QORVIS GIVES SAUDIS CLIENT VETO-POWER

Qorvis Communications has given $200,000-a-month client, Saudi Arabia, the right to veto any potential foreign client for two years following expiration of its one-year contract on Nov. 14. QC, according to its representation agreement inked with Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Prince Bandar, "will not accept any engagement with any client that would be deemed adverse to the interests of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."

The 15 percent Patton Boggs-owned PA shop also agrees to tell the Saudis about any foreign client that approaches it for representation during the its one-year contract period.

The Embassy has paid QC $3.8 million since it signed its contract. The bulk of those outlays ($2.9 million) were for advertising services to position the Kingdom as a trusted ally of the U.S. and a partner in President Bush's "war on terror."

NYC SET TO NAME 'REBUILDING' PR FIRM

The New York City Economic Development Corp. will soon name a firm to handle its "Lower Manhattan Communications Plan" designed to promote the revitalization of downtown in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. The RFP went out to 75 firms.

NYCEDC wants to provide information to affected businesses, employees and residents of downtown, as well as visitors to the area. The RFP cites a Lower Manhattan website and an area-focused newsletter as "key deliverables." The Corp. is considering firms not headquartered in NYC, though "experience in the community to be served" is one criterion in the selection process.

Daniel Doctoroff, deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding, will oversee the communications work.

SNODDON JOINS APCO AS VICE CHAIR

Former Burson-Marsteller CEO Larry Snoddon is now vice chairman at APCO Worldwide, a Grey Global Group unit.

Snoddon, 55, will counsel clients and serve on APCO's 20-staffer senior advisory council, which includes former Canadian ambassador to the World Trade Organization, John Weekes, and former Michigan Senator Don Riegle.

Snoddon founded and managed B-M's healthcare practice and was previously president of its Americas and European operations.

WS HANDLES MEDIA FOR STANLEY WORKS

Weber Shandwick is handling the media for Stanley Works, the New Britain, Conn.-based toolmaker, that wants to reincorporate in Bermuda to save $30 million in U.S. taxes. Peter Duda, in the PR firm's New York office, is fielding inquiries.

The New York Times' lead editorial on May 13 suggested that Stanley Works should change its name to "Stanley Flees" for its effort to "stiff Uncle Sam."

SW is the "latest in an alarming exodus of greedy companies," to tax havens, noted the paper.

The 159-year-old company announced that it won shareholder approval for the reincorporation earlier this month, but plans a new vote because of irregularities with the vote count.

SW said in a statement it would hold a special meeting "as promptly as possible" to allow another vote on reincorporation in Bermuda.

CEO John Trani contends the company has to move so it can lower costs to compete in the world market.

POWELL TATE CRUSADES FOR CRUSADER

Powell Tate is spearheading the effort to salvage the controversial $11 billion Crusader artillery system that caused friction between Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld and Army Secretary Tom White.

PT is running the Crusader Industrial Alliance out of its office in Washington, D.C. It defines the Alliance as a "defense educational group." United Defense, a unit of the well-connected Carlyle Group, is the prime contractor for the Crusader. CG counts former President Bush, ex-U.K. Prime Minister John Majors and former Securities and Exchange Commission chief Arthur Levitt as its representatives. PT staffers handling the Crusader include Liese Mosher, Sara Cox, Brad Fisher and Pam Keeton.

Rumsfeld contends that the 40-ton Crusader, which fires shells up to 31 miles away, is an outdated relic of the Cold War designed to fight the Soviet Union in Europe. He wants more flexible, light and high-tech weapons systems to increase the mobility of the U.S. armed forces. The Alliance counters Rumsfeld via ads in the National Journal and Roll Call that claim that eight countries, including China, Iraq and North Korea, can currently outgun the Army's current artillery system.

Ari Fleischer, White House spokesman, said President Bush urges Congress to "adhere to Secretary Rumsfeld's well-thought-out recommendation."

CHRYSLER EXEC RIPS ADVOCACY GROUPS

Chrysler Group president/CEO Dieter Zetsche, in a speech to the Adcraft Club of Detroit, said "advocacy groups" which use the Internet, can "humble- if not hobble" corporations.

"Activism is not new, nor is it necessarily bad," he said. "Today, however, activism in our society is creating a new set of challenges for business...by putting pressure on any corporation whose products or policies may run contrary to their views."

These well-organized challenges can actually obscure the true voice of the consumer, said Zetsche. "You might call it the difference between natural public opinion and synthetic public opinion."

Chrysler Group advertising has found itself in the crosshairs of these organizations on several occasions, said Zetsche. "We do not go looking for trouble, and we certainly don't try to offend anyone, but we also want to find ways not to be driven to middle ground, the `no-man's land' of ultra-conservative products people won't buy and ultra-conservative marketing they can-and will-ignore."

Zetsche said a little bit of controversy can create products that resonate with customers, and generate marketing that brings new customers to showrooms.

"Over the years, our company has prospered whenever it eagerly took creative chances on the products it made and the way it marketed them." In marketing, he said, that means breakthrough ads that "step right up to the edge-but not over the edge- of acceptable standards and execution.

"The challenge, of course, is to find the right balance."

B-M PROMOTES DUBAI 2003

Burson-Marsteller is handling PR for Dubai 2003, the entity formed to host the World Bank/International Monetary Fund meeting slated for that member of the United Arab Emirates.

The firm is to position Dubai as a regional telecommunications, financial and technology hub that is open for investments. B-M is to produce brochures, pitch the media and run ads promoting Dubai, which has 858,000 people. Saudi Arabia, which borders the UAE, picked Burson-Marsteller to run "solidarity with America" ads days after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Dubai 2003 website cites its "glorious airport, duty-free shopping, noise-free environmental good roads and remarkable skyline." The emirate has "camels and cars, desert and dance clubs, supermarkets and souqs."

Anti-globalization protesters figure Dubai got to host the meeting because its relative isolation will allow the finance ministers to meet without the worry about large demonstrations.

Kelly Mullens, VP, Fleishman-Hillard's business and corp. comms. group, has joined Universal Music Group as VP-CC in New York. At F-H, she handled the launch of UMG and Sony's online music service, pressplay.

IPG SEES EPS GROWTH FOR YEAR

Interpublic is "on course" to provide earnings-per-share growth for 2002 even if the second half of the year is flat in terms of revenues, the annual meeting was told May 20 by John Dooner, chairman/CEO.

The 27-minute meeting was told that "prospects are improving" and clients are "guardedly hopeful."
The company will complete by midyear the layoff of 6,800 employees, or about 11% of its workforce. Some analysts have said the size of the layoffs could impact IPG's ability to service clients.

UBS Warburg, noting the cost savings program of IPG, is maintaining a "buy" rating on the stock, saying it is trading at a 30% discount to its peer group. However, Warburg warns that "Primary risk relates to execution risk, resulting in further account losses and earnings shortfalls, a prolonged global slowdown, and overall market risk."

MWW WOOS STATE DEPT.; LANDS ZOA

MWW Group VP Ronn Torossian, who has strong connections with Israel's Likud government, has been called in by Geoffrey Weill Assocs. to persuade the State Dept. to lift or reduce the severity of its travel warning on Israel.

The State Dept.'s April 2 warning notes the "deteriorating security situation in Israel and informs travelers of ongoing military activity in the West Bank and Gaza and increasing delays and difficulties experienced at checkpoints located throughout the West Bank and Gaza."

GWA represents Israel's Ministry of Tourism. CEO Geoffrey Weill said Torossian will make appointments in Washington for key Israeli government officials.

The $8,000-a-month contract also calls for Torossian to coordinate outreach to Jewish and Christian organizations to win "targeted, grassroots community support of tourism to Israel."

ZOA Goes to MWW

The Zionist Organization of America, which was founded in 1897, has just signed MWW for PR, Torossian told this NL.

ZOA plans to send its "largest and strongest delegation" to Washington next month to "urge the Bush Administration not to pressure Israel in its fight against terrorism."

ZOA has 50,000 members. MWW is part of Interpublic's Golin/Harris International unit.

DOMEISCHEL, EX-WS, JOINS MAKOVSKY

Jack Domeischel, who was in charge of Weber Shandwick's healthcare practice, is now doing the same job at Makovsky & Co., succeeding Donna Ramer. He has taken the senior VP/managing director post of the New York-based firm's health sciences practice.

He served as VP-corporate communications at Searle Pharmaceutical for ten years, and has held posts at Ares-Serono, Merck and Burson-Marsteller.
Ken Makovsky hired Domeischel because of his "unparalleled track record of success in the health sciences field."

PUBLISHER BILLS PR FIRMS FOR COVERAGE

Rennie Infomedia, a Collingwood, Ontario-based publisher of new product guides for the outdoor market-"What's New, and What's Hot"-will charge PR firms for editorial coverage if their client's do not buy ads.

Jim Rennie, who is publisher of the guides, which are available only on the Internet, said he is charging for reviews because of the "emergence of many more `publicity agents' who charge suppliers for no-cost placements in publications such as ours."

He said these "proliferating publicity agents reduce revenues for all magazine publishers, including ourselves."

"Simply put, the demand for editorial coverage of new products and lines goes up (stimulated by more 'publicity agents and agencies'). But companies have less to spend with us-as 'publicity agents' take more of available budgets," Rennie said in a May 9 memo that was sent to PR firms.

Rennie said it is "self-destructive," and it has already claimed victims as outdoor publications have closed in unprecedented numbers over the past 18 months. "For our part, we believe our publication 'has an important role in helping to 'kick-off' the buying' process each season in the specialty outdoor market."

Under the new policy, PR firms will get editorial coverage if their client buys ads in the current issue or has advertised in any one of the prior two publications.

Otherwise: one page of editorial coverage will be billed at $400; one-half page-$250; one-third page-$150, and one-quarter page-$100.

Rennie Infomedia's website is www.rennies.net.

BUDGET TRAVEL SEEKS MORE SUBMISSIONS

You don't have to be a professional travel writer to write for Budget Travel.

BT's editor Arthur Frommer is urging readers and occasional freelancers with no permanent involvement in travel journalism to submit articles about affordable travel.

Frommer said the bimonthly magazine will start publishing ten times per year, and "we've been busy meeting and talking with staff members and free-lancers about the 250 some-odd articles and features that those ten issues will need."

Frommer is hoping to get at least a small amount of the additional content from readers.

"Over the years, several of our most provocative articles have appeared unexpectedly in the mail, from either unpublished first-timers or occasional freelancers in love with a vacation tactic and eager to share it with others," he said.

"If you have a budget-related travel discovery of broad application and want to tell the world about it-then fire away!," said Frommer. "We read and seriously consider every such submisssion."

Manuscripts should be mailed to Editor, Budget Travel, 530 Seventh ave., New York, NY 10018.

ADS USE PRODUCTS AS ENDORSEMENTS

Placing a product in an ad for another product is becoming a popular promotion trend, according to Stuart Elliott, who covers the ad beat for The New York Times.

Some examples:

-Toyota Matrix's new TV commercials show a Sony Vaio laptop computer being used inside the vehicle as a way to promote a feature being offered in the Matrix, a 110-volt outlet.

-The Profile line of refrigerators sold by General Electric has been running print ads, which are headlined: "G.Q. Meets I.Q."; the reference to GQ magazine is meant to convey that Profile is stylish, said Elliott.

The outside product also serves almost as an endorser, the same way a celebrity would, says Elliott.

He cites as an example a TV commercial for the Chevrolet division of General Motors that shows two lonely Maytag repairmen cruising the highway in an Chevrolet, suggesting the vehicle's dependability.

PLACEMENT TIPS

Petite magazine, located in San Diego, will make its debut next week as a monthly, with a mandate to be "the hip, trendy, glamorous, sophisticated stylish magazine for petite women (under 5'4") everywhere," says its editor-in-chief Deborah Tumlinson.

Tumlinson, a former petite model, said the magazine will address health, fitness, nutrition and beauty issues as well as help women find clothes that fit and flatter them.

Petite's first issue, with actress Susan Lucci on the cover, has stories on successful petite professionals, fitness advice from Tamilee Webb, petite sports figures, and bridal gown designs.

For more information, visit www.petitemagazine.com.

Brad Matson, producer of "Breakfast Television," which is Toronto's most-watched morning program, said publicists should put visual offerings at the front of the press kit, and in the first sentence of their pitch letter.

"You have to bring something to the table-literally-when coming on a talk show," said Matson. "Starting the letter with: `Would you like to see the world's oldest bone? the biggest starfish collection?... all of Elton John's old sunglasses?' should be more captivating than talking about what kind of expert your client is in these areas," Matson told Adam Bello, a Toronto-based publicist, who runs A.B. Communications & Assocs.

Matson said signs and text should be avoided. "Don't display posters or brochures. These will be unreadable, and come across as cheesy."

As motion is most effective, propose a demonstration with host/audience participation when appropriate, he said.

(Media news continued on next page)

WRITERS GET SCOOP ON OLD HOTELS

Over 50 travel journalists attended the Historic Hotels of America's annual media luncheon that was held May 14 in New York at the Waldorf-Astoria.

Mary Billingsley, who is the Washington, D.C.-based association's PR director, said some 50 members of the association participated in the event, which was held in the Waldorf's recently renovated Starlight Ballroom.

The journalists were able to meet face-to-face with representatives of the hotels, who were stationed behind tables, loaded with press kits, sales brochures, and novelties branded with the hotel's name.

The Warwick Hotel, in New York, which is celebrating its 75th birthday, gave away bottles of wine and bathrobes.

At each table, reporters were provided with the latest news-including renovations and restorations, and other updates on their respective hotels. Some of the reps offered complimentary invitations to stay at their place.
The HHofA has 185 hotel members. To qualify for membership, the hotel must be at least 50 years old, restored, and in operation.

More information about the organization and its member hotels is available at www.historichotels.org.

USA TODAY IS TOP ABC-AUDITED DAILY

The top 20 daily newspapers, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations' audit of average daily circulation for six months ended March 31, 2002, are:

1. USA Today, 2,120,357
2. The Wall Street Journal, 1,820,525
3. The New York Times, 1,194,491
4. Los Angeles Times, 1,011,732
5. The Washington Post, 811,925
6. New York Daily News, 733,099
7. Chicago Tribune, 689,026
8. Newsday, 577,796
9. New York Post, 562,639
10. Houston Chronicle, 545,727
11. San Francisco Chronicle, 525,369
12. Dallas Morning News, 511,159
13. The Arizona Republic, 496,373
14. Chicago Sun-Times, 487,480
15. The Boston Globe, 478,735
16. Newark Star-Ledger, 406,717
17. Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 405,459
18. The Atlanta J-C, 405,367
19. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 381,104
20. Cleveland Plain Dealer, 368,322

NEW TEST KITCHEN EDITOR NAMED

Donna Pierce has joined The Chicago Tribune as test kitchen director.

Pierce, previously food editor of The Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune, will do double duty in print and on air: testing and preparing recipes for the Tribune's "Good Eating" section, which appears every Wednesday, and taping weekly segments for CLTV's companion TV shows, "Good Eating," which airs Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays.

Pierce is also contributing food editor to Upscale, a national African-American magazine based in Atlanta.

The new kitchen director, who specializes in Creole dishes, will join the Tribune June 3, according to Carol Haddix, who is the paper's food editor.

Oil & Gas Journal, which will mark its 100th anniversary on May 24, will publish a special anniversary edition in August, according to Bob Tippee, who is editor of the Houston-based magazine.

PEOPLE

Albert Primo was awarded the 2002 Ellis Island Medal of Honor for creating the Eyewitness News format. Primo, who currently operates Primo Newservice in Old Greenwich, Conn., is also producing a pilot for a new TV magazine and writing a book and oral history of Eyewitness News.

Gabriel Snyder, who co-wrote the media gossip column in The New York Observer, is leaving to join US Weekly.

Seth Mnookin, who was covering the media beat for The New York Sun, is joining Newsweek's national affairs desk as a senior writer, and Ellen Kampinsky is leaving the Sun to join Glamour as a senior editor.

Jasper Becker, 45, was abruptly dismissed as the Beijing bureau chief of The South China Morning Post, which is Hong Kong's top English-language newspaper, after he complained editors were softening the paper's coverage of China.

Peter Bonventure, co-executive editor of Entertainment Weekly, was named interim managing editor until the June 6 issue.

Anders Gyllenhaal (pronounced JILL-in-hall), 50, previously executive editor at The Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer, was appointed editor of The Minneapolis Star Tribune, succeeding Tim McGuire, who is retiring next month.

Melanie Sill, 43, succeeds Gyllenhaal as editor in Raleigh.

Gyllenhaal's wife, Beverly Mills, writes two syndicated columns on food and parenting for United Features Syndicate.

James Lorincz was named editor-in-chief of Tooling & Production magazine, Solon, Ohio, replacing Stan Modic, who continues in his editorial advisory role and as a columnist for the monthly magazine.

Patrick Boulay, 49, who was editor of The St. Paul (Minn.) Legal Ledger, was promoted to VP/publisher of Dolan Media, and publisher of Finance and Commerce, a business paper, based in Minneapolis.

INSANA, JORDAN, ALTER AT PR SEMINAR

Principal speakers at the 51st PR Seminar May 22-25 at the Ritz-Carlton, Naples, Fla., are Ron Insana, co-anchor, CNBC's Business Center; Vernon Jordan, managing director, Lazard Freres & Co.; Lawrence Eagleburger, Secretary of State under President George Bush, and Jonathan Alter, senior editor of Newsweek and correspondent to NBC News.

The annual gathering usually attracts at least 150 PR executives from leading companies and about a dozen heads of the major PR firms.

Membership is by invitation only and some PR people wait years to be invited.

The group meets at the finest resorts in the U.S. for four days each May. Registration tab this year is $1,800 for Seminarians and $800 for their companions. The tab helps cover speaker fees.
Insana will talk about "Financial Journalism in the Age of Enron." Alter will discuss "politics."

Jordan, who was a top aide to President Clinton, will talk about "Vernon Can Read! A Memoir," which he wrote with Annette Gordon-Reed. He will be introduced by Hill and Knowlton's Howard Paster, former Clinton lobbyist and last year's PRS chairman.

Eagleburger, now with Baker, Donelson, Bearman and Caldwell, will discuss: "Foreign Policy in the 21st Century: What Is the Role of the U.S.?"
Harold Burson, founder of Burson-Marsteller, is chair of this session.

Proceedings at PRS are "off the record." Working press has never been allowed to attend the meeting although numerous press figures have addressed it.
Nicholas Ashooh of American Electric Power is 2002 chair of the group; David Demarest of Visa International is program chair, and Diane Dixon of Avery Dennison is secretary/treasurer.

Other Speakers

Also on the program are:

Chuck Rund, president, Charlton Research Co.; Michael Josephson, president, Josephson Institute; Robert Full, Ph.D., professor of biology at University of Calif. at Berkeley; Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, which is affiliated with Ralph Nader; and Alice Domar, assistant professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, and director, Mind/Body Center for Women's Health.

PR Implications of 9/11 Is Topic

A panel will discuss, "Changing Messages: PR Implications of 9/11." Members are Mary Beth Bardin of Verizon; Michael O'Neill, American Express, and Tom Slocum, Delta Airlines. Moderator is Betty Hudson of the National Geographic Society.

Besides Burson and Paster, other PR firm executives who are members of PRS include Lou Capozzi of Manning, Selvage & Lee; Richard Edelman, Edelman PR Worldwide; Al Golin, Golin/Harris International; Bob Feldman, GCI Group; John Graham, Fleishman-Hillard; Bob Seltzer, Ogilvy PR Worldwide, and Larry Weber, formerly of Weber Shandwick, now with parent Interpublic.

PISINSKI DIES SUDDENLY AT 52

Stephen D. Pisinski, 52, president of PR Society of America in 2000, died suddenly in his sleep last week at his home in San Francisco. Cause of death was not immediately known.

Friends said he was not known to be ill.

Surviving are his wife, Patrice, and two children under ten years of age, Spencer and Ashley Ann. Also surviving are his parents, Statia and Steve Pisinski; a brother, Donald, and a sister, Cynthia.

Joann Killeen, president of PRSA, said, "This is truly devastating news for the PR profession and the Society. We have lost an esteemed leader. Steve was a friend, colleague and mentor to me as he was to many others." The Society purchased an ad in the May 17 New York Times in which it said, PRSA is "forever grateful for the significant professional and personal contributions Steve made not only to the Society but to the PR profession." It lauded his "leadership, intelligence and guidance," and noted that the "Society underwent tremendous change during his tenure as chair and CEO."

Pisinski headed his own firm, The Montgomery Group, San Francisco.

He entered PR in 1971 at Ketchum PR in Pittsburgh and transferred to Ketchum/San Francisco where he worked six years, rising to VP and associate director.

In 1981, he opened and headed the San Francisco office of Burson-Marsteller. He also worked for B-M in New York.

He opened his own firm in S.F. in 1984, selling it to Ogilvy & Mather PR in 1985. He served as GM of Ogilvy/S.F. from 1985-91.

Pisinski had a B.A. degree in history from Georgetown University and a master's in PR, with graduate business school courses, from Boston University.

JUDGE OKAYS 'HARRY & LOUISE' SPOTS

U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton has denied Health Insurance Assn. of America's bid to block the "Harry and Louise" spots that CuresNow Action is running in support for stem cell research.

HIAA claimed that it owned the right to the H&L characters based on 10 years of usage. Goddard Claussen Porter Novelli created those spots for HIAA, and used the same actors for CNA.

Ben Goddard, founding partner of GCPN, issued a statement saying "In denying HIAA's attempt to silence the 'Harry & Louise' ads about stem cell research, the court has taken an important step in preserving an important public voice in the debate over this issue."

CNA claims that the real-life Harry Johnson and Louise Clark, who is married to Goddard, are strong supporters of stem cell research, and are pleased that Judge Walton has given them the right to express them through ads.

HIAA debuted H&L in 1993 to oppose then-First Lady Clinton's healthcare reform effort, and re-introduced them in 2000 as advocates for the uninsured.

The death of Steve Pisinski is a loss for the PR field and PR Society of America.

Steve, one of the brightest people in PR (a magna cum laude graduate of Georgetown University), was the most communicative PRSA president in recent years. He e-mailed us detailed answers to the many financial questions about the Society including the shrinkage in its deferred dues account.

To the best of our knowledge, Steve is the one who fired both CFO Joe Cussick and COO Ray Gaulke during his term as 2000 president. He simply got sick and tired of the paucity of financial information available from the h.q. staff.

We salute Steve as a good communicator and a person of action.

The annual conference of the National IR Institute will take place June 3-5 in Palm Desert, Calif. About 2,000 will attend. As usual, there will be no press room and no texts of speeches nor any releases on the more than 20 sessions. In the past, reporters were told to purchase tapes of any sessions for $10 each if they wanted any. This year NIRI is sending us a set of the tapes gratis...The NIRI policy is about the same as that at PRSA and IABC. Neither group distributes texts of conference speeches or even releases on them. For example there was no written summary of the speech by economist Lester Thurow, who was paid $20,000 to address the PRSA conference in Atlanta Oct. 29, 2001...NIRI has no on-staff PR pros to write releases, prepare transcripts, distribute them to the press, etc., although lack of funds is not the reason. NIRI had $4.6M in the bank as of Dec. 31 and will probably duplicate last year's conference profit of $1,295,988, bringing its cash/investments to nearly $6M. "PR" is just not one of the things NIRI does...PRSA and IABC have to a lesser degree starved the PR function for decades, usually having only one person assigned to it and sometimes no one...also not practicing PR (by our definition) are any of the four big ad/PR conglomerates. Publicis, Paris-based conglomerate which announced its 1Q revenues last week, told us there is no one in the U.S. who can discuss with us the Publicis financial reports. Such discussions can only take place over the phone to Paris. London-based WPP Group also has no one in the U.S. who will perform that chore. Interpublic and Omnicom are in New York but refuse interviews by financial reporters. Publicis, OMC and IPG allow reporters to listen in on analyst conference calls. WPP won't even let reporters do that...one thing that Publicis is doing that OMC and IPG are not is identify their acquisitions. The new 20-F report by Publicis identifies 18 acquisitions and gives descriptions of each. IPG has made more than 200 "mystery" acquisitions in four years and the 2001 annual report of OMC mentions 39 acquisitions for $849 million but doesn't identify them...we were disappointed by the 1Q report of IPG because it has removed PR as a separate reporting category. PR is now mixed in with a stew of other activities totaling 26% of revenues. There's no way now to tell whether PR is up or down...IPG and OMC, under new accounting rules, must report any "impairment" of the value of their numerous acquisitions. This determination will be made with their accounting firms (Arthur Andersen for OMC and PricewaterhouseCoopers for IPG). PR has been seriously "impaired" at both based on layoff figures...all signs point to WPP again putting out a 26-page indecipherable financial report for the first half in spite of a pledge by CEO Martin Sorrell in a NASDAQ ad that plain English will be spoken in financial reports and "obfuscation" will be spurned. NASDAQ, including VP-CC Bethany Sherman and NASDAQ's PR firm, The Torrenzano Group, have been unreachable for weeks. WPP became unreachable months ago on this subject...the Empire State building "cold called" us last week saying it had "excellent space available on high floors at low rent." We bet you do, we responded. We can look out our office window and see at least six full floors across the street that have been vacant for months...a PR firm said it has never received so many requests for summer intern positions and will take at least one since no cost is involved...both Ragan Communications and IABC gave two-day conferences on internal PR in May, Ragan drawing 225 and IABC, 65. Both meetings charged $795. Ragan had about 80 speakers, including six leaders of IABC. IABC and the Council of Communication Mgmt. (co-host) had a dozen experts in employee PR as their speakers. About 400 were expected at the Ragan meeting but the economy held down attendance, Ragan said ...the spring issue of PR Strategist of PRSA had 44 pages but only two-and-a-half pages of ads, making it very expensive to print and mail its 20,000 copies. Disseminating it via a PDF file on the Internet, which NIRI and the Int'l PR Assn. do with their magazines, would be a money-saver. NIRI now bulk mails the issues of its monthly after sending out the PDF version...an O'Dwyer web poll asking if "PRSA needs reforming," is running 71% "Yes" and 29% "No"...the accounting profession, hard hit by the current scandals, is doing some PR. Nancy Newman-Limata, president, New York State Society of CPAs, is doing a Sunday column for the New York Post, explaining how to read complicated financial statements. Footnotes contain "a wealth of information," said her column May 12. This is an example of consumer friendliness that the American Society of CPAs could well follow.
--Jack O'Dwyer