CFAs REVIEW PR WORK

The Assn. for Investment Management and Research, the international non-profit group for certified financial analysts and other financial pros, is reviewing its seven-figure global PR account and expects a decision by mid-September.

Jim Cudahy, VP of marketing and comms., confirmed the review and told this NL Ogilvy PR Worldwide, Financial Dynamics, Gavin Anderson & Co., and U.S. incumbent Citigate Communications are finalists. He said the group periodically looks at its outside agencies.

Citigate was tapped last fall after AIMR's member CFAs asked the group to be more visible on ethics and standards in the wake of corporate accounting scandals. The group responded to debacles at Enron, Arthur Andersen and Worldcom with a print and radio campaign bolstered by PR efforts highlighting the CFA code of ethics, which is pledged each year.

AIMR currently uses Fleishman-Hillard for international work along with Citigate in the U.S., but would consider using one firm for global PR, Cudahy said. F-H, which is not in the running, had both pieces of the account prior to Citigate winning the U.S. portion.

Cudahy declined to disclose billings on the account, but two sources put the work at over $1 million.

CISCO RFP OPEN TO 'PRE-QUALIFIED' FIRMS

Cisco Systems, San Jose, has broadened the scope of its PR firm search, according to Jerry Swerling, whose Malibu-based firm was retained to handle the review. Originally, Cisco had opened a review to select a firm to handle its North American corporate PR function.

After a "needs assessment" was completed, Claudia Ceniceros, who is Cisco's senior director of corporate PR, decided to expand the areas of PR responsibilities to include tech PR, Latin America and the company's online news and distribution service.
Swerling said a new RFP was sent last week to a "pre-qualified" list of firms.

He said Cisco, which has used several PR firms on a project basis for the past four or five years, including Applied Comms., which was just acquired by Next Fifteen, is seeking a "continuous relationship" with the new PR firm.

The new firm should be announced in December.

HULLIN GETS BOEING POST

Tod Hullin, who launched a corporate PR career after first serving in high posts in Republican administrations from 1969-76, has been named to the top PR post at the Boeing Co.

Hullin will be based in the Chicago headquarters of Boeing, which has sales of more than $50 billion.

Sources said he has been a close advisor to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in recent months. Rumsfeld was Defense Secretary in the Ford Administration from 1975-77.

Boeing has been seeking increased Defense Department business.

Judith Muhlberg, who was VP-communications at Boeing, left in June to spend more time with her family. Korn/Ferry International conducted the search. Total remuneration, including salary and stock, is reported to be upwards of $800,000.
Hullin became the highest paid PR person with salary and stock worth about $1 million when he was senior VP of communications and PA for Time-Warner from 1991-97. His remuneration was revealed in documents filed with the SEC.

Hullin was principal deputy assistant secretary of PA for the Dept. of Defense from 1976-77. Previ-ously he was associate director for Housing and Community Development for the White House.

A former exec at Searle Pharmaceuticals and SmithKline, Hullin joined Joseph E. Seagram & Sons in 1998 as senior VP, corp. comms. and PA.

STEVENS ASKS PRSA NOMCOM PROBE

PR Society of America secretary Art Stevens, in an e-mail to the 17-member national board, has asked for a probe into "perceived infractions, irregularities and bending of the rules" by the 2003 nominating committee headed by Kathy Lewton.

Board members normally promise to keep all board matters secret. However, dissatisfaction with board leadership burst into the open in June when a group of directors, without identifying themselves, said they were "furious" with statements by PRSA president Reed Byrum about the Supreme Court decision sending the Nike vs. Kasky case back to California.

The statement by Byrum said the Court showed "ignorance" and "naivete" and said PRSA was "devastated" by the decision.

While the board critics would only describe themselves as "many directors," no one on the board came forward to support the Byrum statements, either.

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FIRM NAMED IN 'SMEAR CAMPAIGN'

Creditors of bankrupt MCI/Worldcom are looking to probe Washington, D.C.-based Issue Dynamics for orchestrating what they are calling a "smear campaign" against the telecom giant.

The firm is working against MCI with support from its rivals, which include Verizon, AT&T and SBC Communications and who would rather see the company dissolved as punishment for misstating its finances by $9 billion.

MCI was battered in headlines (again) in early August on news that it was being investigated based on AT&T's allegations that it allegedly routed long-distance calls through Canada to disguise them as local.

Hill & Knowlton's D.C. and New York offices are handling PR and PA efforts on behalf of MCI.

MCI's creditors, with their vested interest in seeing the telecom giant recover from its doldrums, in late August said they asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York to grant it investigative power into the "smear campaign" which has led to "widespread adverse press coverage... quite clearly aimed at imperiling these cases and frightening the company's customers into the arms of its accusers."

An attorney for a committee of MCI creditors told The Wall Street Journal evidence the rivals cooperated on promoting allegations they knew were false could constitute fraud or antitrust violations.

The Washington Post first outed the ID campaign in June, drawing a heated statement from its founder and president Samuel Simon. "This [Post] story is a result of MCI/Worldcom's plan to divert attention away from the fact that they are guilty of the largest corporate accounting fraud in history and to instead focus attention and attack anyone who speaks out against them."

A call to Simon was not returned.

SCHMITT SOHNE TOASTS GEN. FRANKS

Winemaker Schmitt Sohne and its Louisville ad agency, Current Marketing, have produced a limited-edition white German wine for Gen. Tommy Franks, the recently retired four-star Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Central Command.

Franks developed a taste for the wine, Zeller Schwarze Katz, while stationed in Germany for several years, and approached the company because he wanted to give bottles to his commanders as he left active duty last month, said Jim Lindsey, marketing and advertising director for Schmitt Sohne USA.

The Army paid retail for the wine (about 1,000 bottles) and slapped the labels on themselves, because of bottling and labeling laws. The personalized Franks label is not available for sale to the public.

The choice is notable because of a strong rift that developed between Germany and the Bush Administration in the buildup toward the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which was under Franks' command.

LEINER SETS UP UNIT FOR PR BATTLE

Crystal Wright, VP of media relations for the Nat'l Assn. of Chain Drug Stores, has been tapped to head over-the-counter drug maker Leiner Health Products' new Washington, D.C., outpost, which was set up to take on the brand name drug giants.

Wright is charged with leading PR and lobbying efforts as VP of PR for the company, which wants to create more competition for prescription drugs by limiting brand name makers' patent rights and making generics easier to market.

Leiner, which is privately held, expects to make a mark next month when its generic version of Claritin hits shelves. The company has battled Claritin maker Schering-Plough in court and says its version could sell for about 30 cents a pill, while Claritin is marketed for about $1 per pill.

Prior to NACDS, Wright spent three years at Fleishman-Hillard in D.C., working for the Library of Congress, AARP and the White House Office of Drug Control Policy.

Leiner has also lured Corrie Allen, another NACDS staffer, to serve as PR manager.

MARTIN CLOSES THE DOOR ON AVON

Brian Martin, sr. VP of corporate comms. for Avon Products, has left after 10 years for a similar post at $7.8 billion information and technology company Thomson Corp.

Victor Beaudet, Avon's executive director of comms., told O'Dwyer's the company has shuffled its corporate communications unit with current staffers to cover Martin's responsibilities. He said the company does not plan to revive the post.

Martin, 53, with the title SVP of corporate affairs at Thomson, sits on the company's executive committee and reports directly to president/CEO Richard Harrington. He oversees media relations, IR and internal comms. for the company, which owns the well-known First Call and Westlaw services.

Prior to Avon, Martin was VP of comms. for Reliance Group Holdings and earlier director and VP of corporate comms. for American Can Co.

LEVIN, POSNER DEPART OGILVY FOR F-H

Bette Levin and Ralph Posner have defected to Fleishman-Hillard/D.C. from Ogilvy PR Worldwide's Washington, D.C., office.

Levin, VP in Ogilvy's marketing unit and former acting director of public affairs for AARP, takes a senior VP post at F-H. The firm said Levin might occasionally consult on its work for AARP, although her focus is new business. She previously held PR posts in the Reagan and Carter Administrations.

Posner, a key staffer on Ogilvy's work for the Chlorine Chemistry Council, is now a VP at F-H in its consumer marketing unit. The former legislative assistant to Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) will work on the firm's AARP and American Water Works Assn. accounts.

TV WRITERS SEEK INPUT FOR COLUMNS

Although he is swamped by more material than he can possibly use, Frasier Moore, who covers the TV beat for The Associated Press, New York, told an Aug. 27 meeting of the Entertainment Publicists Professional Society/New York that he is "always amenable to hearing what you've got to say."

Moore pointed out that he is one of three reporters covering the TV beat for the news service. He said his weekly columns are focused mainly on show reviews and profiles of TV personalities.

As a rule, he said regional entertainment news should be pitched to the bureau in that area, and breaking news should go to either David Bauder, who is the other TV industry writer in New York, or Lynn Elber, a TV reporter in the Los Angeles bureau, who covers both features and news.

TV columnists at major newspapers frequently lift material from the reports provided by Moore, Bauder and Elber.

If publicists are not sure who will cover something, "I will direct the information to the right bureau or reporter," said Moore, who has been with AP for 12 years.

He also does not mind getting phone calls, but he prefers to first get an e-mail, which he can "ponder."

Moore, who majored in PR in school, said he divides publicists into two camps-"enablers and disablers."
It is "nice to feel" a publicist is not stalling or putting up barriers when he is trying to get information for a story, said Moore, who assured the publicists he will never sabotage a show because he does not like the script or the actors.

Wears Many Hats

Seli Groves writes several columns for King Features, including two TV columns.

She produces a Q&A column about soap operas four times a week, called "Daytime Dial," plus a weekly column, titled "Tuning In," which includes a full feature story and news items about primetime TV shows and entertainers.

Groves is interested in "breaking news" in the Tuning In column, which she writes under the byline of Sally Stone.

"Writing an entertainment column is not an end all," said Groves, who looks for ways to use information in her other columns. Currently, she writes columns focusing on women's issues, which also includes education, health, and concerns of senior citizens.

Groves, who works out of her apartment in Manhattan, prefers to get pitches by e-mail at [email protected]. She will call the publicist when she gets something interesting. "We need to talk," said Groves, who gets annoyed when PR people do not return her calls.

She said the best time to send her information is midweek; she is too busy writing early in the week.
Neil Gladstone, who is managing editor of United Features, said publicists should not pitch him.

He said pitches should go to Kevin McDonough, who writes two TV columns for the syndicate. One, called "Reality Update," covers reality TV shows, and the other, "Tune in Tonight," is focused on primetime shows.

Publicists should e-mail their information and pitches to McDonough, who also works from home: [email protected].

Gladstone pointed out McDonough is a stickler for getting correct dates on press releases.

About 30 publicists and guests attended the luncheon session, which was held at Fleishman-Hillard's offices.

PLACEMENT TIPS

Female Entrepreneur Magazine, Seattle, and Venture Marketing, Downers Grove, Ill., have launched an international Marketing Makeover contest. It will award a female entrepreneur a no-cost marketing makeover in an effort to showcase the power of branding to entrepreneurial organizations.

The winner also will be featured in a case study article to be published in a 2004 issue of FEM.
Keli Swenson is editor of FEM, which made its debut in March/April 2003.

Inquiries can be directed to Critstine Attalla at [email protected].

Business 2.0 has added veteran technology reporter and Fortune editor-at-large Brent Schlender to its roster as a contributing editor.

Starting with the Oct. 2003 issue, Schlender will write a feature length column, called "Titans of Tech." It will be in a question and answer format, and feature interviews with high-level business and technology executives.

"We want to give our readers real insight into what some of the biggest names in business, technology and innovation are doing to make their companies successful," said Josh Quittner, editor of B2.0.
Quittner said Schlender, who is based in Silicon Valley, has "incredible access to the heavy hitters."

HEARST STARTS COSMO EDITION IN ISRAEL

Lea Kantor-Matarasso was appointed editor-in-chief of Cosmo Israel, which Hearst Magazines is starting in Israel. Approximately 50,000 copies of the first issue will hit newsstands this week.

Printed in Hebrew, its overall content will mirror the American version of Cosmopolitan, but certain social elements that are unique to the Israeli way of life will be woven into the magazine's editorial topics, including relationships, fashion, beauty, health and career. Issues such as military service will also be addressed and local celebrities will be featured.

Kantor-Matarasso, an Israeli-born woman, is a former editor of Women, a local lifestyle magazine, and Family magazine.

(Media news continued on next page)

PR PRO ARGUES AGAINST 'NO COMMENT'

Steven Alschuler, president of Linden Alschuler & Kaplan, presents his arguments against using "no comment" in the current issue of State Bar News, published for the New York State Bar Assn.

"No comment can lead to more adverse comment," Alschuler states in his new column for the publication. "Reacting swiftly and constructively to negative news can usually make bad stories turn out somewhat better. Being constructive and taking the initiative can generate positive stories that help convey your side," said Alschuler, whose firm handles PR for the NYSBA, and in fields including finance, PA, real estate, healthcare and crisis management.

In making his case, Alschuler said prosecutors and police officials regularly announce indictments and arrests to the media and lay out allegations to make their case sound as compelling as possible.
"When those stories do not include some type of substantive response from the defense, readers see only one side of the story," he said.

When an attorney says "no comment" to a reporter, that can be a quote in the story, said Alschuler. "Saying `We believe the allegations are false and look forward to presenting evidence that will vindicate us' is a better quote than `no comment.'"

He also disagrees with attorneys who warn their clients against making any comments that are supportive of victims, for fear they will be perceived as admissions of guilt or liability.

"But compassion is different than remorse," he states. "You can say: `Our hearts go out to the Smith family in this difficult time,' without admitting that you were responsible for their problems."

Set Rules for Interview

While he believes it is okay to give interviews, he said attorneys should set ground rules. "Ask reporters what topics they are interested in. Sometimes they will agree to send a partial list of questions."

He also suggests identifying key points in advance with the client, whom he believes should do the interview. "Write them down. And whatever questions the reporter poses, keep coming back to those points in the interview," he said.

Instead of an interview, he said attorneys can "craft a written statement that addresses the topic on your own terms. While reporters always prefer an actual interview, they will accept a prepared statement, and usually quote from it."

His final suggestion for working with reporters in a contentious situation is to build relationships with the media in advance.

"Offer yourself as a source of information on stories where you don't have a personal interest. Offer to interpret news or give reporters some insight into the story behind a story," said Alschuler.

"By being engaged in the media relations process, attorneys can help preserve clients' reputations," he said in his closing argument.

PR PRO CONTINUES TO BATTLE PUBLISHER

Scott Smith, a California-based publicist, is refusing to give up in his trademark fight with the publisher of Entrepreneur Magazine. Smith, whose legal bills total $100,000, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he has filed a new appeal in the case that began in 1997 when he was sued by Entrepreneur Media, which owns Entrepreneur Magazine, after he changed the name of his firm from Icon Publications to EntrepreneurPR.

"It's like being sued for using the word `golf.' There's `Golf Magazine,' `Golf Illustrated,'" said Smith, who has been running his firm from home under the name of BizStarz. "Most publishers are not that insane. But these people have this thought that they made the word `entrepreneur' what it is today."

While operating as EntrepreneurPR, Smith created a booklet of promotional profiles of small business owners, which was sent to members of the media to be used as source material for news stories.

A federal court judge in 2000 awarded Entrepreneur Media an injunction prohibiting Smith from using the "entrepreneur" name and awarded $337,280 in damages. According to the court's decision, EM has "exclusive right to use the mark in commerce."

Smith appealed, and the case went back to district court for a trial, where this summer the court found Smith had intentionally infringed on the EM's trademark, attempting to affiliate his firm with the magazine and feed off its popularity.

The judge awarded EM a permanent injunction and $669,656 in damages.

PEOPLE

Jeannie Williams, previously a celebrity columnist for USA Today, and Amy Spencer, former senior editor at Glamour, have joined The Star, a weekly paper published by American Media.

Sarah Kershaw has joined The New York Times as Seattle bureau chief, replacing Sam Howe Verhovek, who is now with The Los Angeles Times.

Gerard Bray, who has been a London-based commercial banking reporter for Bloomberg News, is moving to the San Francisco bureau as a general assignment editor.

Carleen Hawn, previously at Forbes, has joined Fast Company as San Francisco bureau chief.

Dena Klein, a member of PRSA, was promoted to president of Family Features Editorial Syndicate, in Mission, Kans., which produces and distributes culinary features to media.

The 2003 annual Conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists will be held Sept. 10-14 in New Orleans at the Astor Crowne Plaza.

Michael Vogel, CEO of BBDO Detroit, whose sole account is DaimlerChrysler, wrote an e-mail to the firm's 1,700 employees saying he was "frankly amazed at the number of competitors' vehicles we have in our lot..."

"Special upfront parking" will be given to those with client vehicles while others will be consigned to a "special lot" that will be called the "back forty," his memo further said, noting he owns five client vehicles himself.

The Ragan Report (8/11), which specializes in employee communications, quoted one of its subscribers as saying Vogel's message is that, "I'm a tyrant and you'll do what I say or face the consequences."

Where was PR in this case, the subscriber also wondered?

The e-mail was signed, "The Colonel." Vogel is a retired Marine Corps colonel and is normally referred to this way in the office as a term of endearment, said PR director Vikki Brown.

Vogel said BBDO Detroit gives a week and a half of paid vacation to anyone buying or leasing a Mercedes, Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge and three days paid vacation if someone in the immediate family does so.

In addition, DaimlerChrysler has a special "family and friends" discount for such buyers.

Vogel noted in his e-mail that, "Our client makes great vehicles and we make it pretty convenient for you to drive one." BBDO Chrysler is an Omnicom agency.

Omnicom, owner of major PR firms such as Ketchum, Fleishman-Hillard and Porter Novelli, is the sixth largest issuer of "contingently convertible debt," says a study by Bear Stearns. OMC issued $2.35 billion in such debt in 2000-03, topped only by such companies as Cendant ($2.9B), Merrill Lynch ($4.6B) and General Motors, No. 1 in this area with $7.7B in proceeds. Such bonds, convertible to stock when a certain price is reached, now have a "dizzying array of features," says BS. When a certain "trigger" price is reached (initially $137.51 in OMC's case), potential dilution appears in diluted earnings per share...Vanguard Group's Jack Bogle, quoted here Aug. 13 as saying broker research was nearly useless because index funds (mindless, bet-the-averages investing) do as well as managed funds, got support from Newsweek columnist Jane Quinn in the Sept. 1 issue. Quinn, confessing that she's "still an indexer," says index funds are low-cost and track the market. "You can't beat the market over long periods of time," she notes. Broker research, under fire for putting out too many "buys" on stocks, is coming up with a few more "sells" these days...NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange are two institutions under fire. An Aug. 11 Business Week cover story said NASDAQ is losing business to the NYSE and companies offering "nimble" order-matching via computer and is "fighting for its life." Owned by the NASD, it is "ill-equipped for the cut-throat competition that's taking over the (stock) markets worldwide," says the article by Paula Dwyer and Amy Borrus. CEO Bob Griefeld, who notes NASDAQ has a $490 million war chest, is trying to free NASDAQ from the NASD. NYSE CEO Dick Grasso is overpaid ($12M in 2002 and $20M in 2001, plus a $140M package revealed last week), NYSE has a number of conflicts, and its effectiveness as a self-regulatory body is questionable, said a study by the Council of Institutional Investors. The New York Post, which has been a critic of the NYSE in recent months, gave the report major play Aug. 2...Gerald Schwartz, president of G.S. Schwartz & Co., New York, commenting on the remark by GCI Group creative head Joel Babbit that more ad creatives may move into PR, said that ad agencies have not realized "how different PR is from advertising." The conglomerates, in buying many PR firms, said PR would help to smooth out the cyclical nature of ad spending, said Schwartz. The financial results of the public ad agencies in the past two years has shown that PR is just as cyclical as advertising, he added...ad clients are looking at smaller, cheaper agencies for ideas, said the July 31 ad column in the Wall Street Journal, a theme that has been sounded before in the WSJ. Columnist Suzanne Vranica said Scott Kraft, VP of brand marketing and advertising at Sun Microsystems, a client of WPP Group's J. Walter Thompson, is also getting ideas from a "host of smaller agencies." General Motors and Coca-Cola are also using smaller agencies, said the column...the "mystery woman" who made the motion to table the APR decoupling bylaw change at the 2002 PRSA Assembly in San Francisco is Kelly Groehler, sr. A/E at Padilla Speer Beardsley, Minneapolis. It took PRSA several months to learn her identity. PSB for many years was headed by John Beardsley, 1995 PRSA president and still active in PRSA as a member of Kathy Lewton's advocacy advisory board. Groehler, in making her motion, said the Assembly did not know enough about the subject to make a decision. We called her and offered to send her our study of APR costs and the pass/fail rates back to 1982. She said the chapter's APR chair might call us but we never heard from this person...PRSA will soon come out with revised membership totals. Membership is usually described as "nearly 20,000." Up until recently, members were kept on the books for three months after their expiration dates. This has been cut to two months. The 20,000 figure included 1,559 associates who pay $115 in the first year and $155 in the second, and 488 retireds who pay $50.

--Jack O''Dwyer