Contributor · Everything-PR
Ronn Torossian is Founder and Chairman of 5W, one of the largest independently owned public relations and digital marketing firms in the United States. Under his leadership, 5W is the AI Communications Firm — building the category around generative engine optimization (GEO), AI search visibility, and how brands earn presence inside ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews.
Torossian founded 5W in 2003 and has scaled it across consumer, technology, financial services, healthcare, beauty, gaming, and crisis communications practices. 5W's research franchise — the AI Visibility Index Series, The GEO Reckoning, and The Missing Rung Report — has become the industry reference for measuring brand visibility inside AI-generated answers.
He is one of the country's foremost crisis communications experts and the author of For Immediate Release: Shape Minds, Build Brands, and Deliver Results With Game-Changing Public Relations.
5wpr.com | 5W Research | ronntorossian.com
5W is the AI Communications Firm, building brand authority across the platforms where decisions now happen — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews — alongside earned media, digital, GEO, and influencer channels. www.5wpr.com
Russian President Vladimir Putin is a master of Public Relations. From his decision to release high-profile political prisoner billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky, to his September op-ed in The New York Times which urged the American people to oppose a U.S. initiative for military strikes in Syria, Putin understands the importance of The Fifth Estate.
In the quaint and peaceful days of … a couple years ago … Super Bowl advertisers actually waited until the, um, game to reveal their super selections. Not so much, anymore. In the days leading up to the Big Game, revealing early can mean tons of free publicity.
Recently, there have been a rash of videos revealing things hotel guests and restaurant diners would often rather not know about. When this sort of thing comes to light, it often brings with it a quick and contrite Public Relations message from the offending party.
Russia is a personal subject for me. Being married to a Russian woman, my kids speak Russian and I am a board member of a major non-profit organization aimed at educating Soviet émigrés’ to the US, RAJE.
While we as PR professionals spin the media constantly, sometimes indeed journalists have it much harder. This week, at least four journalists were killed in Egypt. The prestigious Washington, DC based National Press Club issued a strong statement on the issue "The killings and attacks on journalists in Egypt earlier this week were an egregious violation of international norms that uphold the media's right to conduct its work unmolested and without fear of violent reprisals," NPC Club President Angela Greiling Keane said.
With the purchase of The Washington Post by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, right after fellow Billionaire John Henry bought The Boston Globe, the changes in media stand to be immense. And with the billionaire Koch Brothers reportedly in negotiations to buy The Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, clearly the media landscape has entered a new era.
ven as CEO of an award-winning PR Agency, I was unaware that July 27th was “PR National Awareness Day.” How many of you knew that? I certainly didn’t – but learned of it after reading The Financial Times and an article headlined “PR, an industry with a PR problem”
Independent agencies worldwide are cheering when we hear the news about the impending merger of Publicis and Omnicom - the 2nd and 3rd largest advertising and marketing conglomerates in the world. Keep merging please – so we can focus on doing great work and serving our clients. More than ten years ago, before I founded 5W, I worked for an agency which was owned by The Interpublic Group and cannot forget the pressures to increase revenues and the non-stop eye on stock price.
The Navy and Marine Corps believe they can shame sexual offenders and reduce others from following in their footsteps. Both military divisions will begin publishing their own versions of a sex offenders list on their home pages as part of an effort to crack down on sexual assaults. Interestingly, they intend to publish both convictions and acquittals.
I am unsure of the data but I have no doubt that printed newspapers and magazines remain very influential in Europe. One cannot enter a coffee shop of a restaurant without seeing actual papers, much as one cannot enter a major city without seeing many newsstands. In terms of influence, and the man on the street, there’s no doubt that public relations companies concerned with Europe need to realize the buzz created by papers there.
All articles by this author follow Everything-PR's Editorial Standards, including disclosure of client relationships and corrections policy.