Ann Voorhees Baker is CEO of Publicity Pros and creator of PR-123. She has more than 20 years of experience in public relations and has represented a wide range of clients, including Sharp Electronics Solar Energy Division, The Nature Conservancy, Office Depot Green, Lexus Environmental Programs, HealthSpace Cleveland, Beachhead Solutions, Beech Brook, Digital Map Products, the Early Childhood and Prenatal Initiatives of Cuyahoga County, Enigma, PureAyre, and the Association of Unity Churches.
In her work with small business clients, she found over and over again that the best way for a small business to get media exposure is to answer a need rather than try to sell a story idea to a reporter or editor. So she aggregated all of the resources her firm uses to find journalists actively working on stories and looking for sources – these are called PR Opportunities, PR Leads, or Journalist Queries – and she began matching them to her small business clients. This proved so successful in gaining media coverage for her clients that she expanded her staff of PR agents making these matches, and launched PR-123.
Before relocating to her native Los Angeles to head Publicity Pros, Ann served as Director of Communication and Marketing for a public school district in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Prior to that she launched and for fifteen years published the award-winning Cleveland Family and Akron Family magazines and headed the successful public interest communications firm, Hearth Marketing & Media, Inc. During that time she also served on the Board of Directors and as President of Earth Day Coalition – a long-established nonprofit environmental advocacy and education organization serving Northeast Ohio. Early in her career, Ann practiced law as an enforcement attorney for the Region II office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in New York City. She also performed editing services for Scribner’s, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, and Prentice-Hall.
Her published articles include a case study in crisis management, published in the PR News Crisis Management Guidebook, and a discussion of marketing to the economically disadvantaged, published on marketingcrossing.com. She currently manages the PR Insider News Cafe for the national women entrepreneur’s networking organization, Savor the Success, and contributes regularly to respected business sites such as CommPRO.biz and ExitPromise.com. She concentrates her individual practice on overall social media marketing strategies for small businesses, including blogging, enewsletters, custom Facebook pages, Twitter, and search engine optimization, all coordinated with efficient media outreach.
Ann holds a BS in cybernetics from UCLA and a JD from Case Western Reserve University School of Law. She and her husband Brad Baker live in Redondo Beach and her two adult daughters, Sarah and Hannah, live in Savannah, Georgia and New York City, respectively.
