FOUR VIE FOR MASTERCARD PR ACCOUNT

Manning, Selvage & Lee, Ogilvy PR Worldwide, Waggener Edstrom and Brodeur Worldwide are said to be the four finalists from the original 14 shops considered for MasterCard International's North American credit card business. That mix included a number of small firms.

Heidi Davidson, director of product and technology communications, is handling the review.

MasterCard, on Oct. 11, reported strong growth for the first-half of this year. North American gross dollar volume was up 17.5 percent, while the number of cards issued in the U.S. rose 20% to 256.2M.

Robert Selander, MasterCard CEO, however, warned that the Sept. 11 terror attacks could have an impact on consumer spending.

COPITHORNE SUCCEEDS DRUCKENMILLER

Porter Novelli International president David Copithorne will succeed Bob Druckenmiller as CEO of the Omnicom unit on Jan. 1.

Copithorne joined PNI following the acquisition of Copithorne & Bellows, high-tech PR firm, in 1995.

Druckenmiller is to remain in the chairman post, working on business development and representing PNI on PR forums.

Helen Ostrowski, general manager in New York, has been promoted to president/North America. Gary Stockman, PNI West Coast operations chief, will assist her as North America/COO. Julie Winskie takes over Ostrowski's New York duties, while retaining her consumer practice director slot.

JABLONSKI LEAVES TRW AFTER 33 YEARS

Michael Jablonski, VP-external relations of TRW, Cleveland, and who has been with the company since 1968, left Oct. 31 following a reorganization of the corporate staff. David Cote, who recently joined as chairman, president and CEO of TRW from General Electric, has been trimming corporate staff.

Jablonski said he intends to continue his PR career and will seek work at another company, a PR firm, or open his own consulting business.

Herb Kraus, 80, the one-time president of Manning, Selvage & Lee/Chicago, is leaving his senior counselor post at FRB/Weber Shandwick and is looking for new opportunities. He says media relations, news writing, crisis and public affairs are his strong points. Kraus can be reached at 312/640-6791.

H&K SHUTS DOWN CARL BYOIR/USA

Hill and Knowlton is closing the domestic operations of Carl Byoir & Assocs., which was the country's No. 3 firm with 600-plus employees when it was acquired by H&K for $12 million in 1986.

CEO Howard Paster says he's closing the unit because the market for "premium business" clients has dried up. He may reopen CB&A if the market picks up.

CB&A had been run out of Los Angeles and headed since 1996 by Maureen Crow. It will continue to serve clients from Sydney, Melbourne, Milan, Brussels and Amsterdam.

CB&A, prior to its acquisition by H&K, had a very short list of blue chip clients. They had unlimited access to the top seven executives for counsel and an array of special departments for implementation.

Corporate icons ITT, Schering-Plough, American Home Products, American Can, F.W. Woolworth, RCA and Reader's Digest did business with CB&A.

The firm had $32 million in 1985 fees vs. $78M chalked up by H&K. The acquisition enabled H&K to surpass Burson-Marsteller as the No. 1 PR firm.

EDELMAN PICKS UP GEMPLUS

Edelman PR Worldwide has picked up the Gemplus account, according to Larry Sennett, president of Edelman Technology.

Gemplus, the world's leader in the 5.6 billion "smart card" market, had used a mishmash of PR firms, he said.

The Luxembourg-based company generates about 25 percent of its revenues in the Americas. The cards are used as pre-paid phone cards, debit/credit cards and in various e-commerce applications. Gemplus' information technology division is based in Redwood Shores, Calif., which also serves as its Americas regional headquarters.

John Perduyn, 62, with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. since 1965 and who rose to SVP of global communications, is retiring at the end of the year.

Perduyn said a search is being conducted within and outside the company.

The department has about 21 PR professionals.
Christopher Aked is director of global comms.
Perduyn, a 1961 graduate of Ohio Univ. with a degree in business administration, worked for the Lawyer's Cooperative Publishing Co. from 1963-65.

IPG's STRATEGY IS NOT WORKING, SAYS WSJ

Interpublic Group's financial woes were featured on the front page of the Oct. 31 Wall Street Journal, which profiled the ad holding company and its leader John Dooner.

The Journal reported that IPG led the race to consolidate, piling on debt in the process of creating more than 100 business units in 130 countries.

Clients, however, are "increasingly resisting the idea of one-stop shopping in favor of playing agencies off against each other, or underwriting a single campaign at a lower cost," it said.

IPG has accounted for a "big chunk" of the 18,000 people laid off this year by the top 200 ad agencies. Dooner has warned that he may cut more staff if the ad business doesn't pick up soon, adding to the 6,000 staffers already pared from the payroll this year.

Rallies Troops

The 53-year-old Dooner, called a "persuasive pitchman" by the WSJ, has done his best to rally the troops. He had a meeting with 20 key lieutenants in a private dining room in the Ritz Carlton Key Biscayne (Fla.) last month. Many of them "had shuttered key offices, laid off employees for the first time in their careers and watched their own personal wealth get obliterated as Interpublic shares have sunk," according to the Journal. His message was that we are all on the same team, and he urged them to work together to win new business.

Dooner, to his credit, is coping with "problems of scale and variety that were unimaginable when he took the post on Jan. 1. He also inherited headaches from predecessor Phil Geier such as the steep $265 million paid for Deutsch. Geier admits that Interpublic may have overpaid for some acquisitions.

Muzzles Executives

Interpublic is sick and tired of reading about how bad things are going at the ad holding company. That's apparently why Barry Linsky, its executive VP, is demanding that top management stop talking to reporters about untidy items such as job cuts and office shutdowns.

Linsky, in an internal memo, urges managers to clam up about "office closings or headcount reductions." He is tired of the "Chinese water torture" of negative press about various retrenchments at IPG.

That, according to Linsky, is hurting staffer morale, client confidence and IPG's stock price.

If pressed by reporters, Linsky tells managers to contact him or Kathryn Woods, Interpublic's IR exec. Interpublic lost a whopping $110 million during the second quarter. It plans to drop its third-quarter loss bomb on Wall Street on Nov. 13.

RBB BUYS ITSELF BACK FROM IPG

The former Rubin, Barney & Birger, Coral Gables, Fla., which was sold to Interpublic in 1997, has bought itself back from the troubled conglomerate.

Christine Barney, president of the former Weber Shandwick Worldwide unit, said the firm now has the "best of both worlds-we're still affiliated with Weber Shandwick and have access to all its services, but we're also independent again."

She would not disclose the repurchase price.

Barney said the firm will be called RBB Public Relations. Its current staff is 20. When sold to IPG in 1997, the firm said it had 47 employees and 1996 fees of $3.4 million. It has a large healthcare unit.

Rubin Departs

Bruce Rubin, who was a principal of the firm, announced last week he is leaving parent IPG. He had been helping the company on its financial PR.
RBB was sold to IPG when IPG's stock was $48. It is currently around $22.

Barney said that she and Weber Shandwick agreed that the best thing for both of them was to allow RBB to regain its independence, given the current "marketplace."

U.S./U.K. COORDINATE WAR PR

The U.S. and Britain are launching a PR operation to counter Taliban claims of death and destruction caused by the air strikes over Afghanistan, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Nov. 1.

"They've made a series of allegations that are just not true, including gross exaggerations about civilian casualties in the war in Afghanistan," Fleischer said.

U.S.-British and allied forces communications "war rooms" have been opened in Washington with links to satellite centers in Britain and Pakistan "to provide accurate and timely information on the war against terrorism to the international community," Fleischer said.

The U.S. is aiming to have a "rapid response" team, similar to operations run during political campaigns that can challenge or refute stories as they are broken in what is now a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week news cycle. Messages and news events will be timed to serve news outlets in Middle East and Asian time zones.

The U.S. currently spends more than $1 billion a year on public diplomacy efforts, with about half on broadcast services such as the Voice of America.

AD COUNCIL HAS PSA FOR TERROR TRAUMA

The Advertising Council has developed an overall communications strategy to help Americans deal with the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Council's Coalition Against Terrorism promises PSAs to "inform, involve and inspire" Americans to participate in activities that will help the nation win the war on terror, according to Michael Sennott, communications strategy committee chairman.

The Coalition has talked with grief experts such as John Oldham, of the New York State Psychiatric Institute. He said the "randomness of terrorist acts makes people feel as if they have no control over their lives, their safety or their future.

"This lack of control impedes their ability to overcome grief, and in some cases, it can lead to immobilizing fear," said Oldham.

TV POLL FINDS FEWER 9/11-RELATED STORIES

Phone interviews conducted with newsrooms by News Broadcast Network during the period of Oct. 15-19 with 50 TV stations in the top 100 markets shows the percentage of time being devoted to terrorist-related stories is down by nearly 30% from an earlier study conducted the first week of October.

"Despite ongoing concern with the anthrax outbreaks, there is a strong indication that local stations expect to return to normal programming over the next few weeks," according to NBN spokesman Jeff Wurtz.

Producers and beat reporters told NBN there is a growing desire by viewers to return to the normal activity of caring for the family, work and play.

"Significantly, stations are using satellite media tours and video news releases on non-terrorist related stories," according to Wurtz, whose company produces and distributes video and radio news releases, radio and satellite media tours, PSAs, corporate videos, and Internet broadcasts.

Wurtz said both surveys show an overwhelming interest in stories related to health and medical issues.

Personal Finance Stories Welcome

The poll found business/economic and personal finance topics have also become more important, and travel-related features are of interest when positioned within the context of safe places to go, return to flying and bargain fares.

Other findings:

-52% of the stations reported they are doing SMTs on other subjects not related to the Sept. 11 attacks during the morning hours-between 8 and noon.

-82% of the stations will start holiday-themed stories on or before Nov. 18.

-74% of stations surveyed indicated consumers are demanding information related to their own personal lives; they are asking for stories that provide information on security and improving the quality and financial stability of their lives.

Suggested ideas include topics specifically concerning terrorist preparedness, the impact of the Sept. 11 attack on security in the U.S., and the state of the economy.

Many also indicate a desire for lighter, yet educational programming on topics in the medical/health-related field and on issues related to the state of the economy or personal financing.

Wurtz said stations are receptive to story ideas or information/tips from corporate and nonprofit entities to help individuals cope with the post Sept. 11 news and events.

TERROR ATTACKS SHIFT TV RATINGS

The Sept. 11 terror attacks against the U.S. have shifted TV ratings among the ad supported business news shows.

Before Sept. 11, CNBC's "Business Center" was winning the race among the three major ad supported business news shows, according to Dow Jones.

Fox News' up-and-coming "Your World With Neil Cavuto" was in second place, and third-place "Lou Dobbs Moneyline" on CNN was struggling to reverse years of audience erosion.

Since mid-September, the once-dominant Business Center has been displaced by Moneyline and Your World.

From Sept. 17 to Oct. 21, Moneyline has averaged 1,403,000 viewers, four times as many viewers than in the same period a year ago, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Cavuto's show has averaged 1,072,000 viewers during the period, up from an average of 202,000 viewers in the comparable year-ago period.

By contrast, Business Center's viewership has been flat. From Sept. 17 to Oct. 21, Business Center had an average audience of 273,000 viewers, compared with 272,000 for the same period the year before.

PLACEMENT TIPS

Fortune has added a business calendar to its "Advisor" section.

The new feature has "everything you need to know about what's going on, and a whole lot you don't," says managing editor Rik Kirkland. "It's the wittiest, most delightful monthly guide anywhere. Trust me on this," said Kirkland.

Erik Torkells, a senior editor, is in charge of the calendar. 212/522-1212.

Eric Schurenberg, who was promoted to deputy managing editor of Business 2.0 magazine, will continue to be based in New York and will oversee the "What Works" section of the magazine.

Nathalie Dupree, who hosts a cooking show on public TV, plans to write a column about food and relationships for The Charleston News-Courier.

Dupree has put her home up for sale in Social Circle, Ga., where her cooking shows are filmed. She plans to spend more time in Charleston, S.C.

D S Simon Productions, New York, will include its "Healthline Medical Feed" for free on all health-related PR VNRs and satellite media tours.

Suzanne Murphy, previously at Orbis Broadcast Group, has joined DSSP's New York headquarters as manager, new business development specializing in healthcare.

Pitches with a comfort angle are of interest to editors of home and hearth magazines.

Country Living magazine commissioned a study just before the Sept. 11 attacks that shows Americans are leaning toward a need to simplify and a yearning for connection.

Michael Clinton, executive VP of Hearst, said people are looking for reassurance.

(Media news continued on next page)

USA TODAY WIDENS LEAD AS TOP DAILY

Major metropolitan and national papers reported essentially flat circulation, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Although USA Today increased its lead as the nation's biggest circulation newspaper, the national paper's circulation for the six months ended Sept. 30 as filed with ABC averaged 2,241,677 copies Monday-Friday, a drop of 0.6%.

The Wall Street Journal remained in second place with a gain of 1.0% to 1,780,605.

The New York Times rose 1.1% to 1,109,371. The Los Angeles Times fell 4.9% to 972,957, and The Washington Post, which finished in the fifth spot, lost 0.7% to 759,864.

The worst performance was from The Philadelphia Inquirer, which lost 8.8% to 365,154. Among the big gainers were The New York Post, up 22% in circulation to 533,860, while The New York Daily News rose 4.6% to 734,473.

The Newspaper Assn. of America's analysis of the ABC figures shows total daily circulation for the 757 papers reporting for the period came to 47,961,622; the 593 Sunday papers saw total net paid circulation of 52,596,972.

The NAA also said its Fall 2001 Competitive Media Index, an analysis of market data from Scarborough Research for the period ending March 2001, shows 54.3% of all adults in the top 50 markets had recently read a newspaper, a gain over the 53.5% reported in the spring CMI report.

Over five weekdays, newspapers reach more than seven in 10 (72.9%) adults, and over four Sundays, newspapers reach more than 77.4% of adults in the top 50 markets.

Younger Audiences

Some researchers believe 18 to 34-year-olds, a coveted demographic group for advertisers, are driving the rise in newspaper circulation and evening TV news audience.

For decades, younger audiences have largely been apathetic towards newspapers and TV news programming.

Although there is no demographic data available yet on who is buying all those papers, "given the increases in circulation most newspapers have seen (since Sept. 11), it's primarily coming from younger readers, because the penetration among older readers is so strong already, Christine Urban of Urban & Assocs., a newspaper research firm, told MSNBC's Jane Weaver.

On TV, the typical evening news audience tends to be well over 55, yet in the weeks since Sept. 11, at least 45% of all 18 to 34-year-olds in the U.S. tuned into CNN at some point, compared to about 16% in August, according to Nielsen Media Research.

At MSNBC, almost 30% of that demographic age group watched at least six minutes of the cable channel during the same period, up from 20% the month prior, and Fox News Channel captured 28.9% of younger viewers, compared to 12% in August, said Weaver.

The terrorist attacks have created a strong appetite for news on radio, which had largely abandoned such programming.

AP News Network, which provides newscasts at the top and bottom of the hour, as well as sports, business and other news segments, has signed up 35 music stations in the last two weeks.

REPORT COVERS HOMELAND DEFENSE NEWS

Lawrence Ragan Comms., publisher of The Ragan Report, a weekly newsletter for communication executives, has started the "National Security Daily," a news service covering homeland defense news.

The news service will provide a digest of news and features delivered electronically to its subscribers every weekday morning.

It will cull news summaries and commentary from 5,000 media sources, including daily newspapers, news and opinion magazines, trade journals, think tanks, websites, broadcast news programs and hundreds of other news outlets.

Mark Ragan is publisher and James Ylisela Jr. is editor-in-chief of NSD, which is based in Chicago.

A current issue of NSD may be viewed at nsd. ragan.com/html/main.isx.

Free News Service

The Society for Women's Health Research, in Washington, D.C., has established a service to provide news articles to publications free of charge.

The Society, which was founded in 1990, said its Women's Health Research Syndicate is the first of its kind to specialize in content on women's health issues and the latest research findings on sex differences in health.

The articles carry the byline of Sophia Cariati.

Media can download articles via the web at www.Womens-Health.org.

MEDIA BRIEFS

Since Sept. 11, TV talk shows based in New York are having a tough time booking celebrity guests.

Many celebrities are reluctant to travel, forcing many talk shows to cope with last-minute cancellations and invited guests who normally wouldn't get a second look.

The New York Daily News has suspended publication of five split-run sections that covered news in the five city boroughs.

The move was made to make more reporters available for coverage of events related to the World Trade Center disaster, and to expand the newshole in the main section for coverage of these stories.

The paper has not shut down any of its news bureaus in the boroughs.

THUROW TELLS PRSA DON'T BLAME 9/11

The U.S. economy was already in a downswing when the 9/11 tragedy struck the country and 9/11 should not be blamed for the current recession, MIT economist Lester Thurow told the annual conference of PR Society of America Oct. 29 in Atlanta.

He expressed concern about public attitudes, saying they are more important than some economic realities. "We must remain optimistic," he said.

The discovery of anthrax in a shopping center during the holiday buying season, for instance, could have a severe impact on the economy in the fourth quarter depending on the attitude of the public, he said.

He is especially concerned about a possible decline in housing values, noting that this is the biggest asset of 85% of Americans. "Their credit cards are maxed out!" he said.

Thurow said half of the current economic problems are going to be blamed on the World Trade Center attack but these were going to happen anyway. As a result of WTC, he said, there will be an effort to "correct and address such problems more effectively than might have been done."

Increased government spending rather than lower interest rates is the way to get the economy moving again, he feels.

Baby Boomers Aren't Retiring

William Novelli, executive director of AARP, formerly the American Assn. of Retired Persons, said the group had to change its name partly because "Many Baby Boomers still work and don't want to retire."

He defined Baby Boomers as those born between 1946 and 1964, with a median age of just under 64.

He said the 76 million Boomers control 70% of total household wealth and have redefined the concept of retirement by refusing to stop working.

Modern Maturity magazine of AARP reaches 18 million households, he said. AARP has started a new magazine, My Generation, aimed at the 50-55 bracket.

Boomers are "well read" and are interested in Social Security; savings and pensions; earnings from continued work, and health insurance, he said.

They often turn to the Internet for information about employment and health needs, he said.

Kathy Lewton, PRSA chair, led the opening session in a spirited singing of the Star Spangled Banner as the American flag was brought into the Marriott Marquis ballroom by a helmeted military color guard.

"We all sing a little louder now even if we can't hit the high notes," said Lewton.

She praised the attendees for "not being afraid to fly and travel." She has flown more than 20,000 miles since Sept. 11, she noted.

Lewton is being succeeded as elected head of PRSA by Joann Killeen, who takes the title of president after a change in the bylaws. The 1998 Assembly in Boston had switched the highest elected title from "president" to "chair." The same thing had happened in the early 1970s when the Society had a "chairman" instead of a president for two years.

ERRONEOUS PRESS RELEASE RETRACTED

An erroneous press release issued by Middleberg Euro RSCG Oct. 26 caused its client Nuwave Technologies' stock to surge to a 52-week high, before that release was retracted an hour later.

The release said Nuwave would be featured in the Oct. 29 issue of Barron's for a recent technology patent it won for a software product designed to improve video security surveillance.

That "feature" was actually a paid advertisement set to run in a special ad section of the magazine titled "The Advertising Section of Late-Breaking Corporate News."

"We killed the release and got out a correction," Middleberg principal Curtis Houghland told this NL.

He called the release a "miscommunication" and said the firm has not lost the Nuwave business as a result of the incident.

The inaccurate report, which was never authorized by Nuwave, was retracted an hour after being released, and a correction was later sent out via Business Wire.

Nuwave had told Middleberg to alert company executives to look for the ad's placement, but that note was issued as a release alluding to a news story.

On the initial report, Nuwave's stock hit $2.50 a share, an 88 percent gain - compared to its March 52-week low of $0.38. The share price receded to $1.43 at the end of trading Oct. 26, up 13 cents and has since slipped to $1.15.

Nuwave CFO Jerry O'Brien alerted Nasdaq to the problem.

Houghland said he has not heard from the SEC or Nasdaq regarding the incident. Middleberg picked up the Nuwave account in August.

WEBER SHANDWICK CHALLENGES $25K PACT

Weber Shandwick's Los Angeles office is challenging a $25,000 media training contract held by KOVR-TV reporter John Iander.

Iander has been getting contracts for more than 20 years to help the California Highway Patrol deal with media inquiries. Weber Shandwick lost out to Iander when the contract was put up for review earlier this year.

The Dept. of General Services will consider WS's official challenge next month.

The PR firm also believes it is a conflict of interest for Iander to take money from the same organization he sometimes covers as a reporter.

Iander sees no conflict of interest because he says he never uses insider information gleaned from his CHP contracts to get stories.

Bob Dole, former Senator and Republican presidential nominee, was named head of the international and government affairs practice at Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, Washington, D.C. Former Senator George Mitchell was named chairman of the firm. Mitchell joined the firm as special counsel in 1995.

The story in Harper's by New York Timesman Chris Hedges, who said he heard and saw soldiers in an Israeli outpost entice and then shoot Palestinian youths (page 7 Oct. 31 NL), drew scores of comments to this NL's website (odwyerpr.com). We only carried 22 because the others were either too raw or did not address the issues raised.

Only two of the 22 said they believed Hedges. One was neutral. The other 19 accused Hedges of writing "garbage," being "biased," "ridiculously one-sided," acting like Jane Fonda when she supported Hanoi, causing discord by being "one-sided and inflammatory," and being "largely inaccurate."

One writer from the U.K. accused Hedges of "rabid anti-Jewish hatred" and said Hedges should have backed up his report with photos or film footage.

Another said: "Whether true or not, such an article is irresponsible and downright one-sided."

Harper's was attacked several times for publishing the 11-page article.

Honestreporting.com, which monitors media for anti-Israel stories, called the article "vile, anti-Israel filth" and likened references to it in media as "anthrax spores" that "pop up in various locations." Harper's is selling the October magazine at $6 each and is delaying plans to post it on its website.

Hedges, told about the objections to his story, said he stands by it and will not debate it piecemeal.

If Hedges is being excoriated for being sympathetic to Palestinians, no doubt Times columnist Anthony Lewis would get the same treatment for his column, "A Strangled People," published Nov. 3. Lewis criticizes Jewish settlements in and around Ra-mallah in the West Bank, which he just visited. He said many Palestinians can no longer get to their jobs because of Israeli blockades and have little or no income. Settlers have doubled in number since 1993 to a total of 225,000 and continue to increase, he notes.

Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), House Int'l Relations Committee chair, has called top filmmakers and ad creative people to a meeting Nov. 14 in a bid to launch a "public diplomacy" (PR) campaign that will counter Taliban PR efforts. Charlotte Beers, ex-chairman of J. Walter Thompson and undersecretaryfor public diplomacy, is talking about an ad campaign in the Mid-East and Al Jazeera said it would gladly accept the U.S. ad dollars. Bill Safire of the New York Times (former PR pro) is urging a "Radio Free Afghanistan" to hard sell the U.S. point of view to the Afghans. Times columnist Thomas Friedman, also writing about PR, says the U.S. will only win the PR war after it wins the ground war. He favors the invasion of Afghanistan.

The above are missing a true PR move that could reap great dividends in terms of good will. Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, whose $10 million gift to WTC victims was blocked by Mayor Rudy Giuliani, still has his offer on the table according to an op-ed piece the prince wrote for the Oct. 31 New York Times. He speaks of his "proposed" offer. Good PR would be working out a joint statement with the prince and accepting the money. The rejection of Alwaleed's gift got big press in the Arab world (see www.arabnews.com) which took it as an insult and proof of anti-Arab bias in the U.S. "The way to win wars is to attack enemies, not friends," wrote the former head of Saudi information to the NYT.

Interpublic (page 2) was given a major raking over the coals by the Wall Street Journal Oct. 31. IPG's merger mania (210 companies acquired between 1998-2000 plus the True North mega-merger this year) has saddled it with huge costs. It faces a dim future for ad revenues. Most telling, WSJ said IPG's "integrated marketing" pitch is not being bought by clients who either cannot afford it or want ad agencies, PR firms, and others to compete in producing the best ideas. The IPG approach serves IPG rather than the client, consultant Dick Roth told the paper. John Dooner, IPG's new CEO, is faulted for undercutting the "near-complete autonomy" IPG's units once had. Key regional offices of the Bozell Group were eliminated in July and all but four of IPG's top lieutenants were demoted, said the WSJ. Analysts await the delayed earnings report of IPG Nov. 13.

The spinning off of IPG's former Rubin, Barney & Birger PR unit in Miami (page 2) is significant. The hundreds of PR/ad companies IPG purchased, often for top dollar, may be allowed to walk if they're not profitable. There's no indication RBB paid anything to extricate itself from IPG. Said IPG: "In a few limited cases, small businesses that were not strategic to IPG preferred to buy themselves back and we've been working with them."

IPG's attitude towards PR and the press was evident in EVP Barry Linsky's memo that was outed by Advertising Age (page 2). Linsky, noting he was repeating himself, ordered IPG managers worldwide not to say anything about "office closings or headcount reductions" nor to respond to press queries about such topics. Linsky regards "negative trade press stories" as "Chinese water torture." Such hyper-sensitivity to negative news is shared by Omnicom and most ad agencies. Refusal to deal with the press and accept coverage of the ups and downs of a business eventually results in a major dissection such as appeared in the WSJ Oct. 31. The lack of PR professionalism at these firms, i.e., the ability to deal with bad and good news calmly and factually, is proving hurtful to them.
--Jack O'Dwyer