 Alfred Leach |
MMI rebrands as BAERING. The renamed firm will be providing advisory, strategic communications and creative services for a variety of clients in North Carolina’s Research Triangle region. In addition to taking on a new name and visual identity, the firm is moving from Cary, North Carolina to Raleigh. The new name—a hybrid of “Faering,” an early ship used in Viking sea exploration, and the directional term “bearing”—is meant to reflect the firm’s ability to provide clients with counsel and direction through uncharted challenges and opportunities. “Baering is a new breed of agency,” said president and chief strategy officer Alfred Leach. “With accountability center stage, C-suite leaders require trusted advisors who understand the unique challenges they face. This is our currency and what Baering is built to deliver.”
 Jonathan Goldman |
Fenton created a partnership with Change Research, a public interest corporation that says it offers fast, affordable and accurate political polling at a 90% discount on traditional polling. Started by former LinkedIn data scientists Jonathan Goldman and Mike Greenfield, and PR & Company founder Pat Reilly, Change Research uses proprietary techniques that aim to combine the speed and low cost of online polls with the scientific approach of traditional phone surveys. The company is working on races in New Jersey and Virginia for this election cycle, as well as with issue-advocacy non-profits across the country.
 Audra & Jim Weiss |
W2O Group and Syracuse University will mark fifth anniversary of the W2O-Newhouse Center for Social Commerce with festivities slated from Nov. 8-10. W2O founder/CEO Jim Weiss and wife, Audra, both Syracuse graduates, established the Center, at SU's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, in 2012. “Given the transformative nature of business, we believed it was imperative to create a mechanism to educate the next generation of communications professionals to excel in a social and digital environment,” said Jim Weiss. An evening event, “Making Data Work: Marketing, Public Relations and Organizational Health,” will run at the Newhouse School’s Joyce Hergehan Auditorium from 6-7:30 p.m. on November 9, and is open to the public (no tickets necessary). In addition to Jim Weiss, the speakers will be Mike Fay, VP-communications, IBM; Gulden Mesara, VP health & commercial communications, AbbVie; and Melanie Marcus, chief marketing officer, Surescripts. Information is at http://socialcommerce.syr.edu/.
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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