PR21 DRIVES KIA MOTORS' PR

PR21 edged GCI Group, Publicis Dialog, Douglas Cohn & Wolfe and incumbent Pacific Communications in the race for the $750K Kia Motors account.

Kim Custer, PR director at the Irvine, Calif.-based company, is looking to promote Kia as more than just a maker of inexpensive autos. He said the plan was to move beyond Kia's "reputation for value" by stressing improvements made by the South Korean automaker in quality and passenger safety.

PR21 is an Edelman PR unit. Jerry Swerling (Malibu, Calif.) handled the Kia agency search.

WRIGHT SUCCEEDS CRITCHLOW AT MERRILL

Jason Wright joins Merrill Lynch Sept. 3 as senior VP--communications and public affairs. He succeeds Paul Critchlow (56), who becomes counselor to chairman Stan O'Neal and vice chairman of public markets responsible for drumming up business for ML with state and local governments.

Wright, 42, had headed worldwide communications for Nabisco Group Holdings and its predecessor company, RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp. Previously, he was director of corporate and financial communications at Aetna Inc. He was running Geer Mountain Holdings, a consulting firm, before agreeing to join ML.

Wright, co-chair of the Museum for African Art in New York, will report to O'Neal.

SAUDI ARAMCO SPLITS WITH H&K

Saudi Aramco has dropped Hill & Knowlton as its PR firm after a four-month stint. The Saudi Arabia government-controlled entity turned to the WPP Group unit in January to help devise a communications strategy.

The scope of H&K's engagement was "indefinite," subject to termination by either party. H&K was to be paid based on hourly rates. It is not clear how much the world's biggest oil company paid H&K.
Saudi Aramco traces its roots to 1933 when Saudi Arabia granted a drilling concession to Chevron. Mobil and Texaco joined Chevron as owners until the Saudis bought them out in 1980.

Cordiant Communications shareholders overwhelmingly approved the takeover by Martin Sorrell's WPP Group on July 23. More than 99 percent of them voted to support the deal. They are in line to receive $17 million worth of WPP stock.

HOPSON LEAVES PD FOR B-M

Andy Hopson, president & COO of Publicis Dialog, has joined Burson-Marsteller as CEO of its northeast region and New York market leader. The 48-year-old executive called B-M the "best of class." He said being part of its management team is like "joining the New York Yankees."

B-M's statement praised Hopson as a "results-oriented, roll-up-your sleeves executive."

Hopson helped launch PD following Publicis Groupe's acquisition of his former shop EvansGroup PR. He also was VP-marketing of the Seattle Development Council in the early `90s, and is credited with creating a buzz about Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.

Hopson has counseled Shell Oil, Weyerhaueser, Nestle, Hazelnut Council and United Soybean Board. At PD, he was responsible for offices in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, Salt Lake City and Boise.

He will report to Chet Burchett, B-M USA pres.

BKSH & Assocs., which is Burson-Marsteller's lobbying unit, has formed Civitas Group to help clients get homeland security accounts. The venture is a partnership with Stonebridge International, the firm headed by former Clinton White House National Security Adviser Sandy Berger. BKSH chairman Charlie Black, who has served as spokesperson for both Bush Administrations, co-chairs CG with Berger. Michael Hershman, who was with the U.S. Agency for International Development and senior staff investigator during the Senate's Watergate hearings, is president.

NEW SPECS FOR BLUE CHIP PR SPOTS

The old specs for the top PR job at a Fortune 500 company were white male with a solid PR and press background.

The new specs, according to a study of the biographies of the 156 members at the 2003 PR Seminar, indicate a trend towards hiring a woman, an African-American, or a person with a political, corporate management, educational, human resources or legal background with no experience as a reporter.

Twenty-four of the biographies of the new members show no media experience. Eighteen of these are women. Five others reported a media background-four men and one woman.

A political and/or government background seems to help.

(continued on page 7)

SAUDI ARABIA, VIA QORVIS, LASHES OUT

Qorvis Communications is helping Saudi Arabia lash out at critics who believe the "blanked-out" section of the Congressional 9/11 report exposes the Kingdom's involvement in the terror attacks. The Bush Administration demanded that the 28-page section dealing with the role played by Saudi Arabia and other governments in 9/11 be omitted from the 900-page report.

"Those pages are being used by some to malign our country and our people," said a statement from Prince Bandar, Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. "Rumors, innuendos and untruths have become, when it comes to the Kingdom, the order of the day," said the Qorvis-distributed release.

Why Coddle Saudi Arabia?

New York Senator Chuck Schumer blasted the Administration for its "strategy of coddling and cover-up" when it comes to the Saudis. "We know there are terrorists walking out in the open over there," he said in a statement.

The Democrat criticized the Administration's "attempt to conceal evidence that implicates the Saudi regime in a terrible tragedy-a tragedy that claimed the lives of over 3,000 Americans and put hundreds of thousands of troops in harm's way by leading us into two wars."

Qorvis CEO Michael Petruzzello could not be reached to answer a question about whether Saudi Arabia would support declassifying the blanked-out section. The Embassy did not return a call.

EDELMAN DROPS BAT

Edelman PR Worldwide, which represents the National Dialogue on Cancer, has dropped British American Tobacco as a client in Malaysia, according to The Cancer Letter of July 25.

Edelman had signed a pledge that the firm would not work for tobacco companies when it won the non-profit group's account last October. The firm's Kuala Lumpur office, however, helped BAT promote "social reporting," issuing press releases about scholarships for children of tobacco farmers.

Leslie Dach, Edelman's vice chairman, terminated that project when contacted by a reporter from TCL. "Our policy is that we don't do work for tobacco companies," he told the publication. Dach said the Malaysian BAT work slipped through the cracks.

Richard Edelman sent a July 23 letter to Peggy Conlon, president of the Ad Council and head of the group's communications committee, to say the Malaysia work was in violation of company policy. He assured her the BAT connection was severed, and that all fees earned from the account would be contributed to charity.

Conlon accepted Edelman's explanation, and praised Edelman's culture as one that wants to do everything it can to improve the health of the country.

Edelman affiliates in Moscow and Warsaw work for tobacco interests, but Dach said the firm has no control over their policies.

R&C PROMOTES GIBSON'S 'PASSION'

Rogers & Cowan is doing damage control for Mel Gibson's controversial movie, "The Passion," which has been criticized as being anti-Semitic for holding the Jews rather than the Romans responsible for the death of Jesus. R&C's Alan Nierob represents Icon, the actor's production company, responsible for the film which uses the ancient Aramaic and Latin languages to tell its story.

Gibson maintains the film is strictly based on the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but Paula Fredriksen, a Boston University religion scholar who reviewed the script, notes major inaccuracies with The Passion in the current New Republic.

She reviewed the script at the invitation of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Anti-Defamation. Icon provided those groups the script for the movie that may be released in the spring.

The screenplay "presents neither a true rendition of the Gospel stories nor an historical account of what could have happened in Jerusalem, on Passover, when Pilate was prefect and Caiaphas was high priest," wrote Fredriksen.

The author notes that while "anti-Semitism is not the problem in the U.S., she shudders to think what will happen when the film is shown in Poland, Spain, France and Russia. "When violence breaks out, Mel Gibson will have a much higher authority than professors and bishops to answer to," Fredriksen wrote.

R&C is a unit of Weber Shandwick.

GOV. PATAKI'S PR STAFF DESERVES RAISE

PR pros on New York State Governor George Pataki's staff deserve pay raises, according to a memo issued by Lisa Stoll, his communications director. The memo was a "draft proposal" that inadvertently was e-mailed to the media.

Pay hikes were recommended for Joe Conway, Pataki's $109K a-year press secretary, Mollie Fullington, the $105K NYC spokesperson, and Suzanne Morris, another spokesperson who earns $80K. Stoll earns $155K, and received a $75K bonus last fall for work on Pataki's re-election campaign.

The memo was sent as an attachment to a press release announcing a press conference about affordable housing, according to the report in the Daily News.

The state government has been wrestling with hard times. It cut budgets 10 percent, implemented a hiring freeze, and banned unnecessary travel for officials.

Stoll did not indicate what size pay raise she was looking for.

Dan Klores, who co-directed "The Boys of 2nd Street Park," told The New Yorker that he decided to make the documentary about his five basketball-playing boyhood friends from Brooklyn's Brighton Beach because he found himself "very busy and very frustrated" and needing to somehow assess his own life after 20 years in PR.

TASCHEK WRITES LAST REPORT FOR EWEEK

John Taschek has written his last column for eWeek, published by Ziff-Davis.

"After nearly 300 product reviews, 400 columns and thousands of meetings over the last 11 years, it's time for me to call it quits," said Taschek, who said he is taking a position at a CRM vendor located in San Francisco.

Taschek said one of the biggest changes he has noticed is that CEOs have become less accessible.

"In 1990, as an ordinary IT guy, I stood 15 feet from Bill Gates in a room of 200 people at the FOSE computer show in Washington.

"Today, CEOs travel with entourages and bodyguards and live in fear of users. These CEOs simply aren't allowed to live normal lives or run normal businesses. They've become too important, and they've lost touch," said Taschek, who can be reached at [email protected].

WRITER RECALLS PRESS TRIP DROWNING

Last July 8, David Graves, a reporter for The London Daily Telegraph, drowned while scuba-diving on a press trip to the Bahamas that had been organized by the Bahamas Tourist Office and the Dive Show, a trade show.

Jane Ridley, a senior feature writer for The London Daily Mirror, who went on the trip, recalls the day and its aftermath in an article that ran July 21 in The Guardian under the headline "When a press trip goes wrong."

"Like hundreds of journalists every year, David and I accepted the all-expenses-paid 'facility trip' in our holiday time on the understanding we would write a travel piece," said Ridley.

Ridley said the incident has raised a question mark over the relationship between journalists and PR pros.

"It's relatively easy for a PR pro to handle the press when a trip goes well. But when things go wrong tensions can mount," said Ridley, who was criticized by a PR pro for the BTO for providing details about Graves' death to the Telegraph.

"I briefly told the executive what had happened and was quoted in a report in the next day's paper," said Ridley. "That call changed everything." She said the BTO's PR person insisted that "I should not have spoken to the Telegraph because the BTO wanted to be the principal outlet of information, and 'What if your information gets distorted in the paper?'"

"Looking back, I believe the whole episode could have been handled better. I think the BTO was naive. It was obviously a catastrophe for them.

After all, what could be worse than a national newspaper journalist dying on a trip designed to showcase their island," asked Ridley.

PEOPLE

Edward Kosner, who just turned 66, will retire as editor-in-chief of The New York Daily News in March 2004, when his contract ends.

Bob Reed, 49, editor of Crain's Chicago Business, has resigned. He had objected to increased coverage of lifestyles.

Managing editor Judith Crown was appointed interim editor until recruiters find a replacement for Reed at the weekly business paper.

John O'Sullivan has resigned as editor-in-chief of United Press International to join National Interest, an international affairs journal, in mid-August.

Janice Min, 33, was promoted to editor of Us Weekly, replacing Bonnie Fuller, who left to be the editorial director of American Media.

Atoosa Rubenstein, 31, previously editor of Cosmo Girl, has moved to Seventeen to replace Sabrina Weill as editor.

Susan Schulz was promoted to editor of CG.

Karen Cook has resigned as executive editor of The Village Voice. Carla Spartos, senior editor, associate editor Laura Sinagra, and staff writers C. Carr and Leighton Kerner have also departed from the weekly paper.

MEDIA BRIEFS

Lance Gould, a former feature writer for The New York Daily News, is editor-in-chief of Drill, which plans to start publishing in October as a bimonthly magazine for people who serve in the military.

Gould said Drill will be a humor-oriented adventure title, designed as a lifestyle magazine for enlisted personnel in the four U.S. branches of the military.

The publisher is John Brown Publishing, a British-based custom magazine publisher that produces titles from companies like Nike and Charles Schwab.

Drill will have a rate base of about 130,000.

Karol DeWulf Nickell, editor-in-chief of Better Homes and Gardens, told min that Meredith's flagship publication will be centered around these four themes in 2004: 1. Get organized; 2. Eat Well; 3. Get Fit, and 4. Relax.

"There will be eight to 10 articles on each," Nickell told the newsletter. "They are popular subjects, but other magazines typically specialize in one or two. Our `all-in-one,' we believe, is unique."

This November and December BH&G's theme will be Thanksgiving/Christmas "Homecomings."

Hi, a monthly magazine published by the U.S. State Department, is now on sale in the Middle East.

The Arabic-language magazine, which is targeting young people with a mix of features, celebrity profiles and music, is designed to show a positive image of America and highlight similarities between young people in the U.S. and the Middle East.

The articles will be written by Arab Americans in Washington, D.C., and stringers in the Middle East.

(Media news continued on next page)

STUDY SHOWS AMERICANS CRAVE GOSSIP

Gossip news has become an "obsession" for Americans, according to the findings of Euro RSCG Worldwide's survey of 1,016 Americans aged 18-54.

The agency's study shows Americans love entertainment and they love gossip. "Put the two together and you get Hollywood gossip, seen as an obsession by 75% (and by 83% of those aged 18-24)," the agency's study said.

The survey findings were disclosed at a launch party for the new book "Buzz: Harness the Power of Influence and Create Demand," authored by Marian Salzman, Ira Matathia, and Ann O'Reilly, marketing executives at Euro RSCG.

Nearly half of those surveyed (48%) think there is something wrong with gossip, and only 19% defend it as a natural form of communication, except in New York, where residents are split on the statement: one-third agree and one-third disagree.

Smoking Gun Theory

Less than a third of the sample (30%) disagree with the assertion that people can salve their gossip guilt with the thought that without gossip, some of the most important news stories would never emerge.

Over one-third (37%) of the sample believe most gossip column content is planted by the celebrities themselves.

Seventy-four percent of the sample are especially interested in personal scandals.

When asked what type of gossip they most enjoy, the descriptor "funny" came out on top, chosen by 44%.

Here are some of the other key findings from the study:

1. People find local news the most valuable part of the newspaper.

2. The "weather" section rates as more valuable than classifieds, international news, or business news.

3. Of the top five people cited as trusted sources of news and information, four are women: Barbara Walters, followed by Mike Wallace, Jane Pauley, Oprah Winfrey, and Katie Couric.

4. Americans trust Oprah Winfrey more than Larry King.

5. The Wall Street Journal is the most trusted news brand overall, followed by "60 Minutes."

MAGAZINES ARE PUT UP FOR AUCTION

Early American Life, Keystone Sportsman, and Motorcyles Retrospect will be sold to the highest bidder by the trustee for bankrupt Celtic Moon Publishing, the owner of the three magazines.

The Harrisburg, Pa.-based publisher filed a petition for relief under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy code on June 18, 2003, with the Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

Sealed bids must be delivered no later than Aug. 8 at 5 p.m., at the offices of Michael Fox International, 11425 Cronhill dr., Owings Mills, MD 21117.

The auctioneer is handling the sale for Leon Haller.

HOW TO BEAT THE PRESS

The Aker Partners, a Washington, D.C.-based PR firm, suggests to clients that they start their own publications to tell their story when the media won't.

"The media today want controversy. They want shock and awe," the firm said. "But what if you can't give that to them? What if you simply have a positive story to tell?"

This was the challenge facing one of its clients, the oil pipeline industry. "Oil pipelines are hands-down the safest way to transport petroleum in America. They're safe. They're cost effective. They're dependable. They're essential," the firm said. "Not exactly sensational fodder for the six o'clock news."

Aker's solution was to suggest a monthly e-newsletter. "Don't just use the media, become the media. Why be at the mercy of a reporter and several editors to get your story right?," the firm asks.

"One-to-one, interactive communications, where a client speaks and an indiviudal responds, is the best way to influence people," said Colburn Aker, managing partner.

"Today, this newsletter-In the Pipe-is widely read and is enabling the industry to directly communicate pipelines' benefits and their operator's commitment to safety.

"What's more, we even receive calls from reporters and government officials asking for more information about some of the articles they've been reading," Aker said.

The latest edition of the newsletter is available at www.enewsbuilder.net/aopl.

PLACEMENT TIPS

Howard Rosenberg, who writes a TV column for The Los Angeles Times, is turned off by PR pitch letters that begin with "Dear colleague."

"We are not their colleagues," wrote Rosenberg in his July 21 column. "We are not partners with them in a crusade to glorify and promote the TV industry, any more than it's the role of news media to embrace the White House's efforts to deify the president."

Rosenberg said publicists and the press have an "adversarial relationship predicated on conflicting agendas written in stone: They polish, we dull."

TheTrendReport.com was started by Judy Gordon, NBC's "Today" show on-air style editor. The site features the latest trends in fashion, lifestyle, celebrities, entertainment, travel, electronics, beauty and food.

Information about "trends in the making" are welcome from publicists.

E-mail information and jpeg (whenever possible) to Gordon at [email protected].

CTA PR, Louisville, Colo., said the best day for non public-owned companies to issue a news release is Tuesday, followed by Wednesday and then Thursday. "Stay away from Mondays," said CTA.

The high ratio of new PR Seminar members who are women and the backgrounds of all the new members signal a dramatic change in the specs for heading a blue-chip PR dept. (most now use the term "corporate communications").

The old model was a white male who first had a career in major news media. He may have worked his way up the corporate PR ladder or have come in at the top, having built up a close relationship with the CEO while reporting on the company.

The latest appointments are more likely to be a woman with a background not in media but in marketing, sales or a specific industry, and an extensive record of community service.

Big companies are also making an effort to recruit African-American and Hispanic PR pros.

These positions may entail media relations but also many other areas such as marketing, community relations, employee relations, company foundation, international and, possibly, investor relations.

The more likely route to the top these days is through politics and/or government service.

Working directly for the Republic National Committee helps. Democratic service is useful as well as working for state senators and governors.

Speech-making and writing books and articles is rarely mentioned. In previous times, corporate PR heads such as Bert Hochman of Lever, Kerryn King of Texaco and Ed Block of AT&T would regularly give statesman-like speeches on PR topics.

CC heads are usually marketing-oriented. A case in point is the shift of Seminarian Beth Comstock of General Electric out of PR and into a new post as VP of marketing, heading an "invigorated" marketing effort (July 23 NL).

The gender gap is especially evident in college where only one or two men may be in a PR class.

PR groups that want to foster diversity should encourage more minority males to enter college. There are 166 African-American women in college for every 100 African-American men. Among all college students, there are 129 women for every 100 men.

Women's PR groups (which also accept males) are flourishing. New York Women in Communications, which broke off from WICI national in 1997, now has 1,000 members, up from less than 800 two years ago. Dues are $110. Boston Communicators, the first to break away from WICI national, is celebrating its ninth anniversary and has 275 members. Dues are $150. PRSA/NY, formerly the largest in PRSA with 1,200+ members, had 629 as of Dec. 31, 2002. Members pay $225 to national plus $80 to the chapter. American Women in Communications, Severna Park, Md., has 4,000-5,000 members.

We have asked PRSA ethics chair Charles Wood, now in his own firm after retiring from the Omaha World-Herald, to look into what we feel are unfair and unethical practices related to this year's nominating process.

PRSA has more than 120 people involved in ethics including nine ethics board members, ethics officers in all 116 chapters, plus a Fellows advisor and a "senior counselor" (all of whom are listed on the PRSA website).

The Code of Ethics (which replaced the Code of Professional Standards in 2000), uses the terms "ethics," "ethically," and "ethical" 12 times in its initial column of type.

This year's candidates, including Maria Russell who is running for treasurer (leading almost certainly to president-elect) against Art Stevens, emphasize PRSA's high ethics. Russell's pitch says PRSA must "continue to represent the highest standards of practice and ethics in PR." Russell, the Fellows advisor to the ethics board, and Kathy Lewton, nominating chair and senior counsel to the ethics board, should recuse themselves from this case.

We're not sure the ethics board will accept it as a case.

Wood listened to us but made no commitment. The issue is that insiders at PRSA, with their hands on the levers of publicity, gave Russell a generous helping of it by putting her name as "senior counselor" at the top of nine of the 27 boards and committees in the Blue Book. These entities already have board advisors who are not mentioned.

Russell says the top billing does make it look like the counselors are "in charge" and they should have been listed at the bottom or indicated by an asterisk. But is this fair to other possible candidates? Russell was positioned as one of the most active leaders in PRSA's history. PRSA high office is often seen as a reward for service to the Society. Her dossier already lists about 22 PRSA titles, committees, etc.

We're against both Russell and Stevens as candidates for any PRSA office since they were on the 1999 board that not only rejected the strategic planning committee's advice to decouple APR from elective office, but announced it would fight any such move as sending the "wrong message" about APR. The subject didn't even get to the floor of the Assembly that year. The 1999 board censored the $150K "spokesperson credibility" study, censored the Fellows' study on APR in the job marketplace, and twice advised staff and officers not to talk to anyone from the O'Dwyer Co. partly because we asked too many questions. We were never allowed to face our accusers on other charges.

Tradition at PRSA has also been that once someone serves on the board, he or she does not come back.

Russell and Stevens violate this.

-- Jack O'Dwyer