ABOUT
Steve Oppenheim is a public relations consultant, media coach, writer, and editor with more than 35 years of experience developing and executing national media campaigns, book launches, communications programs, and press kits for authors and leaders in business, publishing, politics, medicine, sports, the nonprofit sector, human rights, and social issues.
Oppenheim has worked with a broad range of publishers and imprints, including Atria, Ballantine, Doubleday, Gotham, HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin, Hyperion, John Wiley & Sons, Little, Brown & Co., Scribner, Simon & Schuster, Warner Books, and William Morrow. From 2003 to 2005, he served as Vice President and Director of Publicity for the G.P. Putnam’s Sons and Riverhead Books imprints of Penguin Group (USA). During his tenure, Putnam led the publishing industry in hardcover New York Times bestsellers, producing nearly twice as many as its closest competitor.
He began his media career at ABC’s World News This Morning, followed by five years in the newsroom at World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and more than three years producing stories for the nationally syndicated newsmagazine Inside Edition. His television experience spans one-on-one interviews, profiles, investigative reporting, breaking news, and remote broadcasts including ABC’s coverage of presidential primaries, caucuses, and national political conventions during two election cycles.
Drawing on his background in hard news and investigative reporting, Oppenheim specialized in books with significant news value, including embargoed titles. His nonfiction authors have included Bob Woodward, David McCullough, James Carville, Michael Beschloss, Sy Hersh, Valerie Plame Wilson, Bryan Burrough, Bob Schieffer, Martha Raddatz, Maureen Dowd, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Walter Isaacson, and Margaret Thatcher. His fiction clients have included Patricia Cornwell, James Clavell, Tom Clancy, Amy Tan, Chang-Rae Lee, Khaled Hosseini, Daniel Silva, Ken Follett, James McBride, Vikram Seth, Kurt Vonnegut, and many others.
As a media coach for publishers, corporations, and nonprofits, Oppenheim has prepared executives and staff for a wide range of media situations. His clients have included Booz Allen Hamilton, Pew Charitable Trusts, the American Red Cross of Greater New York, the National Geographic Channel, and Gateway Computers. For four years, he also co-led an annual media seminar at Yale Law School’s Women’s Campaign School (now known as The Campaign School at Yale). The two-day program received coverage from NPR, CNN, Good Morning America, Today, and The Washington Post. He has coached scores of authors and public figures, including Caroline Kennedy, Barbara Rockefeller, Elsa Walsh, Taylor Branch, Oliver North, Sarah Ferguson, Tom Clancy, Peggy Noonan, Isaac Hayes, and Peter Beinart. His work helps individuals and organizations communicate their significance clearly and connect with the audiences they need to reach.
For the past 15 years, Oppenheim has worked extensively in the nonprofit sector as a principal of
m/Oppenheim Executive Search, recruiting C-suite executives and senior leaders across the nonprofit landscape. He also launched m/Oppenheim Press, the firm’s publishing imprint for books by nonprofit leaders; helped create INSIGHT, a one-on-one interview program with nonprofit leaders produced in collaboration with PBS stations nationwide; and helped develop Nonprofit Report, a web-based interview program highlighting the work of nonprofit organizations and leaders and exploring issues affecting the sector.