Osterberg to start D.C. PR firm

MPAA VP resigns

By WILLIAM TRIPLETT

Gayle Osterberg, the Motion Picture Assn. of America's veep for corporate communications, will ankle at the end of this week to start her own D.C.-based public relations firm.

New firm will focus on "strategic public affairs planning and implementation," said Osterberg, who came to the MPAA two years ago from Capitol Hill. "It won't be so much lobbying as public affairs -- a comprehensive approach to amplifying the client, whether the client is a company, a product or a policy objective."

The MPAA will be among the firm's first clients, she said, as will "a new (film) production company with a documentary about to come out."

Osterberg said she is leaving now because opening her own firm is something she has thought about even before leaving Capitol Hill, where she was spokeswoman for Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.). "I've enjoyed my two years at MPAA, but this is a good time to start my own business."

Osterberg's departure from the org's D.C. office follows by only a few months the departure of John Feehery, another former GOP congressional aide who spent two years at MPAA and left to open his own lobbying shop.

MPAA has not yet decided how it will fill Osterberg's shoes; in the interim exec veep corporate communications Seth Oster will assume a significant portion of her duties.