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| Marion Janic |
Rooney Partners is joining forces with investor relations agency LHA to provide integrated investor relations and public relations programs to healthcare clients. Both firms will continue to operate independently, and there are no staffing or executive changes planned. Rooney Partners partner Marion Janic says over the past two decades the firms have “informally partnered to offer integrated IR and PR services to more than 20 clients in the U.S. and Europe.” With offices in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, LHA works with public companies and those going through the IPO process. Rooney Partners provides services for companies in such market verticals as finance, healthcare, manufacturing and technology.
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IntelligenceBank has launched a “crisis communications hub,” an online platform intended to help cross-functional teams to develop unified messaging around COVID-19. The company says the platform offers one-click access to crisis statements, protocols, content and collateral. Its features include digital asset management (with crisis-specific sections for such content as media releases, customer hardship offerings, internal communications, customer communications and government relations) as well as assistance with crisis communications briefs and project management, workflow approvals, crisis brand guidelines and crisis news.
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Israeli PR technology company Propel has conducted research indicating that the volume of pitches sent to journalists has increased during the COVID-19 crisis, while the engagement by journalists with such pitches has remained stable. The study shows that so far this month, PR professionals are sending an average of 16 pitches per day to journalists, up from 14 in March, 13 in February and 10 in January. When it comes to how many of those pitches are opened, journalists polled said they opened 47 percent of pitches received in April, compared to 45 percent in March, 51 percent in February and 46 percent in January. “The pitch volume increase in April and March may indicate a rise in creative story ideas around COVID-19, or crisis management related pitches. The slightly lower but relatively equal open and response rates are likely due to journalists adjusting to remote work,” said Propel co-founder and CEO Zach Cutler. The study is based on pitches sent by over 100 U.S.-based PR professionals in 2020.
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