-school human interactions—and tech tools will not necessarily win the day.

We have no doubt that, at some point in the relatively near future, medical research conducted via smartphone will be so easy and common that everyone from your little brother to your grandmother will wonder why they didn’t start doing it sooner. But the Americans who spend the most money on healthcare aren’t quite ready to make that leap just yet.

Here are some of the survey’s key findings: Read more

CNN en Español has launched CNNEspanol.com.

Also, CNN made their new morning plans official this week. TVNewser talked with Soledad O’Brien about what’s changed since the last time she was on morning TV.

Daily Beast TV launches. (Clip above, which is really a clip from The Daily Show, but OK.)

The Audit Bureau of Circulations released its list of top 25 U.S. daily newspapers for the six-months ending September 30. The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and The New York Times top the list.

Fox News was tops in the ratings, with The O’Reilly Factor leading.

For more media moves and news, click through.

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