Page, founded in 1983, previously had paid executive directors, with Tom Nicholson being the most recent. Nicholson, who remains at Page until June, was paid a salary of $180,000 plus $17,207 in benefits.
Page's net assets gained 17.8% in 2009 to $537,156 and cash and investments rose 41% to $851,582. Net assets were $1,156,111 in 2005. Page, as a 501/c/3 non-profit, a tax category usually reserved for charities like the United Way and Red Cross, is able to accept contributions from corporations that the donors can deduct from their taxes.
Revenues of $1,362,089 in 2009 included $438,235 in member dues and $178,647 in cash. Contributions in 2008 had totaled $241,000.
In addition, the revenue statements listed $148,994 in “in-kind services” in 2009 and $322,046 in such services in 2008.
2009 Sponsors Listed
Companies giving more than $10,000 in 2009 were Abbott, FedEx, Johnson & Johnson, Ketchum, Kraft, Prudential Financial, State Farm Insurance and Weber Shandwick. Giving $7,500+ were Northwestern Mutual Foundation, Royal Dutch Shell and Staples.
Also listed in the annual report (link to PDF) are 28 other sponsors who gave from $100 to $7,499.
Among “in-kind” sponsors are United Airlines, Text 100 and Burson-Marsteller.
Hood, who in the past several years has had two children, worked in corporate communications in the U.K. and was executive administrator for the National Kidney Foundation before joining PRW/U.S.
She was editor-in-chief before taking her most recent posts at Haymarket.
Hood's office will be on the 23rd floor of 317 Madison ave. at 42nd St., where a co-tenant is the Council of PR Firms.
PRW/U.S. and CPRF were both founded in 1998.
CPRF for about six years until 2008 was a steady advertiser in PRW/U.S., providing a monthly one-column ad at a cost of about $3,500.
Total spending was about $150,000.
During the same period, CPRF gave the O'Dwyer magazine one $700 ad.
When CPRF was asked for equal ad treatment with PRW/U.S., Kathy Cripps, CEO of CPRF, said the association would no longer advertise in PRW/U.S.
Complaint Made to USPS
The O'Dwyer Co. in 2008 filed a complaint with the U.S. Postal Service charging that PRW/U.S. was apparently breaking Periodicals mailing rules.
Those rules say that a subscription to a publication mailed at the low Periodicals rate must be “separated from other business transactions so as to constitute a distinct, voluntary and independent act.”
USPS rules say that a premium offered as part of a subscription offer must be no more than 70% of the cover price of the publication being offered.
PRW/U.S., after initially selling its nearly 400-page Contact directory as a separate publication for $249, then began offering it as a free inducement to those who subscribed to or renewed to PRW/U.S. at various prices ranging from $148 to $198.
Since the paid/requested circulation of PRW/U.S. is nearly 6,200, it appears that more than 20,000 copies of Contact were distributed as part of a PRW/U.S. subscription offer in the past few years.
The USPS accepted the complaint of the O'Dwyer Co. and said it would audit PRW/U.S.
PRW/U.S. went monthly in June of 2009 and the 2010 edition of Contact has no price at all on it.
Current subscription offers of PRW/U.S. are at prices of $248, $198 and $148. Included is unlimited access to the PRW/U.S. website which only subscribers have; “Daily Breakfast Briefing”; Weekly Online Edition every Friday; 12 monthly print issues, and the annual Contact directory.