Director Media and Communications
Karen Kissane writes and edits with clarity and grace and understands how to craft corporate communications for different entities and different audiences.
She also knows how to best prepare your executives to face media packs – she used to be one of the journalists firing questions from them.
Karen understands how the media work because she spent decades as a senior journalist with The Age, including a prize-winning time as Law and Justice Editor and a posting to London as the Europe Correspondent for then-Fairfax Media.
During that period she also wrote her two prize-winning non-fiction books, Silent Death (on a family killing and the flaws in the then-defence of provocation) and Worst of Days, on the Black Saturday firestorm, after she led the paper’s coverage of the Bushfires Royal Commission.
This left her with an excellent understanding of the law and legal terminology, and how best to translate it for a general audience.
She also has a strong background in health, research and science writing. She was a senior ministerial media adviser for a State Minister for Mental Health and then worked as media manager for a medical college, followed by nearly five years as Media Relations and Corporate Communications Director for the Heart Foundation. There, she led a team of media and corporate communications advisers who earned more than 10,500 media mentions each year.
Information about her two prize winning non-fiction books is below
Worst of Days: Inside the Black Saturday Firestorm
Winner of the $10,000 Priestley prize for the best Australian book across all genres from the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies, 2010
Worst of Days is the behind-the-scenes story of the people inside Black Saturday’s most deadly firestorm. It looks at the scientific and environmental triggers for the blaze and its spread, and tells the stories of the men, women and children confronted with it. It is a powerful and gripping narrative of disaster and resilience – of officials’ bungles and best efforts, of heroes, survivors, saviours and lost souls.
Silent Death: The Killing of Julie Ramage
Winner of the 2006 Davitt Award for Australia’s best true-crime book
Julie and Jamie Ramage were the classic middle-class couple. They seemed to have it all: good looks, a nice home and children in private schools. But Julie walked out of their seemingly perfect marriage. And then Jamie killed her. Silent Death tells the story behind the controversial trial and examines what it says about men and women, guilt and justice. It is also a story about the suburban dream, and the dark side of love.