About Us

Who We Are

We are RuppePR

Since 2013, RuppePR has served Rescue Mission clients and other nonprofits. More than 50 years of combined experience translates into expertise in every area of media and communications. Steve and Peggy Ruppe bring determined dedication and powerful passion to their work. They labor behind the scenes to make sure that each client speaks in a steady, strong and pitch perfect voice.

Our work for you will be comprehensive and strategic – all to ensure maximum results. 

Do you have your key messaging honed into clear, concise, sound bites for the press? Is your messaging consistent throughout your organization? 

Do you have a crisis management plan in place for how you’ll handle the press when a crisis occurs?

Helping you optimize your events for maximum press exposure and community impact increases your results, and enhance your brand. 

Is your team and staff prepared to interact with and speak to the media on your behalf?

From helping you craft your story to share, to writing press releases, key messages, and beyond – a wordsmith is just what you need, and we are here to do just that. 

A PR Team You Can Count On

Steve Ruppe has more than 25 years of public relations experience both with businesses and nonprofit organizations. His record of successful public relations campaigns includes message development and discipline, large event planning, crisis communications, presentation skill building, and media training. As an experienced and effective PR strategist, Steve has the proven ability both to structure and to manage diverse and challenging on-the-ground media relations.

In addition, he is a sought-after seminar leader and mentor for organizations who want to grow their communication effectiveness.

Prior to starting his own firm, Steve served for 13 years as Public Relations Director of Russ Reid, at the time the largest marketing and communications agency in the US dedicated to serving nonprofits.

His work with the Los Angeles Mission increased that organization’s recognition in the community through the development of its signature holiday events – featuring celebrities serving the homeless – with literally hundreds of media stories highlighting these events. He currently handles all aspects of Los Angeles Mission public relations.

While at Russ Reid, Steve was an early adopter of the idea of building social media into the public relations practice, creating the opportunity for nonprofits to increase awareness, build an audience and raise money. In the process, he established methods and best practices for accomplishing these goals online.

Nonprofits across both the US and Canada have depended upon Steve’s guidance to lead Mission executives and boards through a variety of crisis issues, from NIMBY response to siting new facilities to executive changes to major disasters.

Steve’s media training expertise was developed while serving the petrochemical business corridor of south Texas and Louisiana. During that time, he traveled the world to help thousands of Fortune 500 corporate executives and nonprofit leaders learn the way to work the media to their advantage. He teaches how to be prepared so you can get the most out of the media while respecting their process. He sees this process as an art as well as a science. He helps clients practice the skills of preparing for and conducting media interviews. Gleaned from his knowledge of both the client and the media, Steve’s media training classes challenge participants to grow their own communication skills. They experience a lively blend of relevant real-world scenarios and on-camera practice. His training helps to build confidence and refine techniques for successfully handling media interviews. The specific examples in the training are drawn from the actual issues clients will most likely have to address. Participants invariably report that they complete the class with more control, more confidence and much-improved outcomes in media interviews.

Prior to Russ Reid, he was Director of Public Affairs and principal spokesman for the Christian Men’s Ministry Promise Keepers, where he managed the PR staff and volunteers for numerous stadium events and the million man “Stand in the Gap” event on the National Mall in Washington, DC. More than 1,100 media covered the event, generating more than 10,000 news stories worldwide.

Steve’s media background began in radio as an on-air announcer and news broadcaster. He advanced to television news, working his way from street reporter to anchor and producer. He progressed to newsroom management as an assignment editor and then to newsroom leadership as assistant news director and news director. For quite a few years, he served on the board of the Radio Television News Directors Association. He and his newsroom teams were recognized with numerous AP news-gathering awards and many Regional Emmy awards for news coverage.

 

Peggy Ruppe is a former journalist. She worked her way up from legislative reporter to become the managing editor of one of the top weekly regional newspapers in the South. She later became a section editor for a major market daily newspaper in Ohio.

At Gris-Gris in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, she edited the content of the paper, as well as writing political coverage and investigative stories. She received the Associated Press Award for investigative reporting in Louisiana. One of her investigative stories became the basis for the only ABC News documentary that won an Oscar. Her stories on divorce laws in Louisiana were cited by the Speaker of the House as the reason for the first legislative reform of the state’s marriage laws. Her investigative stories were so hard-hitting that she was assigned her own FBI agent to protect her from the wrath of both the Mafia and the KKK. Her original research was used as the basis of an extensive Times of London story on KKK leader David Duke. Other original research on the trading of Louisiana natural gas leases to buy political favors helped to convict sitting Governor Edward Edwards to a prison sentence. In her capacity as a muckraking editor, she was invited to the White House as part of a group of editors to meet with the president. In subsequent years, she conducted one on one interviews with several US presidents and first ladies.

She has worked in broadcast news as well, producing, reporting and anchoring Ohio Public Television’s weekly public affairs program. This required covering state government, as well as traveling the state of Ohio developing feature stories. The Ohio Journal program was nominated for a regional Emmy and then taken off the air due to statewide budget cuts.

At the Columbus, Ohio Dispatch she originated and edited the Home section, as well as frequently writing the lead article for the section. Her Home section won an award for the best real estate section from the National Association of Real Estate Editors.

As an accomplished freelance writer, her Ohio Magazine story, “Hell on Wheels,” on the transportation of hazardous waste resulted in a coveted National Magazine Award (Columbia University) nomination. A story for Columbus Magazine, “The Strange Death of Federal Glass,” won the national award for excellence from the National Association of Manufacturers. Her writing for CompuServe also won an industry award for excellence.  Numerous freelance projects for Compaq computers and other clients brought her additional industry recognition for writing excellence.

In partnership with Steve, she wrote and conducted media training sessions for a wide variety of corporate entities. She also served on the national media team for many Promise Keepers stadium events, as well as, the “Stand in the Gap” event in Washington, DC. Prior to the event she helped handle media preparation and did various explanatory interviews. During the event, she managed the media tent helping more than a thousand reporters from all over the US and the world to cover “Stand in the Gap.” Over the years, she has also managed media relations for Los Angeles Mission events, credentialing and directing dozens of media crews to cover newsworthy aspects of the events.

Peggy can cut through complicated material and find the newsworthy nuggets that help make media interested and the reader understand. She has a long record of turning mundane press releases into stories both appreciated and quoted by the media. A long list of media clips with exact phrases from releases she has written and edited attests to the value of her work.

Her straight-forward style of writing and editing has resulted in op-eds that have been picked up by the Los Angeles Times, the LA Daily News and other publications for RuppePR clients. She can take an executive’s comments or an outline and develop compelling content.