B-M GETS SARS WORK

Burson-Marsteller has been signed by Hong Kong's Government Information Services Office to a $167K contract to help chart the recovery of the Chinese city once the SARS virus has been brought under control, according to Richard Mintz, chairman of the WPP Group unit's PA practice.

Mintz, who has just returned from Hong Kong, said it's not too early to plan for the day that the World Health Organization lifts its travel ban on the city.

"The mood in Hong Kong is more upbeat. People are going out to restaurants," Mintz told this NL.

B-M won a $500K contract to promote business investment in Hong Kong earlier this year.

That account was at Hill & Knowlton, which decided not to repitch when its contract expired in February. Mintz had handled Hong Kong economic development when it was at Ogilvy PR Worldwide.

B-M's Hong Kong office has worked on "branding" the city for the last two years, according to Mintz. Ian McCabe is in charge of that effort.

FUDGE REPLACES DOLAN AT Y&R

Ann Fudge, a former marketing executive at Kraft Foods, replaced Michael Dolan as CEO of Young & Rubicam on May 12.

Dolan informed stunned staffers of his resignation via e-mail in which he spoke of his "seven eventful years" at Y&R. He recounted major accomplishments upon his watch, including the Y&R IPO and the acquisition by WPP Group. Dolan succeeded Tom Bell, the former Burson-Marsteller CEO, at the helm following the completion of the WPP deal.

Fudge headed Kraft's beverage and desserts group. She also was at General Mills.

DUPONT CONSOLIDATES AT OGILVY

DuPont has consolidated its worldwide ad and PR account at Ogilvy & Mather, handing its $75 million assignment to WPP Group's O&M ad unit and Ogilvy PR Worldwide after a four-month review. Five teams pitched for the work, which included DuPont's main incumbent IPG team McCann-Erickson Worldwide and Weber Shandwick, along with Publicis' Saatchi & Saatchi and Rowland Communications.

WS handled overall PR for the DuPont brand, an assignment which now falls to Ogilvy PR.

DuPont global brand director Scott Nelson told this NL the company will put as much of its marketing and communications business as it can with Ogilvy.

IPG SELLS NFO FOR $425M, STOCK

Taylor Nelson Sofres has agreed to buy Interpublic's NFO WorldGroup unit for $425 million in cash and stock, after balking at a reported $500M price tag in April. The transaction for the market research company is expected to be finalized this summer, pending U.S. and European regulatory approval.

IPG, which bought NFO in 2000 for $500M in stock and the assumption of $175M in debt, said the move will represent a $100 million accounting gain.

Fitch Ratings has cut IPG's senior unsecured debt rating to junk status citing a "continuing decline" in the company's operating performance and expectations that improvements will be "more limited than previously anticipated," the ratings service said.

The cut affects $2.7 billion of IPG debt as Fitch maintains a negative outlook rating for the company.

Coughlin Gets 'Signing Bonus'

IPG will give Christopher Coughlin $400K in its stock as a "signing bonus" when he joins the ad/PR conglom as COO on June 16. The Pharmacia executive VP will earn $800K a year, according to IPG's 10-Q report that was filed with the SEC on May 15.

Coughlin will receive 28 vacation days, a $10K annual auto allowance and $10K a year for club fees. He will receive up to $20K as a reimbursement of legal expenses incurred while negotiating his contract.

IPG also gave CEO David Bell a $100K special bonus for agreeing to take over the reins from John Dooner on Feb. 28. The company also has ironed out executive severance packages with CFO Sean Orr, and IR chief Susan Watson. Those agreements are triggered in the event of an IPG takeover.

IPG also disclosed the IRS has determined that it owes $41.5M in back taxes. IPG is disputing it.

2003 PR DIRECTORY TO BE PUBLISHED

The 2003 O'Dwyer's Directory of PR Firms, with information on 2,900 PR firms in 88 countries, will be published in early June for $175.

There are 180 new listings of independent PR firms and PR units of advertising agencies. Nearly 500 firms have expanded their listings to include agency statements and/or display logos.

Although the 35 PR units owned by eight ad/PR holding companies declined to provide any figures this year, more than 140 other PR units did provide substantiation of their figures to the directory. The holding companies said the Sarbanes-Oxley Act made it too dangerous to publicize non-GAAP numbers.

CHAPTER HEADS NIX ASSEMBLY - BYRUM

Thirty-one chapter presidents were asked if they would change the June 20-21 "leaders' rally" into an Assembly and only one agreed with this, Reed Byrum, PRSA president, said May 14.

The chapter leaders were told that there could be no leaders' rally if an Assembly was also held.

Supporters of the move to open national and Assembly leadership posts to non-accredited members for the first time since 1973 said there should be plenty of time within the two-day leaders' rally for a brief Assembly that would end the two tiers of membership in the Society. They noted that PRSA has budgeted $100,000 as the cost of the meeting on a Friday and Saturday in New York, which they called "an extravagant" sum given the current state of the economy and the downturn in the PR field.

They also noted that an Assembly, minus hours of presentations by leaders, normally lasts only a couple of hours on one day. Only 4,100 members of PRSA are APR, making the 15,600 other members ineligible for national board posts, national officer positions, or seats on the Assembly.

The five biggest chapters of PRSA, representing 3,696 members, sent their delegates to the 2002 Assembly instructed to vote for decoupling of Assembly seats from APR although the 1999 strategic planning committee of the board had urged that all elective posts be decoupled from APR.

GM SHIFTS PR EXECS.

Marc Beckers, VP-communications for General Motors Europe, moves from Zurich to Detroit on July 1 as executive director-product communications. He is to handle marketing/product technical communications and coordinate issues management duties with the automaker's Washington, D.C., office.

Beckers, 47, reports to Tom Kowaleski, VP-communications for General Motors North America. He will be succeeded by Tony Cervone, who will now handle PR for GM's Opal, Vauxhall, Saab and GM Daewoo brands.

Cervone is executive director-executive and financial communications. His duties will be split between Kowaleski and Gary Grates, who is executive director of global internal communications. Kowaleski will assume public communications and lobbying responsibility, while Grates gets executive and financial communications titles. Grates also gets a new title, executive director of internal and executive communications.

FARAONE TALKS TV PROJECT WITH BLAIR

Ted Faraone, who says his firm handles the most difficult assignments, is representing TV tabloid producer Ian Rae who is negotiating a project with Jayson Blair, the New York Times reporter who has been accused of plagiarism. He pitched Blair an idea on May 14, and told the Daily News that the former Timesman is "definitely interested."

Rae said Blair's story has the "gossip, scandal and intrigue" needed to make a juicy TV picture. The Blair story "has brought the paper to its knees," Rae told the News.

New York-based Faraone Communications, specializing in entertainment clients, was started in 1987. Faraone was a publicist at NBC and CBS TV stations.

VANITY FAIR: PRESS BOW TO PRESIDENT

Since Sept. 11, 2001, much of the press has dropped to both knees before George W. Bush to take dictation, writes Vanity Fair's James Wolcott in the magazine's June edition.

Wolcott blasts the U.S. media, especially the White House press corps, as "pushovers," using as an example President Bush's March 6 TV press conference during which he refused to entertain random press questions, choosing instead to call on reporters from a prepared list. Reporters' questions were approved before hand and they even went along with the script by raising their hands and jockeying in their seats to give the appearance of a spontaneous news conference, Wolcott writes.

Bush's cult of personality is based on a rawhide image of masculinity as carefully storyboarded and marketed as an old Marlboro Man campaign, says Vanity Fair. Bush, Wolcott argues, is not more of a cowboy than Ronald Reagan.

Wolcott is baffled at how reporters like Newsweek's Howard Fineman, NBC's Andrea Mitchell and CNBC's Larry Kudlow often "nod with admiration at how leakproof, tight-puckered, poker-faced, and closely huddled" the Administration is, and how "unswervingly it stays on message." But, the author argues, it doesn't take a graduate degree in mass communication to grasp that all propaganda is based upon a primitive "staying on message," boiling complicated issues down to a bumper-sticker slogan or menacing threat.

GIULIANI COUNSELS INDIAN POINT OWNER

New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. has hired Giuliani Partners to counsel its northeast nuclear division on security and crisis management issues.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's firm was hired due to its "real-world public safety experience" earned following the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center, according to Entergy president Michael Kansler.

That attack has spurred activists to demand that Entergy close its Indian Point facility, which is located 35 miles upstream from New York City.

Giuliani's firm includes former NYC police commissioner Bernard Kerik and fire chief Tom Von Essen. Kerik is to represent Entergy as "in-house consultant," and represent it before public hearings. Entergy runs ten nuke plants including Vermont Yankee (Vernon), Pilgrim (Plymouth, Mass.) and James A. Fitzgerald (Oswego, N.Y.).

Burson-Marsteller does PR for Entergy.

EDITORS RUN MORE 'FREE' FEATURES

"Editors are begging for more features," Angela Mendola told a gathering of 30 publicists who attended PR Newswire's breakfast meeting at Sardi's restaurant in New York on May 14.

Mendola, who is national product manager of PRN's Feature News Service, said "we have been asking editors what they want and they have told us."

She said the increased demand for features began immediately after the 9/11 attacks and has continued to rise during the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Steven Gossett, a former news writer at CBS News Radio, who recently joined PRN as editorial manager of the feature news unit, which is headed by Fred Ferguson, said media layoffs and cost cutting have also generated more use of features, especially PRN's because "they are free."

Gossett, who wrote news stories for Dan Rather, said the key to getting the attention of editors is to write a headline that will "grab them" while they are scanning for stories.

"Headlines are vital," said Gossett, who advised the publicists to write headlines in 20 words or less before they start their story.

If the company or product is well-known, put the name in the headline. "That is a good way to grab them," he said. In the case of companies or products which are not household names, tell "what's new, unusual, different or important about what they will say in their story," he said. The second most important element of a feature release is the first paragraph, he said.

"The 'lead' should be an expansion of the headline. The key is to keep the information clear and concise.

"Write simple sentences, with no superlatives, such as 'unique' or 'fantastic,'" said Gossett. "We are looking for verbatim pick-up."

Sell Your Client's Service

Ferguson believes the second paragraph is important because this is "where you get to sell your client's service or product."

It is also the paragraph in which the writer should attribute the information to someone. "A good editor wants to know who is saying it," said Ferguson, who also urges publicists to put the name of the product and where it is sold, plus price, and the website address in the second graph.

Ferguson's rule of thumb is to include all these elements in no more than 60 words, and to put the website address at the end of the paragraph.

He said direct quotes from a company executive belong in the third paragraph.

"This paragraph helps to establish a spokesperson for broadcasters to use in their on-air stories," said Ferguson, who cautioned against using self-serving quotes.

Gossett believes the fourth paragraph should provide detailed information, such as biographical information for a book author, and a laundry list of tips.

When providing the tips, Gossett suggests using bullets instead of numbers to make it easier to cut unwanted information without having to change numbers.

The sixth paragraph was described by Ferguson as the "threat graph." This is the paragraph used to give "the big picture." For example, Ferguson said the sentence might say that the product is designed to help 10 million people.

He pointed out it is better to say "people" instead of "American people" because PRN's features are distributed worldwide.

He suggests writing one sentence, three-line paragraphs. "Three lines equals about eight lines in a newspaper story," he pointed out.

For the closing paragraph, Ferguson recommends repeating how to get the product, the website address, and provide a toll free phone number.

He also suggests running a special "Note to Editor." The note, which is seen only by the editor, should have information about how to contact the spokesperson in the article, and offer photos and product samples for use as demos.

As far as length, Ferguson recommends 36 lines or about 400 words, which costs $460.

PR FIRM PUBLISHES MAG FOR LOBBYISTS

The first issue of Michigan Lobbyist magazine will make its debut this month, according to Katie Wolf, whose Okemos-based PR firm (Wolf Communications) is half owner and publisher.

Wolf's partner is Tom Scott, who was former Mich. Gov. James Blanchard's communications director. Blanchard was governor from 1982 to 1990.

"This new publication is the first and only of its kind in Michigan," said Scott, who is editor of the magazine. "Each issue will provide a ringside seat to politics and policymaking by focusing on the players, issues and events important to lobbyists and, therefore, to all of us in this state."

The magazine will be published four times a year, and will be available by subscription only, for $36 a year. Wolf can be reached at 989/729-7744. Scott's number is 517/347-0392.

The website address: www.michiganlobbyist.com.

MEDIA BRIEFS

Bloomingdale's department store is starting its own magazine, according to The New York Times, which said the 130-page quarterly will contain a "potpourri of features on fashion, travel, restaurants and everything the store's customers have told pollsters they want to know about."

It will be sent free to 10,000 store customers.

Audrey, a magazine aimed at Asian women living in the U.S., has made its debut on newsstands in Los Angeles.

(Media news continued on next page)

N.Y.T. SAYS REPORTER 'MISLED READERS'

Jayson Blair, 27, a reporter for The New York Times, who resigned this month, was the subject of a 14,000-word article that ran in the Times' May 11 Sunday edition, headlined "Times Reporter Who Resigned Leaves Long Trail of Deception."

The unsigned article, which began on the front page and spread across more than four full pages, said Blair "misled readers and Times colleagues with dispatches that purported to be from Maryland, Texas and other states, when often he was far away, in New York.

"He fabricated comments. He concocted scenes. He stole material from other newspapers and wire services. He selected details from photographs to create the impression that he had been somewhere or seen someone, when he had not."

The front page article ended with a statement from publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. assuring that the paper is not looking for "scapegoats."

He states: "The person who did this is Jayson Blair. Let's not begin to demonize our executives- either the desk editors or the executive editor (Howell Raines) or, dare I say, the publisher."

NABJ Condemns Blair

Condace Pressley, president of the National Assn. of Black Journalists, said Blair, who is African-American, "hurt all journalists, regardless of ethnicity or background."

"But for those critics of diversity to assert that Blair did what he did or got where he got solely because of the color of his skin is just plain wrong," said Pressley, who is assistant program director at WSB Radio in Atlanta.

Pressley said the critics are ignoring facts in other cases.

"For instance, did race have anything to do with the awful case of Brian Walski, The Los Angeles Times photographer who fabricated the photograph out of Iraq earlier this year?

Was it a factor with the two Salt Lake City reporters who sold a fabricated story to the National Enquirer for $20,000 in the Elizabeth Smart case? Was it a factor with Mike Barnicle, Stephen Glass, Ruth Shalit, Eric Drudis or the dozens of other white journalists who smeared the honorable profession of journalism and lied to their readers?"

Pressley pointed out that African-American journalists make up only 5.3% of newsroom professionals nationwide, according to the latest census from the American Society of Newspaper Editors, and account for even fewer of the documented cases of ethical breaches in American newsrooms.

Blair is not a member of NABJ, which has more than 3,000 members in the U.S. and abroad.

Relationship Challenged

The Times' PR department also squashed reports that Blair was able to get by so long at the paper because of his relationship with a woman who is a friend of Raines' wife, Krystyna Stachowiak, a former PR pro in New York and Poland.

Blair's friend has been identified as Zuza Glowacka, 23, a Polish emirgre, who had been working in the Times photo department. Suspicion was raised by the Times' own report, which said Blair may have gotten Glowacka to show him photos of a Texas house that he had falsely claimed to have visited for a story.

Stachowiak and Glowacka's mother, journalist Ewa Zadrynska, were among three people who set up "Poland on the Front Page, 1979-1989," a media exhibit in Warsaw last fall, according to The New York Daily News.

Catherine Mathis, who is the NYT's PR director, told The New York Post that Glowacka was no longer working at the Times.

Raines, who has been criticized for giving Blair several chances after being warned by other editors about mistakes in his articles, said he had never socialized with Blair.

PEOPLE

Jane Freiman has stepped down as managing editor for features at The New York Daily News.

Jason McManus, editorial director of American Demographics, was given the additional job of editor-in-chief of Folio magazine, replacing Cable Neuhaus, who was dismissed.

Joseph Mandese has resigned as editor of Media Markets Daily, which was shut down.

Angela Arambulo has resigned as fashion editor of Rolling Stone, which is shutting down the fashion department, and will publish two fashion supplements a year.

Jason Gay, 32, who edited the "Off the Record" page for The New York Observer, and John Gillies, 30, who was "Fanfare Editor" at Vanity Fair, are joining GQ magazine as senior editors.

Brian Rafferty, 27, previously a correspondent for Entertainment Weekly, was hired as an associate editor.

PLACEMENT TIP

Hustler magazine has named Nancy Sayle, previously music editor at Oui magazine, as editor of its new music section.

Sayle, a former publicist for several bands, has more than 20 years of experience and contacts from the music business.

Bruce David, editorial director, said "music and porn make great bedfellows. MTV has brought many sex videos into America's living rooms, and with Nancy's help, more artists will be able to express themselves uncensored in any shape or form in Hustler."

Hustler's editorial offices are located at 8484 Wilshire blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90211. 323/651-5400; fax: 651-0528.

The press took a beating last week.

The New York Times came under assault by practically the rest of the press for tolerating for too long its plagiarizing reporter Jayson Blair.

Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger Jr., publisher, initially said "The person who did this was Jayson Blair. Let's not begin to demonize our executives..." The execs later took full blame.

Meanwhile, virtually the rest of the press was scolded by James Wolcott in Vanity Fair for being too much of a lapdog to President Bush.

It was open season on the Times partly because of its longtime insistence that its ideals and practices are somehow higher than those of other papers.

It published an idealistic and harsh "Code of Conduct" earlier this year (1/22/03 NL) that virtually forbids its staffers from having any but the most distant relationships with news sources.

Special mention was made of limiting relationships with PR people, as though they were Untouchables and as though Times reporters had little, if anything, to learn from PR pros.

On the contrary, a PR pro who is friendly with many reporters and who picks up lots of skinny, can be of inestimable help to Times and other reporters.

Not helpful are PR pros who see their jobs as always being "on message" for clients and employers.

Any romances of NYT reporters with PR people or other news sources were to be reported to the city desk. This was a violation of the privacy of reporters. Timespeople came across as Trappist monks working on Holy Scripture.

It didn't seem to matter that the executive editor himself, Howell Raines, had somehow met, courted (and later married) a PR pro, Krystyna Stachowiak.

Such braggadocio is leading with one's chin.

Sooner or later it's bound to get the braggart in trouble.

Wolcott's main piece of evidence vs. Bush was the alleged "scripting" of the March 6 press conference the President held just before the invasion of Iraq.

Reporters "humbled themselves," wrote Wolcott, by providing their questions in advance to Bush, who decided in what order they were to be answered. The press went along with the charade by raising their hands, when they knew they wouldn't be called upon, the better to suggest "a spontaneous news conference."

In another instance of alleged "stagecraft," WISH TV, Indianapolis, said men who were behind Bush during a recent speech on his tax plan were instructed to take off their ties so that they would appear more like "ordinary people" and not like businesspeople.

The spring conference of the Counselors Academy of PRSA drew 127 counselors to Vancouver May 4-7, which is a big drop from the record 383 counselors and guests who attended the 1997 conference in St. Pete Beach, Fla. Tom Gable, CEO of GCS PR, San Diego and 2002 chair of the Academy, said attendance has been dwindling for several years partly due to fewer Academy members, the Vancouver site (a distant destination for many), and the current recession. Another factor, we might add, is the absorption of 35 PR operations employing more than 25,000 PR pros by eight ad/PR holding companies (Cordiant, Gray, Havas, Incepta, Interpublic, Omnicom, Publicis and WPP).

They and some independents formed the Council of PR Firms and conduct activities under its umbrella. Also, most of the holding companies have their own training programs in both ad/PR. They are less likely to approve spending for professional outings such as the Academy's spring conference, which takes place at resorts. The congloms, saddled with billions in debt, are watching every nickel that is spent by their units. Gable is hopeful that the next spring conference at a new resort in Orlando, Fla., will attract a bigger audience.

Asked his feelings on decoupling PRSA office-holding from accreditation, Gable said he thought that would be "wonderful." The Academy at onetime required new members to be APR but soon dropped it.

National leadership of PRSA is blocking the use of the June 20-21 meeting of 116 chapter presidents-elect as an Assembly that could decouple APR from office-holding. In saying that the meeting can't serve both purposes, the leadership forgets that an Assembly only takes up one day and, in reality, only a couple of hours.

Normally the Assembly convenes at 8 a.m., hears speeches by leaders until 4 p.m., and then takes up any deliberation for a couple of hours.

The Assembly is gerrymandered to the hilt in favor of small chapters. The ten smallest chapters, with a total of 164 members (including Laredo Gateway with 7 members and Siouxland with 9) had ten votes in 2002 while the five biggest chapters, with 3,696 members, had 37 votes.

Twenty-four chapters have 50 or fewer members but get one vote each. Although the five biggest chapters (D.C., N.Y., L.A., Georgia and Chicago) wanted decoupling last year, the teensy chapters easily outvoted them.

National leaders fear decoupling across the board because then they might face competition from among the 15,600 non-APRs who are currently barred from running for president-elect, secretary, treasurer or national board seats.

Junk e-mail has reached such proportions that it threatens to destroy the medium. PR which needs this pipeline to reach editors on key subjects, must attack the wanton misuse of it.

Journalists are harder to reach than ever.

IWantMedia.com, which tracks layoffs, said 70,000 jobs at media have been lost since June 2000.

--Jack O'Dwyer