For Throw Back Thursday, take a look at the 1986 O'Dwyer's PR Firm Rankings as Hill+Knowlton led the charge with just over $100M in billings. In a time before conglomerates swept in to acquire the largest agencies (and forbid them from submitting rankings data), Burson-Marsteller, Ogilvy, Ketchum, Fleishman-Hillard were among the top 10.
Today's reigning king, Edelman, now topping $700M, was at a modest $20.9M. (Here's this year's rankings list by comparison.) 
DJE Holdings, parent of Edelman and Zeno, launches RUTH as an independent shop named after Ruth Edelman, mental health advocate, wife and longtime business partner of Dan Edelman.
New York City PR firms make up the largest slice of O'Dwyer's 147 firm overall ranking with 33 of 40 in the New York/New Jersey area either calling Manhattan their home or having a presence there.
Subject Matter+Kivvit, which joined forces in May, has rebranded as Avoq, an integrated shop with more than 200 professionals in Washington, New York, Asbury Park (NJ), Miami and Chicago.
While PR pros stationed at in-house comms. teams and those working for agencies share many of the same objectives, they also have markedly different top priorities, according to a recent report.
Edelman is cutting 240 employees or about four percent of its workforce to cope with the cooling down of the PR sector, according to a memo from CEO Richard Edelman.
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