The Berrien County Board of Commissioners has approved a contract with a Grand Rapids-based PR firm to handle media relations for the Berrien County Health Department, extending the firm’s partnership with the department another year.
Berrien County Health Officer Guy Miller tells us they’ve been working with Sabo PR since the pandemic era. He says the company has handled things like press releases, marketing materials, and social media, saving the county money.
“For the retainer price that we negotiated with Sabo, we are paying less than a full-time employee and we’re getting three people on Sabo’s end,” Miller said.
Miller says the health department used to employ a full-time media relations person, but they left during COVID. He says Sabo has been able to provide a deeper pool of expertise because it has more people available and at about any time. After all, Miller says the goal is to keep the public informed.
“We’re trying to make sure that our community is abreast with public health, that they’re up to date and we can get speedy or timely notifications of things.”
The total cost for the contract is $180,000, although Miller says it contains a retainer of about $10,000 per month, meaning the final cost of working with Sabo for the year could be between about $130,000 and $180,000. He says the final amount would depend on what the firm does for the county throughout the year.
