FORD HIRES VINES FOR TOP PR POST

Ford Motor Co. has named Jason Vines as VP, communications.

Nissan promoted Debra Sanchez Fair to VP, external affairs.

HARRISON TO STEP DOWN AS PAGE DIR.

Harrison, who sold his firm to Ruder Finn in 1997 to join the Society on a part-time basis, said he will turn his attention fulltime to "my corporate counsel practice" in Washington, D.C.

Harrison said the Society is in its "best financial condition" ever.

The Society’s Spring Seminar is scheduled for April 5-6 in New York.   

POWELL NOT WORRIED ABOUT 'EXODUS'

Shandwick CEO Michael Petruzello said some departures were people "at the end of their careers."

GATEWAY TO STOORZA, ZIEGAUS & METZGER

Alan Ziegaus, SZ&M president is leaving after 20 years to pursue other interests.

HWH WINS SAMSUNG’S OFFICE PRODUCTS

HWH has worked with Samsung’s consumer electronics and information systems divisions, based in San Jose, for the past six years.

HAVAS ADV. TO BUY SNYDER COMMS.

Microsoft Corp. has named Edward Tobin, VP for public policy at US West and former aide to Massachusetts Governor William Weld, as its senior director for corporate affairs...Mark B. Cohen has joined the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, which owns several hospitals in the Cleveland area, as executive director of PR.  He previously was PR/marketing director for Wuesthoff Health Systems, Rockledge, Fla...Nick May, Edelman's global director of healthcare, will join Ogilvy PR Worldwide in April as president of its European operations. He will be based in London. May replaces Paul Philpotts, who recently left Ogilvy...Ronald C. Kuykendall, previously VP/director of corp. comms. at A.G. Edwards, joined American Management Systems, Fairfax, Va., as VP/corp. comms...Barbara Alvarez, who currently airs a news feature every other Thursday on "The Early Show" on CBS-TV, has joined Virgil Scudder & Assocs., New York, to train celebrities for media appearances.

BERGEN: GAULKE IS WRONG ABOUT COUNCIL

Jack Bergen, who heads the Council of PR Firms, said he "totally disagreed" with both the tone and substance of a remark by PRSA head Ray Gaulke that the CPRF is unnecessary.

Bergen, who said he is spending 50% of his time on this effort, feels the "shortage of people" is a major reason why some Council members have to turn down new business.

"CPRF members are committed to satisfying the needs of clients. They have to tell prospective clients that they simply cannot service you if we don't have the people," said Bergen, who believes Gaulke’s comment makes PR firms look "arrogant."

Bergen said Gaulke’s remark about what might happen to CPRF if "one large firm pulls out" was an "insult" to people who run the agencies.

"They don’t have a pack mentality; they each have their own reasons for joining," said Bergen, who added he did not know of any members leaving.

Bergen said CPRF has lost one member since it was started, and last month added six new firms, including two top 50 firms--Cunningham Communication and Noonan/Russo Communications.

The CPRF’s total membership stands at 118.

Bergen Wages War on "Spin Masters"

"So we must find ways to measure the benefits of a strong reputation," said Bergen.

PR WORKS BETTER THAN ADV.--EDELMAN

Richard Edelman

"Our industry’s speed to market, ability to customize messages by audience and our links to credible third parties are competitive advantages in today’s new media environment and increasing use of the Internet," he told PRSA/Dallas Chapter on Feb. 18.

"In dealing directly with users of information on a more frequent basis, we are creating content.

We clearly have an obligation to employ the same standards a publisher uses in terms of credible sources, accuracy of data and immediacy of dissemination.

"This is a unique opportunity that we cannot afford to lose by relying on what some call spin or hype," he said.

"People are ignoring online ads. There’s very little click-through from banner ads. People are online in search of content on technology, e-commerce and advice for individual investors," he noted.

An example of the growing demand for PR is crisis communications, which combines traditional crisis management personal skills with new Internet tools, according to Edelman.

"We need to help clients avoid the snowballing of negative coverage by aggressively countering errors, misstatements or inadequate reporting. Responses now must be calibrated by audience and given in minutes. That is what communicating with the public involves today, and that is the service that PR professionals know how to provide the best," he said.

MORE COMPANIES MEASURE REPUTATION

Joe Dragonette

Dragonette’s wife, Rita Hoey, who took over day-to-day operation of the firm several years ago, will continue to run the firm, which was acquired last October by the GCI Group. He was with Edelman PR Worldwide from 1970-84, rising to president/Chicago.

TV STATION SELLS HEALTH NEWS REPORTS

WBAL-TV, Baltimore, has been airing a series of reports on women’s health that were paid for by Baltimore’s Mercy Medical Center.

The hospital paid WBAL a "hefty fee" to get its doctors on these reports, according to Paul Raeburn, a senior editor for science and technology, who reports on the arrangement in Business Week’s Feb. 28 issue, under the headline: "The Corruption of TV Health News."

Raeburn said, "Such deals involving hospital placements in news stories are increasingly common."

Medstar Television, a production company in Allentown, Pa., that brokers these deals and prepares the news reports, would not reveal how many clients it had, but it did say its clients include hospitals, health plans, and TV stations in San Diego, Denver, Hawaii, and San Francisco. Although Medstar would not say how much it charges, Raeburn said a Medstar proposal obtained by BW shows the yearly charge for airing two news spots per week is at least $364,000.

In its proposal, Medstar notes the particular value of featuring doctors on the news: "A PR agency or TV sales department can guarantee that an organization’s physicians will appear on TV commercials...but they can’t guarantee the physicians will be on the news, the most credible source for health information."

Edward C. Dougherty, Medstar?s VP/broadcasting, defended the company’s editorial integrity.  "We and the stations maintain total editorial control, from topic selection, research, script writing to final editing," he told BW.

WBAL’s news director Princell Hair does not believe the reports compromise control over editorial content.  "We decide what story to do, and what not to do," he told BW.

FOOD COS. USE BOOKS TO SELL PRODUCTS

Books for beginning readers which promote the sale of products is one of the hottest ad/PR trends in the food industry.

Two publishers, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins, have teamed up with food companies to publish "board" books with covers bearing the likenesses of such products as Cheerios, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, M&Ms, Sun Maid Raisins, and Hershey’s Kisses.

Necco candies and Kellogg’s Froot Loops will be featured in new books that are due out this fall.

Some of the books, such as "The M&M’s Brand Counting Book," which was first published in 1994, suggest the child sort, place, or count using the product, and offer a cents-off coupon for the product.

Laura S. Stepp, a reporter for The Washington Post, said more than one million copies of "The Cheerios Play Book" and "The Cheerios Animal Play Book" have been sold since 1998.

Barbara B. McGrath, a former nursery school teacher, who is credited with hatching the idea of writing a counting book using M&Ms, has written six titles under her name.

ADS PUBLICIZE QUARTERLY EARNINGS CALLS

StreetFusion, a financial information network on the Internet, is buying ad space in The Wall Street Journal to publicize upcoming broadcasts of quarterly earnings calls available to the public.

The ads are appearing in the "Money & Investing" section, with occasional ads running beneath the "Index to Businesses" directory in the "Marketplace" section on page B2.

Hill and Knowlton is the San Francisco-based company’s PR firm.

MEDIA BRIEFS_______________________

The New York Times has hired Forest City Ratner Cos. to explore building a new headquarters in Times Square.  One possible site being considered is across from the Port Authority Bus Terminal on Eigth ave. and 40th st.  The Times has been located at 229 W. 43rd st. since 1913.  

Zagat Survey, which publishes restaurant and travel guides, has received $31 million in equity financing from major investors.

The funds will used to upgrade its website as well as a range of E-commerce initiatives including online reservations and wireless applications.

Results of the Sixth Annual Middleberg/Ross Media in Cyberspace Study will be unveiled March 2 at an 8:30 a.m. news conference at the Newseum/NY at 580 Madison ave.

The new study will reveal exclusive research findings explaining how the Internet has affected journalists’ ethics and credibility.

The event, sponsored by Business Wire, will be cybercast live at www.freedomforum.org.

Copies of the study will be distributed at no cost to attendees (physical and virtual).

A handbook for covering environmental news has been published by the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation’s Environmental Journalism Center, in Washington, D.C.

The title of the handbook is "Covering Key Environmental Issues: A Handbook for Journalists."

Each chapter contains background materials and story ideas.

Copies of the handbook are $10 for non-journalists. Michelle Thibodeau at 202/467-5206.

National Journal.com is the new online home for all National Journal Group publications?National Journal magazine, CongressDaily, The Hotline, GivenWire, TechnologyDaily, and The Almanac of American Politics.

AP TO SEND FASHION WIRE DAILY’S NEWS

Fashion Wire Daily.com, a New York-based news service covering fashion and celebrity style, will provide content to The Associated Press.

The AP will license FWD’s news through its information services department to other websites.

Ted Mendelsohn, director of information services at AP, said the FWD "is an ideal match for us because it complements AP content offering and provides information that is in high demand online."

FWD was started last year by Brandusa Niro, a former fashion editor, who also started North American Publicity Co., in New York, in 1985 (NL, May 12, 1998).

NAPC has merged with General Strategic Marketing and Niro now runs FWD on a fulltime basis as its editor-in-chief, while Jonathan Marder, who was president of GSM, heads NAPC.

FWD will continue to supply its own member newspapers, magazines, new media and industry insiders with packaged features and photographs covering trends, breaking news, celebrity interviews and gossip.  FWD has about 2,000 members, a spokesperson said.

FWD has correspondents in Paris, Milan, New York, London and Los Angeles, who provide coverage.

Non-members can view daily news and gossip items on the FWD?s website (www.fashionwiredaily.com).

Joe Dolce is editorial director of FWD, which is located at 27 W. 24th st., #700, New York, NY 10010.  212/792-8282; fax: 897-3700.

PR FIRM LAUNCHES ONLINE NEWS SERVICE

Talon Strategic Communications, a Dallas-based PR firm, has launched BankMedia.com.

The new website, which is aimed at reporters who cover financial news, will offer banking news, a directory of industry experts and links to a variety of sites in the financial sector.

Business Wire will supply a constant stream of banking or financial-related news releases to the site.

Kevin Doel, who is spearheading Talon’s program, said the firm’s media relations philosophy has "always been to treat the media as if they were paying clients and provide them with a very high level of customer service."

Talon plans to expand the concept to other industries such as E-commerce, telecommunications, and general technology.

PLACEMENT TIPS ____________________

The Street.com, New York, has a new technology column, called "Tish on Tech."

The column is penned by senior editor Tish Williams, who recently joined the Internet company from Upside Media, where she was host of the Upside Today site and a senior columnist for Upside magazine.

Shift, a Toronto-based consumer magazine that targets 18 to 34-year-old online users, may move its editorial staff to New York.

The seven-year-old magazine, which is published 10 times a year, has opened an ad sales office at 122 West 27th st., and has begun a direct mail campaign to sell more subscriptions to U.S. "opinion leaders and agenda setters."

Currently, about 80,000 of Shift’s 150,000 total circulation is in the U.S.

Clive Thompson, an editor-at-large, is the only editorial staffer based in the U.S.  He can be reached in New York at 212/633-0233.

Laas Turnbull, editor-in-chief, and the other staff writers work out of the magazine?s Toronto office at 119 Spadina ave. (416/977-7982).

Money.com editor Craig Matters said Michael Sivy’s thrice-weekly online investing column has attracted more than 54,000 subscribers since its debut in Nov. 1999.

Sivy’s column, which analyzes blue-chip stocks in the news, recommended buying Enron in December at $41 a share; it’s now at $69.  The column also recommended Tyco International at $30.50 (now at $38) and Nokia at $176 (now at $192).

The columnist also can be heard daily on CBS radio network.

Fortune has hire Clifton Leaf, who was executive editor of SmartMoney magazine, as assistant managing editor.

Leaf will be responsible for running Fortune’s investor section and editing feature stories that focus on investing and Wall Street coverage.

He also will oversee the newly expanded business lifestyle section run by sr. editor Erik Torkells.

PEOPLE __________________________

Ron Givens, previously entertainment editor and reporter for The New York Daily News, was appointed editorial director of The New York Times Upfront, the national biweekly teen news magazine, co-published by Scholastic and the NYT.

Kerry S. Marash, an ABC News producer in the network’s Washington, D.C., bureau, was named VP of ABC News editorial quality.

Amy D. Marcus, who was Middle East correspondent in Tel Aviv for The Wall Street Journal for almost seven years, has joined Money magazine cadre of writers.  She lives in Brookline, Mass.

Stacy Simon, senior editor at CNN Headline News in Atlanta, was named executive editor.

Dianne Pagoda was recently promoted to managing editor of Women’s Wear Daily, and Lisa Lockwood, who covered media news, is now news editor.

Mary Gail is the new managing editor of Harper’s Bazaar.

Ellen Goldensohn was promoted to editor of Natural History.

Andrew Mills, 73, who retired in 1990 from TV Guide, where he had been assistant managing editor, died recently.

Larry Manne is news director of WTVE-TV, a new UHF station in Philadelphia, and Jim Sweeney, former news director at WRNN-TV in New York, is deputy news director of "Philly TV News."

Wolf Blitzer, CNN news correspondent and anchor, was presented Feb. 16 with the Anti-Defamation League’s Hubert L. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize at the ADL’s national executive committee meeting in Palm Beach, Fla.

Joseph Duome, a member of the N.Y. Financial Writers’ Assn., the Silurians, and Oversees Press Club, has joined the ranks of published authors with his "Return to Yesterday," a saga of World War II.

"Born In the ‘60s" is a new program that airs Monday-Friday from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. on the Talk America Radio Network.

The show, which focuses on the events and personalities that shaped today’s thirtysomething generation, is hosted by Jeff Santos, who does guest interviews.

Tom Star or Stan Hurwitz will respond to queries from PR people about the show. 781/828-4546.

CANADIANS NIX FORCED APR

The annual meeting of the Canadian PR Society is expected to rescind a bylaw passed in 1996 that gave members five years to become accredited or lose their right to vote at the annual meeting.

PRSA in the 1970s required members to become accredited within five years or lose their "active" status. Many members joined as "associates" and others refused to take the APR exam. The five-year rule was dropped and the distinction erased between actives and associates. CPRS has not joined the "Universal APR" program of PRSA but is listed as a group that is "considering joining it."

WHY IPR INVITED PRSA TO LONDON

Materials on IPRA's "Feed the Mind" campaign are available from www.ipranet.org.

"O'DWYER'S PR DAILY" INAUGURATED

Advertising opportunities are available at the top of the city and specialty rankings at $200 monthly. All areas of the site are open. No codes are required.

"DROWNING IN SPIN" TOLD BY SQUIRES

While he feels President Clinton spent years "trying to drown rumors of his sex life in an ocean of 'spin,'" Squires also feels that the press overplayed the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Polls showed 80% of Americans thought the coverage was excessive and more than half thought it was inaccurate and unfair.

John Paluszek

For instance, its "Universal" accreditation program is anything but universal. IABC refuses to take part and there is no chance NIRI ever would. John Paluszek, APR chair in 1983, rejected a bid by the IABC for a co-sponsored "certification" program. Paluszek said there are "genuine differences" in PRSA, IABC and the Canadian PR Society that block a meaningful common test (8/31/83 NL).

Paluszek noted this week that his quote is 17 years old and that in the interim the organizations have moved closer together in what they do.  "We are increasingly serving the same audiences," said Paluszek.  But there's still plenty of work to be done before a common test suitable to all three would be practical, he said.

Accreditation is also the wrong term for what the PRSA exam does. The dictionary definition is "to recognize as outstanding." The APR test does not claim to do this. Further definitions of "accredit" say it means "official authorization" and "credentials" that are accepted. The PR field has become too specialized, especially in high-tech, healthcare and financial, for one test to qualify a PR pro generally.  Recruiters have told this to PRSA via the College of Fellows poll released last year (which has never been mentioned in any PRSA publication).

Other PRSA phrases should also be purged. "Global Leadership" should be changed to international initiative; "Strategic Plan" to the five-year plan (it's too early to claim that it's strategic); international conference back to national conference (based on the few internationals at the meetings--not counting world conferences), and "professional practice center" to the library or information center (which is what many people are looking for when they call PRSA). The Society's rent is $28 a sq. ft. (including escalations, porters' wage assessments, office maintenance, etc.) and not $18 as was told to members last year. The "base" rent may be $17.25 but the term "base" was not used in claims to members nor was a proper explanation given of "rent" and "occupancy costs."

"A lot of this spin fools no one, is counterproductive and makes PRSA an easy target. The IABC does not make grandiose claims and thus escapes criticism.

This chilling statistic was in Time Feb. 14: the average 14-year-old in the U.S. in 1999 knows 10,000 words vs. 25,000 for 14-year-olds back in 1950...the PR field complains about lack of candidates but hundreds of thousands of college students are majoring in "communications"...the 2000 PRSA budget of $9.2 million has nothing in it under the heading "PR."  There is $85,000 budgeted for "communications," apparently the salary of the incoming chief PR officer...

"general leadership" costs of PRSA (mostly the board of directors) are jumping to $306,600 in 2000, up 69% from 1998...the PRSA international initiative lists costs of $225K in 2000 and no income, meaning no companies are opting for the $25K international memberships described to the 1998 Assembly...net cost of the "accreditation" program will be a record $475K ...Donald Trump's presidential run was a phony--a repeat of the same run 13 years ago when he was also promoting a book, according to Christopher Byron in the March George. Byron said Trump would never do the obligatory financial statement of candidates because he is not as rich as he claims. His real estate holdings and the debt on them are hidden behind "blanket after blanket of anonymous corporate filings," says Byron. He tracks the problems that led to Trump's bankruptcy and reorganization in the early 1990s. Trump, a genius at "ostentation," gave lots of interviews with major media but didn't make a single stump speech, Byron notes. "He lives like a billionaire by simply borrowing the money and betting that the endless bounty of the American economy--and his own endlessly flowing blather and blarney--will bail him out," says Byron...Susan Apsley, PRSA chapter operations manager, left after three years, replaced by Jennifer Meehan. Apsley was the 20^th staffer to depart of the 41 listed in the 1996-97 Register.