B-M WINS $55M 'COLOR OF MONEY' ACCT.

The U.S. Treasury Dept. has selected Burson-Marsteller to handle a five-year $55 million contract to introduce the new line of U.S. currency featuring color and anti-counterfeit features. That paper money is to be launched next year.

Mike Dolan, CEO of Young & Rubicam, B-M's parent, called the bidding for the Treasury work the "year's largest and most contested PR RFP."

IPG's Weber Shandwick, OMC's Porter Novelli, Edelman PR Worldwide and Grey Global's APCO were among firms in the running for the business.

B-M's Richard Mintz, who leads the U.S. PA practice, handles the account. Veteran counselor Jim Lake, Katherine Krupka and Anne Prince also pitched for B-M.

B-M and Marsteller Advertising are responsible for communications program design, media relations, retailer outreach, crisis communications, website design, advertising and collateral materials. B-M's Direct Impact unit will build a database and outreach program to 25,000 retailers, banks and small businesses.

Other Y&R units also are involved in the work. Penn Schoen & Berland will do research. Landor will provide brand consulting and design. The Bravo Group, Kang & Lee and UniWorld will target multicultural audiences. Y&R is a WPP Group unit.

GM's WU JOINS GE

General Electric has named Judy Wu general manager-corporate advertising and marketing communications effective Aug. 22. The 49-year-old executive joins from General Motors, where she was executive director for diversity and growth markets.

Wu will report to Beth Comstock, GE's corporate VP-communications, and be responsible for managing GE's global brand message.

Besides targeting GM's outreach to ethnic markets, Wu played a key role in the automaker's "Keep America Rolling" campaign that it launched following Sept. 11 to help stimulate the economy.

Previously, Wu was senior VP at DMB&B in Detroit, handling GM. She also worked at Leo Burnett.
Heyman Assocs. handled the search for GE.

KCSA PR Worldwide now represents the Zionist Organization of America as it follows its PR rep, Ronn Torossian, to the New York firm from MWW Group, a Golin/Harris unit. Torossian has close ties with Israel's Likud Government.

TAAFFE TAKES OVER H&K

Hill and Knowlton has named Paul Taaffe, a 12-year chief executive for two of the firm's overseas units, as chairman and CEO, replacing Howard Paster, who has moved to parent WPP Group. Paster is executive VP of PR/PA at WPP.

Taaffe, who will also head H&K's worldwide executive committee, was named CEO of the firm's United Kingdom operations in 1990, eventually moving up to president of H&K Europe, Middle East and Africa in 1994 and heading two of H&K's five regions. He was previously a managing director for Shandwick Consultants.

Paster said he leaves H&K in "the best of hands," adding that Taaffe has been "a key player in the system" and is familiar with the firm's operations.

Taaffe, a native Australian, will remain based in H&K's New York office.

EDELMAN ASKS VENDORS TO BUY ADS

Edelman PR Worldwide is asking its vendors to show their support by taking ads out in the Sept. 23 issue of Advertising Age which will have an advertising insert celebrating the 50th anniversary of Edelman.

Alice Hogueisson, VP in Chicago, is coordinating the campaign. CEO Richard Edelman, according to Hogueisson's e-mail, asked her to woo the firm's "long standing and major vendors" to buy ads in the "special insert illuminating the rich history of Edelman." She wrote: "All of us at Edelman are proud of our tradition and would like to thank you in advance for your consideration and your loyalty to our organization."

Edelman said some of the suppliers have been doing business with the PR firm 20 to 50 years and "if they want to advertise fine, and if they don't, there's no issue at all with us."

Rates Available

Hogueisson helpfully includes rates for the insert. A four color full-page ad goes for $17,671. A black and white page goes for $12,674. The cheapest ads are 1/8 page ones that are pegged at $5,555 (four color) and $2,295 (b&w).

Hogueisson copied Edelman marketing director, Derek Creevey. Vendors can contact him for further details.

Ad Age publisher Rance Crain spoke at a July 11 Edelman 50th anniversary seminar in which he extolled PR as the "closer medium."

SAUDI ARABIA URGED TO DROP 'FANCY PR'

Saudi Arabia should stop its 'PR drivel' in the U.S., and flat out explain to the American people that serious issues exist between the Kingdom and the U.S., according to Khaled Al-Maeena, editor-in-chief of Arab News, the Kingdom's English-language paper.

He urges Saudi Arabia to "abandon those fancy public relations firms whose own executives look at us unfavorably, but are doing the job for the dollars."

Al-Maeena also is not too keen on advertising. "Let us not be lured into placing full-page advertisements in U.S. newspapers that in the same edition write horrid untruths about us," he writes in an editorial Aug. 9.

Qorvis Communications is Saudi Arabia's PR firm. It receives $200K a month for its work. Saudi Arabia's Embassy turned to Burson-Marsteller immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks for image ads expressing solidarity with the U.S. The WPP Group unit received $2.7 million for producing and placing the ads.

Al-Maeena wants the Kingdom to discard the PR drivel and "go for a straight shot." He believes the country should devise its own media strategy. He notes that many Saudis speak excellent English and are ready to speak to the media about how the Kingdom is "a land of peace and promoter of high values." He feels it is "imperative that we stop tolerating the nonsense that is being spread about us, and start using our own resources to take control of our destiny."

Al-Maeena's piece follows the uproar caused by a Rand report briefing to the Pentagon recommending that the U.S. seize Saudi oil fields in the event that the Kingdom fails to crack down on terrorism.

PR REMEMBERS 9/11

Eight PR firms have organized onedayspay.org to honor those lost on Sept. 11. The goal is to establish Sept. 11 as a national day of helping others in need. David Paine, PainePR CEO, is the director of the grassroots program that aims for one million pledges by next year. Pledgers promise to donate cash/goods or do volunteer work in memory of 9/11.

Patrice Tanaka & Co. and Peppercom (New York), Carter Ryley Thomas (Richmond), Duffey Comms. (Atlanta), Leo Burnett PR (Chicago), Padilla Speer Beardsley (Minneapolis) and KVO/Fleishman-Hillard (Portland, Ore.) are members of the group's founding committee.

Joann Killeen, president of PR Society of America, is another committee member. Paine said the member firms are using their media relations savvy to promote the non-profit group. He expects the group's membership will expand beyond the PR business as awareness of the 9/11 organization grows.

The effort of onedayspay.org is dedicated to the memory of Mark Bingham, the San Francisco PR executive who died on United Flight 93 after trying to wrestle control of the hijacked plane from the terrorists while it was over Pennsylvania.

SPECTOR GETS $82K IN SUIT VS. GRAFICA

An eight-member Essex Cty., N.J., jury awarded $82,500 to PR firm Spector & Assocs. Aug. 5 in its suit against ad agency Grafica after hearing testimony for two weeks and deliberating for two hours.

Spector, in a suit filed May 2, 2000, accused Grafica of dumping it from the New Jersey Lottery account, which they had both pitched and won, and improperly hiring Mark Devaney, a Spector employee who worked on the Lottery.

The verdict sheet handed in by the jury to Judge Stephen Bernstein of New Jersey Superior Court showed the jury voted 8-0 in agreeing to the question, "Did the defendant, Grafica, breach its agreement with plaintiff, Spector."

It voted 7-1 in answering "No" to the question, "Did the plaintiff, Spector, breach its agreement with defendant, Grafica?"

The jury then voted to award $82,500 to Spector by a vote of 7-1. The question posed was, "What amount of damages will fairly and reasonably compensate plaintiff, Spector, for the losses that arose from defendant, Grafica's, breach of the agreement?"

The PR firm had sought $900,000 in damages.

Grafica maintained that Spector was a subcontractor or "vendor" on the account while Spector said there were numerous written references to the PR firm as a partner and that it always considered itself as at least on the same level as Grafica in pitching the account.

Grafica and Spector had jointly pitched the account for about four months until March of 1999 when they won it. The contract called for a $27,500 monthly retainer for PR for five years ($1.65 million) plus expenses.

Spector said that "vendors" normally do not work for months pitching an account while receiving no pay.

Debra Taeschler, president of Grafica, said the jury "clearly decided against awarding Spector the damages it sought, which is a victory for Grafica."

PR TAB FOR STADIUM TOPS $1 MILLION

Zeppos & Assocs., a Milwaukee-based PR firm, was paid more than $1 million to handle PR for the new Miller Park baseball stadium since the project was started four and a half years ago, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

While board minutes show there was periodic concern over the cost of Zeppos' PR services, Bob Trunzo, stadium district board chairman, told the J-S: "Basically, we hired the best firm that we felt was capable of handling challenging issues. We're very happy with the work done by Zeppos."

Zeppos, who charges $220 an hour, told Murphy he did "99%" of the work his company performed for the district. He said the money represented "a small portion" of the revenues for his firm, which does work for several companies, including Miller Brewing, Ameritech, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, and Eli Lilly. The firm reported total fees in 2001 of $1,713,824 to O'Dwyer's Directory of PR Firms.

HOW THE WASH. POST COVERS HEALTH

Ceci Connolly, a former political reporter for The Washington Post, "loves" the health beat.

Connolly, who had covered the political beat for many years, told a U.S. Newswire-sponsored media workshop Aug. 6 in Washington, D.C., that she appreciates the professionalism of healthcare PR people who don't try to micro-manage the way political PR pros do during campaigns.

She said one of the most "disturbing" things is health groups who hold news conferences late in the afternoon to give reporters little or no time to research and provide context to a story.

Health Stories Are Segmented

Connolly described how the Post is organized to cover the health field. Some of her key points were:

-The staff for the health beat works for the national desk and reports to science editor Rob Stein.

-Two of the key writers in the group, David Brown and Susan Okie, are MDs.

-Other writers include: Rick Weiss (science-related topics); Mark Kaufman (food, drugs and FDA); Shankar Vedantam (brain and development) and Guy Gugliotta (specific assignments).

-The Post's Tuesday special "Health" section has a separate staff and is edited by Craig Stoltz. Much of the writing is done by freelancers but reporters from the national desk may contribute a story.

The weekly section is mostly soft news on diet and exercise and "news you can use."

Looking for Experts

-Connolly is looking for organizations to provide cell phone numbers and after hours numbers of PR people. She also wants experts who are comfortable talking to the press, and values organizations that can find her members or even patients that are distributed across the country and have first-hand knowledge of the issue at hand.

-Since there are many editorial layers at the Post, Connolly cannot promise when a story will run or where it will play or if it will include pictures. She also reminds everyone that reporters don't write headlines.

-Connolly values sources that keep the relationship professional; read the paper closely, and provide feedback directly to the reporter rather than the editor.

-Post reporters on the health beat are constantly checking with each other and share or forward story ideas to more appropriate reporters. The Post does a good job of making sure multiple reporters or sections are not working on the same story, she said.

-The first big editor's meeting at the Post is about 10:30 a.m. A second meeting takes place at 2 p.m. and the final meeting is at about 6 p.m.

-Bigger Sunday section stories are written and finished in time for the "bulldog" edition Friday afternoons. This means reporters must see the pitch in plenty of time to write for that deadline.

PLACEMENT TIPS

Business 2.0 magazine, San Francisco, has signed up veteran technology journalist Rafe Needleman to pen a new column, called "What's Next."

Needleman had left Red Herring magazine at the end of 2001-where he wrote the "Catch of the Day" column-to start an independent e-mail newsletter.

Beginning with the September issue, What's Next will appear monthly in the print edition. A special online version will run twice weekly on the Business 2.0 website (www.business2.com) and will also be available as an e-mail newsletter.

In the new column, Needleman will look at new technologies/companies on the rise in today's business.

Publicists can query and pitch information to Needleman at [email protected].

Josh Quittner is editor of Business 2.0, which is published by The Fortune Group at Time Inc., at One California st., 9th fl., 94111.

Coil World, which covers companies that produce and market prepainted metals and/or coil coating, has been acquired from DM Publishing by Philip Colaiacovo, the trade magazine's editor-in-chief.

Colaiacovo plans to expand the magazine's coverage of service centers and related coil processing operations. He will continue to work closely with the National Coil Coating Assn.

The new editorial offices are located at 8 High Point, Cedar Grove, NJ 07009. 973/571-7155; e-mail: [email protected].

Global Gaming Business magazine has been chosen to produce the Show Daily for Global Gaming Expo, the industry's largest trade show and conference, which will be held Sept. 17-19 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Show Daily will appear each morning at the opening of G2E, with a full schedule and preview of the day's events, recaps of the previous day and highlights of the products, services and happenings displayed at the exhibits.

Paul Dworin is handling the paper at 702/248-1565; e-mail [email protected].

Radio Sawa, the U.S. government's new 24-hour FM station in the Middle East, is making a transition from an all-music format to one that gives greater emphasis to programs on U.S. policy and positions.

The goal is to win over an audience that almost universally distrusts U.S. policy. The station is targeting the under-30 audience that makes up 60% of the Arab world.

About a third of the broadcasts could become informational-interviews, discussions, call-in shows, and policy programming. Broadcasts will be tailored to the distinct Arabic dialect of individual regions.

Mouafac Hard, a Lebanese-American, is Radio Sawa's news editor, based in Washington, D.C.

(Media news continued on next page)

TOP DAYTIME PRODUCER LEAVES CNBC

Bruno Cohen, who is CNBC's EVP of business news, is taking a four-month paid sabbatical from the cable network.

David Friend, who is executive producer of "SquawkBox," among other shows, will temporarily oversee the newsroom and all its functions.

Cohen had been in charge of CNBC's 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily coverage, which has been losing viewers.

The website newsblues.com reported other executive producers will be leaving CNBC.

FINANCIAL PLANNING HIRES GARLAND

Eric Garland, who was previously senior editor at Money magazine, is joining Financial Planning magazine as editor-in-chief.

Pat Durner was named managing editor of FP, which is published in New York by Thomson Media.

Garland, who has been writing on business and finance issues for more than 20 years, worked as editorial director of Adweek before moving to Money.

Durner previously worked for several other Thomson publications.

AMDUR RECRUITS FOR NY TIMES

Neil Amdur, 62, sports editor of The New York Times since 1990, has been appointed senior editor for staffing/national recruiting.

Howell Raines, executive editor, said Amdur's new job is to identify reporting and editing candidates for all sections of the Times.

Raines said Amdur will oversee a search for his own successor.

AJC NAMES MANAGING EDITOR/NEWS

Hank Klibanoff, 53, a deputy managing editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, was named managing editor/news at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

He will oversee the content and presentation of the daily and Sunday papers. He starts Oct. 1.

Klibanoff had been overseeing business, foreign, national, metro and sports coverage as well as projects for the Inquirer, where he has worked for the past 20 years.

James Mallory, 47, who has spent 14 years at the AJC, most recently overseeing the metro and business news departments, was promoted to managing editor/initiatives and operations, where he will review the paper's suburban coverage and oversee news personnel, budgeting and administration.

Both report to Julia Wallace, AJC's top editor.

SMARTMONEY NAMES FINN AS ED-IN-CHIEF

Edwin Finn Jr. was named chairman/editor-in-chief of SmartMoney, a personal finance magazine published by Dow Jones and Hearst.

Finn, 47, who remains president/editor of Barron's, a separate DJ publication, has replaced Peter Finch, previously editor-in-chief of SmartMoney, who will become editor. Robert Fritze, who was publisher, has left the magazine.

Ad pages at SmartMoney, which has a monthly circulation of 810,000, have fallen 27% for the first half of 2002, compared with the year-earlier period, after a decline of 33% for all of 2001.

ATLANTA INVESTORS START WOMEN'S MAG.

A new lifestyle magazine targeting 25 to 54-year-old, upscale women in the Atlanta metro area is being started by a group of investors, headed by J. Hardwick "Jack "Morgan, 40, who is CEO/publisher.

Morgan said the first issue of Peach Magazine will be published in November.

The 100-page, glossy-finish monthly will provide articles about beauty and fashion, health and fitness, personal finance, relationships, travel, family, home, shopping, entertainment and careers for women. It also will profile a local woman in each issue.

The magazine will be available at newsstands, hotels, salons and spas for $3.50 an issue. It will have an initial print run of 20,000 copies.

Morgan is currently interviewing candidates for at least seven staff positions, including an editor and a managing editor.

The magazine will be moving shortly to offices located at 1795 Peachtree rd., Atlanta. Morgan can be reached at 404/816-6523.

YANKEE MAGAZINE GETS A FACELIFT

With its July/August 2002 number, Yankee Magazine is introducing 15 new departments, a new design, and a new logo and tagline in an effort to attract younger readers.

The new logo for the 67-year-old magazine now bears the tagline "The Magazine of New England Living."

The 15 new columns range from monthly "House Plans" and tips from "The New England Gardener" to "Dining Out" restaurant reviews and "3 Questions, 3 Answers"-interviews with famous New Englanders.

Yankee will keep its signature digest size.

Michael Carlton, who was previously at two other regional publications, Southern Living and Coastal Living, joined Yankee last October as editor, and Amy Traverso, a former staff writer for Boston magazine, was named food editor in June.

Traverso will expand the recipes section, and write a new column starting with the November issue. She also will oversee the Yankee test kitchen, and coordinates the "Good Food" section on YankeeMagazine.com, including the "Monthly Menu" database.

Yankee Magazine's office is located at 1121 Main st., P.O. Box 520, Dublin, NH 03444. 603/ 563-8111.

E-mail is the preferred way to pitch Carlton. His address is [email protected].

OMC REVEALS SOME ACQUISITIONS

Omnicom, living up to its promise of being more "transparent," broke a tradition Aug. 6 by unveiling a list of 17 acquisitions in the first half as part of its second quarter report.

Still unavailable is the list of 73 acquisitions that it made in 2001 and 2000.

The acquisitions, on which $312 million was spent in the first half, accounted for 84% of OMC's growth in revenues in the second quarter.

Revenue from acquisitions totaled $142.9M in Q2 and $233.6M in the first half, accounting for 77% of revenue gains in the half. Total potential earnout payments are estimated at $418M as of June 30.

The acquisitions include a Portuguese print broker; a company that allows consumers to test new cars; a fund-raising consultant; an investigative firm headed by two former FBI agents; a company that designs auto dealership facilities and materials; a product merchandising firm, and a number of ad, PR and related businesses (list at end of this story).

Revenue from acquisitions included $122.8M from the U.S. and $20.1M internationally.

Current debt is $2.72B (2.2 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) vs. a 1.9 ratio a year ago.

PR was the only major area showing a loss among four categories broken out by OMC.

PR is down 10.7% in Q2 (-10.1% in the first half) while advertising is up 9% in Q2; specialty services up 26.7%, and customer relationship management up 15%.

CEO John Wren said there has been no meaningful recovery in advertising thus far and that it will be "tough going for the remainder of the year."

OMC is concentrating on making acquisitions that are "small and purposeful" and will spend $625 million to $675M on acquisitions this year, said CFO Randy Weisenburger.

Acquisitions Listed

The 2002 acquisitions OMC revealed are:

-Aaron Walton Entertainment, entertainment marketing (h.q. city not provided).

-Allyn & Co., Dallas, advertising, PR, political media and direct mail.

-Automotive Marketing Consultants, which allows consumers to sample new models in "Learn and Drive" events; also offers wholesale and retail sales training.

-Bass and Howes, Washington, D.C., and New York, public policy and PA.

-Changing Our World, which helps not-for-profit and corp. clients "achieve their goals through philanthropy."

-Consultores de Publicidade, Portuguese print broker.

-Design Forum, Dayton, architectural and environmental design firm mostly working for the automotive sector.

-Dieste Harmel & Partners, multicultural agency.

-FitzGerald Comms., Boston, high-tech PR firm.

-Morgan Kemp & Partners, Manchester, U.K., direct marketing.

-National In-Store, product merchandising, sales training, in-store advertising and related services.

-Noesis, San Francisco, "investigative consulting firm" founded by two former FBI agents.

-The Peter Group, Phila., direct response & advertising.

-OMD Norway, large media agency in Norway.

-TBWA/HEIG, Munich, PR firm in Bavarian region.

-Tequila\BTL Group, Poznan, Poland, marketing.

-\Textuel\La Mine, Paris, online content supplier.

-Top C, Czech Republic, designs and implements training programs for clients.

PR NEWSWIRE, CMP MEDIA CUT STAFFERS

United Business Media, London, has cut 500 more staffers across all businesses, including a reduction of at least 30 percent at PR Newswire, in New York, and CMP Media and CMP Information, in Manhasset, N.Y.

UBM's CEO Clive Hollick said the reductions are the result of weak revenues, reduced profits and margins at PRN, and a recorded loss at CMP, which had a 38% drop in revenues.

Sales at PRN fell 21% to $88.4 million in the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 2001. Profits fell 43% to $19 million.

A PRN spokesperson declined to comment on the exact number of job cuts at the company.

UBM's interim financial report for the six months ended June 30 said "continuing sluggishness in the U.S. economy and greatly reduced mergers and acquisitions and IPO activity have caused a downturn in the volume of releases issued by PR Newswire's customers, especially those which are discretionary in nature."

"Overall, message volume was 13.2% below the same period last year, in line with the 14% decline for the full year in 2001. The turmoil in the world's stock markets has led corporations to be more publicity adverse than normal," the report said.

PRN's customers have also chosen lower-priced news distribution options causing a reduction in average revenue per message of 5.6%, the report said. "More rigorous disclosure practices look set to increase the length of earnings releases," the report said. (PRN charges a fee to distribute press releases; the more pages, the higher the fee.)

CMP now employs about 1,700 worldwide, down from a high of 2,700 in April 2001.

KOHLER GIVES GC BIOTERRORISM WORK

Plumbing manufacturer Kohler Co. has given Global Communicators a 10-month, $134,000 government/media relations contract for its new Kohler Mobile Plumbing Systems (KMPS) division.

The new division grew out of Kohler's assistance to the rescue and recovery teams at the World Trade Center site. Its mobile shower unit was used by firefighters, policemen, rescue workers and volunteers for more than six months at the site.

GC CEO Jim Harff said the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks demonstrated a major national need for semi-trailer mobile plumbing facilities for use at bioterrorism decontamination sites, natural disasters, etc.

The story of Edelman PR (p. one) asking vendors to advertise in the Sept. 23 Advertising Age, which will also have a multi-page ad by Edelman for its 50th anniversary, says a lot about the current state of PR.

Why is a PR firm, which supposedly communicates mainly through editorial time and space, taking a huge ad out for itself and urging others to advertise?

This story drew more than a dozen comments on the O'Dwyer website, almost all of them negative. PR pros feel Edelman is improperly hitting on suppliers. We agree. Edelman has plenty of good materials for editorial columns if it will supply it.

Its decision to celebrate its anniversary by heaping praise on itself and reaping praise from clients and suppliers does not make for good editorial material.

Better would be making Dan and Richard Edelman available for interviews in which serious questions are tackled, thus showing PR's intellectual nature.

They could discuss the disastrous U.S. Government PR campaign aimed at Islamic nations; the takeover of the bulk of the PR counseling business by ad conglomerates; Edelman's own distasteful experience in selling part of itself to Interpublic; the ups and downs of Edelman over the years; the impact of high health insurance costs on PR firms (forcing them to favor young, single people); the impact of the web on PR; why no major PR firm (including Edelman) has anyone fulltime on house PR; the silence of PR's trade organization, PRSA; PRSA's stonewalling on its finances; IR's role in spreading confusing "pro forma" reports.

Instead of parties and ads, Edelman should be doing something intellectual. It might sponsor panels of editors on the above topics.

Omnicom met its goals of 10% growth in revenues and profits for Q2 but the bulk of the gains came from acquisitions.

For instance, revenue growth is presented as 9.7% with internal growth making up 1.5% of this and growth from acquisitions making up 8.2%.

An OMC press release, to be understandable by the layperson, should have read: "OMC's revenues gained 9.7% or $168.5 million in the second quarter but 85% of this gain was due to acquisitions. We spent $312M on acquisitions in the first half and added $233M in revenues." That OMC is spending more on acquisitions than the revenues and profits produced is one big reason for its $2.72 billion debt.

The $312M figure includes acquisition costs from previous periods but it indicates the proportion of OMC's growth that comes from acquisitions.

Morgan Stanley said the 8.2% growth via acquisitions was "nearly triple"the 3.5% gain in this category that MS expected. MS notes that OMC has been spending about $800M a year on acquisitions with $625-675M expected for 2002. This means a total of $3 billion being spent on purchases in the four years of 1999-2002 when OMC's revenues totaled only $6.8B forall of 2001.

Analysts told us OMC would have no "organic" growth at all in Q2 if it followed the practice of the other ad giants which do not count growth from acquisitions until a year after the deal is made.

An OMC teleconference Aug. 6 again showed the feebleness of analyst questions. The call was limited to an hour but Weisenburger wasted about 10 minutes reciting figures the analysts already had. Some analysts were thus not able to get on the call. Reporters were barred from asking questions. No balance sheet was provided although the large majority of companies provide them with their earnings reports. No complaint is ever made about this. There was no detailed discussion of OMC's debt situation which will probably include re-financing $1.75B in zero-bonds.

No analysts dared bring up the subject of the nearly 20 stockholder lawsuits vs. OMC. For the first time, OMC gave a list of its recent acquisitions, some of them far afield from ad/PR including a print broker in Portugal; a private-eye firm set up by two former FBI agents,and a company that lets consumers test new cars. Costs of the acquisitions were missing as well as employee totals. In five instances, no h.q. city was given.

The victory of the Spector PR firm in its suit vs. its former ad agency co-bidder Grafica (p. two) is a victory for PR. Grafica had portrayed Spector as a mere "vendor" subservient to advertising and working months for nothing in hopes of sharing the multi-million dollar New Jersey Lottery account. Messenger services, graphic artists, etc., and other "vendors" do not normally work for nothing. The court decision helps to establish PR as at least equal to advertising...we hope the naming of Paul Taaffe as head of Hill and Knowlton to succeed Howard Paster will presage reform at H&K. The firm sunk into its own shell in the past ten years and lost its high gloss. Its net fee and employee figures lack proofs and are suspect. The Council of PR Firms months ago made an error of 1,008 in reporting the employees of H&K but neither H&K nor the CPRF knew about this until we told them. H&K lists 659 people in six U.S. cities and 178 in "other U.S." Where are these people and whom are they working for? H&K claims 1,288 workers abroad. What cities are they in and what company names are on their paychecks? Parent WPP'sfinancial reports say that PR revenues include fees from"advertising and media investment management and branding and identity, healthcare and specialist communications."
--Jack O'Dwyer