Denver PR Blog

PRWeek has named Denver’s 104 West as a finalist for its Outstanding Boutique Agency award. From CEO Patrick Ward:

When we submitted our entry, we were very honest and open about some critical decisions we had made which impacted our business negatively at first, but then very positively. For those who follow our shop, we have focused very assiduously on a communications strategy that we believe fits today’s PR world and offers our clients the best way to begin and maintain conversations with their markets. We also believe that that is the essence of a boutique agency. It’s about doing something specific and doing it really well. It’s not about just being a smaller version of a big, full-service agency. And we can now presume, at some level, the judges agreed.

104 West was also named a finalist in the Best in B2B category for one of its campaigns for longtime client Magisto. Winners of both awards will be announced in March.

Linhart PR has announced it will relocate to the Industry RINO Station building at 38th and Walnut. The firm currently is housed in the historic Baur’s Building in the downtown Denver Theater District.

“Linhart PR decided to move to the new location to offer a more vibrant and collaborative space for its 16 team members. RiNo is becoming a hub for creative businesses, including communications firms, studios, art galleries, designers and photographers. The new Denver World Trade Center campus also will be directly across the street from Linhart PR’s office.”

Colorado’s Right Coast Pizza is desperately trying to climb out of the hole it created with an ad that lands somewhere between stunningly tone-deaf and racist. Also playing defense is BandWagon, Greeley’s version of Westword, for publishing the ad. Bruce Finley at The Denver Post has the details.

Gwin Johnston, the founder of JohnstonWells Public Relations, passed away Thursday. A University of Wyoming alumna, she founded her agency in Denver in 1971 and helped grow it be one of the largest and most respected in the Rocky Mountain Region.

TaRhonda Thomas’ announcement that she is leaving 9News to move to Philadelphia is a significant blow to Denver on several levels. In addition to being one of the most talented and respected journalists in town, she also is the highest-profile African-American in local TV news. Michael Roberts at Westword reports:

Her departure will leave the Mile High City with no African-American anchors at present and just three black reporters at four stations, all of whom currently have significantly smaller on-air roles than she did. … (T)he remaining three are 9News’s Eddie Randle, a reporter hired in January 2017; CBS4’s Toni Mason, a reporter who came aboard last August; and Fox31/KWGN’s Shaul Turner, a onetime anchor now working in the outlet’s Problem Solvers unit. And in Thomas’s view, that’s a shame.

“We’re a large city,” she points out, “and Denver is one of the top twenty markets in the country. The African-American population isn’t that big here, but no matter how small a population it might be, seeing someone who looks like you on TV makes you feel like you can be the way they are. I remember meeting a little girl at a gala, and her mom said, ‘She’s so excited to meet you. Every time she sees you on TV, she stops and looks. Now she wants to be on TV, and she didn’t start talking about it until she saw you do it.’ “

9News parent company Tegna tends to be as incestuous as a European royal family, and it has again stayed within its own ranks to fill the open 9News News Director position. Eric Valadez, the Executive News Director at Tegna’s Dallas affiliate, has been named news director, replacing Christy Moreno who took the President/GM job at … wait for it … Tegna’s affiliate in Lousiville.

Netflix fired Chief Communications Officer Jonathan Friedland after he used the N-word in an office meeting. Emmy Stefansky at Vanity Fair reports:

(Netflix CEO Reed) Hastings explained that Friedland had first used the word in a meeting about sensitive words a few months ago, and that he had apologized to staffers who had approached him after the meeting. Just a few days after that, Friedland had used the word again while speaking to a group of black employees who were trying to speak to him about the first incident. Hastings said in his memo that he only recently learned about the second usage, and decided to terminate Friedland’s employment.