PR 21, the sister company to Edelman PR Worldwide with offices in Chicago, New York and San Francisco, has opened new digs in St. Paul, Minn. According to founder and CEO Will Sullivan, the agency was established in 1998 to provide PR for the 21st century. (And we thought they were just bragging about being old enough to drink beer). Ketchum expands its healthcare expertise in Europe through an agreement with Medical Relations, Germany's largest healthcare PR firm. The partnership gives Medical Relations access to Ketchum's global resources, professional development programs and technology. Porter Novelli has signed a national contract with Nielsen Media Research to gain access to demographic data regarding TV viewing habits. According to Geri Mazur, senior VP and director of research at the agency, the Nielsen data will help Porter Novelli evaluate the extent to which its PR pitches are hitting the mark. "Numbers without a demographic context can be meaningless - and misleading," Mazur explains. "You can have a program that produces 6 million impressions, but only reaches 1 million members of the target audience." Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
(PR 21, 312/396-9732; Ketchum, 212/448-4411; Porter Novelli, 212/601-8244)