David Fenton has sold Fenton Communications, a leading progressive PR firm, after a 33-year run.
James Marcus, ex-investment banker and head of Fenton Studios, and Craig Leach, founder of Collegium, and CEO of Graham-Pelton Consulting CEO, are new owners.
Bill Werde, editorial director and eight-year veteran of Billboard, takes the CEO slot.
He expanded the music trade magazine Billboard into the digital/social/TV/video/events platforms and wrote for the New York Times, Rolling Stone and Wired.
Fenton, 62, will continue at the firm as founder and chairman.
He views Marcus, Leach and Werde as "the next guardians of our public-interest mission and values."
Fenton will focus his energy on climate change, which he considers the No. 1 communications challenge.
The firm has more than 60 staffers in Washington, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
It is joining the Collegium network of communications firms offering services to foundations, non-profits and corporate social responsibility/sustainability programs.
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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