By Jack O'Dwyer
Julia Hood, publishing director of PRWeek and DMNews of Haymarket, the U.K.'s biggest private publisher, has joined the Arthur W. Page Society as its first paid president.
Hood |
Page, founded in 1983, previously had paid executive directors, with Tom Nicholson being the most recent.
Nicholson, who remains at Page until the end of June, was paid a salary of $180,000 plus $17,207 in benefits.
Page's net assets gained 17.8% in 2009 to $537,156 and cash and investments rose 41% to $851,582. Net assets were $1,156,111 in 2005.
Page, as a 501/c/3 non-profit, a tax category usually reserved for charities like the United Way and Red Cross, is able to accept contributions from corporations that the donors can deduct from their taxes.
Revenues of $1,362,089 in 2009 included $438,235 in member dues and $178,647 in cash. Contributions in 2008 had totaled $241,000.
In addition, the revenue statements listed $148,994 in “in-kind services” in 2009 and $322,046 in such services in 2008.
2009 Sponsors Listed
Companies giving more than $10,000 in 2009 were Abbott, FedEx, Johnson & Johnson, Ketchum, Kraft, Prudential Financial, State Farm Insurance and Weber Shandwick. Giving $7,500+ were Northwestern Mutual Foundation, Royal Dutch Shell and Staples.
Also listed in the annual report (link to PDF) are 28 other sponsors who gave from $100 to $7,499.
Among “in-kind” sponsors are United Airlines, Text 100 and Burson-Marsteller.
Hood, who in the past several years has had two children, worked in corporate communications in the U.K. and was executive administrator for the National Kidney Foundation before joining PRW/U.S.
She was editor-in-chief before taking her most recent posts at Haymarket.
Page, Council of PR Firms Share Offices
Hood's office will be on the 23rd floor of 317 Madison ave. at 42nd St., where a co-tenant is the Council of PR Firms.
PRW/U.S. and CPRF were both founded in 1998.
CPRF for about six years until 2008 was a steady advertiser in PRW/U.S., providing a monthly one-column ad at a cost of about $3,500.
Total spending was about $150,000.
During the same period, CPRF gave the O'Dwyer magazine one $700 ad.
When CPRF was asked for equal ad treatment with PRW/U.S., Kathy Cripps, CEO of CPRF, said the association would no longer advertise in PRW/U.S.
Complaint Made to USPS
The O'Dwyer Co. in 2008 filed a complaint with the U.S. Postal Service charging that PRW/U.S. was apparently breaking Periodicals mailing rules.
Those rules say that a subscription to a publication mailed at the low Periodicals rate must be “separated from other business transactions so as to constitute a distinct, voluntary and independent act.”
USPS rules say that a premium offered as part of a subscription offer must be no more than 70% of the cover price of the publication being offered.
PRW/U.S., after initially selling its nearly 400-page Contact directory as a separate publication for $249, then began offering it as a free inducement to those who subscribed to or renewed to PRW/U.S. at various prices ranging from $148 to $198.
Since the paid/requested circulation of PRW/U.S. is nearly 6,200, it appears that more than 20,000 copies of Contact were distributed as part of a PRW/U.S. subscription offer in the past few years.
The USPS accepted the complaint of the O'Dwyer Co. and said it would audit PRW/U.S.
PRW/U.S. went monthly in June of 2009 and the 2010 edition of Contact has no price at all on it.
Current subscription offers of PRW/U.S. are at prices of $248, $198 and $148. Included is unlimited access to the PRW/U.S. website which only subscribers have; “Daily Breakfast Briefing”; Weekly Online Edition every Friday; 12 monthly print issues, and the annual Contact directory. |