Edelman PR Worldwide, the
largest independent PR firm by a wide margin, held steady
at $206 million in fees in 2003. Its 2002 fees were $205.7
million, a decline of 6.8% from the previous year.
Richard Edelman, president
and CEO, said he felt the firm had done well as business conditions
continued to be difficult.
Ruder Finn, second largest
independent, gained 7.3% to $79.1 million.
It subtracted from its billings
RF Binder Partners, headed by CEO Amy Binder. That firm, now
reporting separately, had $7.8M in fees, a gain of 7.8%.
About an equal number of
firms in the top 50 reported either double-digit gains or
double-digit decreases as PR and advertising continued their
struggle to return to the pattern of growth that had marked
the 1990's.
Again missing from the rankings
are the nearly 50 PR operations owned by the ad conglomerates
such as Omnicom, Interpublic, WPP Group, Havas and Publicis.
These include such PR marque names as Burson-Marsteller, Hill
& Knowlton, Weber Shandwick, Ketchum, Golin/Harris, Manning,
Selvage & Lee, and others.
Council
to Publish Rankings in 'Categories'
The Council of PR Firms,
which gave up its annual ranking of PR firms last year after
the publicly held ad/PR conglomerates ordered their PR units
not to release any figures, said it will publish a ranking
of firms by broad categories of fee incomes.
There will be seven categories:
$100 million+; $50-$99M; $25-$49.9M; $10-$24.9M; $4-$9.9M;
$1M-$3.9M, and below $999,999.
Firms will be allowed to
include up to 10% of their fees in commissions from corporate
and issue ads. The entire income is counted if a firm owns
more than 50% of another firm. Revenues of acquired firms
are included as of the date of the acquisition.
The conglomerates had cited
the Sarbanes-Oxley Act as the reason for stopping their PR
units from releasing figures.
Under SOX, all released
figures have to be in conformity with GAAP (generally accepted
accounting principles). Such principles vary from country
to country.
Lou Capozzi, chairman of
the Council, said that "Ironically, the Act that was
made to encourage openness and disclosure, has resulted in
less disclosure."
Companies that disclose
false figures face fines and their executives face jail terms.
Kathy Cripps
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Besides the total revenue
categories, Council members will report (by percent of revenue),
their three biggest U.S. practice areas. The categories are
business-to-business; community relations; consumer marketing;
corporate; crisis communications; employee communications;
public affairs, or other.
Similar reports will be
given for the firm's three biggest U.S. sectors in technology,
healthcare, consumer, financial services, professional services,
industrial, government, non-profit or other.
Kathy Cripps, president
of the Council, said the new rankings will be called "America's
Leading PR Firms" and will be promoted via the media,
direct mail and on-line. The Council is also creating more
stringent eligibility standards for members, she added.
Waggener
Edstrom up 17%
Among the big gainers were
Waggener Edstrom, up 17.7% to $69.7M; Padilla Speer Beardsley,
up 16% to $9.5M; Dittus Communications, up 26% to $8M; PainePR,
up 13% to $7.9M; Cooney/Waters Group, up 16.8% to $7.8M; Peppercom,
up 24% to $7M; M Booth & Assocs., up 10.9% to $6.4M; Sloane
& Co., up 10.9% to $6.3M, and Spectrum Science PR, up
34% to $6.4M.
New to the list is Qorvis,
Washington, D.C., with $12.2M in fees, whose clients include
Saudi Arabia.
Last year, 14 firms in the
top 25 had declines of 20% or more while only seven had gains
of 20% or more.
The independent PR operations provided proofs of their fees
and employees in the form of top pages of income tax returns,
W-3 forms showing total payroll, account lists and other documents.
Among the firms with double-digit
declines were Schwartz Communications, off 17.7% to $16M;
The Hoffman Agency, off 30.9% to $8.2M; KCSA PR Worldwide,
off 17% to $6.3M; Vollmer PR, off 9.6% to $5.7M; PAN Communications,
off 14% to $5M, and Morgan & Myers, off 15% to $4.9M.
Rankings of ad agency-related
PR operations not owned by the ad agency conglomerates will
be published next week.
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