• by Val Brickates Kennedy , March 31, 2014

Newburyport was in the spotlight Monday with big announcements from two local agencies, Pilot Communications and Matter Communications.

Former Porter Novelli partner Jim Barbagallo announced he has formed a new integrated communications agency called Pilot Communications Group. He is joined by Tony Sapienza, a co-founder of Topaz Partners, and Tom Maher, a veteran of TPM Communications and a co-founder of The Edison Group. 

The Newburyport-based firm plans to focus on small to mid-size businesses and emerging companies in the tech, health care, consumer and non-profit sectors, and hopes to open an office in Cambridge's Kendall Square later this year. Pilot already has three clients: Cortex MCP, CLVboost and Two Ten Footwear Foundation. 

Meanwhile, Matter has created an in-house Web design and development group. The new team will offer such services as site design and redesign, responsive design, SEO and analytics analysis, CMS implementation, custom application design, and general Web development.

In addition to Newburyport, Matter operates offices in Boston, Providence, and Portland, Ore.