 Rich Katz |
Buffalo.Agency has launched Buffalo.Bureau, a newsroom-style integration of PR, branding and analytics. It is meant to function as a centralized hub for communications strategy, as well as story development and delivery to editorial media. Buffalo founder and managing director Rich Katz will serve as editor-in-chief with senior VP Kristen Ingraham as bureau chief and Buffalo veteran David Griffith as executive editor. Buffalo managing director Kyle Ragsdale, one of The Bureau’s architects, brings newsroom experience to the endeavor, having been top revenue and finance officer at Vox Media and publisher of SB Nation, in addition to holding positions at The Verge, Recode, Eater, Polygon and others. “A newsroom model allows us to filter and fine-tune story ideation and media relations through a team of seasoned PR experts,” says Katz. “The result is an even more sophisticated approach to earned media programs for our clients.”
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Blink OnDemand Crisis PR™ has released what it calls the world’s first-ever crisis PR planning and response software system. The cloud-based system leads users through team role definition, risk assessment, spokesperson training, stakeholder identification, media response and reputation recovery. Developed by Laurel Kennedy and Paula Hahn, who have worked at such agencies as Edelman, Ketchum and Porter Novelli, it offers worksheets, tutorials, editorial and examples designed for team execution. “Companies spend a small fortune building their brands, and then fail to protect them from a crisis,” said Kennedy. “The Blink OnDemand Crisis PR system acts like ‘brand insurance’, enabling the company to stage a thoughtful, multi-layered response to a media crisis, minimizing its duration and impact on the business and the brand.”
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BackBay Communications will return as a sponsor of the annual Venture Capital & Private Equity Conference, a student club conference at Harvard Business School. The event, now in its 24th year, will take place on Saturday, Jan. 27. Conference panels will feature leading alternative investment professionals, with topics to include growth equity, cross border investing, diversity in private equity, turnarounds, operational value creation, healthcare, technology and consumer. “It is a pleasure to sponsor this event each year and to work closely with HBS students to help raise awareness of the conference among the media and broader alternative investing community,” said BackBay president and CEO Bill Haynes. BackBay has also served as PR/Marketing partner for several private equity and VC industry associations, universities and data providers including ACG Global, London Business School Private Equity Conference, Northeastern University Alternatives Conference, PitchBook, SuperReturn, Yale Private Equity Conference and Wharton Private Equity Conference.
 Angie Schneider |
Spry app is launched to bring the structure of the gig economy to PR agencies and the talent they need to realize their projects. The app offers what the company says is “a fast, efficient and effective way to leverage the highly qualified independent workforce.” With the Spry Client app, firms can specify what they need by typing in their request and Spry’s proprietary algorithm links them up with freelance talent that has registered through the Spry Workforce app. The free Spry Client and Spry Workforce apps are available through the App Store on iTunes. Spry founder and CEO Angie Schneider was formerly at Porter Novelli as partner and president, Asia Pacific region.
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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