In our Meet the Team series, we’re excited to shine a spotlight on the dedicated AKCG team members serving our valued clients.
This week, meet Adam Dvorin, who serves as Vice President, helping lead our firm’s media relations practice. Adam combines his past newsroom experience with public relations sensibilities, and his deep expertise helps our team land meaningful coverage for our clients. Learn more about Adam below.
Why did you choose a career in communications?
When I was little, I wanted to pitch for the Phillies. Then I realized my skill set was perhaps more suited to pitching news stories to journalists than fastballs and sliders to major league hitters (haha). But I loved baseball so much that the game provided a lens through which I began noticing how media was such a big part of the sports fan experience and began seriously thinking about careers as a journalist, particularly in broadcasting. My writing bug came a bit later when I had a paper route after school and began noticing the kind of things that journalists wrote about. I was so inspired that I even wrote a column on sports for a weekly newspaper in my hometown (Moorestown, New Jersey). And, through that, I was able to meet other journalists and ask them about their careers – what an average day was like and so on.
With over two decades of experience in the field, you’re a seasoned practitioner. What about our industry continues to excite or surprise you?
There is a real “wait until you see what’s next” dynamic in our industry that is exciting. Technology and communications platforms change, but there are some fundamentals that remain constant, such as presenting your organizational perspective in a credible and factual manner. One day, we will look at TikTok and Instagram as outdated platforms and something new will be in its place. It is fun to see what technologies will last and which ones will change as time goes by.
What brought you to the AKCG team?
I had really admired the culture of AKCG from afar and had gotten to know CEO Chris Lukach and President Mike Gross a bit through my work with the Philadelphia Public Relations Association – I am a longtime board member and a past president of that organization. I was happy at my longtime firm and not necessarily looking to move. But when we discussed the potential of growing the proactive and thought leadership practice at AKCG, I was intrigued by the challenge and decided to come over here.
The media landscape is constantly evolving. As a media relations pro, what’s one of your top tips for keeping up with the changing state of news?
Well, you can’t keep up with EVERY change, so my advice is to find 3-5 outlets to follow on a regular basis and make note of what you see at those outlets. What kind of stories get covered? What doesn’t make the cut? Who are the reporters covering the stories? And, finally, how can you tailor your organization’s messages into that outlet’s format? The biggest oversight that most practitioners commit is failing to consume news outlets on a consistent basis. There is no shortcut to doing it. You simply have to do it and commit to a block of time each day for media consumption (I would say 30-45 minutes is a good time amount if you’re looking for a guideline).
What show are you currently binge-watching?/What is the last movie you watched?
I watch a LOT of sports, which eats into my binge-watch time. That said, I am into a few episodes of Season 11 of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry David is a real thinking person’s comic, and I love how all the different plotlines tie together in a single episode. As for a great movie I have seen (fairly) recently, I really loved the movie, Yesterday. It was a fun take on the timelessness of Beatles songs – plus, I thought Ed Sheeran played his part expertly.
