COLORADO WANTS PR/AD QUARTET.
Colorado’s Department of Transportation is soliciting bids to assemble a team of four firms to handle its PR, advertising and research assignments.

The state agency issued an RFP last week and is gathering proposals to find two PR/creative shops, one media buying firm and one firm for research and evaluation services.

Linhart McClain Finlon Public Relations, Denver, is the incumbent firm for ad/PR work, according to Brenda Lujan ([email protected]) of the DOT’s Center for Procurement Services who is contracting officer for the RFP.

The Centennial State’s DOT has instructed its evaluation committee to take into account whether a firm has a Denver-area office and how much of the work would be done in-house, as opposed to subcontracted.

Funding for the work flows from federal highway safety and state coffers (the DOT has an ’05 budget of about $800M) and individual PR and ad projects range from $3K to over $100K each. Examples of projects given were safe driving/seat belts campaigns and communications relating to the state’s highway conditions – rock slides and heavy snowfall are among inherent problems on the state’s mountain major roads, of which 6.03M miles were plowed last year.

The state hopes to make a selection by August 1 with the contract slated to begin October 1

NEXT FIFTEEN ACQUIRES OUTCAST.
Next Fifteen Communications Corp. announced June 21 that it has acquired Outcast Communications in a deal that could be worth $13M over the next five years based on the performance of the San Francisco-based high-tech firm.

The London-based holding company, which is parent to Text 100 and Bite Communications, plans to maintain the OC brand.

Outcast founders Caryn Marooney and Margit Wennmachers will serve as co-presidents, reporting to Next Fifteen CEO Tim Dyson.

Outcast’s clients include Yahoo!, Dell Enterprise Products Group, salesforce.com, EMC and Oakley Networks. The firm reported $6.2M in `04 revenues and operating profit of $1.6M.

Citigroup Smith Barney has upgraded Omnicom to ‘buy’ from ‘hold,’ noting a ‘sharpening contrast’ in OMC’s growth versus its peers. Citigroup said OMC is ‘relatively insulated from the secular pressures depressing many of the traditional ad mediums.

BRUNSWICK, PSI IN CHINA UNOCAL GRAB.
Brunswick Group’s New York and Hong Kong offices are handling media for CNOOC Limited, the Chinese state-controlled oil company which has made an unsolicited $18.5 billion offer for U.S. oil company Unocal. The London-based firm also has a Beijing staffer to take press inquiries.

Public Strategies, Inc. has taken up the PR effort in Washington, D.C., for the deal.

CNOOC, short for China National Offshore Oil Company, made its offer June 22, two months after Unocal okayed a deal to be bought by U.S.-based Chevron for $16.4B.

Fu Chengyu, CNOOC’s chairman and CEO, said: “This friendly, all-cash proposal is a superior offer for Unocal shareholders.” The company said U.S. markets would not be “adversely affected,” adding it would retain all Unocal employees, including its management team, in contrast to Chevron’s proposal.

Chevron’s corporate PR department issued a statement following the CNOOC announcement, noting it continues to stand behind its own deal, which it said is “highly likely to close” and has been approved by the boards of both companies.

Chevron has used Fleishman-Hillard for its recent PR efforts, including last month’s campaign to re-brand and drop Texaco from its name.

WEAVER TO BEARINGPOINT.
Connie Weaver, who was executive VP, PR & marketing at AT&T, has joined BearingPoint as executive VP and chief marketing officer.

Reporting to CEO Harry You, Weaver, 52, is responsible for branding, investor relations and comms.

Prior to AT&T, Weaver held financial communications positions at MCI and Microsoft. She held product management and planning slots at McGraw-Hill.

KPMG Consulting assumed the name BearingPoint in ‘02.

The New York Stock Exchange-listed firm has 16,000 staffers providing services in nearly 40 countries.

GETTYSBURG CASINO GETS PR PUSH.
The Gettysburg Gaming Resort and Spa is using Republican media consultant John Brabender to overcome spirited opposition to a $200 million gambling facility less than two miles from the boundary of the Gettysburg National Military Park.

Brabender, the Pittsburgh advisor to Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, is overseeing the push that is fronted by former Conrail CEO David LeVan.

He promises a family friendly low-key facility with 3,000 slot machines located outside the area where the bulk of the combat took place.

That argument doesn’t wash with groups like “No Casino Gettysburg.” It notes that the proposed gaming site was a key staging area for Confederate troops. It is circulating an online petition rapping the casino as a “violation of our most sacred civil war battlefield.” The Civil War Preservation Trust and the National Parks Conservation Assn. have knocked the casino plan.

The Washington Post and the New York Times have run extensive features, profiling the fight against the casino. The Times (June 23) quotes Gettysburg resident Muriel Rice, who rapped the casino’s claim that the facility is OK because it is beyond the actual battlefield.

“The battlefield was everywhere,” she said. “On the first day there was fighting in the streets of the town and throughout the three day’s battle wounded soldiers were treated in churches and homes all over Gettysburg.”

More than 170,000 Union and Confederate troops fought at Gettysburg – 51,000 dead and wounded.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will decide the fate of the proposed casino in `06.

QORVIS BEEFS UP TEAM SAUDI.
Qorvis Communications has hired The Strategic Alliance (Houston) to enhance the image of Saudi Arabia among business, community and politicos in the Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth regions and across the U.S.

Meredith Iler, a key contributor to President Bush’s campaign and the Republican Party, heads TSA. She is to inform opinion leaders about business in Saudi Arabia, and school them about the Kingdom’s culture.

TSA is to arrange luncheons, dinners and special events to get the word out about the Saudis. It also will organize a trade trip to the Kingdom.

TSA is paid on a “tiered basis.” For instance, it receives a $10,000 fee for a “Tier 1A” event drawing at least 250 people, and $17,500 for one attended by more than 1,000.

Qorvis will supply TSA all the necessary background information about Saudi Arabia. That material, according to TSA’s contract, can only be used to promote the Royal Embassy in D.C. and the “Saudi Friendship Network.”

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, a law firm established in 1792, is looking for a PR manager to handle media, attorney publicity and branding goals. CW&T has offices in New York, London, Washington, Charlotte and Beijing. Rachel Schwartz, senior VP at RRDSearch, has details. She is at 203/544-2227

DEUTSCH MELTDOWN GETS COVERAGE.
A collaborative marketing effort to build the world’s largest ice pop with Snapple, its PR agency Deutsch, and marketer CoolBrands Int’l in New York melted into crisis mode last week but drew a whirlwind of coverage.

An event staged to promote “Snapple on Ice” pops and get into the Guinness Book of World Records went awry when the scientifically built, 2 ½-story pop melted from the inside causing a slippery road surface on 17th Street. The New York Post played up the “public relations nightmare,” including minor injuries to a woman and three cyclists who fell off of their bikes, but other outlets were kinder to the effort. The New York Times called it a “brave attempt.”

Coverage swelled to major print outlets and 400 broadcast hits, said Snapple PR manager Lauren Radcliffe, who ultimately had to pull the plug on the pop’s construction. “There’s not many people in the U.S. that don’t know Snapple launched an ice pop brand this week,” she said.

Deutsch, which said the Post never contacted the agency for its story, told O’Dwyer’s a crisis plan was in place ahead of the event and immediately implemented when it became clear the giant pop was melting. Deutsch staffers helped security personnel close off the street as the Fire Dept. was called in to hose down the road.

Radcliffe said the first concern was safety and people getting the melted ice pop on their shoes, but after that she said the company had no idea the event would be so widely covered. She said no one was hurt and no one has contacted the company about injuries.

“This had been several months in the making,” said Madhu Dutta, VP at Deutsch, which has handled PR for Snapple for five years. “We had a crisis plan going in and we made sure we crossed our Ts and dotted our Is.”

Dutta said reports that the giant pop melted from the heat were misleading because the pop was frozen in layers and the outer shell remained intact. She said scientists were brought in to plan the 17-ton, kiwi-strawberry-flavored pop, which was frozen in Edison, N.J., and brought to Manhattan. After the remains of the pop were hauled away, a Snapple ice sculpture was put up.

Dutta acknowledged some coverage of the event had been negative, but added: “If any brand can get away with this, it’s probably Snapple.”

NC EYES EFFORT TO ATTRACT TEACHERS.
North Carolina is looking for a firm to develop a comprehensive marketing communications plan to urge people to becoming public school teachers in the state.

The state’s Board of Education has issued a research-intensive RFP to build a strategy and marcom plan and implement the work from scratch. The Tarheel State wants to attract 10,000 new teachers per year for the next ten years in all subjects and at all levels.

There is no incumbent firm, nor any recent campaigns to work from. The RFP said marketing and PR are “essential” to any plan.

Neither a budget, nor guidelines to set one have been implemented. A contract would run through 2008.

Proposals are being accepted through June 28.

SURVEY: HALF OF REPORTERS USE BLOGS.
The findings of a media study conducted by Euro RSCG and Columbia University found blogs have become a large part of how journalists do their jobs.

The study of 1,202 journalists found 51% of them use blogs regularly, and 28% rely on them to help in their day-to-day reporting duties.

The survey found journalists mostly used blogs for finding story ideas (53%), researching and referencing facts (43%) and finding sources (36%). And 33% said they used blogs to uncover breaking news or scandals.

“The fact that the media are using blogs for reporting and research...demonstrates that blogs have an enormous potential to not only influence the general public, but to influence the influencers – journalists and the media – as well,” said Aaron Kwittken, CEO of Euro RSCG Magnet.

Despite their reliance on blogs for reporting, only 1% of journalists found blogs credible, the study found.

Aker: Website = Credibility

A website is one of the most important tools an organization can use to become a “reliable, credible and timely news source,” according to The Aker Ptrs., a Washington, D.C.-based PR firm.

The firm, which said one-third of reporters go to Google to find a website, advises companies to communicate up-to date messages and accomplishments on their websites because reporters are always looking for what’s new.

WHAT JOURNOS WANT FROM ‘NEWS’ SITES.
TEKgroup International’s 2005 survey on media reaction to online newsrooms found more than 96% of journalists surveyed believe it is important for a company to have one.

Here is why journalists want online newsrooms:

—41% to access to video
—83% to access to PR contacts
—81% to search archives
—62% to get company financials
—53% to get company news
—80% to participate in polls
—61% to access a crisis communications section
—19% to visit company blogs for research
—90% to obtain information on brands
—73% to access breaking news
—83% to get press releases
—85% to access photos
—73% to access product information
—60% to get executive biographies

More information is at tekgroup.com.

MEDIA NUMBERS_________

51 million—The number of adults in the U.S. reached by ethnic media, according a survey conducted by New California Media, which represents ethnic media nationwide.

MARKETERS WANT MORE ED SUPPORT.
The head of the Assn. of National Advertisers said senior marketing executives want to integrate messages within the editorial content of newspaper and magazine articles.

Robert Liodice, CEO/president of the trade group, said ANA’s members, who represent 355 companies and 8,000 brands, “embrace this exciting new advertising form.”

He said marketers expressed a strong desire in a recent ANA media study to get involved in editorial development, shared PR initiatives, contests and games within magazines and newspapers – “perhaps even integrated into the comics section of the newspaper!”

On TV, branded entertainment is providing marketers intriguing ways to integrate message with content, said Liodice, who noted 82% of the survey respondents that participate in this type of sponsorship said their companies were involved in commercial TV branded entertainment programming.

PLACEMENT TIPS________

Pink, a bimonthly lifestyle magazine for high-level professional business women, has published its first issue.

Pink will cover life-balance issues as well as focus on how influential women are redefining what it means to be a success.

Key sections in the magazine include coverage of personal finance, career tips, how to more successful, work space design, health issues, and profiles of women who overcame something to achieve success.

Cynthia Good, who is editor of the Atlanta-based publication, wants publicists to pitch her ideas about women in the non-profit sector and how businesswomen have overcome challenges, such as a health problem.

Elizabeth Cobb, who is handling pitches until staffers are assigned to regular beats, can be reached at [email protected].

Celene Gumbiner is founder/president of Bee magazine that will start publishing in Oct. as a quarterly magazine targeting career-driven 20-somethings and 30-somethings with a package of money articles in a “relatable context” alongside lifestyle features.

For example, the first issue of the magazine will have a story about saving accounts versus investing in Prada handbags plus travel and fashion coverage, according to Mediaweek, which said several money magazines have been their retooling editorial content in a “female-friendly manner.”

Golf Living is a new luxury golf travel/lifestyle magazine that Angeles Publications, a Los Angeles-based niche magazine unit of Tribune Co. in Chicago, which owns The Los Angeles Times, is starting as a quarterly in Sept. with a circulation of 100,000 affluent subscribers of the L.A. Times.

George Fuller, previously editor of Links Magazine, is editor-in-chief of GL.

The bulk of GL’s content will cover luxury travel, fairway homes and golf/resort destinations in the region from Colorado to Kona, Canada to Cabo.

(Media news continued on next page)

CRUISE-HOLMES AFFAIR UNDERMINES MAGS.
The eight-week-old Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes affair has caused an editorial crisis by undermining the “celebrity magazine formula,” according to Slate.com’s editor-at-large Jack Shafer.

“The blitzkreig relationship of the A-list star and his C-list TV star fiancee, which peaked Friday (June 17) with a proposal of marriage atop the Eiffel Tower and a press conference afterward, has caused the celebrity magazine formula to warp and buckle,” said Shafer.

“The aggressiveness of the TomKat timetable completely violates the industry formula,” he said.

“If the magazines are going to invest pages in a star-on-star romance, they want the thing to unfold like two seasons of `Desperate Housewives’ so they can string along their readers – and reap the longer-term economic benefits,” he said.

The magazines want a long build up, a preview of the wedding dress and engagement ring, and they want the couple to sell the wedding pics and the honeymoon pics, and then finally, to “feed their newborns to the publicity machine,” said Shafer.

He said the Cruise-Holmes affair has become such a media event that even the New York Times has weighed in on the “phoniness angle.”

Times columnist Frank Rich has also invoked the “perennial unsubstaniated questions” about Cruise’s sexuality and his “very public affiliation” with the Church of Scientology as reasons tabloid readers might question the affair, citing a poll of People readers that found 62% do not believe the love story.

“In hedging their Cruise-Holmes bets instead of getting to the bottom of the story, the celebrity magazines have placed what little credibility they have – and maybe even their bottom lines – in peril,” said Shafer.

LAWYERS SET RULES FOR JOLIE INTERVIEW.
Journalists believe actress Angelina Jolie’s lawyers went too far when they asked them to sign an agreement limiting what they can do in an interview.

Sloane, Offer, Webster & Dern reportedly wanted to condition interviews with the actress on journalists’ consent to not ask any questions about “personal relationships.”

The writers were also asked to agree that the interviews “only be used to promote the picture,” and “not be used in a manner that is disparaging, demeaning and derogatory,” Daily Variety reported.

HOW TO WORK WITH CELEBRITIES.
Chris Baldwin, VP/senior program manager for Liggett-Strashower in Cleveland, said “a well thought-out celebrity endorsement program can work like a dream, negotiating the contract can be a nightmare.”

Agents, attorneys, schedules, and demands can complicate the “easiest” deals, Baldwin writes in a white paper.

He offers these tips:

—“Whether it’s an appearance at a special party or a spokesperson for a product introduction, know dates, times, what you want the celebrity to do, and your budget [for the program].

—“Ask the agent about the celebrity’s day rate. Cable TV personalities and some sports stars can cost $10,000 or less; network TV celebrities, $50,000 or more; film actors, singers and star athletes – fortunes.

—“A big part of a celebrity’s life is travel. The road is their home, and they will insist on travel perks like first-class airfare, limousine transportation, four-star hotel accomodations, a hair and make up stylist, a daily stipend, etc. When budgeting, always account for these incidentals.

—“Have a copy of the final contract with you at all times. It will settle any disputes and answers any questions.”

ROSENBLUM NAMED ‘TODAY’ PRODUCER.
Amy Rosenblum, former executive producer of “Maury,” was named senior producer for the third hour of “Today” show, which airs from 9 to 10 a.m. on NBC.

The segment is hosted by the same on-air personnel as the 7-9 a.m. show (Matt Lauer, Katie Couric, Al Roker and Ann Curry).

Rosenblum, who wants to give the segment a “women’s touch,” plans to cover fashion, health and relationship issues.

NYT STARTS WEEKLY POKER COLUMN.
The New York Times is starting a weekly column on poker written by James McManus, who is best known for parlaying a $4,000 seat into a $250,000 win at The World Series of Poker in 2000.

The column, “Poker,” will run in the Saturday sports section and in the national edition of the paper.

It will cover the world of poker including its lore, lingo, home games, games held online and tournaments.

McManus, a lifelong poker player, is the author of “Positively Fifth Street,” and writing teacher at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago.

The Times also has columns on bridge, chess, video games and daily crosswords.

PEOPLE_______

Ben Grossman, previously at TV Guide and Sports Business Daily, has joined Broadcasting & Cable as associate editor in its Los Angeles bureau, where he can be reached at 323/965-5318.

Jim Burt, media editor of The Financial Times, is leaving the paper after 16 years to join Britian’s biggest financial PR firm, Brunswick Group.

Jennifer Birn has left Star magazine to join OK! as society editor.

MEDIA BRIEFS________

World Publications will start publishing Ultimate Living, a new title to complement the company’s lineup of luxury lifestyle publication, this fall.

OK!, a British weekly that is starting a U.S. edition this summer, is offering to pay celebrities for interviews.

One of the criticisms that “John Doe” e-mailer made about PRSA COO Catherine Bolton was this (from court documents):

“[Rob] was not the best person for the job, but [Bolton’s denigrating him in meetings and frequently yelling him (sic) in plain view of his staff] was awful for morale.”

The “Rob” referred to is Rob Levy, professional development head who boosted PD revenues 61% in the first half of 2004 but who left in June 2004 with no announcement nor explanation by PRSA.

He was the second highest staffer at PRSA and his arrival had been loudly heralded.

Bolton herself praised Levy at the 2003 national conference. Levy in February of 2004 promised “master classes” for 400-500 at the 2004 national conference and three-hour “double sessions” with top speakers.

Three other top staffers also left around midyear without announcement or explanation–ad sales vet Anne Fetsch; webmaster Robin Michaels, and Leighton Watson of the finance dept. Brady Leet, who reported to Bolton and was directly under Levy, left towards the end of the year. None of the four could be reached for comment.

“John Doe” is the wrong person under investigation by PRSA.

The investigation should be on Bolton herself and PRSA’s dysfunctional governance.

When board members got the e-mail criticizing Bolton, they should have hired an outside firm to interview, in confidence, all the staffers to see if there was anything to the complaints in the e-mail.

This was an employee/management issue that could have been kept “in-house” instead of being splattered across the pages of the New York Law Journal and this NL and odwyerpr.com.

Instead of reaching for legal counsel, the board should have reached for outside PR counsel. We don’t see anyone on the 54-person staff capable of handling this incendiary situation.

Janet Troy, the senior PR pro at PRSA, who joined in June 2004, told the Bergen (N.J.) Record July 27, 2004 that she was barely aware of the existence of PRSA.

“I was flabbergasted that this organization with all these offerings existed and I was clueless to it,” she was quoted as saying.

Cedric Bess, a 1999 college graduate, is manager of PR. Aside from Bolton, Professional Development director Judith Voss, and two interns, there are no other PR pros on staff or at least none that belong to PRSA. There is no mention of this legal action on the PRSA website including the new PRSA “Online Media Room” that provides news related to PRSA.

The dysfunctional governance of PRSA starts with the gerrymandered Assembly. We have never heard any PRSA leader mention this unfair, undemocratic situation, it’s such a sacred cow.

Smaller chapters, led by 1980 president Patrick Jackson, took over in the 1970s and allowed the number of chapters, some with as few as ten members, to balloon from 59 in 1970 to 116 by the 1980s, an increase of 57. This gave plenty of members lots of titles that they could put on their resumes. A chapter with 10-25 members got one Assembly vote as did a chapter with 100.

The obvious reform, which would shift power back to the big chapters, would be proportional voting. A chapter with 10 members would get 10 “votes” and one with 366 members would get 366. If a delegation is split, that could be worked out.

An explanation of “libel,” “slander,” “defamation,” “libel per se” and other legal terms is on odwyerpr.com written by James Haggerty, lawyer who is author of In the Court of Public Opinion: Winning Your Case with PR.

Reporters, who are sometimes pulled into court on defamation and other charges, were recently offered “Lawsuit-Proof Reporting: What Every Journalist Must Know” by workingjournalist.com.

The workshop ($129 for a recording) covers First Amendment rights, the “truth about libel insurance,” privacy law and other topics. We don’t think there’s any such thing as “lawsuit-proof reporting.” Someone who is offended and has the funds to launch a lawsuit can almost always do so. The defendant has to hire a lawyer and this costs $10,000 for starters in New York, based on our experience.

The worst danger to reporters, of course, is assassination. Of the 120 journalists who died on duty worldwide since 2000, 121 “were hunted down and murdered in retaliation for their work,” says the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The killers are almost never caught. For instance, Edgar Damalerio, editor of a weekly Philippine paper, was gunned down on a crowded street across from the police station in 2002. In all, 18 reporters were killed for their work in the Philippines since 2000. They had reported on government and police corruption, drug dealing, etc.

In Iraq, 13 of 41 work-related deaths were murders. Reporters were seen as working for coalition forces. Eleven journalists have been murdered in Colombia since 2000. Donations to wwwcpj.org...reporters in the U.S. are not often physically murdered but a lawsuit by a large organization against an individual reporter or publication can lead to elimination of the offending medium or person via bankruptcy.

More common is “figurative assassination” in which an organization decides an offending news medium or reporter no longer exists. The organization will not deal with the medium nor read anything it reports. It may knock the medium if someone mentions it.

It will certainly buy as little as possible and preferably nothing from the medium.

– Jack O'Dwyer