RMR & Associates added Omega World Travel and Cruise.com ... SevenTwenty Strategies, a public relations and public affairs firm, added Sylvia Prickett and Vanessa Thebaud ... Jeff Rosenberg, VP at Crosby Marketing Communications, has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the Journalism Center on Children & Families at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism ... and, The D.C. Office of Motion Picture and Television Develop Read More »

DC's Design Army stormed Manhattan earlier this month with its unique vision during the 2012 Creative Week events. The Onederful campaign for the One Club culminated at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center during the One Show award presentation. A series of eye-catching event posters captivated pedestrians outside, while inside the Starr Theater Onederful animations brought to life the unique photography as celebrity MC Fabio hosted
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WTTG-TVs sports director Dave Feldman is leaving the station after 12 years in the D.C. market. According to a piece by Dan Steinberg in The Washington Post, it’s “yet another sign of Washington’s new sports media landscape.”

Local filmmaker Dan Cohen reached his Kickstarter goal of raising the $50,000 to help get his film, “An Article of Hope”, on Public Television. In fact, the Kickstarter campaign raised more than $51,000 from 328 donors with a day to go before it reached the "go/no go" point.

Porter Novelli has been selected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to launch $20 million multimedia education campaign related to Obama administration's Affordable Care Act  ... Crawford Public Relations announced "#AskthePRpro," a Twitter chat that lets participants pose questions on any aspect of PR and receive expert advice for free ... Levick Strategic Communications hired Jack Deschauer as a VP in the firm’s corporate practice.

Atlantic City needs to move beyond the perception that it is a “one-note town” dominated by casino gambling if it wants to revive its tourism economy, according to the area’s top marketing executives and government officials, reports the Press of Atlantic City. To that end, ACA, a marketing arm of the casino industry, has launched a $20 million ad campaign designed to reshape Atlantic City’s image and draw more visitors from throughout the Northeast, continued the report.

MDB Communications hosted the International Center for Journalists’ Serbian media delegation on May 21st. The U.S. Embassy in Belgrade made a special request for the group to visit a prominent ad agency in DC. The group was very interested in learning how a full-service U.S. ad agency works with U.S. media outlets and leverages all available media platforms to serve clients.

Environics Communications has been hired by the Epilepsy Foundation as its new PR agency ... LeapFrog Solutions added Erin Bridges and Sara Rassi ... McGinn & Company added Marjorie Eilertsen Brown ... and, OmniStudio became a marketing partner with Salsa Labs.

Baltimore magazine asked some of Baltimore's top designers to create the cover for their best-selling Best of Baltimore 2012 issue, and they’ve left it to the public to decide which design will be on the cover. The design with the most votes by June 4 will appear as the August 2012 Best of Baltimore cover. Check out the choices.

Alexandria-based Carousel30 announced the launch of its new brand, new website and accompanying structural changes, as well as two new offices.  According to a release from the agency:  “Experience, Professionalism and Family” are the key attributes and the focus of their new brand

Chuck Brown, the “Godfather of Go-Go”, died at 75.  And, his passing is being marked by the whole community. Cary Hatch, CEO of MDB Communications, told us: "Growing up in the Washington, DC region, we all knew Chuck Brown as the "Godfather of Go-Go". Brown's 1970 hit, "Busting Loose," hit #1 on the MCA charts – and was later sampled in the 2002 Nelly song, "Hot in Here," which won Nelly a Grammy. His meteoric rise to top of the charts never got in the way of Brown remembering his roots in Washington, DC.

Larry Kramer has been appointed president and publisher of USA Today ... Ron Smith will be awarded the prestigious Ted Yates Emmy for his longtime contributions to journalism ... and, Peter David, The Economist's D.C. bureau chief and Lexington columnist, died in a car accident in Virginia.

According to dcrtv.com, American University's public radio news talker, WAMU, topped the DC radio ratings for the month of April. In Baltimore, topping the ratings were WWIN-FM and WERQ.

Audi of America, Herndon, hired Joseph Jacuzzi as chief communications officer for the company ... Hager Sharp named Debra Silimeo executive vice president ... Gibraltar Associates added Brian Wagner as a senior manager ... and, American Frozen Food Institute added Adrienne Richards as director of industry and public affairs.

Ogilvy Public Relations launched a global behavior-change practice called OgilvyEngage ... Environics Communications has been hired by Bend Research ... Bendure Communications adds two clients ... and, Carousel30 opened offices in Princeton and Raleigh.

Vocus reports that online news releases just got put on steroids and entrepreneurs, small businesses and PR pros should take note. A Vocus release said that it has enhanced online visibility and social sharing for PRWeb and the update offers 200 new local distribution partners, distribution to the Internet’s top financial websites and new social-sharing features.

Five communicators made the case that social media is “where we live today” during a May 10 professional development session conducted by the Public Relations Society of America’s National Capital Chapter (PRSA-NCC). The session at the Navy Memorial, “Social Media Tips and Success Stories for PR Pros,” featured 

Barb Clapp, president and CEO of Clapp Communications, was honored May 7 as one of the Daily Record's Top-100 Women in Maryland ... Story Partners adds Lauren Pratapas, Ashley LaGanga,  Lisa Chapman and Elyse Petroni ... and, American Public University System announced the promotion of Brian Muys.

SocialCode, a social media advertising firm and subsidiary of The Washington Post Co., has hired 15 members of the engineering team from the social news site Digg, reported Hayley Tsukayama in a Post piece. In the Post story, Tsukayama reported about an interview with SocialCode chief executive Laura O’Shaughnessy who said that engineers will be working on products that compile and analyze data from social networks to help companies glean more information about their customers. (The story noted that O’Shaughnessy is the daughter of Post Chairman Donald E. Graham.)

U.S. soldiers and military retirees are mad as hell about the Defense Department’s proposed cuts to their health and retirement benefits, and the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) wants them to know they don’t have to take it anymore. In its new advertising and interactive campaign, MOAA calls active and retired officers to join the crusade to protect their benefits.

Local filmmaker Dan Cohen is trying to raise the $50,000 needed to get his film, “An Article of Hope”, on PBS … and he needs to do it by May 26. The film has been described as “a powerful story of a journey of the human spirit. It is a story that reaches across generations, and needs to be told. Three men, born at a different time in history, whose lives are woven together by a twist of fate. Now, there is a once in a lifetime opportunity to bring this documentary to millions through a national TV audience on PBS. With your help, we can raise funds to help underwrite the documentary.”

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association kicked off an ad campaign targeting legislators and regulators who reside in the D.C. area, that focuses on showing how cable operators can deliver content and services on multiple devices, including HDTVs, mobile phones and tablets, reports FierceCable, which covers the broadband cable industry.

The founders of Jess3 announced they are moving to Los Angeles next month. Co-founder Leslie Bradshaw told the Washington Post’s Capital Business that the company — a DC-based visual storyteller for corporations such as Google, Nike iD and ESPN — set up offices in Highland Park a year ago.

By Jay Morris

Washington fixture, acclaimed author and long-time political reporter Eleanor Clift described the rise, fall and turnaround of Newsweek magazine at a luncheon meeting of the Independent Public Relations Alliance (IPRA) on May 3. Tracing the arc of Newsweek from the halcyon days when it was run by Katherine Graham to its near demise two years ago

Gene Weingarten is at it again … taking on public relations practitioners. Weingarten writes a weekly “Below the Beltway” column that appears in the WP magazine that’s distributed with the Sunday edition of The Washington Post. The focus of this week’s Weingarten column is what he feels are too-basic questions asked by some PR practitioners – such as, “Which specific beats and topic areas do you cover” or “What do the best PR people do to grab you, to get your attention and make you want to work with them.”

Capitol Communicator's third annual Cinco de Mayo gathering was held on Tres de Mayo this year. Cinco de Mayo, not only fell on the weekend, but given

Leslie Aun, vice president of marketing and communications at Susan G. Komen for the Cure, will leave the organization May 15 to become vice president of communications at Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP). According to Huffington Post, she will become at least the sixth executive to leave the organization, either at headquarters or at the affiliate level, since the Planned Parenthood controversy “exploded” four months ago.

The Washington Post Company’s first-quarter earnings doubled from a year earlier, but excluding one-time items profits fell, according to a Washington Post story by Steven Mufson. Mufson’s story stated that the company’s broadcast division did well and its cable division held steady, but the Post’s once-lucrative Kaplan education unit lost money, "the flagship Washington Post newspaper weekday circulation plunged 9.8 percent to under half million, and ad revenues continued to slide both in print and online publications."

Vocus, Inc., which is based in Beltsville, announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2012. The company reported 29 percent revenue growth and raises its outlook for the year on better-than-expected results and a record number of new annual subscription customers.

The VA hired The District Communications Group to promote a service that will allow wounded veterans and their caregivers to manage healthcare needs through mobile and tablet devices ... Carton Donofrio Partners adds Language Stars to its education practice ... Ketchum/DC is rebranding its consumer health and wellness practice as Brand, Well-Connected ... Hill+Knowlton Strategies will provide PR support to the Big 12 Conference, a college athletic conference of 10 schools ... and, Adam Shapiro Read More »