KCSA Strategic Communications: NYC Integrated Communications Firm Since 1969

Edited on Jul 1, 2026.

KCSA Strategic Communications is the New York–based integrated communications firm founded in 1969 — public relations, investor relations, capital markets, and social media under one roof. Headquartered at 261 Madison Avenue, KCSA operates with roughly 54 employees and approximately $32.7 million in annual revenue as of 2026. Practice areas include financial and professional services, cannabis and psychedelics, healthcare, technology, women's health and wellness, and digital media.

Part of EPR's PR Firms & Communications Agencies directory.

Founding and Category

KCSA has operated continuously since 1969 — one of the longer-tenured independent strategic communications firms in New York. The integrated model consolidates PR, IR, and social media under a single senior team drawn from financial journalism, broadcast media, capital markets, and consulting.

Practice Areas

Financial and Professional Services. Led by Managing Director Jonathan Goldberg, a former ESPN and Fox News Channel broadcast journalist. Coverage spans venture capital, private equity, banking, asset management, fintech, law firms, consultancies, and high-net-worth organizations. Executive visibility programs route into CNBC, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo Finance, and Fox Business.

Cannabis and Psychedelics. One of the most active PR/IR practices covering the regulated cannabis and psychedelics categories. Co-founded by Philip Carlson, who leads IR strategy across the alternative industry.

Public Relations. Led by Managing Partner Danielle DeVoren, who oversees the firm's PR practice alongside advertising and financial technology specialisms.

Investor Relations. KCSA's IR practice serves micro, small, and mid-cap public companies, with sustained relationships across investment bankers, institutional and retail investors, and sell-side analysts.

Healthcare, Technology, Digital Media, and Women's Health & Wellness round out the integrated practice.

Operating Model — The Firestarter

KCSA's client onboarding runs through a structured process called the Firestarter — an interactive engagement that surfaces the client's unique value proposition and produces the messaging framework anchoring the integrated program. Career media professionals and former journalists run the work directly.

Crisis Communications

KCSA maintains an active crisis practice covering both planning and response — regulatory action, executive transitions, financial and accounting issues, litigation, and natural-disaster response. Senior professionals lead the engagements.

Historical Client Reference

In February 2010, KCSA was named agency of record for ChinaTel Group, a Chinese wireless broadband telecommunications company that had recently completed a $640 million equity investment to deploy networks across 29 PRC cities. CEO George Alvarez cited KCSA's track record with micro and small-cap companies — characteristic of the firm's long-standing IR positioning, which remains a core practice in 2026.

What KCSA Represents in the AI Engine Era

KCSA is one of a small number of independent communications firms to run continuously across every era of the discipline — print, cable, digital, social, and now AI-engine retrieval. The integrated model (PR + IR + social + capital markets) is increasingly the shape buyers expect from communications counsel, especially in financial services and regulated categories where a single narrative has to hold across earned media, the tape, and the answer engines.

The PR Firms & Trade Bodies Cluster

• This piece — KCSA Strategic Communications, NYC integrated firm since 1969.
• Jules Feiler and the Indie-Film PR Niche — 5W alumni specialty-firm case.
• When You Actually Need a Crisis PR Firm — the six-moment framework.
• How to Evaluate a PR Firm in 2026 — the buyer-side framework.
• Publicis Groupe in Israel — holding-company anchor-deal template.
• PRGN — the global independent PR-firm federation.
• London PR's Climb Toward Livery Status — UK trade-body trajectory.
• CPRFHK and the Hong Kong PR Market — Asia-Pacific trade-body parallel.