SELTZER SURFACES AT RF

Bob Seltzer, the former CEO of Ogilvy PR Worldwide, has joined Ruder Finn to head its newly created marketing practice.

The RF post gives Seltzer the opportunity to work with clients, which he told this NL is his true love in the PR business. "While it's great to be a CEO, I'm at a point in my life where I can do what I want to do," he said. Seltzer has counseled Blue Chips, such as Coca-Cola, Gillette, Johnson & Johnson, Ford and Kellogg.

Seltzer led WPP Group's Ogilvy unit for more than five years. He resigned August 2002, and was replaced by Marcia Silverman, who had headed the Ogilvy/Americas operation. His year "off from work" was due to non-compete restrictions in his contract with Ogilvy. Prior to Ogilvy, Seltzer was executive VP of Porter Novelli/New York, and founder of its healthcare practice.

STOLTENBERG TAKES WYETH POST

Jessica Stoltenberg, VP of global PR and media relations at medical device maker Medtronic, has moved to pharmaceutical giant Wyeth as VP of corporate communications.

Assistant VP of PR Lowell Weiner told this NL Stoltenberg is essentially filling a post that opened up when VP of corporate comms. Doug Petkus recently took on an expanded role at the $14 billion drug maker, which is based in Madison, N.J.

APCO GETS SERIOUS ABOUT N.Y.

Michael Geczi, who was president of Edelman PR Worldwide's Asia/Pacific financial practice in Hong Kong, and executive VP of its U.S. financial practice prior to that, has joined APCO Worldwide as senior VP. He was hired as part of APCO CEO Margery Kraus' plan to establish a presence in the New York market for the Washington-based Grey Global unit, while bolstering its overseas financial practice.

"APCO has been around for about 20 years and has done a lot of business in New York without having an office here," he told O'Dwyer's. "I am now its New York presence." Geczi is to work closely with Neal Cohen, chairman, APCO North America.

APCO used to be part of sister company, GCI Group, which has a strong office in the city. The firms split in a restructure a few years ago.

TUNHEIM SPLITS FROM GCI

Kathy Tunheim has repurchased her Bloomington, Minn.-based firm two and a half years after it was acquired by GCI Group.

Tunheim told this NL the move was primarily in response to changing client needs and a desire for greater flexibility. "It was certainly the case that five years ago the notion of being part of a global network was a critical factor for our large corporate clients," she said. "Boy have the times changed."

Tunheim said in conversations with clients over the last two years a recurring theme was flexibility, which she said the firm had lost somewhat in being integrated into GCI's global network. "We can move faster as an independent," she said. In a statement the firm circulated to the press, Tunheim also cited the increased cost structure associated with being a part of GCI as a factor in the decision.

GCI and Tunheim will continue to share work for a single client, Medtronic.

GCI, which is owned by Grey Global Group, issued its own statement regarding the move, saying it "successfully completed the sale" of GCI Tunheim and cited a sour economy for the split. "It became clear the Minneapolis office's greatest success would be realized independently," the firm said. A message left for GCI president and CEO Bob Feldman was not returned by press time.

Tunheim, which staffed 69 in 2000, employs around 30 today. Billings topped $6 million in 2001.

RUSSIANS RETAIN HANNAFORD

The Russian Federation's Information Agency is using Hannaford Enterprises to cultivate political, economic and cultural ties with the U.S.

Peter Hannaford's Washington, D.C.-based firm is to conduct public opinion research, organize exchange trips between the two nations, and arrange "courtesy calls" for Russian officials with U.S. lawmakers and Administration officials. He also is to draw up a long-term "information and communications" program for the Russians that runs through 2008.

Hannaford was a top PR counselor to then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan. He served as communications advisor on Reagan's successful 1980 Presidential campaign, and is the author of "The Quotable Ronald Reagan," which he wrote in 1999.

Reagan famously referred to the Soviet Union as the "evil empire."

LAY: ENRON WAS VICTIM OF PRESS

Former Enron CEO Ken Lay considered "awful press coverage" of the energy trading giant a bigger problem than its shaky financial condition, according to "24 Days," a book published about the collapse of $60 billion (assets) combine.

Lay especially thought The Wall Street Journal was out to get Enron, wrote co-authors Rebecca Smith and John Emshwiller who covered Enron for that paper.

Enron's outside directors and bankers also believed Enron has "an awful PR headache and needed to do something about it," according to the book. Enron asked bankers at JP Morgan Chase for a list of outside PR firms. Morgan vice chairman James Lee suggested that Steve Lipin, "a highly regarded former Journal reporters and editor who'd gone into PR after years of covering mergers and acquisitions." That recommendation led Enron to hire Lipin's firm, The Brunswick Group.

The authors credit Lipin for being "smart and savvy" and proving to be "helpful in dealing with the rising tidal wave of press calls, which was heading toward four hundred a day." Enron's image problems hardly got better," as the bad news mounted.

Lay Reaches Out to Calame

The book discloses that Lay has a personal tie with Barney Calame, who was one of the Journal's deputy managing editors. The two had been fraternity brothers at the University of Missouri, and had kept in periodic contact. Calame acted as "sort of an informal conscience and arbiter of taste for the paper." Emshwiller found Calame to "be one of the most upright people he'd ever met, always concerned with doing the right thing, though he would sometimes chew over matters to the point of distraction."

Lay called Calame "on several occasions to complain about the paper's coverage." He also had Enron's PR chief Mark Palmer, another UM fraternity brother, call Calame, according to the book.
Each time Calame said he would not get involved in Enron coverage, and suggested any complaints should to voiced to WSJ reporters and editor Jonathan Friedland, who edited the Enron coverage.
Enron's collapse resulted in the loss of 15,000 jobs and an estimated $1.2 billion of their retirement funds.

BABCOCK DIES AT 74

Howard Babcock, who retired in 1988 as director of corporate communications of PPG Industries, Pittsburgh, died of cancer on Aug. 14 at his home in the Pittsburgh suburb of Ross Township. He was 74.

Babcock, a Cleveland native who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean conflict, was a journalist with International News Service and then United Press International in Cleveland before joining the public relations department of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio, in 1959 as news bureau manager.

He left Goodyear in 1966 to direct PR of RCA's computer business, based in Cherry Hill, N.J. PPG, a maker of coatings, glass, fiber glass and chemicals, recruited Babcock in 1968. Babcock was a former member of the Public Relations Society of America, Overseas Press Club and International PR Directors Roundtable.

H&K GOES ALL OUT FOR MCI

Hill & Knowlton has unleashed a 17-member lobbying hoard on behalf of MCI Communications, which is fighting for its corporate life in the wake of scandal, government probes and allegations that competitors are trying to drive the telecom company out of business.

H&K's has registered its former CEO Howard Paster, who also has a corporate post at parent company, WPP Group, as spearheading the MCI team. He is joined by Tom Hoog, Chairman H&K USA; Neil Dhillon, PA practice director; George Evanko, technology unit managing director, and Brian Hart, a former communications director to Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH).

The firm so has its Wexler & Walker Public Policy Assocs. unit involved in the action. Former Rep. Bob Walker (R-PA), and his executive assistant Peter Holran are on the MCI squad. Jack Howard, a recent high-profile hire from the Bush II Administration, is registered. He was deputy director of the White House's office of legislative affairs until joining W&WPPA in January.

Rounding out the team are: Dale Snape, W&WPPA's general manager and former staffer at the White House Office of Management & Budget; Paddy Link, former chief of staff for the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee; Sena Fitzmaurice, a veteran of Comcast's PR department; Monty Tripp, ex-counsel for the House Committee on Government Reform; Bob Healy, ex-Arco VP and aide to former Treasury Secretary and Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen; Cynthia Berry, W&WPPA's general counsel; Timothy Hannegan, managing director of the firm's aviation, transportation and transportation security practice; Jody Hoffman, member of the Clinton/Gore healthcare advisory group, and Joel Malina, W&WPPA expert on renewable energy resources and executive director of "WaterPower: The Clean Energy Coalition," a group of more than 660 members representing hydropower interests.

DKC, GOLIN/HARRIS HELP McD'S 'REINVENT BRAND'

McDonald's is using Dan Klores Comms. and long-time firm Golin/Harris Int'l to roll out its international "i'm lovin' it" brand campaign, which is slated for a Sept. 29 launch in the U.S. with pop singer Justin Timberlake.

Cathy Nemeth, senior director of global PR, told this website a press pool of about 200 global media were on hand in Germany last week at the international launch of the campaign, the company's first to be uniform across its restaurants in 100 countries. "This is the real deal," she said. "This is so much more than launching a new ad campaign. It's doing marketing differently and it's reinventing our brand."

The campaign is its first produced outside of the U.S. Omnicom's Heye & Partner, Unterhaching, Germany, put together the ad work, which was shot in 12 languages in countries like the Czech Republic, Brazil, South Africa and Malaysia.

Nemeth said the company's communications staff worked with a core group of media - mostly from the marketing and business press - from the planning stages of the campaign, which began to take off from a marketing summit in February of reps from the company's top 10 countries. Those reporters were briefed in June, when the campaign began to take shape, and were brought to Europe for the initial announcement Sept. 3.

The arrival of EVP and global chief marketing officer Larry Light last year and a new CEO have McDonald's changing its marketing and business models.

DKC senior VP Diane Briskin said the firm is just handling the launch of the campaign at this time and is not involved with ongoing PR efforts.

Timberlake signed an estimated $6 million endorsement deal to star in the campaign with the fast food chain, which is also sponsoring his European tour.

WEDDINGBELLS NAMES CITY EDITOR

Tanya Coulthard, who was recently named city editor of Weddingbells Magazine, which is published twice a year-spring/summer and fall/winter, is overseeing the bridal magazine's 11 local editions.
The editions are published in Atlanta (new), Boston, Chicago, Colorado, Dallas/Ft. Worth, New Jersey, New York, San Francisco Bay Area, South Florida and Southern California.

The Atlanta edition will appear with the spring/ summer 2004 issue that will go on newsstands in January 2004.

Stories in the national and local editions cater to a bride's specific interests as well as the needs of her groom, friends and family. The magazine also provides cover age of the hottest beauty news and stylish home decor, according to Litsa Rorris, who is marketing manager.

According to the new BPA audit, Weddingbells is the number two bridal magazine, following Conde Nast Bridal Group, with a total circulation of 362,042 per issue, Rorris said.

The editorial office of the magazine, which is headquartered in Los Angeles, is in Toronto.
Crys Stewart is editor-in-chief, and Michael Killingsworth is managing editor. They handle the national edition.

Staffers produce all of the articles, according to Rorris, who said pitches from PR pros are welcome.

Stewart, Killingsworth and Coulthard can be reached either by phone at 800/267-5450 or e-mail.

Stewart's extension is 228 and Coulthard's is 263.
E-mail is first initial, followed by last name @weddingbells.com.

The magazine, which was started in 1998, was acquired by WeddingChannel.com in 2001.

N.Y. TIMES MAGAZINE HAS A NEW EDITOR

Gerald Marzorati, 50, editorial director of The New York Times Magazine, was named its editor.

He succeeds Adam Moss, who last month was appointed an assistant managing editor of the newspaper.

Marzorati, who joined the Times in Sept. 1994 as articles editor, had been editor for nonfiction at The New Yorker; the deputy editor at Harper's, and a senior editor at The SoHo News.

He has also written music articles for the Times.

PEOPLE

David Bloom, previously a reporter at Variety, Red Herring magazine, and The Los Angeles Daily News, has joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Los Angeles, as VP/corporate communications.

Frank Comerford, president/general manager of WNBC-TV in New York, who lives in Bay Ridge, was named Chief Brehon, or principal leader of the Great Irish Fair, which was held Sept. 6-7 in Dreier-Offerman Park in "Coney Ireland."

Steve McFarland, a reporter for The New York Daily News, who is Boroughs and Suburban editor, was given the Irish Bard Award, which is presented to a writer who is dedicated to the stories of Ireland.

CNN STARTS TWO NEWS PROGRAMS

Paula Zahn and Anderson Cooper are each anchoring new one-hour news programs on CNN.

The new shows, which made their debuts on Sept. 8, have replaced the two-hour "Live From the Headlines."

Cooper's show, "Anderson Cooper 360," will start at 7 p.m. (ET). It will be followed by "Paula Zahn Now."

Cooper, a former correspondent and overnight news anchor for ABC, will anchor a show covering more than two dozen stories, with the aim of reaching younger news viewers not watching the traditional 6:30 p.m. network newscast.

Besides covering the day's news, "360" will have several segments devoted to media, including "Inside the Box," which will analyze TV news coverage; "Fresh Print," a look at the hot topics in current magazines, and "Weekender," which will preview upcoming movies and entertainment events.

Zahn's program will focus on interviews, covering two or three subjects, plus regular contributors.

DOW JONES BUYS ONLINE NEWSLETTERS

Former Wall Street Journal technology editor Dick Shaffer is returning to Dow Jones.

Technologic Ptrs., a publications and events firm for the venture capital and technology industries that Shaffer founded, has been acquired by Dow Jones & Co.

Technologic's eight online newsletters, which are published daily, will be combined with the Newsletters group at Dow Jones Newswires.

Shaffer will continue as editor-in-chief of the newsletters, and also head up new product development at Dow Jones Newsletters. He will report to Richard Levine, executive editor of Dow Jones Newsletters.

FORBES.COM COVERS 'INFOIMAGING'

Forbes.com has launched a new section devoted to the business opportunities made possible by the merger of information technology and imaging applications or "infoimaging."

The infoimaging section includes editorial features, daily news stories, and breaking news that explore industry topics and issues, provide thought-provoking concepts as well as in-depth reporting and analysis of industry trends, emerging business areas and profiles of industry insiders, according to Debbie Weathers, director of communications for Forbes.com.

The key editorial contact for PR pros is Penelope Patsuris (212/366-8836; [email protected]), senior editor for Forbes.com and editor of the new section, which can be linked at www.forbes.com/infoimaging.

(Media news continued on next page)

NEW MAG PUTS 'POSITIVE SPIN' ON TRAVEL

Travel Savvy magazine, which is making its debut this week, will put a "positive spin on travel," said Gina Masullo, editor-in-chief of the New York-based publication.

The magazine will feature a celebrity on the cover, articles on four destinations, an interview with a guest chef, plus articles about food and fashion that travelers encounter around the world.

The magazine will focus on "red-hot celebrity interviews," according to Masullo, who said the new bimonthly, which has offices in the Flatotel at 135 W. 52nd st., will "peek into the lives of today's most interesting celebrities as they open up and share their travel secrets and favorite vacations."

"We got tired of hearing about the next SARS epidemic, the next terrorist attack. We wanted to put a more positive spin on travel-show the fun," said Masullo, who was previously an associate editor at Business Traveler magazine.

Sarah Glazer is the magazine's photo editor.
Masullo said hotels, airlines, restaurants and cosmetic companies have taken out ads in the magazine, which will kick off with about 100,000 in circulation.

Masullo can be reached at 212/366-1011; fax: 366-1488, or e-mail at [email protected].

ATLANTA MAG. EDITOR THINKS LOCAL

Rebecca Burns told iCD Media, Alpharetta, Ga., that being editor-in-chief of Atlanta is "my dream job."

Burns, who studied the magazine in classes at Georgia State Univ., said she oversees the editorial content for the magazine and its ancillary magazines, Atlanta Magazine Home (quarterly), and Atlanta Magazine Menus and Atlanta Magazine Shops (both annuals).

"My job involves planning all editorial content and covers, working with writers, editors and art directors, and overseeing staff and budget," Burns said.

Anything with a "very strong Atlanta connection" is a hot topic. "We are always looking for people doing fascinating things-whether saving lives or selling shoes," said Burns, who is particularly interested in education, real estate, relationships and urban planning.

"Don't send us stuff about national stories and celebrities that don't have an Atlanta connection," she said. Shopping and dining are mainstays.

Early in the day is the best time to call her.

"Tuesdays and Thursdays are better," said Burns, who hates faxes and does not read them.

Phone pitches are okay, but e-mail is better, she said. 404/527-5500; [email protected].

PLACEMENT TIPS

"Nightly Business Report" is holding a contest to pick the "Most Influential Business Persons of the Past 25 Years."

Six professors at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania will select the finalists, who will be featured on NBR's upcoming 25th anniversary broadcast. You may get details and nominate individuals at www.npr.com.

Ms. Magazine, which was started in 1971, is trying to reinvent itself under Elaine Lafferty, its new editor-in-chief.

"I want 20-year-olds to read the magazine," she told The Los Angeles Times.

Lafferty said the new Ms., which is quarterly, but plans to go bimonthly next year, will cover both what feminism was, and what it is.

Coverage in the summer 2003 issue, featuring Janeane Garofalo on the cover, spans from sports to law, alternately digging into issues such Title IX, which the magazine has covered for years, and venturing into newer areas such as illegal logging in Borneo and a look at women in Iraq.

Lafferty, who is a former reporter for Time and The Irish Times, said her goal is to "create the kind of general-mix publication that not only will reach out to reluctant feminists with a more inclusive tone, but that will relocate the magazine's traditional newsstand spot among `alternative' magazines catering to niche demograhpics and place it alongside mainstream publications including newsweeklies and literary magazines, whose coverage these days is equally likely to involve topics such as gay marriage or reproductive rights."

The Feminist Majority Foundation, which owns Ms., has relocated the editorial staff, which consists of senior editor Michel Kort, 53, and assistant to the editor and book review editor Sarah Gonzales, 25, to its headquarters in Beverly Hills on Beverly dr.
FMF claims Ms. has a circulation of 110,000.

The Fader Magazine, a music title published six times a year, says that since its inception about five years ago it has covered more emerging artists than its competitors, while embracing the diversity in music and culture.

Recent front/back cover selections include N.E.R.D/The White Stripes (Winter 2003), Nas/The Yeah Yeah Yeahs (May/June 2003), and Outkast/ Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (current: Sept./Oct.).

Lee Harrison, who is editor-in-chief, is based in New York at 71 W. 23rd st. 212/741-7100.

BKLYN is a new quarterly magazine published by a consortium of six of the borough's cultural institutions, including the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

The new magazine, which makes its debut this week, touts the pleasures of the borough, with articles by local writers covering new restaurants, the Williamsburg art scene and places to see.

The magazine's site is www.bklynmagazine.com.

Joseph Steuer, founding editor of Gotham magazine and former deputy editor of Us Weekly, is editor-in-chief of BKLYN, which will be sent free to 85,000 households. He is based at 12 W. 27th st., 10001.

PRSA has "proclaimed" September as "Ethics Month" and has provided a lengthy dialogue on the subject in its September Tactics.

The dialogue is available to members and non-members via prsa.org. PRSA's 116 chapters are supposed to conduct similar discussions.

The discussion in Tactics is interesting if highly abstract. Homage is paid to "transparency" and the need to build public trust in institutions. "Frankness" is said to be the sine qua non of public discourse.

Prof. Dean Kruckeberg of the University of Northern Iowa, a former board member of PRSA, says PR's role is to be the "conscience" of the corporation. "PR people tend to be the most ethical people I know," he says.
Our dictionary defines "ethical" as "principled, virtuous conduct." PRSA's own code calls for dedication to "fairness."

We hope the chapters take up the topic of what is fair or not fair in their own organizations and in PRSA national, using concrete examples rather than talking about imaginary cases (Socratic dialogue).

For instance, we don't think it's fair to the members that PRSA eliminated its spring Assembly in 1985, claiming it was too expensive for delegates and national. Members lost a needed voice in the way their Society is run. The single meeting allows national to postpone major decisions for a year, causing unnecessary rigidity in managing its affairs.

We don't think it's fair to the Assembly delegates that they have to pay their own way to the Assembly when more than 100 chapter president-elects got $500 each for a June 20-21 "leadership rally" in New York (total budget for the meeting was $100K). Also, the delegates get charged the full $795 registration fee for attending the national conference. They are forced to spend two extra nights in a hotel ($250 a night in New Orleans) when the Assembly could easily be held on a regular conference day. No wonder 25 chapters were unrepresented last year!

We don't think it's fair to the delegates that national leadership subjects them to six and more hours of speeches before letting them speak and often breaks up the "Assembly" into 15 "focus groups," crippling its very nature.

We don't think it's fair to the 80% non-APR members that they are barred from voting in the Assembly or holding national office. Many are Ph.D.s, MBAs, lawyers and heads of big corporate PR depts. or heads of PR firms. They are not going to take the APR exam. PRSA's members are deprived of proven leadership skills of these people.

We don't think it's fair that PRSA leadership and staff at h.q. combine to bar senior members from working at h.q., where they could see what is happening on a daily basis. They could see how their money is being spent and understand why staff payroll is 42% of income, 13 points higher than the average for groups in the $5-$10 million bracket.

Senior PR pros at h.q. would never have allowed the copying of authors' articles without their permission nor sent back hundreds of Silver Anvil entries for minor infractions (pocketing fees of $150 or more each and not saying what the infraction was).

We could add a dozen or more PRSA practices that we think are unfair, arbitrary, uncommunicative, etc., but leaders of the Society just say they have broken no ethical codes and are perfectly justified in all their actions. There is no judge or jury to declare which side is right or wrong.

Several candidates for national office this year feel their reputations were damaged in letters sent to the nominating committee by PRSA president Reed Byrum and president-elect Del Galloway. A booklet on chairmanships of non-profits by John Budd says chairmen are not to get involved in picking candidates for a board.

Budd is a veteran of 22 boards and was at one time PR counsel to PRSA. Former president Jack Felton has also said the board should not be involved in picking its own members. But PRSA argues back that board members have always done this and there's nothing wrong with it.

The lengthy (twelve 8 ½ X 11 pages) "ethics" discussion in Tactics fails to mention a single company or concrete example. It's like debates theologians had in the Middle Ages over how many angels could fit on the head of a pin.

Chapters should discuss whether members are being treated fairly by being deprived of a spring Assembly; being deprived of an Assembly that can meet "by remote means" on any day of the year (if PRSA switches to a Delaware charter); being deprived of local-only chapter membership; having 80% of the members barred from voting in the Assembly or holding office (for 38 years) because they are not APR; having a "PR" society at which the press relations function is chronically short-changed and where leaders rarely present themselves for in-person interviews with reporters.

How fair is it to the non-APR members of chapters that they are never allowed to vote on whether they want APR to be connected to office-holding of any type?

A modest opinion-sampling poll would quickly find that nine of ten non-APRs want decoupling not only of the Assembly, but the national board. No chapter, to our knowledge, has ever conducted such a poll.

--Jack O'Dwyer