The Overview
Source Communications is dedicated to helping clients address critical communications issues and reputational challenges, as well as navigate the opinion of the media.
We recognize that strategic counsel, public relations, brand development, and marketing are all means to the same end for our clients: achieving their objectives and making their organizations succeed. We operate as trusted advisors at the intersection of these concerns. We provide expert, senior level counsel regarding the news and opinion sides of the media to guide our clients in the increasingly complex court of public opinion. In addition, our expertise includes the areas of policy development, issues management and government relations. We also advise clients on traditional and online advertising, media buying, as well as brand development.
Who We Are
Ken is a veteran journalist and media relations strategist and tactician. A co-founder of Source Communications, Ken has served as a media and government relations consultant to, among other clients, Fordham University, the United Federation of Teachers, the NYC Department of Education, the Delta and American Airlines Pilots, the NYC Detectives Union, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and its Executive Director Chris Ward, the Central Park Conservancy and its President Doug Blonsky, the Doe Fund, the New York Daily News, U.S. News & World Report, former AIG Chairman Maurice “Hank” Greenberg and Grubb & Ellis, a major NYC commercial real estate broker, Achilles international and CIRCA Jewels, the nation’s top buyer of estate jewelry and watches from the public.
Ken was previously Executive Vice President at Golin Harris, a division of The Interpublic Group. There, he provided marketing and media communications services to clients including Cushman & Wakefield, AOL, M&M/Mars, American Airlines, Special Olympics, Toyota, Nintendo, Visa, Vivendi Universal, L'Oreal, Prevacid, Owens Corning and The Body Shop.
Prior to joining Golin Harris, Ken was Senior VP for Corporate Communications and Media Relations for the New York Daily News and U.S. News & World Report. In that role, he helped oversee publication of U.S. News’ Annual Guide to America’s Best Colleges. He was chief media spokesman for Mort Zuckerman, publisher of both publications, and sat on both the executive and publisher's management committees.
In 2005, Ken moderated a panel series at the 92nd Street Y, entitled “New York Talks.” Among his interview subjects were Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Boston Properties Chairman and Daily News Publisher Mort Zuckerman Novelists Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese and Pete Hamill and the three Political “Wiseguys”: Ed Koch, Alfonse D’Amato and Mark Green.
In 1999, Ken served as Senior VP of Edelman NY, where he integrated Edelman and its top clients – including New York-Presbyterian Medical Center, Pfizer, CS First Boston, Barnes & Noble, BMW and MasterCard – into the New York business, government and media communities. In 1993, he was Rudy Giuliani's press secretary and media spokesman during Giuliani’s first winning mayoral campaign.
Ken was senior editor and advertising columnist for Nation’s Restaurant News, the trade bible of the restaurant industry, throughout the 1980s. He subsequently formed Epicus Group, a full-service, restaurant consulting firm. Together with Andrew Zimmern, now host of Bizarre Foods on The Travel Channel, and Stephen Kalt, now a chef-partner of Steve Wynn at Wynn Hotel restaurants in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, Ken started-up or turned-around more than 30 NYC restaurants – including Café Rakel, one of the nation’s first downscaled restaurants. In the early 1980s, Ken was legislative director to NYS Senator Linda Winikow.
Ken has written about business, politics, food-and-wine and arts-and-culture for New York Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, the Daily News, the New York Post, The Village Voice, Food Arts, 7 Days and Market Watch. He holds a B.S. in Journalism and Business from The University of Maryland, College Park, and taught Business Management at The New School for Social Research.