D&E HIRED FOR CLERGY ABUSE CASE

Dix & Eaton has been hired by the Cleveland Catholic Diocese to deal with the fallout stemming from allegations of sexual abuse by clergy.

Fifteen priests charged with abuse have been put on administrative leave by Bishop Anthony Pilla.

Since April, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor William Mason has been investigating allegations of abuse brought against 800 people (100 of them priests) that were on diocesan records.

He will soon present his findings to a grand jury. Mason believes there will be some indictments, though not many because many of the cases have been knocked out by the statute of limitations, according to a report in the Akron Beacon Journal.

Bob Tayek, the Diocese's director of media and PR, hired D&E because the Diocese faces a "complicated issue," and wanted an outsider's perspective.

Kevin Donahue, managing director at D&E, handles the Church's account.

MS&L FOLDS GLOBAL TECH UNIT

Manning, Selvage & Lee has dismantled its globaltechnology structure in a bid to refocus its energies in that troubled category, according to CEO Lou Ca-pozzi. Virginia Cartwright, who had headed MS&L's global tech practice, has left the firm.

High-tech PR will now be serviced "through a regional structure" managed by local tech leaders in each MS&L office, said Capozzi. Microsoft, IDG World Expo, Mercury Interactive and Digex are current clients.

The firm's New York tech practice has been integrated into the healthcare group to capitalize on the potential offered through the merging of the biotech and information technology markets. Scott Friedman is the New York tech leader.

MS&L has pruned 30 staffers from its workforce due to fourth-quarter client budget cuts and continued economic uncertainty worldwide. That amounts to 3.5% of the Publicis Groupe unit's employment base.

Weber Shandwick has named Charlie Perkins executive VP and head of its corporate reputation practice in New York. Perkins was chair of Edelman PR Worldwide's reputation unit.

From 1995-2000, Perkins was SVP-corporate communications at Prudential Securities, where he dealt with settlements with the Justice Dept. and SEC over the sale of Prudential's limited partnerships.

EDELMAN HANDLES HUGE FOOD RECALL

Edelman PR Worldwide is helping Wampler Foods handle a flurry of press inquiries following a federal investigation which said products from the poultry packing giant likely caused a fatal outbreak of listeria in the Northeast.

Michael Schiferl and Ann Koepel in Edelman's Chicago office are among those handling the work. Koepel confirmed to this NL that Edelman is "providing counsel" to Wampler.

Wampler, a unit of Pilgrim's Pride Corp., voluntarily recalled 27 million pounds of its poultry products after the company found traces of listeria bacteria in floor drains at a plant in Philadelphia.

The Centers for Disease Control, in a joint probe with the Dept. of Agriculture and local authorities, said that epidemiologic data indicate that precooked turkey deli meat-the focus of Wampler's recall-is the cause of the outbreak, which has infected 46 people, killing seven, since July.

The agencies said one food product and 25 environmental samples taken at a Pilgrim's Pride plant in Pennsylvania tested positive for listeria.

Wampler issued a statement following the CDC report stressing that "no illness associated with the listeria strain in the Northeastern U.S. outbreak have been linked to any Wampler products." The company said listeria often occurs naturally in the environment.

Wampler has recalled all of its cooked products packed and shipped since May - the largest recall in the Dept. of Agriculture's history.

HONEYWELL'S CRANE JOINS SKANSKA USA

Tom Crane, who was director-corporate media relations at Honeywell International, has been named senior VP-corporate communications at Skanska USA Building, the construction services unit of Sweden's $15.9 billion Skanska AB.

A key priority for Crane, who reports to CEO Michael Healy, is to unite Skanska's various operating units under a single brand name.

Crane joined Honeywell, which was then Allied-Signal, in 1995. He served as company spokesperson during the aborted General Electric takeover bid that paved the way for the return of retired CEO Larry Bossidy to the helm. Prior to A-S, Crane worked at Ruder Finn.

Skanska employs 5,300 people in the U.S. and has revenues in the $5 billion range.

CITIGROUP HIRES BG&R FOR 'GOVERNANCE'

Citigroup has hired the well-connected Barbour Griffiths & Rogers, an Interpublic unit, for help on corporate governance issues.

Former Republican National Committee chairman Haley Barbour and Ed Rogers, who served in the first Bush White House, and was a top aide to Bush-Quayle campaign manager the late Lee Atwater, spearhead the Citigroup team. They are assisted by BG&R's director of legislative affairs Jennifer Larkin, senior counsel & VP of federal affairs Dan Murphy and VP Loren Monroe, who was business development coordinator at Cassidy & Assocs.

Citigroup's Salomon Smith Barney brokerage house faces various probes concerning potential analysts' conflict of interest and how it allocated shares in initial public offerings. On Oct. 14, Citigroup denied charges in a lawsuit filed by New York State Comptroller Carl McCall-who is also running for Governor-that its Travelers insurance unit made improper loans to Bernie Ebbers, the former CEO of WorldCom.

Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill alluded to the various investigations during an Oct. 15 conference call with analysts to report a 23 percent rise in third-quarter profit. "I can't believe the company we're about to talk about is the same as the one you've been reading about in the newspapers," said Weill.

Citigroup's biggest shareholder Saudi Prince Walid bin Talal also gave a thumb's up to his investment. Following the release of the financials, he said "all those doubters should shut up. The stock has been hammered like the company is going out of business," said the Prince, who had 15-minutes of fame after former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani refused his $10 million donation for the families impacted by Sept. 11.

Citigroup trades in the $35 range, off its $52.50 12-month high.

KLORES AIDS 'SOPRANOS' STAR

Dan Klores is managing the tabloid uproar over charges from actor James Gandolfini's estranged wife that the "Sopranos" star has battled drug and alcohol abuse.

Klores, following a New York Daily News story which broke on Oct. 16, called Gandolfini's alleged improprieties a problem of the past and blasted the actor's wife for trying to gain leverage and a better divorce settlement.

Gandolfini filed for divorce in March and hoped to keep his "struggle" private to protect his son, according to the Daily News, which last week featured a front page photo of the actor headlined: "The Doper Don."

The National Enquirer, has published a laundry list of charges from Gandolfini's wife, citing friends who have tried to woo the actor off drugs and detailing binges of alcohol and drug abuse. Klores would not comment on the Enquirer piece to the Daily News.

ACLU TAKES ON ASHCROFT

The American Civil Liberties Union announced Oct. 16 plans for its first-ever $3.5 million ad campaign designed to protect America's civil liberties during President Bush's war on terror. It also is organizing a grassroots campaign to mobilize its more than 300,000 members to "lobby in defense of liberty."

Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, said the launch of the "Keep America Safe And Free Campaign" is timed to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the "USA Patriot Act," which he claims was rushed through Congress in the aftermath of Sept. 11. That Act, according to Romero, severely tightens U.S. immigration law, expands the Government's right to spy on U.S. citizens, and "increases the capacity for unreasonable searches and seizures."

ACLU's 30-second spot includes a voiceover saying, "Look what John Ashcroft is doing to our Constitution" and shows a pair of hands editing and cutting out a portion of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It continues: "He seized powers for the Bush Administration no president should ever have. The right to investigate you for what you say, to intrude on your privacy, to hold you in jail without charging you with a crime."

The ads broke on cable in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle and Washington D.C., and will be shown on the Sunday morning talk shows on ABC, CBS and NBC in selected cities.

F-H'S KLEIN JOINS LEUKEMIA SOCIETY

Fleishman-Hillard's Nancy Klein has joined The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as senior VP of marketing and communications. She will work on positioning, message development, crisis PR, and help craft an ad campaign for the Society. Klein reports to Richard Geswell, who is executive VP of marketing and revenue development at the White Plains, N.Y.-based group.

At F-H, Klein served as senior VP-corporate and business communications. Previously, she was director of government relations at the New York Power Authority, legislative aide to former NYC Mayor Ed Koch, and community relations specialist at the NYC Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development.

Founded in 1949, the Society has provided more than $280 million in research into finding cures for blood-related cancers.

Heyman Assocs. placed Klein. Lisa Ryan, HA's senior VP/managing director, conducted the search.

IPR HONORS DAN EDELMAN

Dan Edelman will receive the Institute for PR's "Alexander Hamilton Award" at the group's annual lecture in New York on Nov. 7. The Edelman PR Worldwide founder is cited for his "years of exceptional leadership in PR."

Dave Drobis, Ketchum chairman, will deliver the keynote speech at the Union League Club event.

TWO TIME INC. MAGAZINES FOLD

Time Inc. is discontinuing publication of Mutual Funds magazine after the November issue, and Sports Illustrated for Women magazine after the December issue.

A total of 78 staffers are affected by the closings.
Mutual Funds was acquired in 1998 by Time Inc. from The Institute for Econometric Research, a financial publishing company in Deerfield, Fla. Its current circulation rate base is 825,000.

SI Women, a bimonthly magazine, was started in March 2000. Its current rate base is 400,000.

D.C. TECH MAGAZINE SHUTS DOWN

Washington Techway, a biweekly local technology magazine, will be closed after the October issue.

The magazine, which was started in Jan. 2000, was unprofitable, according to Chuck Lyons, CEO of Post Newsweek Tech Media, a unit of The Washington Post Co.

The magazine was distributed free to 25,000 qualified subscribers.

LAYOFFS EXPECTED AT DOW JONES

A union representing employees of Dow Jones & Co. has notified its members that it believes the publisher will lay off workers in the near future.

"Dow Jones has confirmed to the Independent Assn. of Publishers' Employees that layoffs are coming," said a memo from Tom Lauricella, a news staffer at The Wall Street Journal, who represents members of the IAPE at the paper's New York bureau.

Lauricella said "we have not been notified of any specific layoff targets, although it looks like they will be company-wide."

Brigitte Trafford, a spokeswoman for DJ, said the company has not confirmed anything about layoffs to the union, which represents about 2,000 editorial, sales, technology and support staffers at DJ and Factiva, a joint venture the company operates with Reuters Group.

AMI RECOVERS FROM ANTHRAX ATTACK

Weekly tabloid publisher American Media Inc. has recovered from the anthrax attack last October at its headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla.

The attack, which killed one AMI employee, nearly caused a corporate disaster after news reports scared readers into believing they might pick up the deadly bacterial disease by handling the papers.

Newsstand sales of AMI's six main weeklies- The National Enquirer, Star, Globe, National Examiner, Weekly World Newsand Sun, which have an average paid circulation of 4.1 million copies per week -plummeted as scores of stores and newsstands in many parts of the country pulled copies.

David Pecker, AMI's CEO, launched a PR campaign to counteract fears that AMI's tabloids could infect readers by explaining that the papers were transmitted electronically to printing plants all over the U.S.

A year later, AMI, which is owned by Evencore Partners, an investment firm, has reported a net profit of $8 million for the quarter ending June 24, 2002, following a loss of more than $21 million for the previous fiscal year.

The company said a decline in unit sales over the last year-about 10%-was due mostly to competiton from other entertainment publications.

AMI's former headquarters is still deemed unsafe for occupancy by local and national health authorities. The company is operating out of leased space at the T-Rex Technology Center in Boca Raton.

PLACEMENT TIPS

Ramp, a magazine for men, was launched nationally on Oct. 15.

Carmin Bellucci, who is editor-in-chief, said each issue will have features on cars, crime, sports and adventure. The magazine also will have reviews of the newest gear and gadgets plus information about current books, movies and music.

A department, called "Off Ramp," will feature news and products from "beneath the radar."

The magazine will be bimonthly for the first two issues and will go monthly beginning March 2003.

Ramp's editorial offices are located at 801 2nd ave., New York. 212/986-5100.

Sports Afield, which suspended publication in June, will attempt a comeback under a new owner and a female editor.

Safari Press, a hunting books publisher, will relaunch SA with a January issue. The magazine will be published 10 times yearly, with a circulation rate base of 200,000.

Diana Rupp, who was most recently editor of Primedia's Wildfowl and Gun Dog magazines, has been named editor of SA. She said the magazine's editorial focus will be on "the person who is out there in the field."

Rupp is bringing in some new writers to handle coverage of bowhunting and warm-water fishing.

"China Crosstalk," a TV talk show, will start broadcasting from Taipei and Shanghai on Nov. 11.

Hosted by Jay Stone Shih, the Mandarin-language program will cater to Chinese-American audiences from coast-to-coast.

Shih, who will discuss a variety of issues, including politics, entertainment, education, business and lifestyle, will interview guests in the studio or in Asia.

Viewers in the U.S. will be able to talk directly to Shih's guests during the broadcasts.

Shih is also producer of the show. Julia Huang or Lisa Skriloff, with Multicultural Marketing Resources, are handling inquiries at 212/242-3351.

(Media news continued on next page)

SHOULD NEWS EMBARGOES STAY OR GO?

Journalists are questioning the practice of embargoing news.

Recent articles about the practice have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, American Journalism Review and The Washington (D.C.) Times.

The Journal said in a July 25 article: "The wide number of people with preferential access to information raises the possibility of trading for personal gain whenever there's a major study with clear implications for a company's shares."

An article in AJR's September issue said "a lot of science and medical journalists-working in a field in which embargoes are common-appreciate having official release data for news, for the same reasons that officials use them: They level the playing field between news organizations of varying sizes and improve stories because reporters have more time to digest and flesh out complex topics.

"Newspapers sign embargo agreements with medical and scientific journals all the time," said Kathryn Wenner, who asks in her report:

"What would happen if a reporter published a story before the embargo was up-or even before the embargo was put in place? And what if that information involved news that could affect people's health? Or, what if Wall Street analysts used embargoed medical information to advise selected clients?"

Wenner said these scenarios happened recently and raise questions about whether the system should be more flexible, or be done away with.

Washington Times reporter Jennifer Harper said in her Sept. 30 article that "embargoes can vex journalists, who may resent restrictions or question the validity of withholding information from the public."

She quoted several journalists who oppose embargoes, including a visitor to Poynter Institute's online site, who said "embargoes exist only because we participate and allow PR people to call the shots."

CEO APOLOGIZES FOR COMMENTS

Marjorie Scardino, CEO of Pearson, owner of The Financial Times, has expressed regret for her negative comments about business journalists in an interview with the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts.

Scardino had lambasted the business press for not working hard enough to ferret out some of the business scandals that have emerged in the last year as they were happening in the 1990s.

"I do think the business press-and I include the FT in this-has not worked hard enough to ferret out these stories," she said in the interview, which was reprinted in the London Evening Standard.

In an e-mail to FT reporters, Scardino said she was "really sad" they may have had reason to doubt her support.

"For the record, the discussion was not critical of the staff of the Financial Times, for whom I have the highest regard," she said.

PEOPLE

Michele Norris, previously a correspondent for ABC News since 1993, is joining National Public Radio on Dec. 9 as co-host of "All Things Considered," a daily afternoon newsmagazine program that airs on 573 stations nationwide.

She joins long-time host Robert Siegel and the newly appointed Melissa Block. Norris and Block are replacing Linda Wertheimer and Noah Adams, who left the program.

Andrea Rosengarten, 45, previously managing editor of Janesince its launch in 1997, has joined Vibe, a youth-oriented music and culture magazine, as managing editor. She succeeds Laura Silverman.

Peter Landers was recently transferred to The Wall Street Journal's New York staff to do science reporting after nearly a dozen years in Japan.

Susan McGinnis was recently named a business contributor to "The Early Show" and anchor of the "CBS Morning News."

NEW 'EARLY SHOW' TO DEBUT ON CBS

Harry Smith, Hannah Storm, Julie Chen and Rene Syler will become the new anchors of "The Early Show," which will make its debut on Oct. 28 on the CBS TV Network.

The four anchors will report the top stories of the day, and do interviews and features in a more flexible and spontaneous format.

"First and foremost, the new Early Show is a news program," said Andrew Heyward, president, CBS News, "so we'll continue to provide viewers with the stories and issues of the day, as well as local weather and news."

Michael Bass is senior executive producer of the program, which airs from 7-9 a.m. (ET).

TV GROUP INCREASES LOCAL COVERAGE

Sinclair Broadcast Group is increasing local news programming at many of its TV stations. Currently, 29 of the group's 62 TV stations in 39 markets air local news.

Sinclair will launch its first newscast using its newscentral and local news network model at WSMH-TV in Flint, Mich.

Joe DeFeo, previously news director of Sinclair Broadcasting Group's Baltimore TV stations, was promoted to corporate news director. He will develop ways to add more news in Sinclair markets.

G+J USA has decided to shut down Rosie after toying with the idea of renaming it and turning it into another women's lifestyle magazine. The closing will affect about 120 staffers, although a core group, including editor-in-chief Susan Toepfer, will stay on to work on new projects.

IPG SLASHES FORECAST, WARNS OF CUTS

Interpublic has slashed its 2002 profit forecast due to a "serious deterioration" in its business, and warns of more job cutbacks ahead.

The company, which in August said it would restate $68.5 million in earnings from 1997, now will restate $120 million in pretax expenses that were improperly recorded.

In a statement, CEO John Dooner said it's "regrettable" that IPG had to revise its earnings forecast, but did so because of the "difficult economic conditions we are facing throughout the world."

IPG lowered its earnings per-share forecast to $.85-$.90 from $1.25-$1.35. It will report a seven percent decline in revenues when it releases its third-quarter financials on Nov. 13. Full-year revenues will slip by nine percent.

While Dooner said "many of our brands are demonstrating competitive vitality," project-based services, such as corporate identity, retail (point-of-sale) operations and PR are in the doldrums.

High-tech and financial PR, in particular, have suffered major declines. Dooner, in his statement, warned of more job cutbacks. "Given that staffing levels at these project-based businesses anticipated a higher degree of activity, cost reduction initiatives are being implemented and additional severance expense will be recognized through operating income in the final two quarters of 2002," he said.

Japan, Mexico and South America also are hurting. Those regions combine for seven percent of its revenues.

IPG promises to reassess "the composition and structure" of its Octagon race tracks in the U.K and Hong Kong that were acquired in 1999 and 2000.
IPG had said Octagon would have a $.04 a-share negative impact on earnings this year. That has been upped to $0.15-$.20. Octagon earned $.03 a share in 2001.

Both J.P. Morgan Chase and Standard & Poor's cut their IPG ratings following the company's earnings "preannouncement."

Dooner, Orr 'Safe for Now'

Dooner and CFO Sean Orr, despite the shocker preannouncement, are "safe for now," said the Oct. 18 Wall Street Journal. It reported that some investors have urged IPG to reach out to former CEO Phil Geier and CFO Gene Beard because the company had better financial controls when they were in charge.

There have been no formal overtures to Geier/ Beard however because "there is a schism within Interpublic and on Wall Street as to who is to blame for the current problems." For example, David Katz, of Matrix Asset Advisors, said he is willing to give Dooner/Orr the benefit of the doubt. He saw "no smoking gun" in IPG's announcement. Scott Black, of Delphi Management, which has owned IPG stock for more than 20 years, criticized Dooner/Orr for apparently losing control of the business. "It's a shame because this was one of the great, great companies," Black told the paper.

PRSA/NCC BACKS APR DECOUPLING

PRSA's National Capital Chapter, the biggest in the Society with 1,012 members, will send all ten delegates to the Assembly instructed to vote for decoupling of Assembly membership from APR. The board reasoned that chapters should be able to send whomever they wish to represent them. New York, Los Angeles and Chicago delegates also will vote for decoupling.

This rule has been in effect since 1973. National board members and officers would still have to be APR.

Proponents of the measure note that about 5,000 members of PRSA do not belong to any chapter and thus have no practical way of voicing their opinion on this issue to delegates.

PRSA communicates with its 117 chapter presidents via "blast" e-mails (one e-mail reaching all presidents) but will not extend this service to members so they can easily reach the 200 or so delegates.

Because of the APR rule or other reasons, 19 chapters were not represented at last year's Assembly. Seventy Assembly seats were not filled in 2001 and 29 were not filled in 2000.

A poll by this NL of PRSA members found that almost all non-APR members favor decoupling Assembly membership from APR.

Since the non-APRs comprise 80% of PRSA's membership, the decoupling proposal would easily pass if chapters polled their members on this question. This NL knows of no chapter that is doing that.

Battle Over 'At-Large' Student Members

Meanwhile, a bitter division has developed amongthe membership over whether to allow students in the 3,760 colleges that do not have a PRSA-sanctioned PR sequence to join PRSA directly instead of through a PR Student Society of America chapter.

PRSSA has 7,000 members in chapters in 240 colleges. There are about 4,000 four and two-year colleges with a total enrollment of about 11 million.

Many hundreds of thousands of students, perhaps more than one million, are enrolled in PR, journalism and related majors but can't join PRSSA because they're not in a college with the number of PR courses that are required by PRSA.

Many professors as well as PRSSA are against the proposal to allow "at-large" PRSA members.

The "at-large" proposal was removed from this year's Assembly agenda after numerous complaints by PRSA members. A protest letter was signed by 50 leaders of PRSA including 21 past presidents.

The letter slammed the proposal as "misguided" and said it can have "severe, counterproductive impacts on the integrity of PRSA's educational mission, our relationships of trust with chartered schools, our focus on and responsibilities to PRSSA, its members, dedicated educators and advisors."

A task force is being set up to study the issue.

Few PRSSA members ever join PRSA, the Assembly was told in 2000, partly because home addresses of students are not kept. Society records indicated that 7% of PRSSA members join PRSA.

Since four of the five biggest PRSA chapters favor decoupling Assembly membership from APR, and the national board, 15 sections and many other chapters agree, passage seems likely and the Assembly should move on to other matters.

PRSA, which is on thin financial ice, needs to let students who are notin the 230 PRSA-approved colleges join as at-large student members. There are 3,770 other colleges where undergrads are studying PR and related subjects. More than 11 million are in college but the PR Student Society of America, after 34 years, only has 7,000 members.

PRSA leaders see a vast untapped market for its PR case histories (Silver Anvil winners), which make great material for term papers. The students could use the how-to articles in Tactics, compete for PRSSA awards, and network with students/profs.

But the PRSA-linked professors, already annoyed by the decoupling move,feel threatened by the proposal. They have combined with PRSSA and 21 past presidents of PRSA to knock the motion from the agenda Nov. 16. They want to put it in the deep freeze for another year. It must be put back.

The PRSA-linked professors want students to go to their colleges and not others. Despite all the talk about "ethics" and "professionalism" that emanates from PRSA, fangs get bared as soon as a hot-button issue arises. The Marquis of Queensbury rules go out the window. Particularly galling to the PR profs is that PRSA wants to take in those studying "journalism, integrated marketing, mass communications or a related field" as well as PR. PR, which was supposed to encompass everything, is now but one of many players in the field, and a fading one at that.

Almost no PRSSA members ever join PRSA. PRSA has subsidized PRSSA to the tune of $950,373 in the past six years. Now these ingrates are blocking PRSA from cultivating new revenues. The APR program, also pushed hard by the profs, itself lost $2 million+ in the past ten years. It's time for PRSA to get out from under the APR ideologues and the politically ferocious professors. Control of h.q. must also be won back from the dominant staff.

Assembly delegates, instead of sitting like bumps on a log Nov. 16 while PRSA leaders batter them with six hours of presentations (including 50 minutes on the "strategic plan"), should seize control of the meeting at 8:30 a.m. and talk among themselves like an assembly is supposed to. Roberts Rules allow this. PRSA leaders in the past have improperly blocked agenda changes. "A broad outcry of the delegates must be obeyed," a parliamentarian said. Assembly members need their own parliamentarian.

Let us hope that the rule of the APRs is over. Since their takeover of PRSA in 1973, members have watched financial PR walk out the door to IR; public affairs to legal; employee PR to human resources; media relations atrophy; speechwriting disappear, and info tech go completely to the techies when PR could have played the dominant role. NIRI now wants to take over integrated IR/PR depts. at companies. Marketing autocrats invaded PR firms and reduced PR pros to obedient servants.

If Assembly members knew the true state of PRSA's finances they would pass the at-large student motion. But, as usual, PRSA is planning to dump a mass of confusing, outdated financials on the delegates on the day of the meeting.

The mess at Interpublic threatens the jobs of thousands of PR people. IPG stock has gone from $57 at the beginning of 2000 to as low as $9+ as revelations of improper accounting surface. IPG says that financial PR (Financial Relations Board unit) and high-tech PR (WeberShandwick) have been especially hard hit. Larry Weber sold his firm to IPG in late 1996 and saw his stock (then worth $18 a share counting splits) soar from $15.6M to about $45M (if he kept it). But it would be well below $15M now and he would have a hard time selling it. Focus is on IPG's money-losing auto racetrack operations. The New York Times Oct.19 wondered what an ad agency was doing in such a business...inept financial reporters helped fuel the stock market boom, charges Phillip Longman in the October Washington Monthly. They were guilty of "conflicts of interest, ethical lapses and naive enthusiasms" and are now paying for it via "huge layoffs" at the Wall Street Journal, and the closing of the Industry Standard and other high-tech mags. Forbes, which has closed ASAP, is no longer profitable, is reducing staff and executive salaries and is "raising cash by auctioning off old man Forbes's various art collections," he says. Business Week's ad pages fell from 6,000 in 2000 to 3,786 in 2001. Blame greedy CEOs, "self-dealing security analysts" and accountants, but also blame the financial press, says Longman. "Few business journalists spend much time analyzing balance sheets," he notes. We agree that financial reporters lack financial expertise. But one reason is that companies bar them from asking questions at analyst conferences and provide them almost no help in understanding their finances. These are often made as inaccessible and opaque as possible. We asked the National IR Institute (they of the $5M treasury) to put a financial glossary on its website for the press and public. After considering this, NIRI decided against it, saying its mission is to serve members. The mark of a profession is that it serves the public first.
-- Jack O'Dwyer