TOBACCO COS. TRIED TO 'HOOK' HOLLYWOOD

A British medical report, which was released March 11, said tobacco companies worked hard through the 1980s and early '90s to get as much movie screen time for their brands as possible.

The report by Tobacco Control, a British medical quarterly that focuses on anti-smoking issues, said at least one tobacco company, R.J. Reynolds, worked through its PR firm to provide free cigarettes to a list of 188 actors, directors and other celebrities, including Jerry Lewis.

The report, which was sponsored by the American Lung Assn.'s Sacramento chapter, is based on more than 1,500 formerly secret tobacco industry documents that became available as a result of the master settlement agreement between tobacco companies and states' attorneys general in 1998.

Nothing in the report contradicts previous assertions by tobacco companies that they stopped paid product placements in 1990.

Nevertheless, the report said "tobacco use in movies, which was falling through the 1970s and 1980s, increased significantly after 1990."

"While there may be various reasons for this trend, the extensive groundwork laid by the tobacco industry in the 1980s and early 1990s certainly played a role," the report said.

SONY TO PAY FOR FAKE REVIEWS

Sony Pictures Entertainment has agreed to pay the State of Connecticut $326,000 for running fake movie reviews attributed to a newspaper in that state. In addition, the company has agreed to stop producing false reviews and to stop using its own employees posed as moviegoers to promote Sony's own films.

Grey Global Group posted a $28.6 million fourth-quarter loss ($21.88 per-share) following a $32.2 million charge for write-downs of Internet investments and the costs of disposing 160,000 sq. feet of office space. The firm earned $3.6 million for the year-earlier period. Billings for the full year dropped 2.4 percent to $8.1 billion...Sheri Benjamin, founder of The Benjamin Group, which was acquired by BSMG, has been named president of Weber Shandwick's U.S. technology group. Casey Sheldon and Jamie Parker were promoted to head the firm's western and eastern region tech practices, respectively. Joe Kessler is president of WS' global tech operation.

BISHOPS TELL CHURCHES TO DO OWN PR

The U.S. Catholic Conference, which retained Hill and Knowlton in the early '90s for help on the abortion debate, is letting local dioceses handle the media firestorm about sexual predators in the priesthood.

The Conference, the Church's ruling body of bishops, has posted on its website tips about dealing with media calls about pedophilia priests. Those guidelines are from the Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse and were crafted in 1993-94.

That panel "urged that dioceses should consistently relate to the media through a designated, informed and experienced spokesperson (with deputy) for all inquiries and news conferences." There also is a section that has "The Five Principles to Follow Regarding Allegations of Sexual Abuse."

FAULTS FOUND IN PRSA'S ANVIL AWARDS

The four-step process required for entries in the Silver Anvil awards contest of PRSA plus the fact that one agency has won 46 Anvils in the past eight years while many entrants have won none brought comments from agency and corporate PR pros.

A spokesman for Burson-Marsteller, which has won only one in the past five years, said many of its programs do not fit the format of the Anvils. He claims the firm has only submitted a handful of entries.

Some PR people said much agency work is stopping stories altogether or at least toning them down and there is no way for the Anvils to recognize this.

"How can you measure the value of a negative story that didn't run?" asked a PR pro.

Most of the comments centered on the four-step process demanded by the Anvil rules: research, strategy, execution and measurement.

"In a crisis like the Exxon Valdez or the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster there's no time to do research or prepare an elaborate strategy," said one PR pro.

A former judge of the Anvils said that Ketchum, which has won 46 Anvils in eight years (including the all-time record of 10 last year) and Fleishman-Hillard (32 Anvils in six years) "know all the hot spots to hit and their entries look pretty good at nine o'clock at night."

Some feel the Anvil process overemphasizes research to the detriment of creativity.

"Is it all about research, binders and clerical skills, or are we looking for good PR campaigns with successful results?" asked a West Coast PR pro.

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FAULTS FOUND IN ANVILS
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Process, Not Content, Rules

A New York pro said: "Silver Anvils are more about process than content. Format is the key. Entries are rejected for the dumbest reasons such as the wrong binders. Research should not get that much play. I was a judge for the Paul Holmes awards and nobody talked about how an entry was submitted. Results were the only thing that mattered. The Anvils had more cachet when they were the only game in town. There are many more places to enter now."

An executive of a New York agency said he was aghast at the domination of the Anvils by a few firms. He feels each submits scores of entries.

A comment from the head of a major New York firm was that the Anvils are a case of PR people praising themselves and therefore lack credibility.

Too Many Rules

Another former Anvil judge said the judges are bound by too many rules. "Some programs are thrown out even though they are outstanding," he said. He noted the program has a history of insider dominance with hundreds of entries tossed in the 1980s and early 1990s because they violated "nitpicking" rules like the size of binders.

Most PR programs probably involve 10% planning, 80% execution and 10% follow-up, he feels. The Anvil rule that programs show equal attention to research, strategy, execution and measurement is "unrealistic and counter-productive," he said.

Some said clients often want "quantifiable results" and that being able to show that to prospects helps in new business pitches. "So does having won a Silver Anvil," he added.

A 35-year veteran PR pro said PRSA's problem is that it's trying to make PR a "science" rather than an "art" although PR is decidedly the latter.

"Clients want brilliant ideas; no client ever asked me how well I adhered to somebody's research, only whether the client was going to be in major media, preferably tomorrow," he added.

Some PR pros said that what the client wants and needs is often no great mystery. "The problem with most clients," said a pro, "is that no one ever heard of them or their products."

Other comments were that the Anvils have gotten quite expensive ($350 per entry for non-members) and that they don't recognize the existence of web-based research.

"For instance," said a PR person, "I cranked 'PRSA' into google.com and got 784,000 references in less than a tenth of a second. Answers that used to take a long time to get can now be obtained in a jiffy, meaning there should be lots more time for execution," he said.

"To be honest," said one PR person, "some Anvil entries should state that the purpose of the program was to win Silver Anvils for the agency and company and the people involved in the programs."

B-M WINS MORE GATORADE BIZ

Burson-Marsteller picked up a new assignment from Gatorade, beating out Porter Novelli and Ketchum for the assignment, according to Andy Horrow, director of communications and professional marketing for Gatorade.

Horrow said the company had also considered using direct mail, but elected to go with PR because B-M's ideas were both cheaper and better than what could be accomplished with the same budget for direct mail.

"We believe we will get a bigger bang for our buck," said Horrow, who could not divulge details of the campaign at this time for competitive reasons.
Jim Motzer heads the sports drink account at B-M's Chicago office.

PepsiCo acquired Gatorade's parent, Quaker Oats, last August. Interpublic's Foote, Cone & Belding unit handled the Gatorade ad account until PepsiCo shifted it to Omnicom's Element 79 Partners last year.

PN and Ketchum are part of Omnicom.

H&K GETS $1.2M FROM DEBEERS

WPP Group's Hill and Knowlton unit received more $1.2 million from Botswana during its latest six-month FARA reporting period for work conducted for Debswana Diamond Co., an operation in the midst of the conflict over "blood diamonds" and the effort to combat Africa's AIDS epidemic. Debswana, which is a venture of Botswana and DeBeers, ranks as H&K's biggest foreign client.

DeBeers has testified before the U.S. Congress about the threat to its business from stones mined by rebel groups in places like Liberia, Sierra Leone and Angola. Debswana, last year, announced that it would pay for 90 percent of the cost for AIDS drugs for employees and spouses. About a third of Botswana's adults (300,000 people are infected).

FERRARO LOBBIES FOR NUKE DUMP

Former Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro is lobbying for the Alliance for Energy & Economic Growth, which defines itself as a "broad-based coalition of over 1,300 members that develop, deliver and consume energy from all sources."

Her topic is the Alliance's Yucca Mountain Initiative. That's the plan to build a centralized national nuclear waste repository inside that Nevada mountain. That dump-which has been under review for years and has recently gotten the okay from the Bush Administration-is fiercely opposed by environmental groups, Las Vegas casino interests and the Nevada political establishment.

Ferraro is affiliated with Interpublic's Golin/Harris International office in New York. The former New York Democratic Congresswoman has not yet been reached for comment.

The Alliance, an offshoot of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, counts CSX, Caterpillar Inc., Duke Energy, Edison Electric Institute, and Shell Oil as members.

Smith & Harroff handles PR for the Alliance.

COHEN IS NAMED FOREIGN EDITOR OF NYT

Roger Cohen, 46, was named foreign editor of The New York Times by Howell Raines, the executive editor.

Cohen became deputy foreign editor last August and acting editor in September, when the editor, Andrew Rosenthal, was appointed assistant managing editor.

Cohen joined the Times in 1990 after working as a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and for Reuters.

He is the author of "Hearst Grown Brutal: Sagas of Sarajevo," an account of the breakup of Yugoslavia, and a co-author of "In the Eye of the Storm," a biography of Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf.

PEOPLE

Fred Wiegold, previously at The Wall Street Journal, and Bill Ahearn, formerly at The Associated Press, have joined the New York bureau of Bloomberg News as editors.

Pat Wechsler, formerly deputy news editor at Business Week, recently joined Treasury & Risk Management magazine, Fairfield, Conn., as editor-in-chief.

Rob Karwath, who graduated in 2002 from the Univ. of Chicago's graduate school of business, was named associate editor for business and financial news of The Chicago Tribune, succeeding Greg Burn, who becomes a senior correspondent.

Peggy Northrop, who has been Real Simple's deputy editor since last November, is joining Rodale as editor-in-chief of Organic Style.

Thomas Winship, 81, retired editor of The Boston Globe, died March 14. His wife, Peg, writes a sex advice column for teenagers, called "Ask Beth," which is distributed by Times Mirror Syndicate.

Leon Mandel, 73, publisher emeritus of Auto Week magazine and a VP of Crain Communications, died March 5.

David Rosenberg, 45, who had been managing editor of The Wall Street Journal Television News, died Feb. 25.

MEDIA BRIEFS

"The Sally Jessy Raphael Show" will be canceled at the end of the current season by Studios USA Domestic TV, which syndicates the talk show.

The show has averaged a 1.7 household rating nationally this season, according to Nielsen Media Research, and it ranked ninth among all syndicated talk shows during the recently completed February sweeps.

Dog World is shutting down its New York editorial offices. Beth Adelman, who is editor-in-chief and three other staffers will be let go unless they move to Fancy Publications' offices in Irvine, Calif.

Black Entertainment TV is moving its New York news and music programming to the CBS Broadcast Center in midtown New York from Harlem. Programs that will operate out of the new location include "106 & Park," "BET's Rap City," "DA Basement," "BET Nightly News," and "BET Tonight with Ed Gordon." BET and CBS are Viacom units.

Oprah Winfrey said she will end her syndicated TV talk show after the 2005-06 TV season.

Winfrey made the annoucement after renewing her current contract, which runs through the 2003-04 TV season.

Martha Stewart Baby, which went on newsstands March 11, is exclusively sponsored by babyGap.

The "Martha Stewart Living" syndicated TV program will air a special program centered on babies on March 28, and baby content will also be featured in the "askMartha" syndicated column and radio show.

San Diego Soccer Development Corp. is using Sports Vue Interactive Media to produce its new 90:00 Minutes soccer magazine.

SVIM's president/CEO, Charles Cuttone, a sports journalist, and Linda Cuttone, a soccer executive, journalist and photographer, will be managing editors of the magazine.

It will begin full-time production and distribution on June 1.

"Secrets of the Sequence" will make its debut in April as a weekly news show on public TV channels.

Six universities have joined to address discoveries being made in the life sciences in the post-genome era.

The show will explore the discovery and manipulations of the human, animal and plant genome as well as the potential of the application of that research.

The program, which will be developed by McGrath/Crossen, a Richmond, Va.-based PR firm, will be produced by Ward TV.

Maxim, Teen People and Vanity Fair head Adweek's "Hot List" of magazines for 2002.

The other top 10 magazines are: ESPN, InStyle, Martha Stewart Living, Cooking Light, marie claire, YM, and Good Housekeeping.

BeerNet Communication, a San Antonio-based publisher of newsletters and research reports for wholesale beer executives, has launched BeerNet Online, a daily news and information web portal at www.beernet.com.

Harry Schumacher, who is editor and publisher of BeerNet's publications, said the website will feature articles from industry observers, interviews with industry players, and coming soon, an audio broadcast of the week's beer news.

(Media news continued on next page)

NEW PAPER TO COVER EVENTS IN N.Y.

The first issue of BiZBash Event Style Reporter, a tabloid-size newspaper, made its debut on March 13.

The paper, which is targeted at event and meeting planners in New York, was started by David Adler, who also founded BiZBash.com and the BiZBash Javits Event Expo trade show.

Five issues of Event Style Reporter will be published in 2002, and nine issues will be published in 2003. The first issue had a circulation of 20,000.

Adler said the paper, which will send reporters to cover events, will allow "readers to peek over the fence of events that they do not attend to find great ideas and concepts."

Adler, who spent 15 years as VP of corporate communications at Primedia and Macmillan, said he spent millions of dollars without any quality trade magazines, newspapers or directories targeted at him as a substantial buyer of event services.

The first issue features a cover story on New York's "Top 100 Events," interviews with Cristyne Nicholas, CEO of NYC & Co.; Elizabeth Harrison, co-partner of Harrison & Shriftman, PR firm, and Bill Morton, CEO of Jack Morton Worldwide.

Chad Kaydo is editor-in-chief; Mark Mavrigan, assignment editor; Suzanne Ito, assistant editor; Hill Musguire, editorial assistant, and Toni Lucatorto, photo editor.

Editorial offices are located in New York at 30 W. 26th st. 646/638-3600; fax: 638-3601. Event information or press releases should be e-mailed to [email protected].

BUSICO NAMED L.A.T.'s FOOD EDITOR

Michalene Busico has replaced Russ Parsons as food editor of The Los Angeles Times.

Busico has worked for the last six and a half years at The New York Times, where she is currently editor of the "Dining" section.

Busico will oversee the weekly food section as well as all restaurant coverage, according to John Montorio, who is deputy manager editor/features at L.A. Times.

He said Busico's mandate is to "land more restaurant and food coverage on Page 1." She will also be involved in reshaping the coverage of the "Magazine" and "Weekend Calendar" sections.

Montorio, who previously was with the N.Y. Times, said Parsons will become the paper's chief food writer. He will also write a new column for the food section.

TECH TV NETWORK CANCELS SHOWS

Tech TV, a San Francisco-based cable TV network, is canceling "Silicon Spin," a daily, live, half-hour talk show that featured sometimes controversial discusions about technology.

The show was hosted by John Dvorak, who writes two columns for PC Magazine.

The cable network is also canceling a show called "Audio File," and cutting "Tech Live" to 30 minutes and moving it to 8:30 p.m. (ET), immediately following "The Screen Savers." "Tech Live" at 9 a.m. (ET) and 1 p.m. (ET) will remain unchanged.

Two new programs, called "The Tech Of..." and "Eye Drops," will premiere the week of April 1.

The Tech Of is a series of single subject half-hour segments that go behind the scenes of modern life and showcase the technology that make things work. It will kick-off on April 3 with an inside look at the technology involved in making food.

Eye Drops will showcase computer generated animated shorts.

EAST MAGAZINE STOPS PUBLISHING

East, a monthly magazine that was targeted at wealthy, English-speaking Asians, has canceled the printing of its March issue and dismissed its staff.

The magazine's publisher, who had been evicted from its Singapore editorial headquarters in January, blamed the folding on a decline in advertising and difficulties in collecting from advertisers.

East, which was started in June 1999 as an upscale consumer lifestyle magazine, had covered mostly Asian movie stars and celebrities. It had an unaudited paid circulation of about 25,000.

Time Inc. shut down Asiaweek, which had a circulation of 111,798, according to the Hong Kong Audit Bureau of Circulation, last December after 26 years.

YOUTHS WANT MORE FOREIGN POLICY INFO.

Porter Novelli said an independent survey, which was conducted in the days immediately preceding and following March 11, reveals American youths, ages 15-22, have a strong desire to get more information about America's foreign policies.

The PR firm's Los Angeles office found 92% of respondents stated that understanding foreign policy issues is a key to supporting the war on terrorism.

The study was conducted for PN's client, Rock The Vote, a group founded in 1990 by members of the recording industry to mobilize young people to respond to First Amendment issues.

Illysha Adelstein and Jamie Falkowski, who are handling PR for RTV, said the agency has created a series of PSAs to reflect young American's concerns over issues like equal rights, freedom of speech and the environment.
PSAs will feature young faces reciting re-interpreted versions of American anthems with new verbiage reflecting these social concerns.

The first installment of the three-part series made its debut on ABC's "Nightline" last week, using a modified version of "My Country 'Tis of Thee" to draw attention to race relations and equal rights.

Sia Michel, 34, was named editor-in-chief of Spin, making her the first female editorial head of a national rock music publication.

WPP REPORT NOT UP TO NASDAQ PLEDGE

The recent 26-page earnings report that the WPP Group distributed to the press failed to follow the lofty guidelines for disclosure that were described in a full page ad that NASDAQ placed in the New York Times and which is featured prominently on the NASDAQ website.

Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, is a member of the board of NASDAQ.

There was no immediate comment from NASDAQ, of which Hardwick Simmons is chairman and CEO. A request for comment was left with a PR staffer.

Paul Richardson, financial director of WPP, said in an e-mail that WPP provides "very full financial data compared to our U.S. competitors," and that the proposals by President Bush for improvement of disclosure, "are not essentially for U.K. companies" and come after the announcement of WPP's earnings.

The 26-page WPP release buried one of the most important statistics in the report, the per share earnings, which were down 20% in terms of U.S. dollars.

A survey of eight publications found that only one of them, the U.K.'s Financial Times, reported the decline in per share earnings, which was not mentioned in the text.

A number of publications skipped the annual earnings report of WPP, which was not accompanied by an explanatory press release.

Scandals Touched off Ad

The ad says that, "In the light of recent events, we felt it important to underline the beliefs that guide NASDAQ and its board of directors."

The "recent events" apparently mean the Enron and Arthur Andersen scandals and the spread of confusing and even inaccurate financial reports by companies that have caught the attention of President Bush.

He said in a speech March 8 that there must be "better standards of disclosure and accounting practices for all of corporate America."

The ad says the directors believe that, "in the U.S., "standardized measurement of financial condition and performance information is based on Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. The purpose of GAAP is to present fairly the financial condition of a company, presenting revenues and expenses in the same time period to accurately calculate earnings, cash flow and other measures of performance."

It also says directors believe that "the active management of quarterly earnings and obfuscation of risks and liabilities can lead to a slippery slope of overstatement of performance and understatement of risk."

Another statement is: "We believe that corporate ethics take root in the corner office and with the board of directors. It is better to lead companies than to manage earnings. Ultimately, it is all about character."

John Pluhowski, senior VP of corporate communications, American General Corp., to SunAmerica, Los Angeles, as VP, corporate communications. He reports to Jay Wintrob, president/CEO.

SOUTH AFRICA MEETING 'PRODUCTIVE.'

The Feb. 28-March 4 meeting of the Global Alliance for PR and Communication Management at the new Sandton Convention Center outside of Johannesburg, South Africa, was "exceptionally productive," said Joann Killeen, president of PRSA.

Other PRSA members attending were Deanna Pelfrey, Louisville, Ky., counselor, former board member of PRSA, and now chair, Global Alliance committee of PRSA, and Ofield Dukes, Washington, D.C., counselor who gave a presentation on lobbying activities in the nation's capital.

PRSA paid $7,300 for airfare and hotel costs and the three paid for their meals and other expenses.

The Alliance, started at the 2000 PRSA/Int'l PR Assn. conference in Chicago, met in London in January 2001 and in Stockholm last June.

Attending from PRSA in January were Pelfrey, Catherine Bolton, executive director of PRSA, and Rob Wakefield, Orem, Utah counselor. Attending in June were Pelfrey, Lewton and Wakefield.

The next meetings are in Estonia in June and in New Zealand in the spring of 2003.

The recent meeting authorized a website to be constructed by PRSA and the Institute of PR, U.K., and approved reports on governance and membership criteria, code of ethics, professional credentials, and certification.

A database of PR practices in various countries is to be developed and a booklet on international PR for colleges is to be published.

The 30 PR people from 15 countries who went to the Johannesburg meeting also went on night and early morning safaris and spent one evening of entertainment in Sun City.

John Valin, Alliance representative of the Canadian PR Society and director of strategic communications, Canadian Ministry of Justice, spoke on "The Power of PR and the Need for Ethical Behavior."

IPRA, founded in 1955, has more than 800 members in 80+ countries.

NYT FEATURES PA EXEC's SEX CHARGES

The New York Times gave front page (March 18) coverage to allegations of sexual abuse against a Roman Catholic New Jersey priest by public affairs consultant Mark Serrano, who runs ProActive Communications, in Leesburg, Va.

Serrano, 37, claims to have been abused for seven years (1974 to `81) by James Hanley, who was pastor of the Church of St. Joseph's in Mendham.

Serrano sued the Diocese of Patterson, and received a $241,000 out-of-court settlement in 1987. That agreement called for Serrano and family to maintain silence about the abuse charges.

He decided to break that agreement because of the widespread reports about priests molesting young boys. Priestly pedophiles "have been able to survive through secrecy," Serrano, a former alter boy, told the Times.

News item: Ketchum has won 46 PRSA Silver Anvils in eight years, far more than anyone else except sister agency, Fleishman-Hillard.

What's going on here?

A little history is needed. Ketchum for many years has been a dominant or even the dominant factor in PRSA. A faithful advertiser in PRSA publications, it took 12 full page ads in the December 1987 issue of the Society's former PR Journal monthly. Seventy-six of its employees are members, one of the biggest totals for any one company. Sister company F-H (32 Anvils in the past six years) has 74. The 2001 chair of PRSA, Kathy Lewton, is an F-H executive.

Ketchum for many years has been the leading advocate of PR research. PR's No. 1 research executive, Walter Lindenmann, Ph.D., headed Ketchum research from 1989-2000. Ketchum chairman David Drobis was the founding chairman of the combine of big ad agency owned PR units which emphasizes the role of research in PR. The group s stated purpose is to "further the development of PR as a strategic management process whose value can be measured..." It committed $100K in April 2000 to measure the effectiveness of PR programs.

Further understanding of Ketchum's astounding Anvil total requires looking at the firm s account list. It includes many drug companies such as Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Pharmacia, and Janssen and packaged goods companies. The drug companies have become such big advertisers that magazines including Time and Newsweek regularly turn into medical forums to please them. Drug prices have soared to the extent that the big auto companies are rebelling against all this ad/PR hype because of higher insurance costs (3/14 Wall Street Journal). Any reporter who has covered the drug and soap companies knows how dictatorial they can be.

Reporters who are not covering what the companies want covered run into a brick wall. Mostly the companies are silent unless they re pushing something. The ad/PR agencies of such companies mimic these attitudes.

The Ketchum PR model, emphasizing pre and post-research, lots of strategy, and tight control of the message, seeing the press as but one of many "tools" at its disposal, works well for the firm and its clients. But Ketchum and other firms have succeeded in imposing this model on PRSA s Anvils for decades to the detriment of other agencies who either don t see PR in those terms or who have restricted budgets. What would be the record of most football teams if they put one-quarter of their efforts into researching the next opponent, one-quarter into strategy, one-quarter into actually playing the game, and one-quarter into measuring what took place?

Doing some research on the Anvils on PRSA's own website we ran into some amazing things. For one thing, media placements are routinely denigrated. "Clips only = loser," says one slide. Other advice is, "Don't expect clips to win," and "More Research, Fewer Clips" (a headline).

Original or "primary" research impresses the judges.

Christopher Veronda of Eastman Kodak, 2000 honors & awards chair, complained about the poor quality of entries, saying no winners could be found in 12 categories. "Equally troubling," wrote Veronda, "is the fact that the quality of many entries has not increased and may have even retreated overall... our judges are saying that the quality of many entries is disturbingly low."

Sophisticated firms are entering other contests. Two such programs regularly draw 1,500+ entries, or twice as many as the Anvils... the hype surrounding the Anvils is as high-pitched as hype can get. "The cherished PRSA award" represents "the very best PR programs," says one article on the PRSA website. Another calls an Anvil "one of the highest honors a PR department or agency can achieve."

Said an article by Stephen Dupont and Tom Lindell of Carmichael Lynch Spong: "In the PR world, there's nothing that quite compares to being in an auditorium with about 1,000 of your peers and walking on stage to accept a shiny Silver Anvil..." The biggest audience ever was 516 in 1998 and the 11-year average is 393. Both also brag about personally winning a total of five Anvils when Anvils are only given to companies and agencies and never to individuals.

The 135 judges, who are meeting in New York March 22-24, should revolt and award Anvils for creativity and placement of in-depth, educational articles in major media. Expensive, time-consuming, plodding research should take a back seat. Anvil chair is Gerard F. Corbett of Hitachi America, Brisbane, Calif. The judges should take up governance of the Society and demand decoupling of office-holding and Assembly membership. The all-APR Assembly does not represent the mostly non-APR members. The judges should call for release of financials throughout the year and the hiring of ace writers who can help leaders to craft position papers on the PR issues of the day.

Staff spends too much time hyping the Anvils and the annual conference (both of which lose money) and tracking changes of addresses with extravagant computer hardware/software that cost $1 million+ in the past seven years. PRSA, which lost $1.1M in 1999-2000 and skipped the 2000 Register, urgently needs the wisdom of the judges.
-- Jack O'Dwyer