Exclusive: Ken Sunshine and Shawn Sachs are still repping the Grammys for press next Sunday.
But I am told that they’ve resigned– or shall we say abdicated– from being involved in the current contretemps between the Recording Academy and their now ousted CEO Deborah Dugan.
Dugan has been put on administrative leave as the Academy figures out whether to fire her for cause, or negotiate her exit after six months on the job. Dugan is said to be readying a strong fight in which she’ll blame NARAS for everything from global warming to gerrymandering.
Whatever happens, the Academy is now scrambling to hire a spin outfit to get them through this crisis. They could easily align with Rogers & Cowan, Sitrick, or 42 West, all capable of taking on the task.
Sunshine Sachs has been working with the Grammys since last year. Prior to that, Rogers & Cowan handled them for decades.
The Grammys do not have a strong internal PR machine, unfortunately. And now they must come out, bullets blazing. Dugan and her attorney, Bryan Freedman, have already made the ousted exec seem like a martyr to the LA and NY Times, and to the trades. It’s going to be a brutal PR war in the next week. So stay tuned…
