KOTCHER WILL BE KETCHUM CEO

Raymond L. Kotcher, 48, president of the Ketchum unit of Omnicom, will succeed David R. Drobis, 59, as CEO on June 1. Drobis, with Ketchum since 1967, continues as chairman.

Kotcher, who joined Ketchum in 1983, became director of the New York office in 1986 and COO and president in 1992. He was a senior VP and then EVP at G.S. Schwartz & Co. in 1985-86. Previously he was at Brouillard Communications from 1980-83.

He has a B.A. from the State University of New York in English and an M.S. from Boston University in PR (1982).

Ketchum was sold to Omnicom in 1996. Paul Alvarez, now 58, who for many years co-headed Ketchum PR with Drobis, was named a vice chairman of Omnicom but left in the first year of a three-year contract. Walter K. Lindenmann, 63, director of research at Ketchum since 1987, retired in March of this year.

Drobis, who has been CEO at Ketchum nearly 10 years, is the founding chairman of the "Council of PR Firms." He will become chairman of ICO, the association of PR firms in Europe, at the end of the year when his CPRF term expires.

Said Drobis: "It's the perfect time in our history for Ray to take on the CEO's job, a time of exciting change within our industry as the Internet and e-business turbo-charges everything."

F-H ACQUIRES KVO, PORTLAND

Fleishman-Hillard, an Omnicom unit with $213 million in fees in 1999, acquired KVO PR, Portland, Ore., which reported revenues of $7.6M and a staff of 70 PR pros for 1999. The firm, which also has an office in Silicon Valley, has technology, corporate and consumer clients.

It will operate independently as an F-H company but will also be part of the Technology Consulting Worldwide division of F-H.

Becoming a part of F-H is "the most significant step in KVO's 17-year evolution," said Sharon VanSickle, KVO co-founder and president.

IOMEGA TO PAINE FROM COPITHORNE

Iomega Corp., Roy, Utah, $1.5 billion maker of the "Zip," "Jaz," and "Clik!" drives and disks as well as other products, named Paine & Assocs., Costa Mesa, Calif., for a projected $3 million+ budget.

Iomega was three years with the former Copithorne & Bellows PR firm which was merged with the new Convergence Group of Porter Novelli, an Omnicom unit. C&B had not handled the account for six months. David Copithorne, managing partner of Convergence, said conflicts were encroaching on the Iomega account.

Five national firms were chosen from a number that responded to a request for proposals. Mark Lucas, EVP, product management and global marketing of Iomega, called Paine "among the nation's best managed and most creative PR agencies."

WEBER HEADS IPG'S ALLIED UNIT

Larry Weber, chairman and CEO of Interpublic's Weber PR Worldwide, was named chairman and CEO of IPG's Allied Communications Group, succeeding Barry Linsky, who continues as IPG's SVP-planning and business development.

Weber, who continues as head of WPRW until new management is announced, heads a unit that has $1.3 billion in revenues and includes the new NFO Worldwide unit of IPG, for which it recently paid $675M. The research firm has about $500M in sales.

Other parts of Allied include Shandwick Int'l; Weber PR Worldwide; Golin/Harris; ISO/Healthcare; Marketing Corp. of America; Jack Morton Co.; Kaleidoscope Sports, and Industry Entertainment.

University Access, e-learning company, named BSMG Worldwide, Los Angeles, for its account. It provides management education to businesspeople, partnering with the London Business School, University of Southern California and others.

Mark Weiss, president and CEO of Rowland Communications Worldwide, said parent Saatchi & Saatchi is negotiating to sell parts of Rowland. Edelman PR Worldwide may be the buyer. The Rowland PR office in New York is not for sale nor the Rowland name. RCW was formed on May 19, 1999 when Kevin Roberts, CEO of S&S, announced that Rowland s PR resources would be joined with S&S Business Communications, Rochester, N.Y., ad agency.

RCW was said to have 450 employees in 46 offices in 31 countries.

Rowland Worldwide, the PR unit, had fees of $32M in 1998. It had fees of $44M in 1992. The combination of RW and S&S Business Comms. was said to have $49.7M in fees in 1999.

P&G CALLED "CORPORATE YELLOW BELLY"

Procter & Gamble has pulled out as a sponsor of a planned TV talk show hosted by radio personality Dr. Laura Schlessinger because she is too controversial.

Schlessinger, an Orthodox Jew, has sparked an uproar from gay and lesbian groups for her on-air references to homosexuality as "deviant" and "a biological error."

Rod Dreher, a New York Post columnist, who called P&G a "corporate yellow belly," said the gay-led boycott of the popular radio therapist poses a threat to the free speech rights of all individuals.

"Silence in the face of this persecution equals the death of free speech," said Dreher.

United Airlines also said it would not run any more ads for the radio show in its in-flight magazine, Hemispheres, which was recently named the best monthly travel magazine of the year in a contest sponsored by the Society of American Travel Writers.

"There has been controversy surrounding Dr. Laura on a number of topics," Cincinnati-based P&G said in a press release with no press contact names or spokesperson name for attribution.

A P&G main switchboard operator referred calls to the corporate communications department.

"We've chosen not to be involved with a show that will require time and resources to deal with this kind of controversy," said the release.

The company also said it would cease to advertise on Schlessinger's nationally syndicated radio program.

The move by P&G came less than a week after the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council issued a condemnation of Schlessinger's radio commentary, calling her remarks about homosexuals as "abusively discriminatory."

The council recommended that stations censor any anti-gay remarks by her.

A dot-com group, called StopDrLaura.com, plans to sponsor an anti-Dr. Laura demonstration in New York on June 5, followed by similar protests in other cities.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is also marshalling forces to join the demonstration, which is expected to take place outside the Times Square headquarters of Viacom, parent company of Paramount TV, which plans to syndicate Dr. Laura's TV program this fall.

The New York Times said the "reactions to the protests reflect the growing political and economic clout of gays."

KRANTZ RESIGNS FROM DKNY

Sherry Krantz has resigned as PR director for DKNY Jeans, Active and Juniors to become CEO of Forever After Inc., owner of the Vivianlives.com website that she started last December.

The site chronicles the life of a 24-year-old female cartoon character living in New York and lets web browsers check out her apartment.

AD AGENCY TO FIGHT PR FIRM S LAWSUIT

Grafica will prove Spector & Assocs. was "terminated appropriately and with proper justification," said Debra Taeschler, president of the Chester, N.J.-based ad agency, which handles advertising for the New Jersey Lottery.

S&A, based in Short Hills, N.J., sued Grafica for breach of contract after the PR firm was dropped by the ad agency as a sub-contractor (NL, 5/24).

Since April 10, Grafica has contracted with MWW Group, East Rutherford.

Taeschler said S&A s allegations were "false and misleading."

COHN & WOLFE WINS BEST PR AWARD

Judges in PRSA/N.Y.'s Big Apple competion picked Cohn & Wolfe's work for SmithKline Beecham's Paxil drug as the best PR program of 1999.

The agency was presented the "Best of the Big Apple Award" May 23 at an awards luncheon that drew more than 380 PR pros to the Marriott Marquis.

The Paxil program also was one of the 28 Big Apple winners honored (NL, 5/24).

The annual contest is open to New York firms.

C&W was cited for raising public awareness about Paxil -- which is prescribed to relieve social anxiety disorder -- by conducting a campaign before the drug was given FDA approval.

C&W Healthcare partnered with the Social Anxiety Disorder Coaliiton to find patients willing to share their experiences through media interviews, telephone press briefings, a satellite media tour and other activities.

Ryan and Menninger Honored

PRSA/N.Y. gave the John W. Hill award to Phil Ryan, an independent consultant, and the Philip Dorf award to Ed Menninger of Burson-Marsteller.

Ryan, who is the 29th recipient of the Hill award, has run his own PR firm since 1981, and has been a consultant since 1974. He was elected New York chapter president in 1994.

Menninger is EVP/managing director of training and development for B-M.

NEWS BRIEFS ________________________

Insufficient advance registrations forced Baruch College in New York to cancel a May 18 seminar on TV publicity and media relations.

Former American Express CEO James Robinson III and his wife, Linda Robinson, head of Robinson Lerer & Montgomery and now vice chairman of Young & Rubicam, are buying a 17-room condo for $17.7 million.

The apartment, which was built in 1931, is on the corner of Park and 73rd st. The Robinsons currently live in a 10-room apartment at 550 Park ave.

James is a managing partner at R.R.E. Ventures, a New York-based venture capital firm he helped found. Y&R acquired RL&M in March.

MEDIZINE BECOMES TOP HEALTH OUTLET

The MediZine Guidebook, a quarterly magazine launched six years ago, has become one of the largest consumer health magazines in the U.S.—with an estimated audience of 8.9 million.

The Readers Digest-size magazine, which publishes information about consumer health and wellness topics, is distributed at pharmacy counters and doctors offices nationwide.

Traver Hutchins, founder/CEO of MediZine, got his idea for the magazine from the passing of the federal law that mandated pharmacists to counsel their Medicare/Medicaid patients on their prescription drugs.

The magazine offers mostly tips on health prevention and treatment options.

Readers are usually given the name of health groups where they can get more information at the end of articles.
The publisher also produces customized sections. The spring issue, for example, has a section about maintaining a healthy heart that was produced for the American Heart Assn.

MediZine's website (www.medizine.com) features breaking news, a drug interaction guide and ratings of hospitals, health plans and nursing homes.

Hutchins said an estimated 25 million Americans searched for health information on the Internet in 1999, and that number is expected to grow to 30 million in the next 12 months.

Currently, there are at least 20,000 health-related websites online, according to Hutchins, who said MediZine's mission is to provide information with which Americans can make informed health decisions.

Diane Umansky has been editor-in-chief of MediZine since 1995.

Umansky, who previously covered health issues while the senior editor at First for Women magazine, makes sure each article is easy-to-understand, comprehensive and includes practical tips.

Umansky also continues to contribute articles to several other magazines on health topics. She writes regular columns for First for Women, and also regularly writes for Self, Family Circle, American, Harper's Bazaar, Working Mother, Good Housekeeping and Weight Watchers.

MediZine's offices are located at 298 Fifth ave., New York, NY 10001. 212/695-2223; fax: 2936.

BARR TAKES OVER 'FEDERAL DIARY'

Stephen Barr has succeeded Wayne Causey as the daily "Federal Diary" columnist in The Washington Post.
Causey, who wrote the column for nearly 30 years, left to join PlanetGov.com (NL, 5/10).

Barr has worked at the Post for 20 years, including a stint as editor of "The Federal Page," and as a staff writer covering civil service, Postal Service, federal retiree and management issues.

Barr said he will continue the column s tradition as a "clearinghouse for news and developments about pay, benefits and workplace events" in the federal community.
He welcomes help in covering topics critical to current employees and retirees as well as the next generation of public servants.

Publicists can E-mail information to [email protected], or
call him at 202/334-7442.

PLACEMENT TIPS ______________________

Michelle Singletary, who gives financial advice in the Sunday business section of The Washington Post, is seeking nominations for her annual "Penny Pincher of the Year" contest.

One past winner wrote that her friend saves calendars and date books for seven years so he can use them again.
Singletary said this year s winners will be featured in her "The Color of Money" column and on MSNBC's new show "HomePage," an interactive blend of news, information and advice on which she appears.

Entries can be sent to [email protected].

PR counselor Edmund Bogen and breakfastnetwork.com are seeking panelists for at least 15 upcoming events that will be held over the next 12 months.

All of the events focus on issues that are of interest to executives at the center of the digital revolution, according to Bogen.

Publicists can recommend clients for these topics: Angel finance; angels & incubators—How to get funding; business to business—Turn your business model from customer to business; traditional companies going online; entertainment on the web; philanthropy; online communities; building I-company valuation; future of online trading, and E-commerce.
[email protected], or 212/425-0505, ext. 11.

RACHLIS NAMED EDITOR OF L.A. MAGAZINE

Kit Rachlis, who was senior projects editor at The Los Angeles Times, was named editor-in-chief of Los Angeles Magazine, which is published by Emmis Communications, Indianapolis.

Rachlis, who is replacing Spencer Beck, also has been editor of L.A. Weekly and executive editor of the New York-based weekly, Village Voice.

PEOPLE ___________________________

Renee Loth, previously deputy editorial page director of The Boston Globe, was promoted to editorial page editor, succeeding H.D.S. Greenway, who is retiring.

Evan Smith was promoted to editor of Texas Monthly, succeeding Gregory B. Curtis, who will return to writing.

JERSEY PR PROS GET TIPS FROM MEDIA

A record turnout of more than 90 publicists attended PRSA/N.J.'s May 17 "Meet the Media" meeting to get tips on how to better work with the media.

The session, held at the Madison Hotel in Convent Station, featured speakers from print, radio and TV outlets, which cover news in the Garden State.

Mike St. Peter, assistant news director, WWOR-TV, said PR people should expect the unexpected when pitching a story.

For example, he got daily phone calls from PR people at A&P for more than a week about new self-scanners they had installed at a checkout counter in a Montvale, N.J., store.

St. Peter said an A&P publicist panicked when he finally called to say a reporter was on his way to the store. CNN had covered the story the day before and during the taping, the self-scanners were not operating properly.

After the story aired, A&P executives called the station to complain they didn t want the reporter in the store. Since A&P is an advertiser, things got especially tense for WWOR s upper management, St. Peter said.

A good outlet on WWOR for PR people is a segment called "Good News" that features stories about common people. Story ideas should go to producer Rob Bell at WWOR.

Be Responsive

Kevin DeMarris, a business reporter, who specializes in consumer issues for The Bergen Record, expects PR people to be "responsive in both the good times and the bad."

"I want you to be responsive when there is a murder on your campus or when the VP is caught embezzling money. I need that information and if you re not responsive to me I m not going to be as responsive to you in some good times," he said.

DeMarris said it is also important for PR people to be honest. "If you lie to me once, don t call me again. Ever. I won t listen to you. I don t care how good the story is," he said.

DeMarris, who spent 25 years in the PR business, asks that PR people call him in the morning or early afternoon but never between 4 and 6, deadline time.

He said a press release should have the most interesting information in the first sentence and headline; be easy to understand, and if they are not, they go into the wastebasket.

Phil Read, West Essex bureau chief for The Star-Ledger, Newark, said PR people should call the editor and reporter to thank them after a story, which they pitched, appears. "Even if it is not to your liking, give a call to thank them for their time," he said.

The best day to reach Read is on Friday, a planning day, since the majority of Sunday stories were filed on Thursday. "Our readers like to meet people in their stories," he said. You must have "real people in the story. And I want to make that person multi-dimensional. I want to know about his or her family."

A trend he is encountering is PR people who call him and read from a script. "I just cringe when this happens," he said.
All of the editors stressed the importance of knowing the audience of the publication you are pitching.

Send Exclusives

David Levitt, senior writer for Real Estate Alert, based in Hoboken, said his publication will not cover any real estate transaction less than $15 million and deals that are under $30 million are written about only when space is available.

"Our readers pay an exorbitant amount to receive us so exclusives are mandatory," said Levitt. "People subscribe to us because they know they are going to read stuff they can t get anywhere else."

Dino Ciliberti, city editor for the New Jersey Herald & News, is interested in news about ethnicities, minorities, and the immigrant population.

Since the assignment desk calls the shots, he advised the publicists to build relationships with assignment editors. The daily does not have a business news department.

Looking For Top People

John McCorry, national news editor for Bloomberg Radio, said Bloomberg is always looking for opinion leaders, CEOs, CFOs, and top scientific people who have a handle on money issues.

Press releases should be sent to [email protected] or faxed to 609/497-6571. Bloomberg s national news desk is in Princeton and the headquarters for its TV and radio stations are in New York.

Bloomberg is interested in listening to any finance story and McCorry recommends contacting a reporter or editor in the Princeton bureau.

Mark Middlestadt, Trenton bureau chief for The Associated Press, said events listed in the AP Daybook are sent to most of AP's news outlets daily.

Information should be sent to editorial assistant Nina Rizzo who compiles the AP Daybook. Each event is described in a few sentences and includes a contact name and phone number.

Story ideas should go to Bill Newell, AP's news editor. Stories related to the pharmaceutical, healthcare, or technology industries should go to Linda Johnson.

They are all based in AP's Trenton bureau and can be reached at 609/392-3622.

PLACEMENT TIP _______________________

Harper's Bazaar has hired Jennifer Pierce Barr, former managing editor of Elle, as deputy editor, succeeding Mary Duenwald, who was promoted to executive editor of the magazine.

Barr will work on features, theme issues and entertainment-related stories.

Teen People has named Angela Burt-Murray, previously fashion and beauty features editor at Essence, as beauty and health director.

American Lawyer Media has begun publishing suburban editions for Long Island and the northern counties near New York, Northern Virginia, and East Bay region outside San Francisco, including Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

The weekly sections appear in New York Law Journal, Legal Times, and The Recorder, respectively.

IABC RENEWALS OFF 1,161

The International Assn. of Business Communicators, expanding on a May 17 e-mail to members in which it spoke of a "revenue shortfall" and the fact that it is spending $1 million on a website, has added some details to its announcement.

IABC renewed 1,161 fewer members than was expected for the six months ended March 31. At $175 per renewal, a rate that went into effect a year ago, the loss in expected income is $203,175. The renewal rate is normally a little over 80%.

Furthermore, said the group, the number of new members is 175 short of budget.

IABC lost $343,258 last year on income of $4.8M.

New Website on Hold

IABC now states that its new website, on which it has spent $1 million, is "temporarily" on hold. There appears to be no set date when it will be activated.

The money has been spent for software, infrastructure and research and development and the website will be made available when "new funding sources" have been obtained, the group said. There are no current plans to further invest in the new site.

First move will be upgrading the existing site, it was said. IABC spokesperson Wilma Mathews, who is director of PR at Arizona State University, confirmed the above statements. IABC does not have an on-staff PR person but is searching for one.

PR GOING THROUGH "IDENTITY CRISIS"

The explosion of media outlets and the explosion of technology, among other reasons, are causing PR to go through "a massive identity crisis," according to Zhenya Gene Senyak, who works on both the PR and editorial sides.

He is writing a series called "In Praise of Fl@cks" for www.ClickZ.com.

Senyak, author of Prentice-Hall s Inside PR Executive Report monograph and who is also a teacher, said the growth of online media, in which companies can build their own audiences if they have something to say, is "weakening the power journalists have over the analysis and distribution of information."

Conducting a survey via various websites, Senyak said he received e-mails from hundreds of PR pros and will write about the "new turbo-charged practice of PR." He says PR pros have been "pounded" lately in articles in Harper s Bazaar ("on the bimbo factor") and Red Herring ("reporters feel besieged, clients feel cheated...and the PR industry is making a killing").

PR pros, he writes, are the only ones equipped to go beyond specialized media and into the "never never land of chat groups, list servs and bulletin boards."

Although "strategists" are getting a lot of attention now, he adds, "PR people, by and large, are hired to get their clients publicity, not strategize... they re clearly part of the expanding news media universe (gazillions of new print magazines, e-zines and newsletters), integral to the gathering and dissemination of news."

Senyak says on-line survey sites such as www.zoomerang.com, clicktomarket.com and inetsurveys.com should be known by every PR pro. He also recommends zdnet.com and business2.com.

BSMG'S S/M UNIT HAS NEW NAME

Sawyer Miller Group, part of BSMG Worldwide and previously known as Bozell Eskew, has changed its name to SawyerMiller + Co., The Advertising Agency at BSMG Worldwide. It is an issues and advocacy advertising firm.

It is expanding its focus to handle broader corporate reputation campaigns and is also producing advertising for dot-com companies. Many of these also work across BSMG s other practice areas.

Tom Blim continues as general manager and Susan Armstrong as chief creative officer.

Carter Eskew left Bozell Eskew nine months ago to be Vice President Al Gore s senior media adviser.

The firm recently won a $25 million corporate ad campaign for Bristol-Myers Squibb which features Lance Armstrong, testicular cancer survivor and winner of the Tour de France.

"We re using celebrity patients who are talking about their diseases and how pharmaceutical therapies from BMS are dramatically changing their lives," said Jack Leslie, chairman of BSMG.

BAILEN SEEKS THIRD TERM AS PCNY HEAD

Howard Bailen, director of media relations, Mercer Management Consulting, was nominated to a third term as president, Publicity Club of New York.

Also nominated for third terms were Peter Himler, Burson-Marsteller, as first VP/program; Nancie Steinberg, Cabrini Medical Center, as second VP/membership, and Elesia Carey, D S Simon Productions, as secretary.

Marie Raperto, The Cantor Concern, was nominated for a second term as treasurer. Officers can only serve three terms under club rules.

Election results will be announced June 7 at the annual meeting at B-M. Stuart Elliott, advertising columnist for the New York Times, will talk.

"BE WARY OF CASUAL DRESS"–BROWN

David Brown, president of Sawchuk Brown Assocs., Albany, N.Y., said PR pros should "be wary" of the casual dress movement in the business world.

Brown, interviewed by an Albany newspaper, said that casual dress might be appropriate to other industries but not to professional consulting services such as PR, law and management consulting.

"Too often," he said, "casual dress, which often erodes into sloppy dress, begets casual thinking, casual attitudes and casual client relations–undercutting professionalism and performance."

He related to the reporter that in his 16 years in newspapers, he often urged fellow reporters and staff to dress "appropriately to what they were covering." Reporters could not cover a corporate annual meeting and get respect if they were in jeans, he said.

How closely marketers study their subjects is evident in a story in the May 7 New York Times Sunday magazine.

A researcher featured in the piece has his subjects lie on the floor and become as calm as possible. "Droning" music is played for 20 minutes until they are just about at the stage of sleep. Then he mentions the product under study and has them write down their earliest memories of it, looking for the "archetypal association" with the product.

Other researchers use focus group, ethnographics, motive critiquing, scenario planning, and observational research to find out the "desires of the American heart and mind."

It's open season on studying consumers or "target audiences," as marketers often refer to consumers.

Whether marketers are as open to consumers is another matter. Individuals, including reporters, who want to probe a company's environmental and labor policies or seek a record of a company s product successes and failures, may run into a brick wall.

A researcher told us that Europeans have become less willing to cooperate with companies probing their psyches and are less likely to take part in consumer panels. Even in the U.S., researchers are wondering if the answers given by consumer panels are truly what s on the participant's mind.

The usually quiet International Assn. of Business Communicators is suddenly in the news. It has stopped work on its new $1 million website and doesn t know when it will be resumed. It only gives the merest details of this extravaganza. Meanwhile, IABC also announces that it s $200,000 short in expected renewal income. Could there be a connection? IABC and other associations are supposed to reveal to members and the public the names of the five biggest outside contractors (schedule A of form 990). This would show who is doing all the web consulting work for IABC. We have filed the required written request with IABC for this document...PRSA has yet to reveal its 1999 audit and is many weeks behind in doing so. Deloitte & Touche had received a multi-year contract with PRSA and was supposed to provide members with an audit by the end of March or the first half of April, according to chair Steve Pisinski. A promise by PRSA that unaudited financials would be posted early in the year (the practice of PRSA in recent years) was broken. As of this writing (May 25), no audit had been put on the PRSA website. The last release in the PRSA web press room was dated March 29. There were only six press releases in the past six months. PRSA, in providing income tax statements to this NL as required by law, left out schedule A, which gives the pay of the five highest paid employees other than officers, directors and trustees, and tells the compensation to the "five highest paid independent contractors for professional services"...the Japanese government on May 24 was criticized for leaving out an important element of its first quarter figures, hiding a "startling weakness," said the New York Times. The opposition party said the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has long manipulated economic data for political reasons, "papering over harsh realities"...New York Post financial columnist John Crudele recently criticized the U.S. Government for giving allegedly false figures on inflation by failing to take into account the true rise in the price of oil...after several attempts we were able to get the financial reports of the New York City Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre. Neither group will give us their attendance figures over the past 10-15 years. The NYCB, which recently allowed Chrysler to claim credit as the "sponsor" of two weeks of "The Sleeping Beauty" for an investment of less than $250,000 (May 10 NL), is rich when compared with the ABT. NYCB had net assets of $66.3 million as of June 30, 1999, including $3.9M in cash; $48.8M in investments; $9M in pledges and real estate worth $8.7M. It announced in April a drive to raise $51M for general purposes and special projects. NYCB is usually $20M short of its annual cost of $42M but "easily" raises this from rich individuals and companies, said a source close to the NYCB. ABT, on the other hand, had net assets of only $7M as of July 31, 1999..."Center Stage" is a current movie about young people trying out for a ballet company in Lincoln Center. One scene shows women dancers pounding their toe shoes with a hammer and otherwise trying to break them in. One youthful star takes off her shoe to reveal a foot with bleeding sores, bunions and bruises. The audience gasps... while the Clinton Administration and companies are successfully pushing through a free trade bill with China, promising positive effects for both the U.S. and China, Harper s publisher John R. "Rick" MacArthur has come out with a book that says many of the promises of NAFTA (which opened up trade with Mexico) were never realized. His new book, "Nafta, Washington, and the Subversion of American Democracy," argues that it has worsened the condition of Mexican and American workers. One critic of MacArthur s book said that if American industry did not go to Mexico it would have gone to other countries in Central America or Asia. MacArthur concentrates on how one factory in New York was affected by the treaty.