Solomon McCown &

Solomon McCown (www.solomonmccown.com), a Boston-based national public relations firm specializing in strategic communications, media relations, public affairs, and crisis management, announced today the opening of its new office in New York City.

Solomon McCown has a track record of working with clients in Boston, New York and Washington, D.C., so the new office is a natural progression that will enable the firm to be closer to existing and prospective clients, as well as established real estate, financial services and healthcare companies, key growth areas for the agency as it celebrates its 10th year in business in 2013.

"As a native New Yorker, I'm excited to put a stake in the ground in New York City," said Helene Solomon, CEO of Solomon McCown & Company.  "While our business continues to grow all over the country, we believe there are targeted opportunities in New York to parlay our expertise in health care reform, real estate permitting and marketing, crisis communications and litigation relations," she added.

The firm has experienced tremendous growth in the last two years, and has already hired 6 new employees in 2013.

The new office will be led by Jonathan Pappas, a seasoned agency veteran who brings a compelling mix of agency, corporate, and real estate experience to New York City.

"We also recognize the importance of having a presence here to provide our clients with an even higher level of service," said Jonathan Pappas, Senior Account Supervisor.  "I look forward to bringing our Boston energy to the media and business capital of the world."  The office is located at 250 Park Avenue.

Click here to watch a short video on the Top 10 reasons Solomon McCown put down roots in the Big Apple.

About Solomon McCown

Based in Boston, Solomon McCown (SM&) delivers strategic communications, media relations, public affairs and crisis management services to regional and national clients facing complex, mission-critical issues. We thrive at the intersection of public policy and business, helping corporations and institutions achieve the definition, recognition and protection needed to meet their goals. Since its founding in 2003, SM& has earned its place among the top public relations firms with award-winning work (70 to be exact) on behalf of some of the most renowned and forward thinking enterprises in the region and nation.

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We all know social media has changed brand communications and crisis management. The latest example of the trend is Disney. Account Coordinator Amey Owen reflects on the issue:

Recently, Disney crowned Merida, the main character of the popular Walt Disney Pixar movie "Brave," the 11th Princess in the Disney brand. To conform Merida to the appearance of the other princesses, Disney redesigned her to have a more slender waist, slightly larger bust, make-up, tamer hair, and no appearance of her trademark weaponry.

Soon after this change was made, social media buzzed as thousands of people, predominately women, voiced opposition to the princess's redesigned appearance. This buzz quickly let to a Change.org online petition ("Disney: Say No to the Merida Makeover, Keep Our Hero Brave!"), which gained over 213,300 signatures in less than two weeks. Talk about a movement.

Despite initially refusing to budge (issuing a statement saying that the "new" Merida "remains the same strong and determined Merida from the movie whose inner qualities have inspired moms and daughters around the world"), Disney ultimately responded to the outcry by quietly returning Merida to her original character design on their official princess website.

As one pundit added, "Social media obviously allows for rapid fire communication, and when savvy opponents got wind of what Disney was planning, they took the now well worn path of Twitter, Facebook and online campaigns and created an online buzz that Disney couldn't ignore."

Lesson learned?

Social media changes the pace of everything. Twitter and Facebook have made it incredibly easy for people to express their concerns, vent even more if frustrations go unanswered, and team up with like-minded people to create change - all with a few keystrokes and a click of a button.

This creates uncomfortable situations for brands caught in crossfire and emphasizes the growing need for crisis communications. Social media cannot-and should not-be ignored. To keep up with the often explosive nature of social media, businesses need to proactively listen and be prepared with clear messaging to provide consumers and/or customers with an answer.

We have all sat in a medical office at some point listening to our doctor give us a diagnosis and then telling us how to proceed.  Because doctors dedicate such a large portion of their adult life to their medical education, we often blindly follow their advice without discussing the options. But that is all changing as the realities of an unsustainable health care system set in and monumental changes abound.

This month's cover story in Hospitals & Health Networks is about why shared decision making is a model to help the health care industry transition into a system that rewards value and quality of care.  While the article focuses on involving the patient in decision making about their medical treatment, the underlying theme of both shared decision making and value based care is consumer education.  How can a patient appropriately and accurately participate in a conversation with their doctor about their care options without truly understanding the system? And how can physicians who have dedicated their lives to medicine trust a patient to make an informed medical decision?

It all comes back to education - teaching patients how health care works, what it costs, what questions to ask their doctors and giving them the confidence to be a part of the decision making process.  And teaching providers to listen to their patients, identify their health goals, and move beyond the clinical diagnosis is key to truly making the patient part of the experience. To make value based care work, physicians and patients need to change the way they interact. There is more to this transition than new models of care. To make value based care work, we need to make cultural changes so that patients are encouraged to be part of their care.

The Informed Medical Decisions Foundation encourages the use of "decision aids" which help patients learn about their diagnosis and the possible treatments. The National Institute of Health has joined the movement by empowering patients to speak up in the doctor's office and provides tips about how to talk to your doctor.

While the industry understands the need to involve consumers in health care and educate them to make more informed decisions, it is not happening in reality.  A recent Kaiser Health News tracking poll found that 42 percent of Americans are unsure if Obamacare is even still a law and who can blame them with the House of Representatives voting for the 37th time to repeal it. But for a value based system to work, consumers have to be engaged.  And for consumer to be engaged, they have to understand how health care works.

by Alicia Bandy, SM& Senior Account Executive

Earlier this week, actress Angelina Jolie stunned the world when she wrote in a New York Times op-ed that she recently opted to have a preventative double mastectomy to lower her high genetic risk of breast cancer. Jolie has been lauded for her bravery in stepping forward and discussing a very personal choice, thus sparking a larger conversation about the decisions we make when it comes to preserving our health.

There is much to admire from a public relations standpoint in Jolie's announcement as well:

• Pick the right medium. Instead of issuing a statement through a publicist, Jolie broke the news in one of the world's most respected newspapers, allowing her a venue to explain her reasoning in detail.
• Control the message. Jolie and her partner Brad Pitt are frequent tabloid fodder, so it's surprising that none of the gossip magazines picked up on her hospitalizations during the mastectomy process. (Maybe they were too busy chasing leads on Beyonce's rumored pregnancy?)
• Build on your reputation. Celebrity doesn't automatically land an op-ed in the Times, but Jolie has built a reputation for bringing attention to not just her next movie, but serious humanitarian issues. The actress has been a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations since 2001, personally visiting troubled areas of the world to bring media attention to these areas.
• Be honest. Jolie's op-ed is uncomfortable to read in places due to its brutal description of the operations she underwent and the tough questions her children asked about her risk of dying young like their grandmother. It makes the op-ed more powerful while breaking all the news about her operation at once.

We wish Jolie a healthy future, and look forward to seeing how she uses her celebrity to draw attention to women's health and other important issues in the future.

By Amy Derjue, Senior Account Executive

SM& President and crisis communications expert Ashley McCown was a guest blogger on the Greater Boston Real Estate Board's blog providing key takeaways for the real estate industry in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon attack.

Click here to read the blog.

We cannot believe that it has already been nearly a month since the tragic events at the Boston Marathon, but we are more proud than ever of how our community has come together to help the victims and their families and to support the businesses affected by this senseless tragedy.  And the PR community is no different which is why we are excited to co-host Boston PRoud - an evening to raise money for One Fund Boston.

More than 30 Boston-area PR firms have partnered to co-host the event, which will take place on May 29th at the Back Bay Social Club and Lir from 5PM to 8PM.

So far, over 400 people have registered to attend. A $20 cash donation is requested, with 100 percent of proceeds directly benefiting One Fund Boston.  The event will include a cash bar, raffle prizes donated by event co-hosts and hors d'oevres (sponsored by PR Newswire).

We would love for you to join us for a night of fun and networking in support of a great cause. Register online here. We look forward to seeing you!

It was unintended symbolism: Mayor Thomas Menino speaking at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce's Annual Meeting - not from the stage where other powerful dignitaries addressed the 1,500 attendees, but from the floor of the Convention Center hall, visible because his image was fed onto giant screens looming above the crowd.

"If you see anybody out there being negative about Boston, step on them," Menino urged the leaders of the city's most influential businesses and institutions.

In that moment, two decades of Boston's political past crystallized. Here was the quintessential "strong mayor," the self-styled urban mechanic who had firmly grasped the city's levers of power and imagery since 1993, unapologetically preaching defiant optimism despite being forced to step down from the spotlight.

Just 12 hours earlier, four leading journalists had debated the positives - and the negatives - that will shape the future of Boston at a panel discussion hosted by Solomon McCown & Company and attended by nearly 150.

With the city preparing to elect only its fourth mayor in 45 years, the SM& Presents event surfaced concerns ranging from leadership styles and Boston's vanishing middle class to the chronic challenges affecting planning, mass transit and public education.

"Given time, dedication and opportunity, a mayor can have a profound impact on the fabric of city," said Meghna Chakrabarti, co-host of WBUR's Radio Boston, who praised Menino's impact on commercial development.

But Chakrabarti also wondered aloud whether "a city can outgrow its mayor" and whether the next mayor might do more to position Boston as "a world-class city."

Referring to a 2012 study by the Boston Indicators Project depicting the widening income gap that parallels the loss of manufacturing jobs, Paul McMorrow, associate editor of CommonWealth magazine, expressed concern that Boston could come to resemble "ancient Rome" - a city of "the wealthy, the not wealthy and no one in between."

McMorrow pinpointed public education as "the big lever a mayor can pull" to recruit and retain a new generation of middle class families.

NECN Business Editor Peter Howe lauded Menino's unique ability to "make people feel good about themselves" and said the biggest challenge for the next mayor may be to "not screw up" the positive momentum the city seems to have achieved.

But Howe also complained about the chronic inability of mass transit to work efficiently on behalf of residents in the city's working class and minority neighborhoods.

"MBTA riders are the most shockingly under-utilized political force in the state," he said, calling for a concerted effort to "rebuild trust" in the MBTA by solving basic service problems and rooting out perceived waste and favoritism.

With a new school superintendent and a new student assignment plan looming on the city's horizon, Boston Globe columnist Joanna Weiss said, "Reforming education will require a big vision from the next mayor."

Good urban schools are integral to the growth and vitality of strong neighborhood communities, argued Weiss, who also spoke passionately about the need to address several emerging public health issues among young women in the city's poorer neighborhoods.

"It's striking to me that Mayor Menino has not hand-picked or groomed anyone to continue his legacy," she added. "It will be left to the public to winnow through this vast group of candidates... and they could pick someone very different."

By Ed Cafasso, Senior Vice President at Solomon McCown & Company

Last night, SM&'s Catherine Blancard attended Root Cause's Social Innovation Forum. The Forum provides a unique opportunity for innovative nonprofit organizations and social enterprises to gain visibility, expand their networks, and build capacity through funding support. Similar to a venture capital round table in the financial industry, the entrepreneurs pitch their model to a crowd of funders in hopes of attracting investment or other support.

Launched in 2003, the Forum has been working to create a social impact market that distributes resources to organizations based on performance in order to most efficiently and effectively solve social problems in Greater Boston. It strives to build a social impact investment community that will invest and re-invest resources in innovative, results-oriented nonprofits, thus advancing innovation in social impact.

Since 2007, SM& employees have been involved to varying degrees to help the social innovators with communications strategy and support. It's amazing to see how the Forum and the innovators have both evolved over the past five years.

Click here or below to learn more about the social innovators that were featured yesterday:

• AgeWell West Roxbury
  AgeWell West Roxbury is an Ethos-sponsored initiative that promotes the development of an age-friendly community and the creation of successful aging-in-place strategies for the Boston neighborhood with the highest concentration and highest absolute number of elders.

• Groundwork Lawrence
  Groundwork Lawrence (GWL), through environmental and open space improvements, fresh food access, education, youth employment, and community events, they truly create the building blocks of a healthy community, and empower residents and other stakeholders to make the city a great place to live, work, and play.

• GRLZradio
  GRLZradio is a unique afterschool and summer program that gives girls from Boston the opportunity to change their lives and their communities. The girls learn radio technology and communication skills and spread the message of possibility rather than despair; respect rather than abuse.

• Safe City Academy, a program of Dorchester Youth Collaborative
  Safe City Academy is a stipended GED, work readiness, mentoring, and community service program for high school dropouts ages 16 to 19. In addition to coursework, students obtain job skills on a work crew that provides maintenance services to city‐owned, foreclosed properties.

• Shelter Music Boston
  Shelter Music Boston presents high-quality classical chamber music concerts in homeless shelters. They believe that all people deserve access to the dignity, creativity, and passion of classical music, whether or not they have a home.

• City Feed and Supply
  City Feed and Supply is a small scale, full service market cafe focused on building community through service to our neighborhoods, our employees, and our regional food economy.

• Green City Growers
  Green City Growers installs and maintains urban farms for community and commercial locations, fostering a deeper connection to the food we eat.

• Global Research Innovation & Technology
  GRIT's all-terrain wheelchair helps people with disabilities get off-road and on with their lives.

• Project Repat
  Project Repat makes it fun and easy to upcycle your excess clothing into fashionable and functional new products, while creating fair-wage jobs in the United States.

And a special congratulations to Blu Homes, an amazing organization and the winner of this year's Business Innovator Award!

Our client, Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), sponsored a Boston visit by the Israel Trauma Coalition (ITC), mental health professionals who specialize in trauma. ITC came to Boston to help stitch lives together in the aftermath of the city's recent tragedies, spending the last week meeting with those affected by the bombings, including more than 100 ­Watertown teachers.  The event was later featured in the Boston Globe and on WBUR.

Photo by YOON S. BYUN/GLOBE STAFF

SM& President and crisis communications expert Ashley McCown was featured in Bloomberg Businessweek on the balance of good PR in tough situations. More specifically, the piece highlights best practices for responding to unexpected good press, as McDonald's did when the man who famously rescued three missing girls in Cleveland, Ohio remarked in a television interview that he was eating McDonald's when he heard the girls' cries for help.

Ashley's bottom line? React publicity without appearing self-promotional. Click here to read the details.