Communication Companies Enter into Partnerships
Public Communications/West, Santa Fe, Calif., combined last month its high-tech marcom firm with advertising agency Zerovnik & Co., Upland, Calif. PC/W brought Greg Zerovnik on board as vice president, executive creative director, of the newly formed business, which will operate under the name PC/W. Terms of the joint venture didn't call for PC/W to acquire Zerovnik's assets or liabilities -- rather it called for Zerovnik to bring his clients on board at PC/W and to strengthen PC/W's graphic/design/creative capabilites. (PC/W, 310/944-4626)
Communication management firm Bozell Sawyer Miller Group, New York, has formed a strategic alliance and joint operating agreement with Temerlin McClain PR of Dallas, a PR shop specializing in corporate and crisis communications and non-profit and community relations. BSMG will share clients/projects with Temerlin and will make referrals to Temerlin. (Bozell Sawyer Miller Group, 202/739-0207)
Lassalle Advertising PR, based in Baltimore, has acquired the PR firm Craig Altschul + Associates Inc., Manchester City, Vermont, increasing its number of employees from five to eight. The Lassalle portion of the operation will continue to be headed out of Maryland and the Altschul side of the business will remain headquartered in Vermont.
The acquisition also called for Altschul's principals, Craig Altschul and Peggi Simmons, to be brought on as principals, along with Lassalle and senior account executive Dean Johnson. (Lassalle Altschul, 800/258-1505)
Business Wire Enters Texas
Business Wire, the San Francisco-based international media relations wire service, launched its Texas operation by setting up an office in San Antonio on Feb. 3. (Business Wire, 212/752-9600)
Financial Network Launched
On Jan. 27, New York-based Trimedia Inc. unveiled the formation of GFC/Net, the Global Financial Communication Network linking independent PR consultancies in 10 of the world's key financial centers: New York, Brussels, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Paris, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Zurich. (Trimedia Inc., 212/888-6115)
Medialink Goes Public
Medialink Worldwide Inc., a provider of corporate news to the public by TV and radio newscasts, publicly offered on Jan. 30, 2 million shares of Common Stock at a price of $9 per share for an an aggregate of $18 million. The stock is traded in the NASDAQ market under MDLK. (Medialink, 212/682-8300)
Public Affairs at Its Finest?
PoliticsNow, found at http://www.politicsnow.com, has published on its site a list of individuals and corporations invited to 103 private coffee meetings at the White House from 1995 through 1996 that resulted in $27 million of "soft money" contributions to the Democratic National Committee. This site is a good example of the power of the Internet as a public affairs medium.
PR for politics or PR? Stanley Collender, managing director of the Federal Budget Consulting Group at Burson-Marsteller, Washington, D.C., found a way to capitalize on Clinton's new budget proposal, released last week. Days before the budget was announced, Collender issued a press release saying he was available for comment.
By the end of the week, he had been contacted by at least 30 journalists, including reporters at The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and CNN. (BM, 202/530-4618)
A PR Resource on the Net
Communication execs can bookmark this online site as a resource: http://www.spokespersons.com.
Spokespersons Plus Network's President Deborah Durham launched the site Feb.1. It's a network where you can tap into information and profiles on more than 300 consumer experts who can be hired as spokespeople. (SPN, 310/573-2173)