IABC PUTS TENTATIVE 'GO' ON CONFERENCE

The International Assn. of Business Communicators, after temporarily delaying any decision about its conference in Toronto June 8-11, has decided to go ahead with it subject to a review around May 12.

That is when the World Health Organization will update its warning against unnecessary travel to Toronto because of the outbreak of SARS there.

As of presstime, there were 267 cases of SARS in Toronto and 21 deaths.

The disease has an incubation period of ten days and the virus can live on an inanimate surface for 24 hours. It's so contagious that all 18 medical interns who were in the same room with a SARS victim caught the disease themselves.

About 650 signed up for the conference. A total of 1,600 were expected, about the same number as the previous annual conference in Toronto in 1995. Two speakers have cancelled.

IABC has been counting on a successful meeting since it had an accumulated deficit of $1.3 million as of Sept. 30, 2001, the date of its latest financial report. Toronto is IABC's biggest chapter by far with 1,168 members. Canadian IABCers total 3,000.

Annette Martell, of Mercer Communications, Toronto, chair of IABC, said April 25 the group would make no immediate decision but late that day announced a "go" for the meeting. Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman has been appearing on U.S. TV in an attempt to allay fears about traveling to Toronto.

CORALLO HEADS TO MIDDLE EAST

Mark Corallo, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Justice, has taken a temporary assignment to handle communications for the reconstruction efforts in Iraq. A Justice spokesman told this NL Corallo's post would be covered by the department's other 15 or so press contacts during his absence.

Corallo was director of communications for Indiana Republican Rep. Dan Burton's Government Reform Committee and press secretary for Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.). His formal title at Justice is deputy director of public affairs.

U.S. Ambassador to Morocco and former State Dept. spokeswoman during the first Gulf War, Margaret Tutwiler, is heading communications for Ret. Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, the viceroy for Iraq, and the Pentagon's newly created Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.

RALEIGH AND BROWN HANDLE CRISES

Hill and Knowlton veteran Jeff Raleigh and longtime corporate PR officer Mike Brown have set up a corporate communications and crisis PR shop, Brown & Raleigh in San Francisco (415/294-4880).

Raleigh, a crisis specialist who headed H&K's New York and San Francisco offices in a 19-year career there, said he and Brown "have been through virtually every battle a PR pro can fight."

Raleigh, a U.S. Army veteran who took over as GM of H&K/S.F. in Feb. 2002 after heading its NetComms unit, counts bankruptcies, industrial deaths, dam collapses, and product recalls among his notable crisis assignments. He says he reminds clients that he is not the "angel of death," meaning not all of his clients are in trouble. He was involved in building E*Trade's name and advised Staples as it changed CEOs.

Brown has served as the top PR officer for the University of San Francisco, Southern Pacific Lines and Consolidated Freightways in a 21-year PR career that also included a stint at Fleishman-Hillard.

At USF, Brown earned his crisis stripes when the Jesuit school eliminated its basketball program because of violations of its own ethics rules.

B&R also handles transactional assignments, positioning and planning.

ARCHDIOCESE SPOKESWOMAN IS LEAVING

Donna Morrissey, who handled PR for the Archdiocese of Boston during the clergy molestation scandal last year, is resigning. The Boston Herald reports that "multiple sources" said she will leave in the near future.

Morrissey, who previously worked for the Regan Comms. Group, joined the archdiocese two years ago as Bernard Cardinal Law's secretary for communications. She became a fixture in Boston newspapers and on TV over the past year as she defended Law and the archdiocese amid revelations that Law transferred priests accused of abuse.

Stephen Astle, an executive VP at Applied Comms., is slated to take the reins of FitzGerald Comms.' Silicon Valley operations in May, filling a post left vacant by the March exit to PR21 of John Berard. Astle, who is charged with leading the Brodeur Worldwide unit's Redwood Shores office, earlier was at the now-defunct Phase Two Strategies.

PWC WANTS PRINCIPLES ACCOUNTING

PricewaterhouseCoopers, the biggest accounting firm with 125,000 employees including 38,000 in the U.S. and $13.8 billion in income, has come out strongly for "principles-based accounting" as opposed to "rules-based accounting."

The former, which emphasizes "transparency" in financial reporting, is taking hold in Europe and has many proponents in the U.S.

PWC ran full page ads headlined "principles have no loopholes" in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today. They appeared April 16 and 17.

Ad copy says that "more than a few in corporate America accepted the illusion of growth and now investors, companies and the economy are paying dearly."

Rules-based accounting, says PWC, "allow some to stretch the limits of what is permissible under the law, even though it may not be ethically or morally acceptable."

A principles-based system, meanwhile, "requires companies to report and auditors to audit the substance or business purpose of transactions; not merely whether they can qualify as acceptable under incredibly complex or overly technical rules.
PWC is the outside accounting firm for Interpublic, which is currently under investigation by the Securities & Exchange Commission for its earnings from 1996-2002 and the Internal Revenue Service, which is challenging some of the company's tax positions from 1994-96.

U-Haul Parent Sues PWC

Amerco, the parent of U-Haul International, said April 21 it has filed suit against PWC in federal court in Arizona for $2.5 billion in damages charging the auditors gave flawed advice which led the company to the verge of bankruptcy. Amerco contends PWC's conduct was "negligent, fradulent and tortious" during the last seven years as the company's auditor.

Amerco fired PWC in July 2002 after questions arose about "special purpose entities" Amerco used to keep debt off its balance sheet, methods similar to those which played a key role in the collapse of Enron. The company said in a statement it relied on PWC's advice from 1995 to 2002 "only to be told in February 2002 that the advice was wrong."

Amerco said PWC came up with the idea to use the SPEs.

PWC spokesman David Nestor told Reuters the suit is an attempt by Amerco management to shift blame away from itself.

PR PRO DENIES RELEASING INACCURATE INFORMATION

Ron Rhody, a California PR pro, swore in Sacramento Superior Court on April 22 that somebody else had inserted inaccurate information in a 1995 press release that he drafted as part of a campaign to lure the Oakland Raiders back to Oakland-Alameda Coliseum.

Rhody was called to the witness stand after George Vukasin, former president of the county coliseum, had testified that the July 20, 1995 press release, which stated the Raiders' 1995 games were sold out, was wrong. Vukasin said that although his name was on the press release, it was prepared by others.

Rhody, whose firm at the time was handling PR for the coliseum, said the release, which was drafted to announce the status of pre-season ticket sales, had been revised to state that all seats for Raiders games, including luxury suites, were sold out.

According to Rhody, he presented two press releases to the Coliseum, one that "said the PSLs had been fully subscribed and another that said it had not been fully subscribed."

"It was my understanding that the numbers (of PSL sales) would be inserted as of July 20," he stated.

Rhody testified he did not know who changed his original headline to read "1995 Raiders Games Sell Out..." or who added figures that represented a sellout of all Raiders PSL and luxury suites.

"People who had the information put it into the release," Rhody testified. "I don't know who worked on the release and made the corrections.

HM SAYS IT AIN'T SO FOR STEEL GIANT

Hullin Metz has been tapped by International Steel Group for a temporary assignment to refute reports that the company is leaning away from going public this year.

Managing partner of the New York-based firm, Tim Metz, was charged with countering an April 22 Cleveland Plain-Dealer report, which was picked up by wire services, that ISG CEO Rodney Mott said an initial public offering was unlikely this year.

Sheila Rose, a VP at HM, said the firm was retained specifically to deny the "erroneous" PD story.

POTATO BOARD ROLLS OUT CAMPAIGN

The U.S. Potato Board, a Denver-based group, is mounting a PR campaign to counter recent reports that potatoes are bad to eat. The campaign is being handled by Fleishman-Hillard's Sacramento, Calif., office, according to Meredith Myers, the USPB's manager of industry communications. As reported by this NL, F-H picked up the nearly $1M account in December from sister Omnicom unit Ketchum.

Myers said F-H also is handling PR for the 150th birthday of the potato chip for USPB and the Snack Food Assn.

CONSUMERS SPLIT ON BOYCOTTS

More than half of U.S. consumers say they would take into account whether a company is from a country that did not support the U.S. invasion of Iraq before buying stock, according to a Fleishman-Hillard/Wirthlin Worldwide poll of 1,000 adults.

Consumers who advocate and have taken part in boycotts of goods made in those countries were found to be white, mid- to upper-income. The key to that finding, the firms said, is that French and German brands tend to be luxury goods, the target of that demographic. French consumer goods have been boycotted the most.

NYSE CRITICIZES COVERAGE OF PROBE

The New York Stock Exchange has unleashed an attack against The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post, claiming the papers' coverage of an investigation into trading practices at several Big Board specialist firms has been inaccurate.

The Exchange said its probe is not focused on possible "front-running" as the papers have reported, but on a variation of the theme, possible violations of the specialist's "negative obligation."
Such a violation could involve a specialist buying at a low price from selling investors and selling at a higher price to buyers.

In "front-running," a specialist or other market insiders use knowledge of pending orders from the public to get in first at a low price and sell at higher prices when the orders start driving up the market for a stock.

"The NYSE's highest priority is ensuring a fair and open market for all investors," the Exchange said in a three-page statement. It added: "This investigation has generated substantial erroneous reporting and speculation in the media, led by The Wall Street Journal."

Paul Steiger, the Journal's managing editor, said "We believe our coverage has been accurate and fair. As for the Exchange's criticism of our semantics, we will happily defer to its experts on whether the proper description of the possible misbehavior under investigation is running in front of public investors or failing to stand out of their way.

Meanwhile, we hope the Exchange can tell us and the public soon the extent of the problem and what, if anything, it thinks should be done about it."

In its rebuttal, the Post editors criticized Richard Grasso, chairman of the Exchange, of trying to "kill the messenger."

"Dick Grasso has finally found something he wants to regulate effectively-the media!," said the story.

"The news outlets' most egregious sin appears to be their failure to properly define the type of illicit activity on the floor of the Exchange. It turns out it's not front-running at all-just something that sounds a lot like it."

"Such journalistic sins far overshadow the millions that investors have lost on firms listed on the NYSE," said the editors. "Maybe he [Grasso] can even figure out a way to make the press reimburse them."

TRAVEL HOLIDAY IS SHUT DOWN

Hachette Filipacchi is shutting down Travel Holiday magazine, which has a paid circulation of 652,677. The last issue will be the June number.

Jack Kliger, CEO of HF, said the magazine was closed because it was losing money and travel industry economics are not too positive.

The closing will affect the jobs of 27 staffers, including John Owens, who is editor-in-chief.

PARTISAN REVIEW FOLDS

Partisan Review, a quarterly journal, will cease publication with its spring number.

The magazine, which has been published for 68 years, has a circulation of around 7,500. Since 1978, Partisan Review had been financially supported by Boston University.

The journal's co-founder and editor, William Phillips, died in September.

PAPIERNAK LEAVES NATION'S RESTAURANT NEWS

Richard Papiernak, 65, who is recuperating from a stroke that he suffered in September, has stepped down as financial editor of Nation's Restaurant News.

Susan Spielberg, who was previously at Reuters, has replaced him at NRN. She had been covering healthcare companies for Reuters, and before that, was a stock analyst.

Papiernak said he will complete his one-year term as president of the New York Financial Writers' Assn., but he is retiring from the board of the Society of American Business Editors & Writers. He has held the board seat for 10 years.

PEOPLE

Nicholas Lemann, who has been the Washington, D.C., correspondent for The New Yorker since 2000, has agreed to become the dean of Columbia University's graduate school of journalism.

Carla Engler was promoted to beauty/fashion creative director of Ladies' Home Journal. She had been fashion/beauty director since joining the magazine in November.

Allison Young, formerly deputy metro editor of The Detroit Free Press, and Chris Adams, a reporter from The Wall Street Journal, have joined the new Knight Ridder Washington, D.C., bureau investigative team.

FEMALE ENTREPRENEUR MAKES DEBUT

Female Entrepreneur Magazine has been launched as a bimonthly by e-Spirit Holdings, based in Henderson, Nev. The first issue (March/April) is on sale in the U.S., Canada and Australia. A spokeswoman said 100,000 copies were distributed.

Keli Swenson, a former real estate broker, publicist and publisher of a San Diego newspaper, is editor of FEM.

Swenson said FEM will provide real-life solutions and advice for busy women who want practical, not theoretical, information. Feature articles cover the companies, personalities, trends and issues shaping the world of female business owners.

The magazine also will feature columns, written by experts, as well as articles to help readers learn from other female entrepreneurs.

(Media news continued on next page)

HOME IMPROVEMENT PRODS. MAKE NEWS

Kleber & Assocs., a PR firm based in Roswell, Ga., which specializes in home improvement products, got national media coverage in the past few months for a closet designer and a manufacturer of home spas.

Using Carmen Electra as a spokesperson for studiobecker's Ultimate Wardrobe System, Kelber got placements in US Weekly magazine and on "Livin' Large," an NBC-syndicated TV show that reaches an estimated 96 million households.
US Weekly ran a two-page spread in the March 3-10 issue that showed Electra in "Her Favorite Room."

The article identified studiobecker as the designer of the wardrobe system and included several photos of the wardrobe features and accessories.

In April, Livin' Large, which spotlights the lifestyles of the young and rich, aired an episode that also featured the celebrity in her bedroom that was renovated using studiobecker's Ultimate Wardrobe System.

The bedroom-turned-wardrobe episode showed her visiting the studiobecker showroom, selecting her wardrobe system, and the installation of the finished product.

For MrSteam/Sussman Lifestyle Group, K&A got a four-minute live demonstration of the client's Allegro sauna unit on Fox Cable News network's "Fox & Friends" morning TV show, which has approximately 10 million viewers.

The agency sent staffers to New York this winter where they arranged with the producers of Fox & Friends for a working sauna unit to be placed in its studios on 48th and 6th ave. to allow passers-by to come out of the cold and enjoy a warm sauna session.

The show hosts interviewed the company's CEO Jay Wilsker inside the sauna, and discussed features, pricing and displayed the company's website and phone number on the screen throughout the segment. Sussman experienced significantly higher website traffic and phone inquiries as a result of this placement, said K&A.

BROADCASTERS MONITOR WEB FOR NEWS

News Generation, Bethesda, Md., said the findings of its latest survey of 50 news, news-talk and talk radio stations in top media markets, show producers and assignment editors are online an average of seven hours a day looking for story ideas or scrolling through various publications.

For 54% of the stations questioned, breaking news is the number one reason producers and assignment editors stay online all day. For the rest, timeliness and finding the right spokespeople for an interview after a story breaks is the main reason.

"For all stations, the Internet is seen as a huge Rolodex, filled with names and phone numbers stations can quickly access," said NG spokeswoman Susan Matthews.

PLACEMENT TIPS

STA Travel, a full-service travel agency based in Los Angeles, has published the first issue of Break, a travel lifestyle magazine targeting students and young travelers on college campuses nationwide.

The magazine, which will be published twice a year, will contain articles on youth destinations and topics relevant to student travel.

Articles in the first issue include: "Pitch Perfect: Going Off the Deep End in Valdez, Alaska," "Europe Rocks: Top Ten Summer Rock Festivals," and "Once in a Lifetime: 49 Things to Do Before You Get Old."

Christina Cox can be reached at 323/654-3103 for more information.

The Bronx Beat, a weekly newspaper focusing on news in the Bronx, N.Y., is being published again by students in Columbia Univ.'s journalism school.

Addie Rimmer, previously deputy managing editor/news at The Detroit Free Press, who is teaching a workshop, is overseeing the paper, which has a circulation of almost 6,000.

Investor's Business Daily has restored "News For You," a weekly column that offers expert advice and innovative lifestyle ideas.

The column will cover issues affecting everyday life, including travel, small business, golf, health, fitness and automotive.

Jonathan Hahn, who recently joined the national business and financial daily to handle media relations, will direct calls and information to the right reporter. He can be reached at 310/448-6744.

MEDIA BRIEFS

The Star, a weekly paper published by American Media, is relocating its editorial offices to New York from Boca Raton, Fla.

Steve Coz, former editor of The National Enquirer, who is currently editorial director of AM, was named interim editor-in-chief, replacing Tony Frost, who is being reassigned.

HealthNewsDigest, founded by veteran PR pro Michael McCurdy, is now the health news channel on Avantgo, the hand-held palm device service, with more than eight million subscribers.

In addition, McCurdy said his news service is syndicated to hundreds of health industry websites, with daily feeds to Latin America and the U.K.

Also, more than 500 news editors, directors and health columnists subscribe and have free access to use all content, said McCurdy, who can be reached at 212/396-3585.

TNN, which two years ago changed from The Nashville Network to The National Network, will be called Spike TV, starting June 16, when it becomes the first network aimed specifically at men.

The character in “Phone Booth” is one of the most noxious in movie history–a wheeling, dealing press agent who lies to just about everyone around him and cheats on his wife. He’s so reprehensible that a psycho wants to kill him.

A reporter for a major medium called us and said he was doing a story on PR people and did the movie match our experience of them?

We said there are probably some operators in show biz PR like the press agent in “Phone Booth” but the tables have completely turned in recent years in this PR specialty.

PMK PR, headed by Pat Kingsley and Leslee Dart and employing 150+ PR people, plus several other firms, have organized celebrity PR so that reporters are now on the begging end. The PR firms have a “lock” on celebrity interviews and can dictate the terms to the media, which live off such interviews.

PR people are also sad sacks in two other current movies, “A Mighty Wind,” where Jennifer Coolidge plays a comically inept music publicist, and “People I Know,” where Al Pacino plays a tired, old, disgruntled press agent. The press agent at one point says “PR is all about spinning facts and it’s full of people who flat out lie”...a member of PRSA, commenting on the $2.9 million loss on the accreditation program since 1986, said bringing APR to members was a worthwhile use of the funds and asked what else might be done with the funds... we could think of a few things including a PR for PR program or even a PR dept. at PRSA. At no time since 1980 has there been more than one staffer on PR at PRSA. Sometimes, for a period of a year or more, there has been no press contact at all. PR has been shortchanged in its own house...the high turnover rate of PRSA members (a total 11,042 failed to renew in 2001 and 2002, a 70% renewal rate) means that many PR pros are becoming APR at subsidies of up to $1,794 per APR and then leaving the Society. For the rest of their careers they can say they passed the APR exam. They
can also say they’re APR (although they are not supposed to if they don’t pay dues) and there’s no one to police this. PRSA is getting ripped off...Gary Hirsh, a partner of Sobel & Co., the new CPA of PRSA, said in an e-mail to this NL that the “more transient membership” of PRSA is one reason for its revenue booking policy. PRSA “books” most of the $225 dues payments it gets from members immediately instead of spreading the income over the 12-month life of the membership which is done by associations of doctors, lawyers, accountants, association execs and IABC. Hirsh notes that PRSA does not do “lobbying or other efforts” and does not have “affinity programs” like the AICPA. Sobel’s advice to PRSA is to “find some other organizations that do not defer their revenue, give this guy [us] a memo on why deferral is improper given the circumstances, and then tell him to lose our numbers and e-mail addresses.” Sobel’s e-mail, which he said he copied us on so we would know his feelings, also said: “I think the question is, how much weight does O’Dwyer carry, should we meet with him along with the client and shut him up”...a similar controversial case of revenue booking, although the opposite of what PRSA is doing, made headlines in New York last week. The Metropolitan Transit Authority, wanting to make fiscal 2003 look as bad as possible so it could get a 50-cent boost to a $2 transit fare, bumped $314 million into fiscal 2004. The MTA was also accused of having funds not on its public books totaling $512M and counting $820M in capital spending as operating expenses. PRSA, wanting to make its books look as good as possible, books income early...the board of PRSA/National Capital, the biggest chapter, discussed decoupling APR from office-holding at its meeting April 24 and reiterated its view that APR should be decoupled from any national elective office, including the Assembly, national board and officer posts. The DC board is not going to push for the June 21-22 “leadership rally” of 116 chapter president-elects in New York also doubling as an Assembly. We think it would if PRSA president Reed Byrum and other national leaders got behind this idea. Otherwise, this meeting is a gigantic waste of $58,000 ($500 stipend to each chapter) in lean times...PRSA members don’t even know about this boondoggle. It’s not on the calendar of events on the PRSA website. It’s mentioned on a report on the recent board meeting but there is no mention of the $500 stipend. Assembly members, meanwhile, tell us they get no help from national in attending the Assembly which can cost up to $2,000 counting hotel, meals, travel and the full conference registration fee. Last year 25 chapters opted not to be represented at all in the Assembly. They probably felt, why pay a substantial sum to sit through six hours of speeches by leaders and then take part in voting whose outcome has been pre-ordained? No educational campaign about decoupling was launched last year so it was easy for an (unknown) delegate to claim no one knew anything about this proposal and move to table it... PricewaterhouseCoopers has been touting its high-ethics in an ad campaign (page 2) but it’s also being sued for $2.5 billion by a client who claims PWC created improper off-balance sheet entities...the New York Stock Exchange, which also brags about its high ethics, is being bombarded with negative headlines about trading irregularities.

--Jack O'Dwyer