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ASTRSK PR’s 6th Annual Pro-Bono PR search is accepting applications now through April 15. The selected winner of the contest, which is aimed at raising the profile of underrepresented founders and their companies in the media, will receive one year of public relations services from the agency, valued at over $200,000. To qualify, applicants must be: a woman and/or a BIPOC, AAPI, LGBTQIA+ founder; an “early stage” startup that has not raised more than $1.5M in funding and a consumer-facing brand (no B2B solutions or offerings). The winner is selected by the ASTRSK team and judges including Marlon Nichols, founding managing partner at MaC Venture Capital; Shanté Cosme, chief content officer at Global Press Journal and former editor-in-chief at Mic.; and Refinery29 senior editor Hannah Rimm, Senior Editor at Refinery29. To date, ASTRSK has awarded over $1 million dollars in pro bono PR to underrepresented founders.
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Press Hook, a tech-enabled media relations platform connecting brands and journalists, launches its AI Media List Generator. Leveraging the machine learning algorithms from GPT-4, the generator allows PR professionals to pinpoint and target the most relevant journalists and media outlets. “With our powerful machine learning techniques and early access to GPT-4, we provide our clients with a comprehensive solution, saving them valuable time and resources,” said Press Hool founder Michelle Songy. Press Hook also provides such AI capabilities as AI pitches, press release generators and AI source requests.
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The 2023 IPREX Annual Global Conference was held March 1-3 in New Delhi. The conference, attended by more than 25 partners and guests from across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States, discussed topics such as the emergence and adoption of AI within the communications field, the importance of leading with trust in organizations of any size, and best practices in cross-cultural communication between Indian and Western markets and brands. “The 40th anniversary conference took place during the March G20 Summit events also happening in New Delhi and was a perfect moment for our delegates to experience the start of India’s G20 presidency as the country aims to modernize to build a greener future for itself and the world,” said IPREX global president Julie Exner. From May 17-19, leaders from IPREX agencies will join in Kansas City for its International Leadership Development Conference.
Precision Strategies, an integrated strategy and marketing agency with offices in Washington and New York, acquires Firehouse Strategies, a DC-based public affairs firm... AVENIR GLOBAL acquires London-based Thinks Insight & Strategy... Good Company, which bills itself as a “cultural engineering firm,” is launched by DJ Hardy, a veteran of Johannesburg-based communications consultancy arxna and M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment and Casey Stickles, who has worked at 5WPR, Rubenstein and MWW.
PSC (Princeton Strategic Communications) acquires Nonprofit Partners... CG Life launches 24/364, a cultural brand platform intended to drive awareness, connection and action aimed at keeping rare disease at the forefront of the health and social conversation... Interluxe Group, which focuses on brand experiences and in-person activations; Quinn, a strategic communications agency; and media and digital agency North & Warren are uniting under the Interluxe Group banner.
KITH, which provides corporate reputation and crisis preparation services, is now owned by CEO Stephanie Craig, who has been with the firm since 2021... The Marketing Cloud, a part of Stagwell, introduces several expansions to Agent Cloud, the platform it launched in October 2025 to simplify access to its AI tools and marketing assistants.... Notified launches its AI Press Release Optimizer.
V2 Communications launches its AI Visibility Solution and Earned Media at Scale, two service offerings designed to help companies increase visibility and credibility in generative search... The Public Relations Global Network brings on Greenough Communications as its Boston member agency... DBC is relaunching The DBC Industry Calendar as a free site to help communicators more easily discover relevant events and awards in the cluttered event landscape driven by the growth of webinars and online events. 
PAN releases new original research showing that a significant share of B2B citations surfaced by ChatGPT are inaccurate, misattributed or entirely fabricated, introducing a new credibility risk for brands... REQ, which has offices in DC and San Diego, opens in Phoenix... Notified introduces Market Intelligence, an addition to its all-in-one IR Hub, which gives IR teams a more streamlined way to prepare for earnings calls.
