OXFORD PICKS MWW AS PRIMARY PR FIRM

Oxford Health Plans, which is looking to expand from its New York, New Jersey and Connecticut core market, has named The MWW Group as its national agency of record.

Michael Kempner, CEO of MWW, said his firm will be targeting employer groups, small businesses, physicians and insurance brokers on behalf of the Trumbell, Conn.-based company.

MWW, which is owned by Interpublic, edged Burson-Marsteller, a WPP Group unit, in the pitch. Grey Global Group's APCO Worldwide was another player in the mix. Magnet Communications, a part of France's Havas, was the incumbent.

Kempner said the account is a "significant six-figure" piece of business for the East Rutherford, N.J., headquartered PR firm.

PN'S WOODEN TO HEAD PUBLIC AGENDA

Ruth Wooden, who is EVP at Porter Novelli responsible for its cause-related marketing programs, becomes president of Public Agenda on Aug. 4.

Pollster Dan Yankelovich founded Public Agenda with former Secy. of State Cyrus Vance in 1975 to gauge America's viewpoints on public policy issues for business, media, education and philanthropic groups.

Wooden was president of the Advertising Council (1987-`99), and volunteer president of the National Parenting Assn. before joining PN in 2001.

PSI GRABS $480K IMAGE PACT

Public Strategies Inc. has a $480,000 one-year contract to buff the image of The Energy Financing Team, a London group looking to invest in ventures in central and eastern Europe.

PSI is to "enhance the image and reputation," monitor the media, arrange meetings and distribute promotion materials for EFT.

Jeff Eller, who was President Clinton's director of media affairs, heads the EFT account. He is managing director of the Austin-based firm's crisis communications group.

Ogilvy PR Worldwide has named Bari Love as head of its Atlanta office. She joins following a seven-year stint at Fletcher Martin Ewing Advertising, where she established its PR division.

Love has counseled Delta Air Lines, Georgia Dept. of Human Resources, and Bausch & Lomb.

She replaces Genna Keller who left Ogilvy.

CANNING EXITS; EDELMAN RESTRUCTURES

Alison Canning has resigned her international operations post at Edelman PR Worldwide, and CEO Richard Edelman has abolished that position in a management restructuring at the No. 1 independent PR firm.

The PR firm, riding the globalization wave, will no longer delineate between its U.S. and overseas offices. That structure was put into place in the early `70s when Edelman launched its international push. "Today, we are one of only four global PR firms," said Edelman in a statement. He is traveling, and could not be reached.

Canning, who was in charge of Edelman's 30 overseas offices, and acting head of Europe, said she wasn't interested in just running Europe.
Hugh Gillanders, head of Edelman's Dublin office, has been promoted to COO/Europe. Richard Edelman will help Gillanders manage the region until a CEO is found.

Edelman acquired Canning's First&42 management consulting firm two years ago. Her clients included BBC, Nike, Ford, Lever and Procter & Gamble.

She served on Edelman's executive committee, and was called "one of the U.K.'s leading communications professionals," on Edelman's website.

H&K GUIDES WORLDCOM'S COMEBACK

Hill & Knowlton-not APCO Worldwide, which had been WorldCom's agency- is spearheading the comeback of WorldCom as competitors seek to block the company's emergence from Chapter 11 and Congress promises to step up the probe of its accounting scandals.

Senator Orin Hatch plans hearings this month to investigate how WorldCom, which conceded that it cooked the books, can unload $35B in debt via bankruptcy process, according to a report in The Washington Post.

Neal Cohen, APCO North America chairman, referred a call about WorldCom to a spokesperson, who said, "We were hired by John Skidmore." He succeeded WorldCom architect Bernie Ebbers as CEO.

Michael Cappellas, the former Hewlett-Packard president, took over Skidmore's job in November. He had headed Compaq, which he successfully merged into H-P.

H&K, part of WPP Group, was Compaq's PR firm. Grey Global Group owns APCO.

PENITENT LIZZIE ON HAMPTONS PANEL

Lizzie Grubman, while declining further discussion of the accident July 7, 2001, in which 16 people were injured when she was backing up her SUV, told an audience of about 120 on July 9 in West-hampton Beach that not a night has gone by since then that she hasn't cried about it.

Grubman was one of six panelists who discussed media relations and other topics at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, which seats 425.

She said the story was "blown out of proportion" and the media portrayed her as a "terrible, terrible person." The reporters who covered the accident, she noted, were not the usual celebrity columnists and entertainment writers with whom she had built up close relationships. Citing lawsuits still out against her, she said she could not discuss any details of the accident, for which she served 37 days in jail.

The panel was one of a series on current events hosted by Warren Strugatch.

GCI OFFICE HEADS DEPART

Rick Rice and Nancy Croitoru, heads of GCI Group's San Francisco and Toronto operations, respectively, are leaving the firm.

Rice, who was brought on in April 2002 out of semi-retirement from Hill & Knowlton to guide GCI's San Francisco office through the tech downturn, is stepping down to pursue other interests, according to the firm.

Croitoru is leaving to take the CEO reins of the Food and Consumer Products Manufacturers of Canada, an association of 150 companies in that country.

"While I'm personally disappointed to see the two of them move on, I fully respect the choices they're making," CEO Bob Feldman said in a statement provided by GCI.

Mary Hancock, senior VP in San Francisco, is acting GM of that office while a successor is recruited. Rice will advise Hancock for an indefinite period of time, GCI said.

SCHICK SHIFTS TO GCPN

Michael Schick, who was director of communications for the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform and deputy press secretary to former Sen. Strom Thurmond, has joined Goddard Claussen Porter Novelli. He is a senior VP, focusing on crisis/issues management.

The Institute claims, "America's legal crisis is crippling companies, driving down shareholder value, putting employees out of work, raising consumer prices and making a handful of plaintiffs' trial lawyers millionaires overnight."

Schick also was COO at the Justice Fellowship - the public policy unit of Prison Fellowship Ministries-and a TV producer/director in South Carolina.

GCPN represents the Asbestos Alliance, Chlorine Chemistry Council, Business Roundtable, American Forest and Paper Assn., Shell, Hewlett-Packard and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

GPC BUFFS ISRAEL AMONG CANADIANS

GPC International is working to bolster Israel's image with the Canadian public, a relationship which the Jewish press says is misunderstood in the minds of many Canucks.

GPC, a unit of Fleishman-Hillard, was initially tapped by the Canada-Israel Committee to conduct an eight-month research project to gauge Canadian sentiment toward Israel.

The preliminary results of that study are not encouraging, according to the Canadian Jewish News, and CIC is expected to increase its PR efforts in the coming months.

Duncan Fulton, senior consultant for GPC's Ottawa office, told this NL his firm's work for CIC is a matter of public record but declined to discuss that work in detail, citing GPC policy.

CIC's director, Shimon Fogel, was returning from a trip to Israel and could not immediately be reached.
He told CJN that Israel and the Middle East are seen as "tent-dwellers, with sand between their toes, banana republics" to "Joe Canadian."

The CIC has been critical of Canada and prime minister Jean Chretien for supporting United Nations resolutions that the group says are sympathetic to Palestinians and supported by Israel's enemies.

CORPORATE REPUTATION GETS RESPECT

Corporate reputation is getting more respect at top companies, according to the findings of a new survey conducted by the TowersGroup, a New York-based PR firm.

Senior management behavior and service/product quality were cited as exerting the most influence on reputation, said Alan Towers, head of the firm.

Towers said it queried the highest-ranking corporate PR executives at 553 large U.S. companies to find out which factors contribute most to a company's reputation, and if the recent cases of corporate misconduct have changed the role they play in shaping reputation.

Towers said half of the 79 responding companies indicated they are giving more consideration to reputation since the Enron scandal.

"Significantly, 55% of the corporate communications executives are often asked by senior management to consider the impact of corporate decisions on reputation before these decisions are made; 19% are always asked," said Towers, who disclosed the findings on June 18 in a memo to "clients and friends."

"About 40% of the executives think part of CEO compensation should be based on a measurement of the company's reputation," he said. "Nearly half think a portion of their own compensation should be based on a formal measure of their company's reputation," said Towers.

It is "admirable that so many are willing to take personal responsibility for corporate reputation in the era of public accountability, but taking responsibility could be risky" he said.

BRIT EDITOR RAPS U.S. PUBLICISTS

"I do not recall having encountered PRs quite as brazen, as persistent and as nutty as I have over the past nearly four years as The Financial Times' New York bureau chief," said Andrew Hill, who is returning to London as the FT's comments & analysis editor in August.

"Now I am poised to leave New York, I can at last tell the untold story of the desperate, odd and sometimes, frankly threatening PR pitches that failed," he wrote in FT's July 8 edition.

"September 1999 to June 2003 was a particularly rich period for crazy PR stunts," said Hill. "They included the Internet boom, when press coverage was often the best way for a fledging dot-com to spread the word."

At the height of the bubble, Hill got a pitch from a publicist who said Ben Webster, a "world-class climber," would "lead an expedition to Mount Everest beginning March 21st, arrive at base camp April 6-ish and whack a golf ball and book a tee time using Book4golf's technology."

Hill said another "painful pitch" that failed came from a publicist, who said the product "has a great proliferation of vaporware in the front end, but the real value is going to be mined on the back end."

His staff also took delight in press release headlines like this: "iBasis Selects Eftia's Oss Solution; Eftia's Master.scribe Enables iBasis."

"For those who worked on these accounts, we wish you luck in your new jobs as waiters, taxi-drivers and street performers," wrote Hill, whose other big beef was aimed at PR pros who "seemed bent on deliberately annoying FT reporters by openly asking us to delay publication until a cooperating newspaper had printed its 'exclusive'."

TV STATION REIMBURSES TOURISM BUREAU

KITV-TV, Honolulu, which sent a reporting team to Japan with Gov. Linda Lingle, will reimburse the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau for airfare and hotel bills, which the bureau had offered to pay.

The station sent a reporter and cameraman to accompany Lingle, who went to Japan to encourage visitors to Hawaii.
The ABC-affiliate decided to pay its own expenses after Democratic lawmakers said the free trip "raises questions about the abuse of taxpayer dollars by state tourism officials."

The statement issued by Senate president Robert Bunda and House Speaker Calvin Say also raised serious questions about "any attempt by a state official to compromise the public's right to fair and unbiased coverage by a news organization."

KITV general manager Mike Rosenberg maintained the station did nothing wrong by arranging for the HVCB to pay its expenses. Lingle's press secretary, Russel Pang, told The Honolulu Advertiser Lingle had not requested that HVCB pay for the TV contingent, but agreed to the arrangement.

NEWSWEEK HIRES HISPANIC REPORTER

Jennifer Ordonez has joined Newsweek's Los Angeles bureau and will be covering Hispanic issues as well as cultural, social and political issues in California.

She was previously at The Wall Street Journal's Los Angeles office, where she covered the major music labels.

PEOPLE

Howard Schneider, 57, was named to be editor of Newsday, succeeding Anthony Marro, who will retire on Aug. 15. Schneider joined the Long Island newsaper 34 years ago as a reporter.

Jeffrey Derderian, the TV reporter whose Providence nightclub caught fire earlier this year, killing nearly 100 and injuring many others, has resigned from WPRI-TV.

Dian Masciale, who was senior broadcast producer for "Dateline NBC," was named executive producer of "Shop & Style," a one-hour live shopping program which will air weekday mornings on NBC-owned and operated stations in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Philadelphia, beginning Aug. 4.

Susan Stapleton, previously president/editorial director at Ink magazine, was named executive editor of Philadelphia Style magazine, replacing Andrea Soll.

Bob McCartney, previously managing editor of The International Herald Tribune, was named to oversee The Washington Post's Continuous News desk, which provides breaking news stories to the paper's website.

Doug Brod, 39, formerly a senior editor at Entertainment Weekly, has joined Spin magazine as executive editor.

Sherman Robbins, 57, who was editor-in-chief of all 10 Palm Beach Media Group's publications, which includes Palm Beach Illustrated, Tampa Bay Illustrated, Naples Illustrated and others in principal cities in Florida, died June 18.

Kelli Delaney and Darren Walsh are joining The Star, a weekly paper published by American Media. Delaney, who was fashion director at Us Weekly, will be creative director of The Star, and Walsh, also previously at Us, becomes The Star's photo director.

Floyd Norris, chief financial correspondent for The New York Times, was given the Lifetime Achievement Award, and Glenn Kramon, business editor of The Times, got the Lawrence Minard Editor Award at the 2003 Gerald Loeb Awards for journalism excellence presented by the Anderson School of UCLA.

Alan Richman, who is GQ's food/wine critic, was named editor-at-large of Bon Appetit magazine.

(Media news continued on next page)

PEOPLE EN ESPANOL IS REVAMPED

People en Espanol's new editor Richard Perez-Feria has overhauled the six-year-old, Spanish-language monthly.

The revamped magazine, which went on newsstands on July 7, will have more celebrity and human-interest profiles, expanded fashion and beauty coverage, and a guide into the hottest trends in entertainment.

More than 30 pages have been allocated to fashion and beauty coverage, including a new El Verdicto or "Fashion Police" and El Cambio or "Make Me Over" sections.

Up-to-date beauty products and celebrity favorites will complete the section.

The magazine reaches more than four million readers in the U.S. each month.

WORTH MAGAZINE WILL RETURN IN OCT.

Worth, a personal finance magazine which folded last March, will resume publishing as the Robb Report Worth in October under its new owners CurtCo., publisher of the Robb Report and other magazines covering aspects of luxury living.

The new magazine, which will publish a December issue and then go monthly in January, will give advice on buying and owning companies, instead of investment advice.

Brett Anderson, senior VP/editorial at CurtCo, is overseeing the redevelopment of the title. He is also hiring staffers for the magazine, which will operate from Worth's 575 Lexington ave. address in New York as well as CurtCo.'s offices in Malibu, Calif., and Acton, Mass.

DISTINCTION TO PREMIER IN SEPTEMBER

Distinction, a new luxury magazine for affluent and socially minded Angelenos, will publish its premier issue in September.

Distinction, which is published by Angeles Publications, a division of Los Angeles Times Communications, will be published bimonthly as a separate and independently written and edited publication from The Los Angeles Times.

The magazine will be mailed directly to about 50,000 households and an additional 5,000 copies will be sold at select newsstands and distributed to upscale retail locations, spas, hotels, and events.

Jane Kahn, publisher, said the magazine will go inside the world of Los Angeles society that is not about Hollywood celebrities, and focus on the business and cultural leaders, philanthropists and creative visionaries.

Laurie Pike, who is editor of Distinction, said every issue will look inside the lives and homes of powerful and interesting people.

Pike had been editor-in-chief and publisher of Clue magazine, a Los Angeles style and arts magazine, from 1998-2001.

PLACEMENT TIPS

The Baghdad Bulletin, a new English-language magazine, published its first issue on June 24.

David Enders, 22, who interned at The Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press, The Associated Press and The New York Times, is editor of the newsmagazine.

He and a few friends from American University in Beirut went to the Iraqi capital less than two months earlier to create the publication in an effort to bring responsible journalism to Baghdad.

An online version is at www.baghdadbulletin.com.

Priority has been launched by Pitney Bowes as a bimonthly magazine for small business owners who are customers of the Stamford, Conn.-based company.

The magazine will cover a variety of topics such as customer service, marketing, technology, competitiveness and financial solutions.

Elizabeth Lanza, editorial director of Priority, can be reached at [email protected].

Healthcare Enterprise will make its debut in Nov. 2003. The new quarterly publication, which will be published by Manhassett, N.Y.-based CMP Media's Information Week and Optimize magazine, will address the needs of IT professionals in the healthcare industry.

AskMen.com set new site records with eight million monthly readers and 45 million page views in May, according to Ash Karbasfrooshan, spokesman for the Montreal-based website.

The website, which was founded in 1999, is devoted to men's content, has published more than 8,000 articles geared toward providing men with practical advice, including the latest business trends, fitness techniques and gossip.

It recently started AskMen.com Radio in a local market in anticipation of a rollout later in the year across North America.

Armando Gomez, who is editor, can be reached at 514/908-2552.

WSJ OFFERS 'INSIDE LOOK' AT SEMINAR

Three members of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page staff will provide an "inside look" at how topics are covered each day and how op-ed articles are selected at a "first-ever executive seminar," sponsored by the paper and OpinionJournal.com.

Tickets to the seminar, which will be held Sept. 10 from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Harvard Club in New York, cost $149. Maximum attendance is 200.

The speakers will be Melanie Kirkpatrick, associate editorial page editor; James Taranto, editor of OpinionJournal.com, and Dorothy Rabinowitz, editorial board member.
Elaine Richardson is handling reservations at 609/520-4306.

The use of celebrities for publicity and fund-raising purposes gets a good going over in the August Vanity Fair via a profile of celebrity broker Aaron Tonken. A lot of PR and advertising these days hinges on celebs of one stripe or another.

Tonken's lawsuit against Hill & Knowlton and Cunard in 1998 called H&K "a celebrity-driven organization" and included as an exhibit a letter from H&K thanking Tonken for getting Neil Sedaka to attend an agency Christmas party.

Up until splitting with Cunard/H&K, Tonken said he had "cordial and trusting" relations with them.

Correspondence filed in the suit between H&K and Tonken showed that celebs were sought as guests on Cunard cruise ships. A number of details about working with celebs came out in the suit (BC188041, Los Angeles Superior Court). Most of the time, such details are cloaked in secrecy.

Celebrity agents Norby Walters, Barry Krost and Elizabeth Much gave declarations saying their ties with celebs were damaged when cruises being arranged by Tonken didn't take place.

A main point made is that political and movie stars are used to accepting lavish gifts and large amounts of money to make appearances, even at events that are ostensibly charity fundraisers.

Quoting papers in a suit by the California attorney general against Tonken, the article said ex-President Gerald Ford, a featured guest at the "A Family Celebration 2001" fundraiser, got $200K for himself and $150K for the Betty Ford Center.

A PR "celeb" made a public appearance last week in Westhampton Beach, N.Y., but most people in the town were unaware of it.

Lizzie Grubman, who served 37 days in jail after injuring 16 people with her SUV July 7, 2001, was one of six panelists discussing various media topics. Her name was not on the marquee.

It's odd that one of the best known names in PR and in the New York area should appear in family-oriented Westhampton, which media often call the "un-Hampton" and worse. Celebs do not usually go to this Hampton.

Grubman, expressing regret over the incident, is making more and more public appearances (radio show, teaching a PR class). Anger about her in PR and on Long Island is still high. To the PR pros who condemn her, we say she's a publicist who deals with the press. Publicists cannot have their calls screened or otherwise duck the press and remain in business long. Clients that want strategy and marketing can hire PR firms that act as management consultants. Clients that want ink should ask target media for names of PR people who return their calls and get their questions answered.

Maria Russell's quest for nomination as treasurer of PRSA comes as no surprise, not after she was named "senior counselor" for nine boards and committees and given top billing for these units in the 2003 members' directory. This was a blatant misuse of the directory for political purposes since officers are mostly picked as a reward for their service to PRSA.

Kathy Lewton, nominating chair, said 2003 president Reed Byrum named Russell to the posts.

1987 president Jack Felton charged in 2000 that an "elite" inner group was running PRSA and that members are fed up with this. He attacked the nine members of the board who signed a petition backing Joann Killeen for president-elect that year after the nominating unit had picked Art Stevens. The signers included Russell, Byrum and Judy Phair. "The board is not to elect its own officers," Felton said in quoting PRSA's bylaws.

Lewton defended this first-ever open interference in the nominating process by the board. At least the backers of Killeen did it in the open "rather than sneaking around behind the scenes," she told the 2000 Assembly.

The anti-New York bias at PRSA is evident in the selection of Phair as the only person to be considered for president-elect. If she gets to be president, she would be the third sole practitioner in a row to head the Society.

When New Yorker Stevens ran for president-elect in 2000, the nomcom accepted Deanna Pelfrey and Killeen as candidates against him. When Stevens got the nod anyway from the nomcom, Killeen became a write-in candidate backed by nine of the 17 directors, five district heads and 19 others. She defeated Stevens in a runoff at the Assembly.

Lewton, who took an extra week this year to round up candidates, could find only one for president-elect, Phair. Lewton said many groups put up one person as top officer. But not when Stevens ran. Stevens is now opposing Russell for treasurer and eventually president (since almost all treasurers become president). We don't think he has a chance against Russell and her 13 pages of committees, boards, etc. (vs. seven for Stevens and six for Phair).

He can only win by showing where he stands on the real issues facing PRSA and PR such as installing senior PR pros at h.q.; local chapter-only membership; stop any spending on APR above its income; decouple APR from office-holding and Assembly membership this summer; cap h.q. salaries at $150K; allow students to join PRSA directly from any college; put CPA on staff; have open bidding on PRSA contracts; publicize staff, officer expense accounts, etc.

He should campaign among the non-APRs who can put heat on the APR delegates. The APRs will realize how unfair and undemocratic it is that only they would be debating their fate at the Assembly Oct. 25.

-- Jack O'Dwyer