DoC REVIEWS TRAVEL PR EFFORTS

The U.S. Dept. of Commerce, which has not run a tourism push since 1995, is looking for a firm to lay the blueprint for a future international PR campaign promoting the U.S. as a travel destination.

The DoC wants a firm to identify advertising/PR targets, methods and products for each market which show the most promise to attract travelers to the U.S. Those areas, as identified by the DoC and tourism industry experts queried by the agency, are Canada, Mexico, the U.K., Japan, Germany, France, and possibly Brazil, Italy and South Korea, according to a copy of the RFP.

The RFP calls for striking a "balance" between promoting the U.S. to international targeted markets and implementing safety and security systems and procedures "in an atmosphere of terrorist threats and necessary improved border security systems."

Contact is Helen Marano at 202/482-0140.

ALB GIVES $1.4M ACCOUNT TO G/HI

The American Lamb Board awarded its $1.4M two-year PR account to Golin/Harris International, Daniel Borschke, executive director of the Denver-based trade group, told O'Dwyer's. He said Weber Shandwick was the incumbent, and one of five firms considered by the ALB's board of directors.

G/HI was selected because of its food/culinary expertise. The ALB, according to Borschke, was especially impressed with G/HI's work on behalf of Florida Dept. of Citrus. Patti Tobin, senior VP at G/HI, will head the account.

Borschke joined the ALB in June. He was CEO of the Dairy Council of Wisconsin.

KETCHUM ENLISTS McCARTHY

Amy McCarthy, who handled Pfizer, Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals and Novartis at Chandler Chicco Agency, is now senior VP in Ketchum's healthcare group. She will work on Ketchum's Lipitor business.

Lipitor, a Pfizer product, is the world's top-selling drug. That cholesterol-lowering medication will soon be challenged in the U.S. by AstraZeneca's Crestor, which is handled by Edelman PR Worldwide. The Food & Drug Administration approved the marketing of Crestor last week.

Prior to CCA, McCarthy worked at Burson-Marsteller, responsible for Colgate-Palmolive, General Electric and American Greetings products.

IPG POSTS $13.5M LOSS

Interpublic CEO David Bell Aug. 12 declared the battered ad/PR conglom is in the "early stages of a turnaround" while announcing that IPG recorded a $13.5 million second-quarter net loss on flat revenues of $1.5B. It had a $109M year earlier profit.

The latest results include a $105M restructuring charge to cover severance payments and lease termination costs. IPG has slashed its headcount to 44,500 from the 46,900 it employed at the end of last year. Bell warned that more job cuts are in the works.

He said business conditions "remain difficult," especially in overseas markets. He did say U.S. clients appear to be increasingly focused on investing in marketing rather than cutting costs.

VERITAS HEARS PITCHES FOR ACCOUNT

Software maker Veritas is in the midst of a multi-firm review for its global PR account, according to VP of corporate communications Marlena Fernandez. She said the company wants one firm to handle the corporate work, but with global expertise.

Applied Comms. had the $1.5B company's account for 2.5 years but has declined to take part in the review.

Other firms in the review include Fleishman-Hillard, Hill & Knowlton (currently handles Canada), Bite Comms. (currently U.K.), Edelman PR Worldwide, Waggener Edstrom's PR.com unit and Eastwick Comms. A decision is expected in September.

KERRIGAN PROTESTS PRSA NOMCOM

Kenneth Kerrigan, acting PR director at Ernst & Young, New York, protesting what he considers are irregularities in the PRSA nominating process, is resigning from PRSA and its New York chapter, where he is a board member. He will continue to mentor one of the chapter members.

Kerrigan, a candidate for director for the Tri-State district, said he was told Sunday, Aug. 10 that he had won the nomination.

Michael Cherenson, of the Cherenson Group, Livingston, N.J., a candidate for the same position, said on the afternoon of Aug. 11 that he had lost his run for the board but had been named an at-large Assembly delegate.

However, the nominating committee learned on Aug. 11 that while Kerrigan had been named an alternate delegate to the 2002 Assembly, he did not actually vote and was therefore ineligible to join the

(continued on page 7)

H&K OFFERS VIETNAM DEAL

Hill & Knowlton is giving Vietnam a five percent discount on the hourly rate of key executives overseeing the business, according to its just-filed registration statement with the Justice Dept. The discount is in recognition that H&K officials will "allot more time on the account than the compensation guaranteed by the contract," Jeff Trammell, senior advisor to H&K, told O'Dwyer's. He admitted to not having all the details of the discount program because the package was put together by Vivian Lines, who heads H&K's Asia/Pacific region from Singapore.

The PR firm is guaranteed a maximum $1.308M during the one-year contract. The monthly $109K retainer is one of the largest from a foreign country on record at the Justice Dept.

H&K has discounted the $600 hourly rate of its former CEO Howard Paster, who is now executive VP at its parent company, WPP Group. Lines charges $285, rather than $300. Trammell, who runs Trammell & Co., bills the Vietnamese $380 an-hour rather than his usual $400 rate. Jason Eberstein, whom Trammell called his "right hand man," discounts his $250 hourly rate to $212. He is expected to spend 45 percent of his time working for Vietnam, according to the agreement. Paster, in contrast, will devote 10 percent of his time to the client. Trammell is to allocate 25 percent of his time to the work.

Convert 'Intrigue' into Commercial Projects

Trammell said H&K's job is to convert the "intrigue" connected with Vietnam into investments. "Few people recognize that Vietnam, with 80 million people, has one of the largest populations in the world," he said. The PR exec noted that oil and gas development is "pretty much far along" in Vietnam, as well as the auto category. Ford Motor, for instance, is building a plant there. U.S. consumer firms (Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola) are well represented.

Vietnam's goal, said Trammell, is to become a member of the World Trade Organization by 2005.

WAL-MART USES F-H TO CHECK ITS IMAGE

Wal-Mart, the retail giant which employs more Americans than any other company, has turned to its longtime firm Fleishman-Hillard to cope with a battered image in the wake of enormous success.

F-H is looking at Wal-Mart's ties with its customers, employees, communities and bankers. The firm provides regular updates to the retailer's board of directors, which suggested the project.

The company, which commissioned F-H for the ongoing project two years ago, is currently running an advertising campaign via GSD&M to dispel sentiment that it pays low wages and treats female employees unfairly, according to the New York Times advertising column Aug. 14.

The paper said the PR effort "indicates concern at Wal-Mart's highest levels about fallout from the company's rapid growth and enormous economic influence."

ADL LASHES OUT AT GIBSON; KofC CHEERS

The Anti-Defamation League fears that Mel Gibson's movie, "The Passion," will trigger "hatred, bigotry and anti-Semitism," according to an Aug. 11 statement issued by the group. The film "unambiguously portrays Jewish authorities and the Jewish mob as the ones responsible for the decision to crucify Jesus," said Abraham Foxman, ADL's national director.

Rabbi Eugene Korn, director of Interfaith Affairs at the 90-year-old group, attended a preview of the flick in Houston. He said the film raises the specter of "deicide" or Jewish complicity in the death of Christ. The ADL said the movie distorts the New Testament, and wrongly shows the Jewish priests as controlling Pontius Pilate. It also "relies on sinister medieval stereotypes, portraying Jews as blood-thirsty, sadistic and money-hungry enemies of God who lack compassion and humanity."

Foxman demands that Gibson change the film to make it "historically accurate, theologically sound and free of any anti-Semitic message."

Gibson's spokesperson Alan Nierob, of Rogers & Cowan, denies that the film is inspired by anti-Semitism. He told the Associated Press that Gibson "vehemently opposes anti-Semitism and the hatred of others."

Gibson Praised by KofC

Gibson made an unannounced visit to the annual convention of the Knights of Columbus on Aug. 7, and showed scenes of The Passion, which deals with the last 12 hours of Jesus Christ's life. It received a rousing reception by the 2,000-member audience in Washington, D.C.

Carl Anderson, who heads the 1.6M member Catholic group and viewed the film in July, called The Passion a "powerful depiction of Christ's crucifixion." He invited Gibson to the meeting to make sure the movie "gets a fair hearing." Anderson, who is Supreme Knight, believes that hearing will "promote better tolerance and dialogue among all religious faiths."

QORVIS HELPS REBUILDING OF IRAQ

The Shaheen Business and Investment Group has hired Qorvis Communications to boost the image of the Jordanian $500 million conglomerate in the U.S., according to Scott Warner, director at the Patton Boggs affiliate. He said SBIG's key selling point is its 200-member office in Baghdad.

SBIG is eager to match up with U.S. companies looking to participate in the rebuilding of Iraq, Warner said. "Subcontracting is the way to go," he added.

Amman-based SBIG has interests in telecommunications, manufacturing, engineering and banking. The company is opening a Land Rover plant in Jordan, which will add another 500 people to its 2,500-member payroll.

Warner said SBIG plans to open a Washington, D.C., office in September.

Qorvis has a half dozen people working on the SBIG account, which is headed by QC's CEO Michael Petruzzello.

NPR SAYS MONEY CAN'T BUY COVERAGE

National Public Radio prides itself on having minimal contact between the people who produce the programs and the companies and foundations that wish to support NPR.

"I have never heard of an instance in the six years I have been at NPR where a story was changed to suit an underwriter," said Jeffrey Dvorkin, who is NPR's ombudsman.

Dvorkin said NPR has established a "firewall," which means that money cannot be given for specific news coverage, nor can a foundation or corporation insist that the money be used for specific stories or specific editorial perspectives. Sponsors or "funders" may not speak with reporters or producers to lobby them or pitch their points of view.

"Only the most senior members of news management may chat with 'funders' so that both may have a clear but general sense of what might be aired in the way of programs or reporting," said Dvorkin.

In many cases, the news department may feel that the offer from a sponsor comes with too many unreasonable expectations or strings attached, so the offer is declined, he said.

HUSNI OVERSEES NEW MAG FOR ARABS

Samir Husni, an Arab-American professor of journalism at the University of Mississippi, has been hired as a consulting editor of Hi, a new apolitical lifestyle magazine published by the U.S. State Department for Arabs ages 18 to 35.

The magazine, which is part of the Bush Administration's initiatives to create a more positive view of the U.S. in the Arab world, will cost U.S. taxpayers about $4 million a year.

Husni, an expert on new magazines, will work with Fadel Lamen, who is managing editor of Hi. Lamen, an Arab-American, is employed by the Magazine Group, a Washington, D.C.-based custom publisher, which is producing Hi for the State Dept.

The first issue, which came out in July, had a cover story on the experiences of Arab students in American colleges and shorter articles on Arab American actor Tony Shalhoub, singer Norah Jones, and marriage counseling.

The second issue, now arriving on Middle Eastern newsstands, has an article on Sting, Lenny Kravitz and other Western pop stars who have collaborated with Arab musicians, and feature stories about Internet matchmaking, digital art and Hispanic life in the U.S., plus a brief story on Adam Sandler's revelation of what a bad student he was in high school.

The monthly magazine is printed in a State Dept. publishing plant in the Philippines, and flown to the Middle East, where it is sold on newsstands for $2 a copy. Circulation is currently 50,000.

Each issue contains the statement that it is published "on behalf of the foreign media office of the U.S. State Dept."

MSNBC.COM EXPANDS ENTERTAINMENT BEAT

MSNBC.com has started a new "Entertainment" section to take the place of the "Living" section. The new section includes coverage of TV, books, art, music, travel and entertainment news.

Denise Hazlick was named entertainment editor, replacing Jan Herman, who had been Living editor.
Gael Cooper was appointed to cover pop culture, TV, books and the web, and Paige Newman, travel editor, will now also cover movies.

MSNBC.com is also starting "Test Pattern," a new weblog by Cooper. It will cover everything from the "unreality of reality TV" to bizarre celebrity websites.

Jeannette Walls, who has covered entertainment news for MSNBC.com for six years, will continue to write her gossip column, "Jeannette Walls Delivers The Scoop."

Hazlick previously worked as MSNBC.com's deputy sports editor; Cooper formerly was at The Minneapolis Star Tribune, and Newman spent the last three years an interactive producer at MSNBC.com, which is based in Redmond, Wash.

SENIOR SURFERS LIKE GRAND TIMES

Grandtimes.com, a weekly publication, is the most popular senior magazine on the Internet, according to search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

When the website was started in 1995, there were approximately 600,000 older adults online. Today, there are 22 million senior surfers, making it one of the fastest growing demographic groups on the Internet, according to Reece Halpern, editor and publisher of Grand Times Publishing, El Cerrito, Calif.

"Seniors spend more time online than the average Internet population and nearly half of all senior surfers use the Internet to engage in product research," said Halpern.

He believes the secret to the website's success is that it offers a wide variety of controversial, informative and entertaining articles.

Editorial content changes weekly and is comprised of articles such as "How to Keep Bambi Out of Your Garden," "What Dying People Want," and "How to Book a Cruise on a Barge."

The site also has product profiles, gift ideas for grandchildren and excerpts from new books.
Grandtimes.com now offers free legal advice, live news feeds, and free online games.

Although the website is no longer using or reviewing freelance editorial, publicists can pitch Halpern by calling him at 510/649-4019 or by e-mail, [email protected]. The company's address is 403 Village dr., El Cerrito, CA 94530.

Paul Abrahams, who was San Francisco bureau chief for The Financial Times, is joining Waggener Edstrom.

(Media news continued on next page)

DILLER RAPS REPORT IN N.Y. TIMES

Barry Diller, chairman/CEO of IAC/InterActive Corp., hit back at The New York Times for two articles about his company that ran in the "Money & Business" section on Aug. 10.

The articles were written by Pulitzer Prize-winning business reporter Gretchen Morgenson.

"It is unfortunate that newspapers-unlike public companies-appear not to be bound by the material misstatement and omission requirements of the federal securities laws," said Diller.

He said Morgenson's articles regarding IAC/InterActive Corp. "contain numerous inaccuracies, as well as some apparent confusion regarding my statements to her in a conversation we had on Aug. 3, 2003."

"In a world where markets react to headlines in newspapers, reporters need to be more vigilant to ensure they print accurate rather than misleading information," said Diller, who cited a "few of the glaring inaccuracies" in his letter which was distributed on Aug. 11 by Business Wire.

The Times stands by Morgenson's story.

WRITER PAYS 'SCOUTS' FOR STORY TIPS

A freelance writer, who claims to have had more than 200 articles published in mainstream and niche/trade magazines, is seeking "scouts" who can provide "highly compelling story ideas," which can be pitched to leading magazines.

"Ideally, you have one or more ideas that would be irresistible to top entertainment magazines, but lack the editorial relationships and/or pitching skills (or writing experience) necessary to get your ideas heard and assigned," said the unnamed writer in an e-mail letter that appeared on craigslist.com.

The writer says he/she will pay $500 per idea used (for feature articles), with a draw on fees available to highly qualified candidates.

The writer is especially interested in getting tips from individuals who have industry contacts and will provide "scoops" on stories that relate to current events and/or news not widely reported elsewhere.

"Stories with edge to them are strongly preferred rather than just 'here's a profile of so and so...'," said the writer. [email protected].

MEDIA BRIEFS

CNN news anchor Jack Cafferty pleaded guilty in a May 14 hit-and-run accident in New York.

According to the criminal complaint, the veteran newsman made an abrupt turn and hit a bicyclist, knocking the 48-year-old man to the ground.

Cafferty, who was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, reckless driving, and assault & harassment, was allowed to plead guilty to a traffic violation: Operating a motor vehicle knowing or having cause to know property damage had been caused.

He was sentenced to 70 hours of community service and a $250 fine. He also made restitution.

The National Indian Gaming Assn. will offer sessions with professional media trainers at its mid-year meeting in Prior Lake, Minn.

NIGA has retained former TV anchor Nancy Mathis with First Take Communications in Washington, and publicist Laura Knapp of the firm Off Madison Avenue in Tempe, Ariz., to help prepare people for press interviews and appearances on TV.

Elizabeth Hill, a PR pro based in the Washington, D.C., area, said one of the big problems is that tribal leaders are reluctant to answer press inquiries. "The tribes just don't call back," said Hill, a member of the Ojibwa tribe.

Carla Nicholas is NIGA's PR director.

Donny Deutsch, chairman/CEO of Deutsch Inc., a New York-based ad agency, has signed on as a regular commentator on CNBC.

General Media, the company that publishes Penthouse magazine, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.

The Understanding Islam Foundation, Culver City, Calif., has published a book entitled "A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam."

Mikaal Waters, executive director, said the book, which has been reviewed and edited by many professors, is available at no charge to readers of O'Dwyer's PR Daily. Requests should be sent to [email protected].

TORKELLS NAMED BUDGET TRAVEL EDITOR

Erik Torkells was named editor of Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel magazine.

Torkells was previously at Fortune, where for the past four years he held positions as a writer and senior editor in charge of the magazine's lifestyle section. He has also spent four years at Travel + Leisure as senior editor.

Arthur Frommer will contine as editor-in-chief.

In 2003, BT increased frequency from six to 10 issues per year.

NY TIMES PROMOTES TAUBMAN, ROSENTHAL

Philip Taubman, 55, who joined The New York Times in 1979, was promoted to chief of its Washington, D.C., bureau, replacing Jill Abramson, who was named managing editor.

Taubman is married to Felicity Barringer, a Times foreign-affairs writer.

Andrew Rosenthal, 47, an assistant managing editor of the Times, was named the paper's deputy editorial page editor. He will succeed Taubman after Labor Day.

Andrew's father, A.M. Rosenthal, was the top editor of the Times from 1969 until 1986.

David Laventhol, 70, is resigning as chairman/ editorial director of the Columbia Journalism Review.

Joel Babbit, chief creative officer of Grey Advertising and its GCI Group PR wing, says creative ad people are much needed by PR.

He told AdWeek July 14 that many ad creatives will move into PR in the next ten years.

"There's been an evolution in PR from those who send press releases to [those who] produce really creative programs for clients that are publicity and promotionally oriented," he said.

Author Al Ries chimed in with, "If we ve had any criticism [with PR], it s been the lack of creativity at the front end."

Babbit joined Grey as president and head of creative in 2002 from 360 Thinc in Atlanta and was also named creative head of GCI in July.

Such comments have made already-insecure PR pros feel even more threatened.

They have watched the purchase of most big PR firms by the ad congloms and the resulting downsizings and slide in PR fees (partly due to the recession but also due to advertising s distaste for PR, particularly the press relations part).

No one knows the exact numbers of the slide because the congloms would not let their 51 PR units give any figures this year, not even employee totals, because they might not be GAAP and might violate the strictures of Sarbanes-Oxley.

PR pros at agencies have become as fearful of the press as the corporate side. Former NIRI president Tim Cost correctly said, "Corporate PR experiences a press call as a drive-by shooting."

Expense accounts have been removed from PR A/Es and they rightly fear that any quote of theirs that winds up in the press could cost them their jobs.

We would ask: how can you be creative when you dive under a desk when the press calls?

Advertising s attitude toward the press is typified by Omnicom moving its (five-minute) annual meeting to Los Angeles this year to escape the press.

Interpublic's last report on PR was that it was down 18% in one quarter of 2002. Then PR was lumped in with many other activities. New CEO David Bell and PR head Philippe Krakowsky promised us PR would be broken out again. IPG made a quarterly report last week but PR remained submerged.

PR is a creative field but in a different way from advertising. Ads work hard even to get a fraction of a second of notice from a consumer. PR deals with editorial time and space where readers and viewers are already paying full attention. To influence this audience, sources must provide plenty of facts and be available to answer questions.

PR, a delicate plant, is in danger of being crushed by advertising the same way that investment banking nearly crushed sell-side security analysis and consulting nearly crushed the big CPA firms.

So dubious is sell-side research that it might as well be abandoned altogether, stock indexer Jack Bogle told the recent NIRI conference (8/13 NL).

Ad people, lawyers, CFOs and others demanding full control of "messages" have made PR so dangerous that almost no one wants to do it any more.

The typical new head of a corporate PR dept. has no media background but plenty of community activities and service to a political party, preferably the GOP (7/30 NL on members of PR Seminar).

Also pressuring PR are investor relations specialists who chased PR people away from anything financial and who helped bring about the plague of pro forma earnings reports. Their trade group, NIRI, worked hard to pass the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that helped usher in the dot-com boom because it became hard to sue hyped-up high-techs. NIRI membership turnover is high because many in IR are just "walk-throughs" to another job. PR is needed to re-orient IR away from the Street and back to the general public. IR, as researcher Lisa Shalett said (8/6 NL), helped "bully" sell-side researchers into submission.

With so much work for the PR field to do, so many enemies to fight, why is its trade association, PRSA, so immersed in its internal politics (page one)? It has nominated as treasurer Maria Russell, whose candidacy is illegal under PRSA s bylaws which say, "Directors may not succeed themselves as directors." She was on the 1999 board and should not be coming back. Kathy Lewton violated this rule and a 52-year tradition by being elected chair in 1999 in an emergency situation. Art Stevens, also on the 1999 board, violated the rule by serving as secretary in 2003. But three wrongs do not make a right... the slate drawn up by the nominating committee leaves no one from New York on the board although New York is the biggest single city chapter. National Capital claims to be No. 1 but its members come from two states, Virginia and Maryland, besides D.C. Eleven of its 20 directors work in Virginia. NCC is a hotbed of APR, which has virtually no meaning in New York. Although claiming to be No. 1, NCC provides no voice on national PRSA matters. Since PRSA/NY is being treated so badly by national and New York s problems are so different from most of the other chapters, New York should split from national just like New York Women in Communications did in 1997. NYWICI, with 1,000+ members, is growing, while PRSA/NY, with 629, is in decline. The 629 pay national $141,525 in dues. Why?

-- Jack O'Dwyer