OGILVY, DCI BATTLE SARS OUTBREAK

Ogilvy PR Worldwide's Washington, D.C., office is advising the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, a longtime client, during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak.

Tom Beall, co-managing director for the firm's D.C. health and medical practice, told this NL the firm is providing PR counsel and is helping with press conferences.

As of April 4, the CDC reported 100 suspected cases of SARS in 27 states, with California and New York as the most-affected regions.

DCI Handles Hong Kong Crisis

Andy Levine, president of Development Counsellors International, said he activated Phase I of his crisis PR plan following the World Health Organization's decision on April 2 to warn travelers not to visit Hong Kong, a city in which more than 700 people have SARS.

On behalf of the Hong Kong Tourist Board, DCI has sent e-mails to tour operators and travel agents to keep them abreast of developments, and combat misinformation, such as the entire city has been quarantined, he said.

Phase II will come either when the WHO rescinds the ban, or after two weeks of no new reported cases.

"Once we get credible third-party endorsement that it is safe to travel to Hong Kong, we will launch a shock and awe PR campaign," said Levine.

HORN PICKS UP $240K AGILE BIZ

The Horn Group, San Francisco, has picked up the $240,000 ($20K a month) Agile Software account, Sabrina Horn told this NL. "We got the account because of our past work for PeopleSoft," she added, because Agile is stocked with former PeopleSoft executives. San Jose-based Agile creates "product lifecycle management solutions" for companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Playtex, Hitachi and Lucent Tech.

DOUGLASS LEAVES CAMPBELL'S FOR UNISYS

Elizabeth Douglass has left a top PR post at Campbell Soup Co. for a VP of corporate communications spot at $5.7 billion IT giant Unisys Corp.

Douglass, who was director of corporate communications at Campbell Soup, is charged with managing all external PR worldwide for Blue Bell, Pa.- based Unisys, which has customers in 100 countries. She reports to SVP-CC Richard Badler.

EDELMAN ADVISES FRANCE'S SODEXHO

France's Sodexho Alliance is fending off Congressional bids to strip it of its $880 million food service contract with the U.S. Marines because of the French snub of President Bush's invasion of Iraq. "Edelman is our corporate agency of record, and we use it for crisis work," Bonnie Goldstein, a PR staffer at Sodexho's North American headquarters in Gaithersburg, Md., told this NL. Edelman's Washington, D.C., office picked up SNA last year in a pitch against Ketchum.

SNA has posted a notice on its website saying the firm is "behind our troops 100 percent." It also notes that Sodexho's efforts have "enabled the U.S. Marines to redeploy hundreds of troops in the fight against terrorism."

Rep. Jack Kingman (R-Ga.) wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asking him to consider transferring the Marines contract to a U.S.-based firm. That would send a "tangible signal to the French government that there are economic consequences associated with their international policies." The letter was signed by 59 Congressmen.

SA is the biggest company in the $56 billion food service sector.

SPITZER WANTS NON-PROFIT REFORM

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who has achieved fame by bringing actions against Merrill Lynch and other businesses that have allegedly misbehaved, wants non-profits to be as accountable and transparent as public companies.

Spitzer, interviewed on WNYC's Brian Lehrer show April 1, said, "We are in a crisis of accountability...and the kinds of accountability that I've been able to impose on corporations is going to come to the non-profits and institutions."

Spitzer said many of the practices of Wall Street were wrong and that trust can only be restored by reforms. He said the standards being set for Wall Street are to be viewed as "universal-applicable to non-profits and other groups and institutions."

PRSA is New York Corporation

PR Society of America is a New York corporation and would be affected by legislation that Spitzer has proposed. It awards millions in printing and other contracts each year but the bidding process is private in that requests for proposals are not advertised

(continued on page 7)

DELTA RAPPED AS 'ORWELL' AIR

Delta Air Lines, which has agreed to test a computerized "passenger profiling system" at three undisclosed airports, is the target of a spirited boycott campaign that has captured the attention of the carrier's PR department.

"Delta Treats Americans like Terrorists" is among articles posted by Bill Scannell, a Silicon Valley PR exec, on his boycottdelta.com site. Scannell launched the site on March 3 because he "almost had a heart attack" when he learned that Delta had agreed to test the Transportation Security Administration's Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II) developed by Lockheed Martin.

CAPPS II investigates credit records/banking history and runs criminal records of each passenger. It then assigns "threat assessment colors." Greens pass through security. Yellows require more screening. Reds are not allowed to fly.

Target of Misinformation Push

Delta has taken notice of Scannell's efforts. Tom Donahue, director of corporate communications, said the carrier has heard from a number of people who have expressed concern about CAPPS II.

"Many individuals learned about CAPPS II from the wealth of misinformation that is on Scannell's website," he told this NL. For instance, he said Delta will have no role in "the criminal checks of customers." The carrier will forward information to the TSA that it gains during the ticketing process.

There will be no centralized database, Donahue said. The color codes "disappear" once the plane touches ground.

Donahue made it plain that Delta is participating in a "federal program for national security." The TSA expects all U.S. carriers to have CAPPS II in place by next year.

Activists, meanwhile, from the left (American Civil Liberties Union) and the right (Eagle Forum) are demanding that Congress kill CAPPS II.

H&K DELIVERS ONTARIO'S SECURITY PITCH

Hill & Knowlton is making the rounds of Washington, D.C., promoting Ontario's campaign to beef up security at its border crossings with the U.S.

The Canadian province invested more than $30 million in border counter-terrorism in the aftermath of Sept. 11. Ontario also instituted a Border Crossing Incident Traffic Management program in March in anticipation of traffic slowdowns due to the U.S. war in Iraq.

H&K reports to Bob Runciman, who is Ontario's Minister of Public Safety and Security. He was in the news recently for criticizing Canadian lawmakers who are opposed to the war.

Canadians, he said, shouldn't be "spitting in the eye of its best friend." More than $350 billion in goods cross Ontario's border into Michigan and New York each year. An estimated one million jobs in Ontario depend on U.S. trade.

CLEAR CHANNEL TUNES INTO BRAINERD

Clear Channel Communications, the nation's No. 1 radio station owner, has hired Brainerd Communications to deal with controversy connected with CCC stations organizing protests in support of the war with Iraq.

Critics maintain that CCC is trying to curry favor with the Bush Administration as the Federal Communications Commission considers restricting the number of radio stations that a company may own. CCC owns more than 1,200 stations that reach an audience of 105 million.

Glenn Beck, who hosts a three-hour talk show that airs in more than 100 markets including New York, Dallas, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., is the driving force behind the rallies.

He believes American troops want to be shown that there is public support for the combat in Iraq.
Beck says his "Rallies for America" demonstrations are not "pro-war." They are intended to be a venue for "reasonable, thoughtful, and prayerful people," according to a Beck statement.

The first rallies were held in San Antonio, where Clear Channel is based, and Cleveland. More are slated for Atlanta, Washington, Tampa and Toronto.
Beck's program is distributed by CCC's Premiere Radio Networks. PRN also distributes programs by Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Carson Daly and Michael Reagan.

Lisa Dollinger is the CCC PR executive overseeing BC's work. She has not yet responded to a request about why Brainerd was chosen.
Michele Clarke, a managing director of BC, is responsible for the CCC account.

TURKEY PRAISES ITS LOBBYING TEAM

Turkey, which agreed on April 2 to let the U.S. transport supplies through its territory to coalition forces in Iraq, used its large team of American lobbyists to get its message of long-term friendship and strategic importance across to members of Congress.

Naci Saribas, who is deputy chief of mission for Turkey, told The Washington Post that the team of consultants, coordinated by the Livingston Group, was helpful in getting Turkish officials into meetings with U.S. lawmakers, keeping track of what the country's opponents might be doing legislatively and helping Turkey navigate the American political scene.

The Livingston Group, which is paid $1.8 million a year by Turkey, is headed by former House appropriations chairman Bob Livingston (R-La.). He has represented Turkey for three years, and the government just renewed his contract for another year.

Other firms working on Turkey's behalf included Solarz Assocs.; APCO Worldwide; Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrere & Denegre, and The Harbour Group.

Joel Johnson, formerly President Clinton's senior advisor for policy and communications, who works for the Harbour Group, said his firm has been working on behalf of Turkey since December.

EDUCATION PR PROS START MAGAZINE

A first-of-its kind national magazine aimed at the parents of college-bound teenagers is being started by two former education PR pros.

College Magazine, based in Madison, Wisc., will cover the high school-to college transition from the parental perspective, according to co-founders Susan Trebach and Linda Weimer.

"As far as we know, ours is the first magazine dedicated to supporting parents through this sometimes daunting enterprise," said Trebach, the magazine's editor-in-chief.

The bimonthly will be a paid subscription-based publication that will also be sold on major newsstands in the coming weeks.

Both Weimer and Trebach led the PR office of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Trebach can be reached at 608/441-2795.

GIFT LIST PUTS OUT 5TH EDITION

Amy Bernhard is taking orders at 818/790-0775 for her new "Gift List for Holiday 2003."

The 5th annual edition will list gift guide editors at national and regional magazines, top 250 newspapers, major wires and news services, and national TV.

Last year's list had nearly 800 magazine contacts.

Bernhard, a former PR pro, said publicists can use the list for "reaching the right contacts for these free editorial features."

The list is produced in a database format on CDs in two waves: magazines in mid-June, followed by short leads in mid-September.

Priced at $449, customers can save $50 if they order by June 15. www.giftlistmedia.com.

PLACEMENT TIPS

Lending Intelligence, a bimonthly magazine for consumer credit professionals, has unveiled new features in its March/April issue.

Tracy McNamara, who is managing editor, said the new features include interviews with lending industry newsmakers; small portraits of companies that will detail what they do and how they are different from each other, and a "Viewpoints" forum for forward-thinkers, on opposite sides of an issue.

Publicists can pitch ideas to McNamara at 212/564-8972 ext. 102.

LongWeekends Magazine, a quarterly, is devoted to providing readers with close-to-home travel options in and around the Great Lakes region.

The Cleveland, Oh.-based magazine has a circulation of 200,000 in eight states-New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan.
Mary Beth Brendza, marketing director at Great Lakes Publishing, said LongWeekends' mission is to deliver travel stories about destinations within a one-day drive for most of its readers.

216/771-2833 x149, or www.long-weekends.com.

EX-WINE PUBLICIST TO EDIT WINE SECTION

Linda Murphy took over as editor of The San Francisco Chronicle's weekly "Wine" section on April 1. She will also write features and a column for the country's only stand-alone newspaper wine section, which made its debut in November 2002.

Murphy, a former publicist who has been a regular contributor to the section, plans to expand the section-which focuses on the Northern California wine scene-by covering other top wines and regions.

"Tasting panel recommendations, commentaries, personality profiles, advice on finding bargain bottles, wine and food matching tips, spirits and beer features and the buzz on wine business will play regular roles in the section," said Murphy, who directed PR for eight years for wine companies in California, Oregon, Washington, Australia and New Zealand.

CEO ISSUES FAKE NEWS RELEASE

A February news release from a Dutch-based Internet services company has turned out to be a fake.

The prank was disclosed on April 1.

Those who were duped by the phony release include The Wall Street Journal, Business Wire, CNET, Wired News and Alliant Group, which had handled PR for the company.

The release announced a project, called The Honest Thief, which was described by Pieter Plass, founder of PGR BV, as a new service that would take advantage of a recent Dutch court decision that "paved the way for the Netherlands to become the world's first legal haven for file-sharing companies."

Plass, who is also president of CGB, a Dutch construction company, now admits he cooked up the lie to promote his book-also called "The Honest Thief"-and promote the philosophy behind it.

"I got fooled along with everyone else, and I'm not particularly thrilled," said Steven Phenix, senior director of the Alliant Group. "He is no longer a client of ours.

Phenix said he knew about Plass' book, but said, "I wasn't sure that that was the reason we were doing this (publicity)."

Press releases were sent out by Business Wire when the company was first announced.

"We received this release from a PR agency that is an established client of ours," said Phyllis Dantuono, senior VP for BW. "I think it's unfortunate that their client scammed them. It's more unfortunate that the scam was passed on to all of us."

MEDIA BRIEF

Gear, a men's title which was started by Bob Guccione Jr. in 1998, is suspending publication.

Guccione, who is editor-in-chief, wants to restart the magazine in September with a new editorial format. About eight of the magazine's 23 staffers were laid off.

(Media news continued on next page)

BARNETT NAMED M.E. OF TEEN PEOPLE

Time Inc. has named Amy Barnett the new managing editor at Teen People. She had been editor-in-chief of Honey Magazine.

Barnett, who is the first black woman to run a major magazine at Time, succeeds Barbara O'Dair, who was Teen People's M.E. since 2001. The magazine recently celebrated its fifth anniversary.

O'Dair will be moving to Time interactive where she will be working with Ned Desmond on the company's efforts to develop content for AOL's teen channel. O'Dair also will continue to oversee Teen People's website.

At a PCNY meeting last month, Susan Pocharski, executive editor of TP, said about 25% of the magazine's 3.6 million readers are non-whites.

Pocharski also noted TP's beauty editor Tia Williams was interested in doing more stories that addressed "diversity in beauty."

She said the magazine was "trying to really appeal to all our readers and be careful about that." (NL, 3/26/3).

New M.E.s at Other Time Titles

Kristin van Ogtrop, most recently executive editor of Glamour, will be the new managing editor of Real Simple, and Richard Perez-Feria, the editor-in-chief of 7X7 magazine in San Francisco, is the new M.E. of People en Espanol.

Van Ogtrop replaces Carrie Tuhy, who will work on various development projects, including several involving Real Simple products.

Perez-Feria succeeds Angelo Figueroa, the founding M.E. of People en Espanol. Figueroa will become editor-at-large at Time magazine where he will write about various topics. He will also be working directly with AOL on developing Hispanic content for the AOL service.

ARNETT JOINS BRITISH ANTI-WAR PAPER

Peter Arnett, who was fired by NBC for appearing on Iraqi TV, has joined The London Daily Mirror, which opposes the war.

The Daily Mirror, which normally supports Prime Minister Blair and the Labor Party, is in a circulation battle with The Sun, a pro-war tabloid that is Britain's top-selling daily paper.

Arnett, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in New Zealand, won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Vietnam War for The Associated Press.

About 17 print and broadcast reporters were banned from using the Press Center in the Philippine House of Representatives building as a health precaution. The group was barred after they returned from a PR junket to cover the opening of the Philippine Trade Exhibition in Shanghai.

It was feared by the PR and Information division that they might have picked up the killer pneumonia virus (SARS).

PEOPLE

Dr. Robert Bazell, NBC News correspondent, will be honored for his outstanding work in TV healthcare news reporting by the Healthcare PR and Marketing Society of Greater New York at its annual media dinner on April 15 at the Cornell Club.

Nancie Steinberg, president of HPRMS and senior media relations specialist in New York for City of Hope National Medical Center, said more than 100 healthcare PR and marketing pros are expected to attend the event.

Danforth Austin, 56, a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal, was named to succeed James Ottaway Jr., who is retiring as chairman/CEO of Ottaway Newspapers.

Douglas Brinkley was named editor of American History magazine, based in Leesburg, Va. He is a history professor at the University of New Orleans.

Thomas Curley, 54, who has been publisher of USA Today since 1991, is leaving to replace Lou Boccardi as chief of The Associated Press.

Curley, who was Al Neuharth's speechwriter when he was chairman of Gannett, has long battled the perception that USA Today is the nation's "McPaper," offering a sort of fast-food news product.

Curley's older brother-John-was USA Today's first editor. He retired as Gannett CEO in 2001.

Elizabeth Benjamin, a reporter for The Albany (N.Y.) Times Union, was elected 2003 president of the Legislative Correspondents Assn., which is headquartered in the state capitol. 518/424-0356.

Douglas Frantz, who was recently named investigations editor of The New York Times, has joined The Los Angeles Times as the paper's investigative reporter in Istanbul.

Frantz, 52, who had been the Times' Istanbul correspondent since 2000, when he was named to the new position, joined the paper in 1994 after working as a Washington, D.C., reporter for the L.A. Times.

He is the author or co-author of several books including "Friends in High Places: The Rise and Fall of Clark Clifford," "Teachers: Talking Out of School," "A Full Service Bank: How BCCI Stole Billions Around the World," and "From the Ground Up."

Brian Steinberg, who was covering ad/marketing news for the Dow Jones Newswire, in Harborside, N.J., has been assigned to cover the ad beat for The Wall Street Journal in New York.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "People do not want to read about companies, they want to read and hear about people."--Katherine Heaviside, president of Epoch 5, a New York-based PR firm, in an article she wrote for Business LI magazine.

A spokesman for the U.S. military, responding to observations in the media that the "plan" for the invasion of Iraq seemed "off track" timewise and otherwise, explained that Americans have to understand the military s form of reasoning.

There is no "one plan" but a variety of plans to cover all possible contingencies, he said in a radio interview.

The military takes certain risks, he noted.

One risk, he said, is that the Iraqi population might not give as warm a welcome as expected to American troops; another is that Syria, Iran or other Mid-East countries may join the fray; that weapons of mass destruction might not be found; that casualties among U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians might be higher than expected; that taking Baghdad might be harder than expected, etc.

People have to understand that these are risks that are known and deemed acceptable and that alternative plans are available to handle them, said the spokesperson.

This is the best explanation we have heard for coping with the ups and downs of the battlefront news from Iraq.

One of the risks, said the spokesperson, is the 600 journalists who are "embedded" with the troops. If things turn negative for the coalition, they will be reported. Also, some of the journalists might compromise the safety of soldiers. Two journalists, Peter Arnett and Geraldo Rivera, who were not "embeds," were bounced because of their their reports. Arnett was deemed to be aiding the enemy by appearing on Iraqi TV and Rivera s drawing in the sand showing U.S. troop positions was thought to give away too much information. A radio report by an embed that we heard said his unit was only getting one water/meal ration a day vs. the promised three. Such a report could be seen as giving "aid and comfort" to the enemy. Most commentary has been that the embeds are a good idea...

Chicago Tribune reporter David Greising, addressing the Arthur Page Society April 4, said business should put journalist embeds in factories, meetings, etc. Journalists should certainly be embedded in analyst meetings and allowed to ask questions.

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer s desire for a Sarbanes-Oxley type law for non-profits (page one) is a warning shot fired over their bows. His ferocious attacks on corporate offenders is described in a 20-page article in the April 7 New Yorker. Spitzer, saying contributors to non-profits lack certain "basic protections," has a staff of 1,800 in offices throughout the state. His h.q. occupies 11 floors at 120 Broadway, New York...

... Spitzer is filling a vacuum created by the SEC, according to New York Post columnist Christopher Byron. He wrote March 24 that new SEC chairman William Donaldson is not hiring enough staff to do the job. The SEC has become "something approaching a regulatory joke," says Byron, who feels enforcement of rules on 13D filings is "almost non-existent." Such filings are called "the foundation for policing against stock-rigging and insider-trading conspiracies." He called Boca Raton, Fla., the "scam capital of America, where entire office blocks are filled with Wall St. swindle shops of one sort or another"...

... Terry Keenan, also a Post columnist, says those calling for cleaning up corporate America must clean up their own houses first. NYSE chairman Dick Grasso, an ardent supporter of better corporate governance, spent eight years on "one of the worst boards in the land," Computer Assocs., she wrote March 30. Also, she notes, three NYSE board members recently resigned amid probes into their companies. NYSE itself has been "riddled with scandal," wrote Keenan...

... a Time/CNN poll showed about two-thirds of respondents favor President Bush and his policies. But some journalists are feeling guilty, said a New York Times story. They believe they have not worked hard enough to get across certain facts. Half of Americans responding to a Knight Ridder poll in January believe some Iraqis were among the 9/11 hijackers although none were. Iraq s linkage to 9/11 is a matter of "some dispute," says the NYT, but an NYT/CBS poll in March found that nearly half of Americans believe Saddam Hussein was personally involved in 9/11...

... the Council of PR Firms, faced with the fact that 17 conglomerate-owned firms are not reporting any numbers this year, has told members it will provide an alphabetical list of the 209 other firms that filled out its seven-page form (and paid outside CPAs to do attesting letters), showing the 2001 and 2002 net fees of the firms. But it will provide, on the same list, the 2001 figures of the 17 ad agency units. This is unfair to the firms reporting their 2002 figures and underscores the CPRF s bias towards the conglom units which pay almost all of the CPRF s dues. CPA Prof. Douglas Carmichael has pointed out that payroll and employee counts are non-GAAP figures and could be revealed without running afoul of Sarbanes-Oxley. Interpublic provides such reports for all its units and should let them be revealed. National Journal did a two-page report on the data blackout by the congloms March 22, saying the rankings have become "muddied" in recent years by the congloms habit of buying and combining PR firms. It also noted so-called PR units are performing numerous other services including lobbying...

... Crain's New York Business won't publish any PR rankings this year because of the blackout.

--Jack O'Dwyer