Pro-Media sponsored event spurs lively dialogue on gay rights

Months of planning came to fruition the moment Pro-Media Communications President and Founder Rochelle Lefkowitz stood before a crowd of more than 100 and welcomed them to “Witness to History: A Conversation with Those Who Saw and Documented Key Gay Rights Moments Since Stonewall.”


The June 23 event, co-sponsored by Pro-Media, The New School and the New York Chapter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, marked the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots that launched the gay rights movement.

The panel touched on some of the most challenging issues facing the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, from protecting transgender people from violence to marriage for gay and lesbian couples. The level of engagement and the depth of the conversation left us abuzz and served as an important reminder of the power of creating dialogue.


We were so humbled by the caliber of panelists who came to share their ideas and experiences. Moderator Eric Marcus kept the conversation on point and moving. Our tremendous panelists that sparked the powerful dialogue were Joan Garry (former president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), David Carter (author of “Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Rights Movement), Andy Humm (longtime LGBT journalist) and Kai Wright (freelance writer for outlets such as The Nation).

A 56-minute version of the panel was also featured on Manhattan Neighborhood Network on Sept. 3.

Full video of the event is available on Fora.tv and has garnered nearly 25,000 views. Photos from the event are also available on the Pro-Media Flickr account.

Contact Jené O’Keefe Trigg at jokeefe@pro-mediacommunications.com to find out more about how Pro-Media can help you execute your social issues event and generate a lively conversation that continues on well after the last guest has left.

INSIDE PRO-MEDIA

• Michael Falco was recently promoted to digital media strategist providing clients with a range of Web optimization services.

• President and Founder Rochelle Lefkowitz proudly pats her son, Josh, on the back for his recent PR work for Help America Vote Act in San Mateo on her recent blog for Huffington Post.

• Former Account Manager Howli Ledbetter secured a position as staff assistant to the White House Correspondence Office.

• Account Coordinator Jane Chung (now Jane Yoo) married Yangkyu Yoo on August 16, 2009 –Congratulations! Click to see photos.

Pro-Media continues to successfully connect clients with journalists even while newsrooms are shrinking

Over the past couple of months, as we have for decades, Pro-Media organized and facilitated several successful “media days” that produced effective results for our clients. Media days present a unique opportunity for our clients to meet with journalists and producers in a relaxed atmosphere and to present their stories face-to-face.

For Mark Pinsky, president of Opportunity Finance Network, Pro-Media lined up meetings with major media outlets in Washington, D.C. to discuss the concept of the “new normal” with the U.S. economy, as outlined in Pinsky’s recent paper, “The Economic Crisis and Community Development Finance: An Industry Assessment.” Pinsky met with editors and reporters from BusinessWeek, Marketplace, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Economist, Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. A focus on CDFIs with Pinsky was featured in Marketplace “Morning Report”.

For Camila Alire, new president of the American Library Association, Pro-Media arranged a day of meetings with key New York-based media, including editors at O, the Oprah Magazine, More, Ladies’ Home Journal, Latina, Ser Padres, Time for Kids and journalists at the New York Daily News. Alire will be featured in Ser Padres’ role models section, and will be contributing to More’s online entertainment channel.

For Louise A. Cainkar, author of the Russell Sage Foundation’s Homeland Insecurity: The Arab American and Muslim American Experience After 9/11, Pro-Media organized meetings with key Chicago-based media, including the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Public Radio, the Chicago Reporter, and WCEV Radio. Dr. Cainkar was interviewed on WCEV radio shows “Mosaic,” “Radio Islam” and Chicago Public Radio’s “Eight Forty-Eight.” She will be participating in a special live “Eight Forty-Eight” program on September 11, 2009.

Contact Managing Director Jené O’Keefe Trigg at jokeefe@pro-mediacommunications.com to find out more about how we can help you connect with journalists one-on-one about your organization, your upcoming book or yourself.

Pro-Media knows how to expand the reach of important nonfiction titles – getting the message out and the books sold

In this tumultuous time, old ways of launching books are falling flat. Mainstream media outlets are hemorrhaging. Bookstores are shuttered. Mid-list books don’t get early reviews or move up on Amazon.com. Fortunately, Pro-Media’s ongoing, successful book promotion keeps us on top of the tactics that work.

Here are a few of the titles we are currently expanding their reach through traditional and new media tactics:

• Homeland Insecurity: The Arab American and Muslim American Experience After 9/11 by Louise A. Cainkar.
• Changing Poverty, Changing Policies edited by Sheldon Danziger and Maria Cancian
• Evangelicals and Democracy in America: Volume 1 and Volume II edited by Steven Brint and Jean Reith Schroedel.

Pro-Media is also working with the NYC-based progressive think tank Demos to build an online community which will drive the conversation about women’s leadership and Ambassador Linda Tarr-Whelan’s new book “Women Lead the Way: Your Guide to Stepping into Leadership and Changing the World” (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, October 2009).

Through her powerful personal stories, Tarr-Whelan reveals the barriers to women advancing and shows how women and men alike can create effective 21st century leadership that emphasizes women’s strengths of collaboration, communication and consensus. Through the use of creative online widgets and multimedia.

Pro-Media is helping spark action around women’s leadership in the blogosphere. Are you a blogger or feminist activist? Then join our Women’s Leadership strategy call led by Ambassador Tarr-Whelan on September 16, 2009 at 3pm ET (noon PT). To RSVP, please contact Account Manager Sonal Bains at
sbains@pro-mediacommunications.com
or 212-245-0510.

Also in September, Pro-Media teams up with unconventional financial expert Thomas W. Croft, director of The Steel Valley Authority and The Heartland Network, to promote ( also design book jacket) his new book, “Up From Wall Street: The Responsible Investment Alternative” (Cosimo, September 2009). For 20 years, Croft has been leading the charge on responsible pension investments, showing how workers’ pensions, endowments and other institutional investors can do well by doing good through long-term, responsible investment principles.

Pro-Media produces high-quality podcast to help promote report, “The Helpers Need Help: New York City’s Nonprofit Human Service Organizations Persevering in Uncertain Times” for the Human Services Council, Baruch College

Pro-Media unveils its newest service – podcast production – with its latest project for the Human Services Council (HSC).

To help promote an upcoming survey report, “The Helpers Need Help: New York City’s Nonprofit Human Service Organizations Persevering in Uncertain Times,” being released by HSC in partnership with Baruch College on September 9th, Pro-Media produced a high-quality podcast to capture the personal stories from social service organizations behind the report. The podcast is being broadcast across the Internet, published on Web sites, used as background information for journalists and much more. Listen now!

Pro-Media also secured media coverage for the release of the report with The New York Times, City Limits, WBAI-FM, WNYC, Chronicle of Philanthropy, New York Nonprofit Press, Queens Courier and many others. Pro-Media even secured in-studio interviews on FOX 5’s Good Day “Street Talk” that aired September 12. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look.

Other podcasts produced by Pro-Media include:
• The Arab American Experience Post 9/11
• Increasing Access to Public Services: One-e-App
• All You Need to Know about CDFIs with Mark Pinsky of Opportunity Finance Network

To learn more about our newest service, contact Digital Initiatives Strategist Michael Falco at
mfalco@pro-mediacommunications.com