Crisis Communications, Boston
When a company, institution or nonprofit in Boston is facing a reputation crisis, The PR Bunker, led by Don Martelli, is the crisis communications consultant on the phone within 15 to 30 minutes: verified facts before the first statement, one voice on every channel, the local reporters handled by someone they already know, and the reputation work that starts the day the story ends. 25 years, no junior handoffs. This is the work that runs behind every embedded seat, and the door for anyone who needs it today, seat or no seat.
"Most crises in Boston are not lost on the day. They are lost in the first 30 minutes, when the facts are not verified, three people are talking, and the first statement promises something the company cannot deliver."
The job is to get the first statement right, and to be the person the reporter already trusts.
Before founding PR Bunker I was a journalist, then president of a large Boston agency. I know what a Globe, WBUR or Boston 25 reporter needs by deadline because I have been on both sides of that call. You get me, from the first phone call through the last follow-up story.
The 15 to 30 minute response
A senior advisor on the phone within 15 to 30 minutes of your call: what we know, what we do not, who is speaking and what the first statement says. Nothing goes out until the facts are verified.
Verified facts first
The response-planning framework: confirm what happened with the people who know, separate what is true from what is being said, and build the holding statement that buys time without promising what you cannot deliver.
One voice, every channel
The leadership statement, the staff message, the customer or client note, the board update and the social posts, written to say the same thing in the same order so nobody freelances a version.
Boston media handling
Reporters at the Globe, the Herald, WBUR, GBH, Boston 25, the business press and the neighborhood outlets, handled by someone they already know. Deadlines met, corrections won, quotes that will not cost you a client.
Stakeholder and regulator communications
Employees, customers, funders, licensing boards, city and state officials and the people who will be asked about you tomorrow, briefed in the right order before they read it somewhere else.
Reputation recovery
The 30, 60 and 90 days after: the search results, the AI answers, the follow-up stories and the earned media that replaces the crisis as the first thing people find.
A reputation crisis in Boston used to run on the news cycle. Now it runs on three clocks at once: the reporter's deadline, the comment thread, and the AI answer a client gets when they ask ChatGPT or Google who you are. The PR Bunker runs all three. Here is what the first week looks like.
Senior advisor on the phone, facts confirmed, spokesperson named, holding statement drafted. The clock starts when the first call comes in, not when the story runs.
Verified statement to the reporter on deadline, the same message to staff and key stakeholders, and the social accounts set so nobody adds a version.
Follow-up questions answered in writing, corrections requested where the story is wrong, the board and funders briefed, the monitoring running.
The second-day story managed, the customers and partners who went quiet called, the internal message repeated until it holds.
The search results and AI answers checked and corrected with new, true, findable content, and the earned media that moves the story down the page.
Don Martelli, on every call, every statement and every reporter conversation. No account team, no junior handoffs, no learning on your crisis.
That is the first week. The reputation work that follows is the part most firms skip, and the part clients remember.
The PR Bunker, led directly by Don Martelli, is a crisis communications consultant in Boston for companies, institutions and nonprofits facing a reputation crisis: a senior advisor on the phone within 15 to 30 minutes, verified facts before the first statement, one message on every channel, the Boston reporters handled by someone they already know, and the reputation recovery after. Don is a former journalist and former president of a large Boston agency with 25 years of crisis work, and he is in every room. No junior handoffs.
Your lawyer and a crisis communications consultant, in that order and within the same hour, because the lawyer protects you from liability and the consultant protects you from the version of the story that runs without you. In Boston that call reaches Don Martelli at The PR Bunker directly, at don@prbunker.com or through the booking link on this page, and the response starts within 15 to 30 minutes: what we know, what we do not, who speaks, and what the first statement says.
Within 15 to 30 minutes of your call, with a senior advisor, not an intake form. The first 30 minutes are spent on four things: confirming what actually happened with the people who know, separating what is true from what is being said, naming one spokesperson, and drafting a holding statement that buys time without promising anything you cannot deliver. The verified statement goes to the reporter on deadline, usually within the first four hours.
Only what is verified, in three parts: what happened as far as you know it, what you are doing right now, and when people will hear more. No speculation about cause, no blame, no promise of an outcome, and no sentence a reporter can prove wrong by tomorrow. The first statement is a holding statement. Its job is to show the organization is in control and telling the truth, so the second statement, with the facts, gets believed.
Talk, almost always, and never say no comment, which reads as guilt in print. Take the call, get the deadline and the questions, and call back before the deadline with a verified statement and one person who can answer follow-ups. A reporter at the Globe, WBUR, GBH or Boston 25 is going to run the story with or without you. The only question is whether your facts are in it, and whether the reporter already knows the person giving them.
Yes. Most of the organizations that call are a founder-led company, a nonprofit or a professional practice with no communications staff, facing a story, a lawsuit, a workplace incident, a regulator, a data breach or a public complaint for the first time. The response is the same senior counsel a large institution gets, sized to the organization, and it usually starts with one phone call and a flat engagement for the first week.
You get Don Martelli, not an account team. He ran a large Boston agency as its president and spent years as a reporter before that, so the person taking your first call is the person writing the statement, talking to the reporter and sitting with your board. There is no handoff to a junior associate at hour two, and nobody is learning on your crisis.
The part most firms skip. Thirty, sixty and ninety days out, the crisis is still the first thing a client, a funder or a job candidate finds when they search your name or ask ChatGPT or Google about you. Reputation recovery is the work of replacing it: correcting what is wrong, publishing what is true and findable, and earning the follow-up coverage that moves the story down the page. PR Bunker builds that plan in week one and runs it after.
Side by side, from the first hour. Counsel decides what cannot be said; PR Bunker decides how to say what can, so the statement protects you legally and still reads as a human being telling the truth. Every statement is cleared by counsel before it goes out, and the lawyer is on the call when the reporter's questions turn on liability. The failure mode we prevent is a legally perfect statement that costs you every customer who reads it.
Verified facts, one voice, the Boston reporters handled, and the recovery after. You get me in every room. No junior handoffs.
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