TEXT 100 SNAPS UP FUJI

Text 100 has edged Stanton Crenshaw Comms. for Fuji Photo Film's $1 million+ U.S. PR account.

The competition for its PR work was the company's first in its 22 years in the U.S. Edelman PR Worldwide, which handled the account for two decades, was dropped earlier in the review. Grey Global's GCI Group and WPP's Cohn & Wolfe were also early contenders, before the field was narrowed to Text 100 and SCC.

Camilla Jenkins, VP of corporate comms., told this NL several factors were involved in the decision, but singled out Text 100's pitch team - which included both top execs and the "people who do all the hard work on the account to get the job done" - as the "No. 1 selling factor for us." She pointed out the firm's low turnover rate and programs that are geared toward keeping staffers. Jenkins also noted Text 100's work for IBM and Xerox as pluses.

"Edelman was the right agency for another time," she said of the parting incumbent. "After 20 years, I don't know what firm wouldn't have difficulty challenging what was always done and speaking about things differently."

One aspect that she said Text 100 would focus on is the general consumer's perception of Fuji as just a filmmaker. "We are a technology company and a technology leader," she said. "But we don't think that we are at all perceived that way to the degree we should be."

Text 100 CEO Aehdmar Hynes said the account will be based out of the firm's New York City office and a core team is being assembled.

BAINWOL SPINS FOR RIAA

The Recording Industry Assn. of America has tapped Mitch Bainwol, a former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, to succeed Hilary Rosen as chairman and CEO. The well-connected Bainwol also was executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. He had been running his own lobby shop.

Bainwol will spearhead RIAA's high-profile fight against digital piracy as the trade group says it is collecting evidence needed to prosecute file-sharers.

RIAA represents music divisions of Sony, Ber-telsmann, Vivendi Universal and AOL Time Warner.
Rosen, a former lobbyist for Liz Robbins Associates, joined RIAA in 1987. She has become a commentator for CNBC.

CENSUS BUREAU COUNTS ON B-M

The U.S. Census Bureau has awarded a $1.2M contract to Burson-Marsteller for help in devising a way to count the number of private American citizens overseas.

The importance of an accurate overseas headcount became a key issue in the last presidential election, especially in the hotly contested Florida race.
B-M will initially focus its outreach to Americans in Mexico, Kuwait and France. The firm will provide information to foreign media and groups with American members on how U.S. citizens can participate in the 2010 census.

The Census Bureau estimates that there are a least four million U.S. citizens living outside this country. B-M operates in 57 countries.

BELKIN LEAVES H&K FOR PhRMA

Ed Belkin, who recently counseled Ontario's Ministry of Health on how to deal with the Toronto SARS outbreak, is leaving Hill & Knowlton for a VP-communications spot at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. The move is effective Aug. 11.

Belkin joined H&K's Washington, D.C., office eight years ago, and counts crisis control for Egypt-Air in the wake of the 1999 crash of Flight 990 as an accomplishment. He also advised Botswana on battling its AIDS crisis.

Earlier in his career as a radio newsman in Philadelphia, Belkin covered the Three Mile Island nuke meltdown and the Legionnaires' Disease stories. The 52-year-old pro was also senior communications director for former Sen. Dave Durenberger (R-MN) prior to his H&K stint.
Belkin will report to Richard Smith, who is PhRMA's senior VP for communications and policy.

FTC LOOKS AT PRSA's APR RULE

The Federal Trade Commission is looking at whether PR Society of America is unfairly discriminating against the more than 15,000 members who are not accredited by allowing only those 4,100 who are APR to run for national office or vote in the Assembly.

This rule has been in effect since 1975.

The Assembly this year will be asked to "decouple" itself from the APR rule, which will continue to apply to the 17 members of the national board.

(continued on page 7)

STOP BULLYING ANALYSTS, IR PROS TOLD

A top analyst told investor relations specialists at their annual conference to halt a number of abusive tactics including trying to get analysts fired or trying to cut off investment banking deals as punishment for negative research reports.

Lisa Shalett, CEO of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., institutional research and brokerage, told hundreds of members of the National IR Institute at the conference in Orlando June 11 not to use "bullying techniques."

"Don't call up directors of research and try to get people fired," she said in the closing panel of the conference.

"Don't play into the conflicts of interest in the business," she continued, "by going back and saying `Analyst X wrote a bad report...' and telling the CFO to call the banker and say `We're never going to do banking with you again.'"

"There should be a Chinese wall for you too," she told the IR people, referring to the supposed impenetrable barrier between a brokerage's research and sales arms.

Shalett was on a panel with Consuela Mack, co-anchor of CNBC's "MarketWatch"; Paul Kangas, anchor of PBS's "Nightly Business Report," and John Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group, investment management.

Lou Thompson, paid president of NIRI, and moderator of the panel, noted that Enron, Worldcom and other scandal-ridden companies employed NIRI members.

Let Them Do Their Job

Shalett, given a chance to make general statements, said she had one overall message for IR people: "Don't court the sell side" (analysts for brokers as opposed to analysts for institutions of the "buy side").

She said the analysts should be allowed to "do their job" without pressure from IR people.

"Let them have their opinions," she advised.
She said IR people should give data and provide feedback to analysts but should "not try to convert them" or try to "get them to write a report that mimics the CEO's script word for word and then send the kudos off to the director of research that `Oh, that's a great analyst.'"

Rather, continued Shalett, "That's not a great analyst. That's a horrible analyst."

She said analysts are supposed to have different viewpoints from management.

One of the ways Shalett said she knew her analysts were doing a "good job" was when she got a phone call from an IR person, CEO, CFO or an investor saying, "That is the most horrible report I've ever seen. It doesn't agree with management. The analyst didn't do any work..."

"It always comes down to the analyst had a different forecast...that is what an analyst is supposed to do."

She ended her speech with, "So don't use bullying techniques."

PR 'STABILIZES' AT OMNICOM

"Public relations appears to have stabilized" after eight declining quarters, announced Omnicom CEO John Wren during a July 29 earnings teleconference.

Fleishman-Hillard, Ketchum, Porter Novelli, Brodeur, Gavin Anderson, Clark & Weinstock and Cone registered a 1.4 percent hike in combined revenues to $249 million during the quarter. That enabled OMC to report that PR first-half revenues rose 0.2 percent to $474 million, which is 11.6 percent of OMC's $4.1 billion revenues.

Randy Weisenburger, CFO, appeared more upbeat than Wren concerning PR's prospects. "PR has turned the corner," he gushed.

Overall, Omnicom reported a two percent rise in second-quarter net income to $191 million on a 12 percent jump in revenues to $2.1 billion. For the six-month period, OMC's earnings rose one percent to $319 million, revenues were up 12 percent.

VSA HAILS CAESAR

French defense contractor Giat Industries is paying Van Scoyoc Assocs. $240,000-a year to convince the Pentagon it needs to buy its "Caesar 52 Caliber Truck Mounted Artillery System" for the Army's Stryker Brigades and National Guard.

Marlin "Buzz" Hefti, VSA's VP, admits in a memo to Albert Cavaco, Giat's VP-international business, the task won't be easy. He describes a "delicate effort because of the political climate" in Congress due to "significant policy differences between France and the U.S. regarding Iraq." He says part of his push for the Caesar will highlight the advantages the system "would have provided the Airborne forces deployed in Operation Iraqi Freedom."

VSA envisions a two to five-year program for the Caesar.

USPB PICKS O&B'S BRAIN

U.S. Potato Board is asking Osborn & Barr (St. Louis) for creative ideas to help the Denver-based trade group confront the crisis stemming from the decline in french fries sales.

O&B, which has commodity experience via work for the Cattlemen's Beef Board, National Pork Board and United Soybean Board, will be asked for concepts aimed at opinion leaders and consumers, according to Meredith Myers, a USPB spokesperson. She said the resulting campaign will be executed by Fleishman-Hillard. F-H picked up the $1M USPB account from sister Omnicom firm, Ketchum, in December.

F-H's Susan Mesnick, Ketchum's Shelly Roth, BG Communications' Betsy Gullickson, who had headed Ketchum's global food and nutrition group, and Linda McCashion, VP-PR at USPB, were among those attending a USPB french fries summit in Denver on July 7. That meeting included Frank van Schaayk, CEO of McCain Foods USA's potato business; James Munyon, president of J.R. Simplot Co., and Jeffrey DeLapp, president of Con Agra Foods' specialty potato products unit.

BOOKERS WANT GUESTS WHO FIT THE NEWS

Producers at CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel, who spoke at a July 23 luncheon meeting of the Publicity Club of N.Y., said their programs are built around guests who are connected to the news.

Mike Tanaka, who is senior news producer for MSNBC, said one of the great challenges for a booking department is finding "new faces, and new takes on the same old stories."

Tanaka, who is based in Secaucus, N.J., handles bookings for MSNBC's daytime news programs. He urged the publicists to "watch the broadcasts, look at the kind of guests that are on there and, if you have somebody that fits that profile, then pitch away."

He advised the publicists to "carefully follow the news, watch the flow of news stories and then think about the kinds of people you have that would add to the story, give depth to it, analysis, any way that those stories cross over."

"Often, it's being creative in coming up with ways to make your people fit that news story," said Tanaka, who is especially interested in first-person accounts. "Anybody that is involved in a news story, we are clearly interested in."

Wants a News Fit

Shelley Lewis, executive producer of CNN's "American Morning," said the three-hour, early morning weekday program is a hard news show.

Even the feature segments are meant to have a news peg or a seasonal peg, she said. Bookers, she said, are interested in getting guests who "fit in a news story."

For example, she said Joe Wambaugh, who has written a new fictional book on arson, was booked as a guest for a story about the serial arson cases going on in Washington, D.C.

"He was a great guest, a good fit, articulate, and had a lot to say. That was a good way of taking a small but interesting news story and finding an interesting booking," said Lewis, who pointed out the program is staffed to run 24 hours a day, five days a week and on weekends.

"If you're pitching, you should pitch to our booking department directly," said Lewis, who noted Jamie Zahn is head of the booking department for American Morning. Zahn is located in CNN's New York bureau.

"Obviously we're also always looking for great human-interest stories, great personal stories," said Lewis. "Basically we like a guest who is a fresh face, but somebody who really is articulate and knows how to express a point of view or a particular take in shorter, rather than longer, sentences. Morning TV has a faster pace."

ABC Wants to Beef Up Bookings

The last speaker on the program was Andy Dallos, a former publicist for ABC Sports, who joined the Fox News Channel in January as producer of two weekend programs, "The Big Story with Rita Cosby," which is on Saturday nights at 9 p.m. (ET), and "At Large with Geraldo Rivera," which is on Saturday and Sunday at 10 p.m.

Dallos said his job is to "beef up" bookings on both programs, which cover topics ranging from newsmakers to authors to celebrities to human interest.

Dallos said the reason he works Monday thru Friday is "in the hopes that you folks will call me and introduce yourselves and we can beef up our coverage."

He welcomes phone calls and e-mails from publicists. "My feeling is that it may not be a pitch that's appropriate but down the road, if we're in touch, it's going to be a payoff at the end," said Dallos.
He said Cosby "loves to meet people so I would encourage you to call me. She loves to get out there and have lunches and meet people and talk to people on the phone."

PLACEMENT TIPS

The Blog of Death is a new website (www.blogofdeath.com) started by Jade Walker, who formerly produced the obituary section for The New York Times On The Web until she left in April.

Walker's site is one of many obituary sites springing up online to fill a growing interest among Internet readers, according to Joan Concilio, a reporter for The York (Pa.) Daily Record.

Walker, who is based in Seattle, picks and writes the obituaries, which are published for free on the site. She told Concilio her standards for choosing who to profile are: Did the person live with passion? Did they accomplish great things? Did they touch other people? Did they contribute something to the world that was previously missing?

Paula Szuchman, who writes features for The Wall Street Journal's "Weekend Journal" section, said it is always great when someone pitches her an idea that is already fully formed.

"Come with an idea based on what your client is doing, but not just what your client is doing. Put it in the context of the rest of the industry, and of the word-the newsier, the better," said Szuchman.

She especially likes to get some industry statistics, "because what I'm going to do when I write the story is call all those companies and organizations that come up with those statistics that are going to back up my thesis."

"Basically do my job for me," said Szuchman, who prefers to get pitches by fax at 212/416-3521.

Simon Barnett was named director of photography at Newsweek, overseeing all aspects of the magazine's domestic and international photo coverage.

Nancy Evans, co-founder of iVillage, has resigned as editor-in-chief of the media company, which operates iVillage.com, Women.com, Public Affairs Group, and other information services for women.

(Media news continued on next page)

NEW EDITORS TAKE OVER AT N.Y. TIMES

Bill Keller, who took over as executive editor of The New York Times on July 30, has named two new managing editors to fill the vacant position.

Jill Abramson, who is Washington, D.C., bureau chief, was named managing editor/news, and John Geddes, a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal, was appointed managing editor/operations.

A 28-member in-house committee, headed by assistant managing editor Allan Siegal, which was formed to look into the Jayson Blair scandal, has proposed several reform changes, including the appointment of a public editor to handle reader complaints and criticisms in a formal way, an annual performance review for every news staffer, and a system for each desk to track errors and monitor performance of mistake-makers.

The committee also urged tighter use of stringers and freelancers, and the use of a resume vertification service.

The Siegal committee said the "Blair debacle represents a failure of communication, command and discipline."

The anonymous "white-haired flack," who advised Howell Raines and Arthur Sulzberger Jr. on how to deflate the Blair crisis, also sent his first memo to Keller, giving him 10 suggestions on "how to make sure your story keeps getting better."

The memo writer's first recommendation to Keller was to "actually write" his obituary, and then edit it every six months.

The writer said Keller has the skills to get the job done, but "if you don't exercise all of those skills, the archives of the Times will one day hold the obituary of a nice, talented man who supervised the process of the world's premier newspaper slipping back into the pack."

Keller was urged to promote and protect stars as well as "poach a couple of established stars."
"No, don't play favorites. While great newspapers will continue to ride on the shoulders of their newsrooms, their circulation will increasingly be driven by their stars."

Keller was praised for getting David Brooks, a conservative editor, to write for the Times' op-ed page.

"The Brooks move is brilliant, not only adding firepower but also protecting your right flank," the memo said.

TV NEWS SHOWS REACH FOR THE STARS

The news divisions at ABC and NBC are turning to entertainment news programs for help in landing interviews with celebrities.

"Access Hollywood," which is owned by NBC, recently aired co-anchor Pat O'Brien's interview with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez on "Dateline NBC," and ABC News has reached an agreement to share celebrity chats with another syndicated program, "Entertainment Tonight."

Andrew Tyndall, a news consultant and president of ADT Research, said the celebrities, who are "big gets," know that everyone is after them and want the most they can get from their interviews. "They want to be everywhere on the week of the release of their big movie," said Tyndall.

"Increasingly, a big interview gets exposure on morning shows as well as on prime time," said David Bauder, who covers entertainment for The Associated Press.

Access Hollywood and Entertainment Tonight are additional bargaining chips; networks can also entice the stars with airtime during the period between the evening news and prime time, said Bauder.

BRANCACCIO TAKES TV GIG

David Brancaccio, host of Minnesota Public Radio's business program "Marketplace" for the past decade, will leave the program in August to become co-host of public TV's public affairs series "NOW with Bill Moyers."

David Brown, who is the current Marketplace senior producer, will take over as host on Sept. 1.
J.J. Yore will remain as executive producer of Marketplace, which is produced in Los Angeles in association with the Univ. of Southern California.

MEDIA BRIEFS

A second issue of Dieve, a men's interest publication for African-Americans, has been published by Troy Evans and James Gilbert.

The two former business school classmates, who started Dieve a year ago, launching the first issue nationally, decided to focus the new issue solely on readers in Atlanta, where they are based. Dieve has about 1,000 subscribers nationwide.

They believe they have tapped into a niche within the men's interest publications, or "lad mags."

"The Debra Duncan Show," a locally produced talk show that has aired on KTRK-TV in Houston for the past four years, is being taken off the air and replaced by Wayne Brady's nationally syndicated talk show. The final episode of Duncan's show will air in September.

Wendy Granato, executive producer of TDDS, believes talk shows are not as popular as they once were. "I think we may be seeing the beginning of the end of talk shows," Granato told The Houston Business Journal.

"Delicious Mischief" is a new food and wine talk program on KBME radio in Houston.

The show, which airs each Saturday from 11 a.m. to noon, is co-hosted by John DeMers, food editor of The Houston Chronicle, and journalist Rhonda Findley.

Restaurant industry pros are booked as guests on the program, which has been well received in Houston, and may be syndicated nationally.

A panel of reporters at the National IR Institute conference June 11 pleaded for more financial and economic education of consumers.

Paul Kangas, anchor of PBS's "Nightly Business Report," said PBS has distributed to high schools 60,000 tapes of 30-45 minutes on 32 subjects such as the stock market and real estate.

Consuela Mack, co-anchor of CNBC's "Market Watch," said she has been devoting part of her show to education for 14 years.

Lou Thompson, NIRI president, chimed in that he serves on the board of the National Council for Economic Education and that it has a program "that is doing some pretty exciting things" at the high school level. NIRI provides "some funding" to this.

Yes, there is a great need for financial education and particularly for financial reporters. The NIRI panelists blasted the chaos of "pro forma" earnings put out by IR people. They condemned companies that refuse to comment on gyrations of their stock. Thompson noted Enron, Worldcom and other scandal-ridden companies had NIRI members.

Why doesn't NIRI, with $5 million or so in its treasury, have an educational program for reporters like those of the New York State Society of CPAs and the New York State Bar Assn.?

We attended in June a two-hour class with reporters from major media put on by the New York CPAs. It was one of a series. We heard accounting principles discussed and were able to ask questions of a CPA. The group has helped us and no doubt many other reporters on numerous occasions. It refers us to CPAs with knowledge in specialized areas.

The New York State Bar Assn. has seven staffers who help reporters on more than 50 types of law. The group, to which 70,000 New York lawyers belong, fields 350-400 reporter requests a year.

NIRI in 33 years has never had an on-staff PR person and refuses even to sell its directory of members to the press. We asked it to build a financial glossary on its website but it said it doesn't do that sort of thing. It opposes companies giving analyst reports to reporters. Some analysts already do this on their own.

The need for financial explanations was never more evident last week when Omnicom announced a 0.75% "sweetener" for its $900 million "zero interest" bonds. A half dozen letters went up on the Yahoo! OMC bulletin board trying to figure out how the value of the stock affects the value of the convertible bonds. There was no one from OMC to help them or help reporters. No such person exists at OMC, WPP Group, Interpublic, Publicis, etc.

Delaware, No. 1 state for corporate charters, has one for $89 for non-profit groups like PRSA that can be obtained via a five-minute phone call to the Secretary of State's office.

This would let PRSA Assembly delegates meet by phone or web, saving them thousands of dollars in travel/hotel bills and putting some democracy back into the Society. PRSA leaders often say their hands are tied because they must wait for the annual Assembly which New York law says must be attended "in person."

The Federal Trade Commission, in a letter to the O'Dwyer Co., has said it may look at whether PRSA has unfairly discriminated against its non-APR members by not letting them vote in the Assembly or hold national office.

They can't even speak at it. We hope the FTC takes PRSA to the woodshed just like it did in 1977 after the Assembly refused to change the PRSA code that barred contingency fees and members "encroaching" on another member's employment. PRSA was forced to sign a consent decree. PRSA did not accept the FTC's reasoning but said it signed because it didn't have the funds to fight the FTC.

Some APRs have told us that the non-APRs are represented by APRs. Numerous statements by the APRs, including those on the PRSA website (where a well-hidden "debate" has attracted only 16 letters), show they basically have contempt for non-APRs as unmotivated, uncommitted, unprofessional, etc.

PRSA officers, meanwhile, have refused to print a letter on the decoupling issue by member Stuart Goldstein. It printed one Goldstein letter in the July Tactics that said APR "has no relevance to the real world." His second letter calls on PRSA to "articulate a compelling vision for the future," opening up discussion of PR issues surrounding Enron, Sarbanes-Oxley, etc. Obsessing about APR "ignores the fact that the rest of the world has moved on," he wrote (www.prsa.org/_News/leaders/articles04.asp).

September is PRSA Ethics Month.

We wonder where the ethics of PRSA were in 1994 when we found the Society was copying and selling an estimated 7,000 articles and chapters of books each year without the authors' permission.

We purchased 11 "loan packets" and found 52 articles copied in whole from our magazine and newsletter. The invoices said PRSA was "precluded from making copies of this original material for you."

PRSA contended that as a library it was making "fair use" of our materials and those of dozens of other authors.

The Authors' Guild labeled this argument "absurb." The packet on "PR Contracts" had 10 articles from the O'Dwyer magazine and 31 articles from such sources as the New York Times, Advertising Age, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Nation's Business.

--Jack O'Dwyer