RF SWITCHES TO JAMAICA

Ruder Finn has switched Caribbean travel destination accounts, picking up the $1M-plus Jamaica business and shedding the $500K Barbados Tourism Authority, which is looking for a PR firm.

The No. 2 independent firm edged Hill & Knowlton and Ketchum for the business, according to Peter Martin, whose firm had the Jamaica account since 1989. "We were encouraged to pitch the business," he told O'Dwyer's, but "decided to go out on top."

Martin also said he knew that the six-figure South Africa account, which was at Patrice Tanaka & Co., "was coming in." He also expects a spike in business from his just-created PM Marketing Counselors, an entity formed to draw up business plans for start-ups and tour operators.

Peter Martin Assocs. also had the Jamaica account for six years in the `70s. Martin said his Stamford, Conn.-based firm helped Jamaica "battle the perception of safety" issue, and rebound from the aftershocks of Sept. 11.

Gail Moaney is RF's EVP of travel and tourism.

GCI's PEARSON SHIFTS TO NOVARTIS

Bob Pearson, president of GCI Group/Americas and chief of its healthcare unit, is joining pharmaceuticals giant Novartis on Oct. 1 as head of its worldwide communications. He succeeds Dieter Wissler- who is resigning after 33 years of service-and will be based in Basel, Switzerland.

Pearson had worked at CIBA-Geigy, which merged with Sandoz in 1996 to form Novartis. He also had been VP-global PA and media relations at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, now Aventis. Pearson joined GCI in 1998.

Novartis earned $4.7 billion last year on nearly $21 billion in revenues. Its roster of PR firms includes GCI, Ruder Finn, Edelman, Ogilvy PR Worldwide, Cohn & Wolfe, Chandler Chicco and Ketchum.
Heyman Assocs. handled the search for Novartis.

David Demarest, EVP-global corporate communications at Visa International, will leave the company Oct. 1 after a five-year stint. CEO Malcolm Williams is leaving at the end of the year. A search is on for a replacement but is not active at the moment. Barbara "Barie" Carmichael, who was EVP in charge of corporate rels. at Visa, left the San Francisco-based company last month. She became a partner at The Brunswick Group and is stationed at the firm's D.C. office.

NEXT FIFTEEN ACQUIRES APPLIED

London-based Next Fifteen Communications Group is acquiring Applied Communications Group's PR division.

The plan is to merge Applied's San Francisco office with Next Fifteen's Bite Communications unit to create a high-tech firm with revenues in the $14 million range and a payroll of more than 100 staffers. The deal is to close within a month.

Next Fifteen's CEO Tim Dyson said globalization was a reason for the deal. "You don't get invited to big high-tech pitches" without a global office network in place, he told O'Dwyer's.

Dyson has been friends with Applied's CEO and founder Alan Kelly for the past three years. He credits Kelly with practicing a more aggressive European-like approach to PR. American PR people, in contrast, are more involved in "process," said Dyson.

Clive Armitage, Bite's CEO, will move from London to head the combined entity. Kelly has agreed to consult to Next Fifteen until the end of the year, and help integrate the two operations. He remains CEO of Applied Communications Group, the parent of Applied Analytics.

Kelly said he made the deal because he is more interested in research and advocacy, than in the nuts and bolts of PR. He considers the deal the best option for his 40-member PR staff.

Applied's PR clients include Audodesk Location Services, BE Systems, SeeBeyond, and VeriSign. Staffers have also counseled Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, and Storage Tek during the firm's 11 years of operation. Bite counts as clients Etagon and Access Systems America in the city, as well as Apple Computer, Sun and Toshiba in Europe.

Next Fifteen is also the parent company of Text 100, which is one of IBM's PR firms.

WASHINGTON MUTUAL SELECTS
B-M

Washington Mutual, the largest residential mortgage lender which entered the New York market via the acquisition of Dime Savings, has selected Burson-Marsteller to boost its image.

The Seattle-based bank considered Manning, Selvage & Lee, Edelman PR Worldwide, Fleishman-Hillard, Ketchum and others.

B-M's Sam Lucas, who works on the WM account with Peter Himler, said the firm is planning a special event for the bank. Judi Mackey, B-M's corporate/financial practice chair, leads the PR team.

WPP GROUP POSTS 13.2% PROFIT DROP

WPP Group Aug. 22 reported a 13.2 percent slip in first-half operating profit to £174 million on a two percent drop in revenues.

Hill & Knowlton, Ogilvy PR Worldwide, Burson-Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe units combined for about three percent decline in revenues. WPP CEO Martin Sorrell noted that the continued recession in the U.K. and Continental Europe, along with the SARS outbreak in Asia hurt the PR group.

On the flip side, Sorrell said markets in North America, which generate 44 percent of WPP revenues, "have not only stabilized, but started to show muted growth again." That uptick began in October, and "July 2003 marks ten months of continuous growth, albeit limited," according to the CEO.

Sorrell said significant deficit spending "in particular for the 2004 U.S. Presidential election," is stimulating the U.S. economy. That growth in government spending is currently greater than at any time since the Vietnam War in 1967, said Sorrell's statement.

"Certainly, it seems as though we are starting to climb out of the bath," said Sorrell, who cautioned about the potential return of inflation in 2005.

OGILVY LAUNCHES LEVITRA

Ogilvy PR Worldwide is handling the rollout of the anti-impotence drug Levitra, which was developed by GlaxoSmithKline and Bayer and represents the first U.S. competition to Pfizer's ubiquitous Viagra.

Michael Fleming, a GlaxoSmithKline spokesman, told this NL the company does not discuss details of its outside vendors, but confirmed that Ogilvy was handling the work.

Viagra sales hit $1.7 billion last year among a U.S. male population of 30 million that say they suffer from erectile dysfunction.

Another Viagra competitor, Cialis (Eli Lilly), is in the final stages of FDA review and is expected to add to what the New York Times has called "a loud chest-thumping contest" to lead the market.

WELCH DRIVES PR AT VISTEON

Kim Welch, VP of corporate comms. for automotive component giant Federal-Mogul Corp., has left for that same post at Visteon Corp., an $18 billion Dearborn, Mich.-based competitor.

F-M spokesman Jim Fisher told this NL Dick Randazzo, senior VP of human resources, is now overseeing communications.

Welch fills a vacancy at Visteon Corp. Susan Skerker, former senior VP of corporate relations and business strategy retired in 2002 and the company decided to essentially split that post into two jobs, said Greg Gardner, manager of corporate public affairs.

Welch, who joined Visteon Aug. 18 after six years at F-M, was previously a senior A/E on auto accounts at Madison Heights, Mich.-based MVP Comms. and earlier worked in General Motors' Canadian public affairs group.

FRISBY SPINS FOR CLARK

Michael Frisby, president of Washington, D.C., PR firm Walker Marchant Group, has signed on for the Draft Clark 2004 for President Committee, a political action committee urging Gen. Wesley Clark to run for the White House.

Frisby, a former White House reporter for the Wall Street Journal who covered five presidential campaigns, is senior advisor for communications for the push to draft Clark, a 34-year military veteran and former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO in Kosovo.

"Reporters always size up candidates and evaluate whether they are presidential 'timber,'" Frisby said in a statement. "General Clark is the real thing."
Clark has said he will make a decision on entering the race in the next few weeks.

Frisby brushes aside criticism that Clark is too late to potentially enter the crowded field for '04, noting the Draft Clark PAC already has 90 regional coordinators in 40 states working at the grassroots level.

PACYNA TO F-H

Deborah Pacyna, press secretary to Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, left that post just prior to Bustamante entering the recall race to replace Gov. Gray Davis. and is slated to join Fleishman-Hillard.

John Segale, GM of F-H's Sacramento office, told this NL Pacyna begins work Sept. 2 and will head the office's public affairs unit as a VP.

Pacyna split with Bustamante apparently because she did not believe her boss would enter the race, says one report. "It was a dream come true," she wrote in an e-mail to friends cited by the Sacramento Bee. "Then Arnold announced, Feinstein stayed out and the rest is history."

The lieutenant governor's office confirmed Pacyna's departure and said staffer Louis Vizcaino has taken the press secretary post.

STATE DEPT. EYES AD CAMPAIGN

The State Dept. has issued an RFP for an advertising campaign targeting Arab-language media on the web with the goal of explaining U.S. policy in the Middle East.

As part of that work, State also wants to pitch its "Rebuilding Afghanistan" Arabic site to show that "the U.S. follows through with its obligations and promises," according to a copy of the proposal.

The two-month campaign would target seven to ten key Arabic portals, identified by the government to possibly include Al-Jazeera (Qatar), MSN Arabia, CNN's Arabic site, Asharq Al-Awsat (London), Al Bahhar (United Arab Emirates), and other sites based in Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.

Ads, which are to include banners, skyscrapers and pop-ups, are required to show the U.S. flag and the URL for the State Dept. website being pitched.

Proposals, which are to include both a technical and business pitch, are due Sept. 2. Gerald Guildbert is contracting officer ([email protected]).

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS NAMES NEW EDITOR

David Sedgwick, 50, will become editor of Automotive News on Sept. 1.

Sedgwick, who was projects editor, will succeed Edward Lapham, 55, who is moving to a new senior postion in which he will oversee the paper's editorial pages and other major columns and analysis. Lapham, who has been with AN for 26 years and has run the newsroom since 1993, also will become a regular columnist.

Peter Brown, executive editor and associate editor of the Detroit-based tabloid newsweekly, said the new appointments will put AN in the "forefront of the many debates taking place in the industry."

STAR GOSSIP WRITER JOINS US WEEKLY

Marc Malkin, a contributing editor at New York Magazine, is rejoining Us Weekly to oversee the "Hot Stuff" gossip column.

Malkin, who with Deborah Schoeneman, writes the "Intelligencer," a gossip section in NYM, will replace Michael Lewittes, former news director of Us, who left to join American Media.

Ken Baker, previously Los Angeles bureau chief of Us, was promoted to West Coast executive editor.

PEOPLE

Kimberly Dozier was named a CBS News correspondent based in Tel Aviv. She had been covering the Middle East for WCBS-TV (Channel Two), in New York.

Arnaud de Borchgrave was appointed interim editor-in-chief of UPI, Washington, D.C., until a permanent replacement can be named for John O'Sullivan, who has resigned.

While editor, de Borchgrave will continue as transnational threats director and senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies as well as editor-at-large for The Washington (D.C.) Times.

Kimberly Palmer has joined The Wall Street Journal as advertising and marketing reporter.

SMILEY TO HOST LATE-NIGHT SHOW ON PBS

Tavis Smiley will host a late-night TV talk show for Public Broadcasting System, premiering in January.

The nightly show will feature a mix of news and pop culture, much like Smiley's show on National Public Radio, which reaches more than one million listeners a week. It will be taped at KCET studios in Hollywood.

Neal Kendall was named executive producer.

HOUSTON NEWS APPEARS IN SPANISH

The Houston Chronicle has added Spanish-language coverage to three editions of "ThisWeek," the paper's weekly neighborhood news sections.

These sections go to subscribers in three areas of Houston which represent more than 115,000, or 21% of the Chronicle's daily circulation.

Fernando Hernandez, former editor of the Spanish daily The Laredo Times, is overseeing the Spanish-language content, which includes coverage of news, sports and calendar listings, with an emphasis on events and activities of interest to the Hispanic community.

SECTION PAYS TRIBUTE TO SALSA QUEEN

People en Espanol will publish a 30-page photo-filled section on the life of Celia Cruz, the "Salsa Queen," who died last month.

The insert, which goes on sale Sept. 1, marks the first time the magazine has produced a special section in its six-year history.

PLACEMENT TIPS

Beautiful Girl, a new teen beauty magazine, will publish its first issue in Winter 2003.

Scarlett Williams, publisher and founding editor, started the magazine's website (BeautifulGirlMagazine.com) in March, offering skincare and fashion tips, celebrity interviews, advice columns, a shopping mall, prayers for everyday life, and a message board for readers.

The website also offers an opportunity for readers to submit their picture and stories for use in upcoming issues and on the website.

"I refuse to go through agencies to find models," said Williams, who is based in Jacksonville, Fla., and can be reached by calling 904/292-4630; fax: 904/260-3264; [email protected].

Fast Company's new editor John Byrne said his goal is to run more articles about ideas that will help people work smarter and lead better, and reflect current business realities.

The editorial operations were recently relocated from Boston to the New York bureau at 375 Lexington ave., 8th flr., 10017. 212/499-1500.

Debbi Karpowicz Kickham, who is the on-air TV spokesmodel for Sure Fit slipcovers, and makes TV appearances as an on-air decorator, is the new travel correspondent focusing on spas and the destinations of Hawaii for www.bellaonline, a women's site.

She seeks information on Hawaii regarding luxuries, romance, adventure, shopping, and products.

For her "Spas" column, she can use information about spas around the world plus product samples, including beauty products and treatments, anti-aging, sun protection, slimming cuisine and recipes, new exercises and equipment, and celebrity clients.
She also wants to get information about decorating, bargains, do-it-yourself projects and easy crafts.

Her address is 119 Fisher st., Westwood, MA 02090. 781/407-9305; fax: 407-9306; [email protected].

(Media news continued on next page)

TV NEWS PRODUCER LIKES QUICK PITCHES

Leslie Bella-Henry, who is the senior editorial producer of "Lou Dobbs Tonight," believes Capitol Hill press secretaries have mastered the art of pitch making.

"They'll say, 'This is who we've got, this is the story, this is what's happening on the Hill, do you want so-and-so,'" Bella-Henry, who is the main PR contact for the New York-based general news program, told PR News.

The show, which has replaced the business-oriented "Moneyline," airs each weekday on CNN and CNNfn from 6-7 p.m. (ET).

Each show has at least three top-level guests who provide analysis of the day's news.

Bella-Henry said publicists should try pitching her by phone between 1 and 2 p.m. (ET). She said e-mail pitches are okay, but there is no guarantee she will reply that day.

The show has several segments, including "CEO of the Week," which runs on Fridays; "Editor's Circle," featuring Rik Kirkland, managing editor of Fortune, Stephen Shephard, editor-in-chief of Business Week, and Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes, also runs on Fridays; "Corporate Crime Scoreboard," which airs everyday, and "Face Off," a debate focusing on current issues, that runs on Wednesdays.

It has started running a series of special reports every Thursday, called "American Classics." Recent reports have focused on such topics as baseball, Harley Davidson Motorcycles and Mark Twain.

Bella-Henry is located at 5 Penn plaza, New York, NY 10001; 212/714-5800; [email protected].

VIACOM MAY TEST MTV MAGAZINE

Viacom is ready to start a music magazine with strong tie-ins to programming on MTV, the cable TV music network.

MTV Magazine will compete against Rolling Stone, Spin, Vibe, Blender, and Tracks, a new music title set to start in November.

Two test issues will be published and distributed on newsstands in October and December. The target audience will be 18 to 24-year-old men and women.

The first test issue will feature an article on "Spankin' New," a series spotlighting new artists that runs periodically throughout the year on MTV.

The second issue will feature a recap of the big stories of 2003, playing off MTV's year-end "Rewind" program.

If the test issues are successful, plans are to go bimonthly in 2004.

Editorial content also will focus on new entertainment products, including DVDs, video games, and tech toys.

Bob Moses heads up the in-house editorial team.

MEDIA BRIEFS

"Savvy Senior" columnist Jim Miller, whose year-old column runs in more than 400 newspapers, has become a senior expert, according to Editor & Publisher.

Miller, 40, made appearances on the "Today" show on Aug. 12, 13, and 14 to demonstrate "senior gadgets." He also appeared on the NBC morning show in July.

Topics covered in his weekly column are volunteerism, employment, taxes, grandparenting, health, insurance, travel, Medicare, and Social Security.

Miller, who lives in Norman, Okla., can be reached at www.savvysenior.org.

The Wall Street Journal has expanded healthcare coverage to every issue.

The ad department is running full page ads that say a survey found 79% of the Journal's readers make the majority of healthcare decisions for their families.

Most of the articles run in the "Personal Journal" section on the "Health & Family" page.

Dub magazine, which features articles about customized cars of rappers and athletes, has become a "force in the urban car scene," according to USA Today.

Since its start three years ago, Dub's circulation has grown from 30,000 to 150,000.

Myles Kovacs, 29, who co-founded the magazine, which is based in City of Industry, Calif., told USA Today that "a lot of people's first impression of Dub is it's about thugs and gangsters. But it's about youth culture, clothes, music and cars."

MTV uses Kovacs to produce its "Cribs" show when it features celebrities' cars.

PEOPLE

Victor Neufeld, 56, who was senior executive producer in charge of newsmagazines at ABC News, has parted after 30 years with the network, to join "The Early Show" on CBS as a producer.

Brian Lowry, a TV reporter and columnist for The Los Angeles Times since 1996, has joined Daily Variety as a media columnist and TV critic.

Tom Tapp was named executive editor of V Life, a monthly from Variety. Michael Speier will succeed Tapp as managing editor, special reports.

John Bourantas, 34, was named news editor of The Washington (D.C.) Times.

'HACKS VS. FLACKS' GAME SCHEDULED

Members of the New York Financial Writers' Assn. have been asked to "bring a glove and your favorite PR friend" to Central Park on Sept. 7 to play in the first annual "Hacks vs. Flacks" softball game.

The game, which will start at 2 p.m., will be played on the Great Lawn, Field #7, near West 84th st. Food and refreshments will be served.

While vacationing in the Hamptons, we spotted a gem of an article about friendship and selling that should be part of any PR pro's professional development kit.

Jeffrey Gitomer, writing in the Long Island Business News July 25-31, says people want to do business with their friends and estimates that more than 50% of sales are made and business relationships kept because of friendship.

We agree and it goes double for PR.

Want to make friends, he asks? Take your prospects to ball games; the theater; concerts; breakfasts, lunch or dinner; seminars given by your company, etc.

"If your customer has kids, get a few tickets to an I-Max theater. Go on the weekend...an I-Max movie is great fun and it ain't just for kids."

Don't give away sports and other tickets to prospects, he says. Go with them and spend "a few quality hours" with them, he advises. Gitomer, who has lived in Charlotte, N.C., says friendships are "much easier to establish in the South."

Anyone who brings something "of value to the table" can get into the "good ol' boys network," he advises. "Join a business association and get involved," he urges. Gitomer is author of The Sales Bible and is reachable at 704/333-1112 or [email protected].

An old saw that we believe in is that "the best business lunch is where no business is discussed." It's about bonding.

Gitomer has an important lesson for newcomers to PR who are unaware that PR firms and corporate PR depts. once had numerous events where reporters could meet and get to know their PR people, who were seen as salespeople to the press. PR pros were encouraged to make as many friends as possible in the media.

This no doubt helped when it came time for the PR pro to place a story or get a viewpoint published. Also, press friends were more likely to keep the PR pros informed of industry developments and call them before writing about their companies or clients.

Many a PR firm was started by pros who built up a large stable of press contacts this way.

This model is still followed by some in PR but the more current trend is for PR people to have strictly business relationships with reporters.

About the only ones able to follow the "friendship" model are independent counselors with their own expense accounts and no parent company that keeps close tabs on all their movements.

Questions continue to haunt the nominating committee of PRSA. It wants to dump Phil Ryan, a director from New York who has been a PRSA member since 1976 and a Fellow since 1997, in favor of Michael Cherenson of Livingston, N.J., who joined PRSA in 1994 and who only became APR in June. Ryan is known as a director who is not afraid to speak out...another outspoken director, Jeff Seideman, is also being dumped. He had the nerve to oppose the board in its support of Nike in Nike vs. Kasky and even included that criticism in materials sent to the nomcom. His replacement is none other than Anthony D'Angelo of Carrier Corp. in Syracuse, who is a part-time teacher in the Newhouse unit of Syracuse University, where treasurer nominee Maria Russell is also based. The nomcom has picked two directors from Syracuse and none from New York City...we think both Ryan and Seideman have been double-crossed. They were talked into being one-year directors of PRSA. A bylaw was passed so they could succeed themselves into regular three-year terms. They did not expect an ambush by the next nomcom. While no one was put up against Judy Phair for president-elect, two candidates each were put up against Seideman and Ryan...sources say an attempt was made to pit Russell against Phair for president-elect and this effort is what consumed the extra week needed for the nominations. Russell got the big publicity boost in the 2003 Bluebook. Nomcom chair Kathy Lewton says nomcom deliberations are confidential...this tight secrecy, when candidates are saying they have been subjected to unfair criticism by PRSA leaders and there appear to be other abuses, calls to mind the tight secrecy that Enron, Worldcom, etc., enforced. The candidates say they signed no confidentiality agreement and can disclose these e-mails if they wish to...Ken Kerrigan, who was proposed as a director from the Tri-State district and even told initially that he had won, is at Ernst & Young, a client of Fleishman-Hillard, where Lewton also works. Kerrigan will receive a masters in communications from the Newhouse School this fall...if the nomcom gets its way, PRSA will be headed two years in a row by PR pros from the academic world. Russell works full time in it and Phair's background is heavily educational (teacher at Goucher College and Towson Univ., PR for Johns Hopkins, Univ. of Michigan and Univ. of Cincinnati, etc). The nomcom is top heavy with five APR-supporting academic reps (Judy Turk, Virginia Commonwealth; Melvin Sharpe, Ball State; Ann Major, Pennsylvania State; Dean Kazoleas, Illinois State, and Susan Barnes, Middle Tennessee State). In addition, Betsy Plank of Chicago, an ardent APR supporter, became a late arrival to the nomcom when Karen Breakell of Florida could not attend. Plank worked with 20 other ex-PRSA presidents last year to block the at-large student membership proposal.

--Jack O'Dwyer