Remembering a Longtime PRSA Friend; Celebrating a Publication Win

Our August edition has an agency management theme, focusing on independent practitioners.

What you'll find: Four members of PRSA’s Independent Practitioners Alliance share their thoughts on the challenges and opportunities for solo counselors today. On the other side of the agency spectrum, Jim Joseph, U.S. CEO and global chief marketing and integration officer at Ketchum, offers his insights on the comms firm of the future. (You’ll have the chance to hear more from Jim, who will be my guest on the next Strategies & Tactics Live on Aug. 24 at 1 p.m. ET.)

Meanwhile, I received information about strategic communications firm Paul Werth Associates marking its 60th anniversary in Columbus, Ohio in May. I first learned of the agency when I was a student at the Ohio State University. Founder Paul Werth, a member of the PRSA College of Fellows, was highly regarded in the local PR community.

When I went to work for PRSA in 1994, I became friends with Werth’s daughter, Sandra Harbrecht Ratchford, who took over as president and eventually CEO. We’d exchange emails about the PR profession and her work with PRSA and the Counselors Academy. (She served as chair.)

Sandy earned her Master of Education and MBA from Ohio State and served on several advisory panels and committees at the university through the years. She’d update me on happenings around campus, as I had not returned to Columbus in several years. 

I especially appreciated her love of OSU sports (something that runs deep in my family). She referred to Ohio State’s football rival, Michigan, appropriately as That Team Up North (or TTUN) — a popular phrase among diehard OSU fans who didn’t dare say the school’s name! (And this while she was living in suburban Detroit!)

I was incredibly saddened to learn that Sandy died on June 18 from cancer. She was 73. 

I will miss her good-natured and informative dispatches about Ohio State and her admirable dedication to PRSA and the profession.

Paul Werth Associates continues under the leadership of agency president Julie Granillo, who is Paul’s granddaughter and Sandy’s niece.

A Bronze honor

As I mentioned last issue, Strategies & Tactics was a finalist in the 43rd annual EXCEL Awards competition in the Newspapers-General Excellence category. The awards program recognizes excellence in association media and publishing.

During a ceremony on June 27 in Washington, D.C., we received the Bronze. We’re pleased to be an award winner alongside two other outstanding publications and associations — ACP Internist (American College of Physicians) and The AARP Bulletin (AARP).

This Bronze recognition marks the fourth major industry accolade for Strategies & Tactics since its debut in January 2018.

S&T received Silver in the Newspaper-General Excellence category in the EXCEL Awards in 2019. We received Gold in 2022’s TRENDY Awards in the Monthly Professional Society Magazine category and Silver in 2021.

And Strategies & Tactics was not the only PRSA publication recognized by the EXCEL Awards this year. “75 Years of Impact and Influence: People, Places and Moments in Public Relations History” received Gold in the Books-General Audience Book category.

Published in 2022 to commemorate PRSA’s 75th anniversary, the book portrays the profession’s history through the stories of unsung heroes and celebrated figures. Visit PRSA.org/book75 to order a copy.