the first thing you have to do is check the new inside-view information available and see what's really going on.

Isn't it "cultish" to assume that an organization could do anything better than the high-status Academia? :P

Because many people seem to worry about publishing, I would probably treat it as another form of PR. PR is something that is not your main reason to exist, but you do in anyway, to survive socially. Maximizing the academic article production seems to fit here: it is not MIRI's goal, but it would help to get MIRI accepted (or maybe not) and it would be good for advertising.

Therefore, AcademiaPR should be a separate department of MIRI, but it definitely should exist. It could probably be done by one person. The job of the person would be to maximize MIRI-related academic articles, without making it too costly for the organization.

One possible method that didn't require even five minutes of thinking: Find smart university students who are interested in MIRI's work but want to stay in academia. Invite them to MIRI's workshops, make them familiar with what MIRI is doing but doesn't care about publishing. Then offer them to become co-authors by taking the ideas, polishing them, and getting them published in academic journals. MIRI gets publications, the students get a new partially explored topic to write about; win/win. Also known as "division of labor".