SUN SHINES ON CITIGATE CUNNINGHAM

Sun Microsystems awarded the bulk of its $10 million PR business to Citigate Cunningham, which will handle its corporate and industrial account business. Alexander Ogilvy also picked up a big chunk of the business-its industry and consumer group. KVO PR and Eastwick Communications also won parts of Sun. Burson-Marsteller and Ketchum were incumbents.

Joe Hamilton, CC president, said his Palo Alto, Calif., firm, was especially gratified that it won Sun's overseas PR. He credited the victory to a joint pitch CC made with high-tech pros from parent company, Incepta.

Sun will use services from Incepta's London and Hong Kong offices.

Hamilton identified Joan Stone, senior VP at CC, as the executive in charge of the Sun business. Stone reports to Beth Pampaloni in Sun's corporate PR department.
Hamilton also feels the high-tech slump may be at its bottom. CC, which announced 40 layoffs in February, trimmed more staffers last week, and is closing its Denver office.

APCO SNAPS UP EX-SENATOR RIEGLE

Former Michigan Senator Don Riegle is the latest "trophy" politician hired by APCO Worldwide. He'll chair APCO's government affairs unit.

Riegle, a Democrat, recently quit Weber Shandwick, where he was deputy chairman in its Washington, D.C., office.

He retired from the Senate in 1994 after being linked to the Keating Five scandal.

Besides Riegle, APCO counts ex-Republican Congressmen Matt Salmon (Arizona) and Mickey Edwards (Oklahoma), along with Democrats Steve Solarz (New York) and Don Bonker (Washington) as members of its team.

CRONIN & CO. WINS McDONALD'S CO-OP

Cronin & Co. edged out Mintz & Hoke for the PR account of more than 150 McDonald's restaurants in Western Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Arnold Communications, which had the PR account, continues to do ads for the Connecticut and Western Massachusetts McDonald's Operators Assn.
Patti Holskin Stern and AnnMarie Kemp handle the McDonald's business at C&C.

H&K LANDS HONG KONG TOURISM PR

The Hong Kong Tourist Assn. has picked Hill and Knowlton to handle its seven-figure PR account. BSMG Worldwide had handled the business.

Joan Brower and Joan Bloom, co-heads of H&K's travel and tourism group, are responsible for the overall direction of the communications campaign. Maren Lau, senior account supervisor, handles day-to-day PR activities.

They report to Lily Shum, regional director of the Americas for HKTA, which has offices in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

She lauded H&K for the "depth and breadth" of its communications skills. H&K has done travel PR for more than 20 years under the guidance of Joyce Martin, the former Eastern Airlines PR pro and PR director for the New York World's Fair. She passed away last year.

Hong Kong has been calling itself the "city of life" to highlight its vibrancy and rich cultural heritage.

The city is also playing up its role as "gateway to China"-now that Hong Kong is formally part of the People's Republic.

COLE TO JOIN GENERAL MOTORS

Ken Cole, who heads Honeywell's Washington, D.C., office, is expected to become General Motors VP-government relations within a month.

He will succeed Andrew Card, who is now Chief of Staff to George Bush.

Cole worked for more than two decades at AlliedSignal, which merged with Honeywell two years ago. General Electric is in the process of acquiring Honeywell.

ADOBE SIGNS UP A&R PARTNERS

Adobe Systems has hired A&R Partners, San Mateo, Calif., as its PR firm due to its graphics and electronic publishing expertise.

A&R also has strong ties with Adobe's VP-corporate communications Kevin Burr, according to John Derryberry, the A&R staffer who handles the Adobe account.

"We had a prior relationship with Burr when he was with Silicon Graphics," Derryberry told this NL.

Burr, who has more than 23 years of high-tech PR experience, was SG's director of worldwide PR responsible for 30 communications staffers. He joined Adobe in 1999.
Adobe had $1.2 billion in sales last year.

BOHLE CO., MAKOVSKY & CO. CUT STAFFS

The Bohle Co., Los Angeles, completed its second round of layoffs last week as CEO Sue Bohle chopped ten from the payroll. Another eight were let go in February.

Bohle told this NL she was surprised with the severity of the downturn in the high-tech market. She assumed the February cuts would be the only ones necessary for the year, but three of her "early stage" clients went belly-up.

Bohle expects a tough 2001 will put her firm back to its 1999 level.

That would "wipe out" a robust 55% gain in fees to $6.5 million that Bohle enjoyed last year.

Ken Makovsky cut eight from his payroll at Makovsky & Co., New York, due to softness in high-tech and the IR categories.

He said those cuts of four professionals and four support staffers were "regrettable."

Makovsky had $9.6 million in 2000 fees (up 19%) and 70 employees at yearend.

KING SOLD AS CORPORATE PITCHMAN

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the late civil rights leader, has become a corporate pitchman for Alcatal and Cingular Wireless.

The latest King-themed print and TV ads for Alcatal, a French company that provides telecommunications networks, began March 19, with King portrayed giving his "I Have A Dream" speech in Washington, D.C. The crowd was digitally removed to fit the theme of the ad, which is about making connections.

Atlanta-based Cingular Wireless is running an ad that features sound bites from the same King speech. King is not seen but hisvoice is heard in a mix that includes Kermit the Frog, William Shakespeare, Homer Simpson and others.

The companies bought the rights to use King's image and voice from his estate in Atlanta.

PAPER QUESTIONS JACKSON'S FUNDRAISING

The Washington Post said Rev. Jesse Jackson's fundraising machine and the methods he uses to get corporate leaders to contribute to his cause has raised questions in the wake of disclosures about the Citizenship Fund's payment of $40,000 to a staff member with whom Jackson fathered a child in 1999.

Post reporter William Claiborne said an examination of the public record and his financial statements shows Jackson has "repeatedly inserted himself into corporate controversies and transactions just when the companies are most exposed-and therefore most inclined to be generous to Jackson's organization- such as when they are seeking federal approval for a merger or battling charges of discriminatory hiring practices."

He has also pressed companies to award lucrative deals to his close friends, Claiborne said in a story that ran March 27.

Jackson, in two interviews, freely admitted using the threats of boycotts to get the attention of companies he says have long "redlined," or excluded, blacks and other minorities in hiring, contracting and providing access to capital, Claiborne said.

H&K SWALLOWS PROMARC AGENCY

Alisa Fogelman-Beyer, who built The ProMarc Agency into a firm with $4.3 million fees since she founded the shop five years ago, has merged it into Hill and Knowlton.

She becomes head of H&K's Washington, D.C., technology group which now has billings in the $6 million range.

ProMarc clients are Managed Objects, Vocus, Ztango, EqualFooting.com, Politec, InfoCruiser, Loral CyberStar and Facility Information Systems.

The shop recorded a 93 percent surge in 2000 fees, according to O'Dwyer's ranking of independent firms.

ProMarc, which employed 27 staffers at yearend, was the No. 53 firm on the list.

P&G'S SUIT AGAINST AMWAY IS REVIVED

A federal appeals panel in New Orleans has revived Procter & Gamble's decades-old lawsuit against Amway, whose distributors were accused of spreading false and harmful rumors in the 1980s and '90s that P&G has ties to Satanism and the Church of Satan.

The rumor implicated P&G's corporate symbol of the "man in the moon," associating it with the devil. The company stopped using the symbol on products in the late 1980s.

In the early 1980s, after a flood of angry calls to the company and boycotts of its products, P&G tried to kill the rumor with a PR campaign, an effort in which Amway assisted. P&G also sued a dozen people, half of them Amway distributors, who sell paper goods and other household goods in competition with P&G. The suits were settled, with admissions of fault and retractions.

But in 1995, an Amway distributor, who lives in Utah, forwarded the rumor to other distributors over a telephone messaging system. Some distributors then printed and distributed fliers with the message "We offer you an alternative" and contact information for Amway distributors.

As a result, P&G decided to go after the company as well as some of its distributors, including the Amway distributor who disseminated the rumor.

He testified that he had believed the rumor to be true, and retracted it shortly after sending it out.

ANALYSTS SEE LESS DATA WITH REG. FD

Fifty-seven percent of 423 analysts and portfolio managers surveyed by the Association for Investment Management and Research said the "volume of substantive information" put out by companies has fallen since Regulation Fair Disclosure took effect.

Seventy-one percent believe that the new rule has led to more volatile stock prices.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE HAS A NEW LOOK

The Chicago Tribune has been redesigned from front to back.

Some of the specific changes, which took effect on March 19, include:

-Expanded national foreign report, with more news and news features.
-New emphasis on Chicago and Midwestern business news.
-Jim Kirk writes four ad/marketing columns a week instead of three.
-Expanded personal finance coverage on Tuesday.
-A new emphasis on profiles of key figures in the arts.
-More reporting on arts, entertainment, media.
-More coverage of health, fitness and medicine.
-A new health column updating and modifying high-fat, high-calorie dishes.
-A new consumer column, called "Travel Insider," <%0>by Chris Reynolds.
-More garden coverage.
-New product reviews in the "KidNews" section.<%0>

"How to Contact Us" information will be included in every section.

READERS WANT UPLIFTING STORIES

The head of Knight Ridder, the second-largest newspaper publisher in the U.S., said newspapers should look for new ways to attract readers.

Tony Ridder said approximately 57% of adults read a newspaper each day, and 67% read one on Sunday. That means 43% of adults do not read a newspaper daily.

"Do these people not read? I don't think so. They're just not reading us," he told a Texas newspaper group on March 26.
Ridder said newspaper readers want more stories that are positive and uplifting, such as reports about people successfully solving problems; more local stories about schools and safety; tighter editing; and better organization in papers.

EDITOR COVERS LIFE AND DEATH

C. Claiborne Ray leads a double life at The New York Times as author of the "Q&A" column and editor of the daily obituaries. The "C" is for "Cornelia."

Ray, who has been handling Q&A since 1988, provides short, punchy explanations to often bizarre and complicated questions submitted by readers. The column appears on Page 2 of the weekly "Science Times" section.

She relies on help from science experts from around the country and across the newsroom.

Her Other Life

Ray's other life is as daily editor at the Obit Desk.

As daily editor-reporting to Charles Strum, the obit editor-she helps decide which interesting lives rate obits in the Times. Ray is only concerned with those that come in over the transom.

"We treat obituaries as news coverage," she said. "Our basic rule of thumb is that the people we cover should have made news in their lifetimes, most usually in the pages of the Times. We also write about other people who were unique or prominent in their fields."

The Times has five fulltime obit writers. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, who until recently was "Books of The Times" critic, is chief obituary writer. The other fulltime writers are Douglas Martin, Wolfgang Saxon, Eric Pace, and Paul Lewis. Many obits are also written by political, science, business, arts or sports reporters.

PLACEMENT TIPS ___________________

TechTV, a cable TV channel covering technology news, information and entertainment 24 hours a day, launched "Tech Live" on April 2.

Tech Live will be the nucleus of TechTV's daytime programming from 9 am. to 6 p.m (EST), with one half-hour newscast at 9 p.m. and repeating at 12 a.m. and 3 a.m.

Each hour of Tech Live will be comprised of technology news, finance, new product reviews, help, and consumer advice.
Tech Live will be based out of TechTV's state-of-the-art San Francisco broadcast center, with additional coverage from the recently established TechTV bureaus in New York, Washington, D.C., Silicon Valley, and Seattle.

A.J. Benza, one of the most recognizable on-air personalities, is getting his own weekly, hourlong, late-night TV talk show.

"A.J. After Hours" is scheduled to make its debut on May 31 on E! Entertainment cable network, where Benza has hosted 150 episodes of "Mysteries & Scandals."

The 38-year-old Benza, who helped write the "Hot Copy" gossip column for The New York Daily News, will begin taping of the first four shows in mid-April in a 4,000-square-foot loft in New York's Chinatown.

There will be no pre-interviews, and guests will join him on a couch or join him mingling with audience members, who will be seated at tables.

Michael Danahy, who is supervising producer of "Mysteries & Scandals," will be executive producer of "A.J. After Hours."

Eric Pianin was named to cover the environmental beat at The Washington Post

The Post has had several reporters handling Washington, D.C., environmental stories since Joby Warrick was transferred to the investigations team in the spring of 1999.

Pianin had been covering congressional budget matters.

(Media news continued on next page)

STUDY: CORP. SITES SKIMP ON FACTS

A new study of corporate websites by the Nielsen Norman Group found most of the PR sections of the sites fail to support journalists in their quest for facts, information, and points of contact that they can use when they write stories about companies or their products.

"Websites need to make it painfully obvious what the company does and what their product is," said Kara Coyne and Jacob Nielsen, who are the co-authors of "Designing Web Sites to Maximize Press Relations." which was just released by the NNG.

"Websites must provide fast access to basic facts and figures, as well as a simple way to contact a live human being in the PR department," the authors said.

"Journalists don't have time to wade through deep, complex navigation trees or sift factual wheat from marketing chaff. In particular, pages need to present information in well-organized chunks that are easy to scan. Distracting animations and irrelevant stock photography of smiling people do not help journalists who are in a hurry to find facts."

The 20 journalists used in the study repeatedly said poor website usability could reduce or completely eliminate their press coverage of that company.

Journalists Need Facts

The top five reasons journalists gave for visiting a company's website are:

1. Find a PR contact (name and phone number).
2. Check basic facts about the company (spelling of an executive's name, his/her age, headquarters location, etc.).
3. Discover the company's own spin on events.
4. Check financial information.
5. Download images to use as illustrations in stories.
Test users only found a PR phone number 55% of the time.
Of the 20 journalists who participated in the study, 15 were based in New York, and five in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Of the 10 company websites studied, the authors found BMW's corporate site to the least useful for journalists, while Wal-Mart's was the most media-friendly.

The other sites studied were: Fidelity Investments, Merck, Nokia, Philip Morris, SeeItFirst, Tellme, United Colors of Benetton, and U.S. Patent Office.

NPR SHUFFLES REPORTER ASSIGNMENTS

Elizabeth Arnold, who is based in Seattle, will change her focus from politics to become a national correspondent focusing on land use issues in the west and interior west for National Public Radio News.

Brian Naylor has become a Mid-Atlantic regional correspondent based in Washington, D.C., but ranging over several states.

Mary Ann Akers is relocating to the Chicago bureau to cover regional news and trends.

On Capitol Hill, NPR News has a new team led by Steve Inskeep, and David Welna, previously with NPR's Chicago bureau. Tom Gjelten is the new national security correspondent.

Don Gonyea has taken over as the new White House correspondent, and Mara Liasson will become NPR's national political correspodent, based in Washington, D.C.

PEOPLE ________________________

Stephen Drucker, editor-in-chief of Martha Stewart Living, has resigned. He was replaced by Douglas Brenner, who is executive editor.

Paul Goldberger has stepped down as executive editor of Architectural Digest.

Kit Frieden, who has spent the last nine years as state editor of The Houston Chronicle, is rejoining The Associated Press as assistant newsfeatures editor, overseeing science and medical coverage. She will be based in New York.

Jonathan Auerbach, 33, who was editor of the Sunday section of The New York Post, was named metropolitan editor, and Gregg Birnbaum, 40, was named political editor.

Maxim Maslakov, editor of the Russian edition of Playboy, was shot in the lower back by an unknown attacker March 14 outside of the magazine's offices in Moscow. Maslakov was in serious but not life-threatening condition.

Rick Tetzeli, an executive editor at Fortune since Dec. 1999, was promoted to deputy managing editor. He will continue to direct Fortune's technology coverage while taking on a greater role in the day-to-day management of the magazine.

Steven Kersch, who was previously real estate editor of The Chicago Tribune, has joined CBS MarketWatch.com as real estate editor.

Robert Clow, who had covered business for The New York Post since joining the paper six months ago from Institutional Investor, has joined Financial Times.

Erica Copulsky, a reporter for The Daily Deal since the paper was started in Sept. 1999, has joined The New York Post to cover mergers and acquisitions and restructurings.

Sharon Rosenhause, former San Francisco Examiner managing editor, was named managing editor of The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, succeeding Ellen Soeteber, who is now editor-in-chief of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Diana Kurylko, 44, has joined Automotive News in Detroit to cover DaimlerChrysler. She had been on assignment the past 10 years in Europe for AN and sister publication Automotive News Europe.

Click here for O'Dwyer's Ranking of Independent PR Firms by Specialties

PR OPINION/ITEMS

Patrick Jackson, longtime leader of PRSA who died March 22, has been hailed by PRSA chair Kathy Lewton as a "true genius" who played "the integral role in the development of PRSA into the organization that it is today."

She added: "Pat was the most fervent advocate of practicing PR as both an art and a science and he forged new ground in terms of establishing our profession...he showed us what PR could be at its very best." Lewton said Jackson's leadership "continued, full force, long after his term on the national board ended." We agree with that last statement.

If what Jackson espoused was PR "at its very best," it's time to open a dialog on this subject.

Jackson himself "insisted" that his firm was a "behavioral PR and management consulting firm" focused on "motivating, modifying or reinforcing behavior among clients' stakeholder groups-rather than advising them on communications..."

His philosophy differed from that of another PR leader who recently died-Denny Griswold.

She said business had too long been "shrouded in a cloak of mystery" and that "the fullest possible disclosure is infinitely more valuable than secrecy." She called on firms to be "socially responsible." She did not use the term "public" in the plural.

Many of Griswold's friends feel they were cruelly treated in the last few years of her life in that they couldn't get news of her well being. They have told us they were brushed off when they called Denny's townhouse in New York. They were certainly not told something like, "Denny is in a nursing home and would appreciate any letters or cards you might send her-here's the address." This NL has printed items like this for PR people who are convalescing. It cheers them up.

Martha Meng, of the law firm of Murtha Cullina, Hartford, representing Wilton Meadows, which is owned by TransCon Builders, Cleveland, said April 2 that after May 1996 Griswold was able to receive any mail she wanted to receive and any visitors she wanted to see. She said the staff at WM knew her as Denny Sullivan and mail to Denny Griswold might not have been delivered to her. WM had no knowledge of Griswold's status in the business world nor any knowledge about her estate or possessions, said Meng. She said all residents are treated the same. Russell Garrett, husband of Susan Garrett, niece of Griswold, had told this NL in 1998 that Griswold was "fine" although recovering from a broken hip, Meng said Griswold had medical problems although they cannot be discussed because of confidentiality rules. Meng said WM is not responsible for what the Garretts did or did not tell Griswold's friends about her whereabouts or medical condition. Meng asked this NL for any evidence that mail or packages sent to Griswold at WM were not received by her.

Len Daniels of Placement Assocs., recruiters, was one of Griswold's best friends.

She took him to lunch in September of 1995 just before Women Executives in PR was to have a 50th anniversary lunch in her honor Oct. 12 at the Parker Meridien Hotel. She founded the group in 1945.

"She had recovered from Lyme disease and seemed her old self," said Daniels. "She joked and kidded with me and said how excited she was about wearing a special gold dress to the luncheon." WEPR, in its program, described Griswold as its "Mother." Daniels said the plan was to give Griswold a silver plate that PRSA had made. "I don't know why she didn't show<%0> up for the lunch," said Daniels, adding: "I never had contact with her again.

Sondra Gorney said Denny took her to dinner and a show (a performance of "The Odd Couple" at a private theater club) sometime in 1995. Denny gave her a gold plated clock in thanks for a song her husband, Jay Gorney, had written for a PR News anniversary dinner. Gorney recalls exchanging many letters and notes with Griswold. "She loved people and having people around her...she loved to get awards," said Gorney. All contact ceased after the fall of 1995, she said. Told that Griswold had also taken the editor of this NL to lunch around 1995, Gorney said: "Denny was lonely and needed friendship." She pointed out that Heddy Browde, longtime companion (she was maid of honor at the wedding of Griswold and Langdon Sullivan in 1951), had died and Sullivan was in a nursing home. Griswold was "a generous woman" who told her at the lunch she wanted to fund a scholarship at WEPR, recalled Gorney.

Betsy Plank, PRSA's first woman president in 1973, who sometimes stayed overnight in Griswold's townhouse, said she would call the house asking about Denny "and a man would answer mumbling something like, `She isn't here.'" Plank never learned that Griswold was at the Wilton Meadows nursing home in Wilton, Conn. Plank said, speaking for "all of us who tried many, many times to get in touch with Denny, this was a tragic end to someone so vital."

WEPR has sent notes to Wilton Meadows and the Conn. Ombudsman program asking for answers. Kathy Lewton, chair of PRSA, said she doesn't know the facts of the situation regarding Denny's healthcare and said, "I don't think it appropriate, having no facts, to be involved in criticizing her family, her caretakers or offering comment on the situation."