Qorvis Partner Stan Collender made some interesting comments in a PR Week article today, “Public affairs pros discover new areas of opportunity.” Stan discusses the blurring of the line between lobbying and public affairs communications support, and the resulting benefit:

“Public affairs communications, where you raise visibility of an issue in a way that policymakers can’t ignore, has become increasingly popular,” Collender says, adding that Op-Eds and news stories produce the best results. “This cuts across all issues that are on the front burner—taxes, spending, financial services—and others that proponents would like to move to the front burner…. Washington is now the center of the business and financial universe,” Collender says. “Public affairs communications needs will be substantial for quite some time.”

You may have seen that Qorvis has been named “Public Affairs Agency of the Year” by the Holmes Report (originally picked up by Politico). The Holmes Report said:

“…Qorvis is much more than a public affairs firm, with strong corporate and financial communications and even strategic brand marketing capabilities. But it continues to do much of its best work in the broad public affairs arena, such as its efforts on behalf of the American Cable Association (helping small regional operators tell their story to the FCC), the Wireless Innovation Alliance (a broad-based coalition educing legislators and regulators on the potential of white space technology), and the Hope Now Alliance (a coalition of mortgage lenders explaining the industry’s efforts to address the housing crisis). Overall growth in 2008 was about 15 percent—with fees of around $35 million, the firm is the sixth largest independent in the U.S.—and there was new business from the Society for Human Resource Management, the Concord Coalition, the Committee for Responsible Federal Budget, washingtonpost.com, and Sun Microsystems. Qorvis also expanded its strategic capabilities with the addition of its own in-house polling and research company, Clarus Research Group.”

We’re very proud of this distinction, which builds on an already strong year. And there’s more good news ahead…