F-H BOOKS EXPEDIA.
Expedia has shifted its $1M PR account from Edelman PR Worldwide to Fleishman-Hillard, a part of Omnicom. David Dennis, an Expedia spokesman, said the firm liked F-H's mix of travel and online PR experience.

Edelman's Chicago office had been handling the Expedia account that now will be managed out of F-H's San Francisco facility. Kelly McGinnis is responsible for the account. Edelman, the top indepen-dent shop, had Expedia for more than seven years.

Dennis said F-H is expected to bring fresh thinking to the Expedia business.

OVERTON EXITS OGILVY.
Cheryl Overton, senior VP and head of Ogilvy PR Worldwide's New York consumer marketing unit, has left the firm to return to Edelman, which she departed in 2002.

The firm has promoted Lorra Brown, a two-year travel and tourism veteran of Ogilvy who joined from Weber Shandwick in 2002, from senior VP to head the unit has group director. Brown heads the firm's work for Cendant Travel Distribution Services and the American Red Cross Save a Life Tour, and has worked on Virgin Atlantic and Target Stores.

Noting increased activity in consumer marketing, Ogilvy said in a statement that it is hiring at all levels, across all offices in the U.S.

Overton takes the title senior VP at Edelman, reporting to Lisa Sepulveda, executive VP and GM of the firm's New York consumer brands unit.

TOYOTA NAMES COOPER.
Josephine (Jo) Cooper, who was CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, has been named group VP/government and industry affairs for Toyota Motor North America. She takes the post Feb. 17, and will report to Dennis Cuneo, senior VP.

Cooper also served as VP-regulatory affairs at the American Forest & Paper Assn., aide to former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker and then-Rep. Dick Cheney, and COO of the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Assn. She also did PR stints at Capitoline Int l Group and Hill & Knowlton (director of environmental policy consulting).

She succeeds Doug West, who shifts to Aichi USA 2005, the group that is luring American companies to participate in the World Expo ‘05, set for Aichi, Japan.

MAGNET, MIDDLEBERG TO MERGE.
Havas PR units Magnet Communications and Euro RSCG Middleberg are combining operations to become Euro RSCG Magnet, a New York-based firm with about 150 staffers.

Magnet CEO David Kratz, 46, will head the combine in that same title. "It just didn t seem sensible to have two competing firms," he said, noting Magnet moved into Havas Euro division in August of last year. Kratz said Magnet would take on Middleberg's entire staff.

Under the plan, set for completion by April 1, Middleberg president Aaron Kwittken, 33, would become co-president with Magnet's president, Paul Jensen. Kwittken would serve as chief operating officer and Jensen, as chief strategy officer.

Don Middleberg, 58, founder and president of Euro RSCG Middleberg, would scale back his role and serve as chairman.

Kratz said Middleberg would be focusing on some key clients and overseeing the firm's media surveys. Euro RSCG acquired Middleberg + Assocs. in June 2000.

GETO & DE MILLY SCORES
FOR RATNER.
Geto & de Milly is handling real estate developer Bruce Ratner's $300 million bid to purchase the New Jersey Nets and move the team to downtown Brooklyn, N.Y.

Forest City Ratner Cos. outbid a group that included fellow developer Charles Kushner and N.J. Senator Jon Corzine for the franchise. MWW Group handled that PR effort.

The bidding process is only the first stop in a long-drawn out process to construct a $2.5 billion commercial and residential complex by `08. A 19,000-seating capacity arena—costing $485M—will double as the development's showcase and home to the Nets. FCRC needs to land approval from National Basketball Assn. team owners for the Nets purchase, arrange financing for the complex, overcome community opposition and potential lawsuits, and navigate the political and regulatory thicket.

Michelle de Milly and Joyce Baumgarten are the G&dM staffers handling the Ratner bid.
Bob Sommer, executive VP at MWW, is spokesperson for the Kushner/Corzine group. He told O'Dwyer's the K/C group may re-bid if Ratner fails to win approval for his Nets complex.

H&K TACKLES
‘OFFSHORING' ROW.
Hill & Knowlton, which represents India's software sector, plans to line up meetings with editorial boards of top newspapers to defuse rising worry among Americans about U.S. companies "offshoring" research and back office jobs to the subcontinent.

The WPP Group unit is working on behalf of its client, India's National Assn. of Software and Services Companies. Nasscom's outreach coincides with plans to hold its annual executive board meeting in the U.S. in March. India's Financial Express reports the meeting heralds "another first on Indian companies stepping out to take on the world." India's Embassy and Ministry of External Affairs will support Nasscom's mission.

Nasscom admits offshoring will have a short-term negative impact on the U.S. job market (e.g., one million jobs moving to India by 2010), but claims it will benefit the U.S. in the long-run because this nation faces a potential labor shortage due to an aging population.

The Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 19 that IBM plans to save $168M a year in labor costs beginning in `06 by shifting several thousand programming jobs to India, China and Brazil. Those jobs are currently in Dallas, Raleigh, Boulder (Colo.), Poughkeepsie, (N.Y.), and Southbury (Conn.).

CSV HANDLES STEWART'S IMAGE.
Citigate Sard Verbinnen is spearheading Martha Stewart's image makeover as jury selection began Jan. 20 in the securities fraud trial for the doyenne of the domestic arts. CSV has been called in to supplement the efforts of Susan Magrino Agency, which helped create the Stewart brand.
Gershon Kekst's Kekst & Co. has assumed PR duties from The Brunswick Group, which was dismissed by Stewart's media company last June. BG's senior partner Steve Lipin, the former Wall Street Journal finance editor, had been handling Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

IPR LOOKS FOR CHIEF.
The Institute for Public Relations has formally kicked off its search to replace president/CEO Jack Felton, who plans to step down by yearend. Felton was VP-corporate communications at spice marketer McCormick & Co. before taking the IPR post in `95.
Ward White, IPR co-chair and VP-corporate relations at Northwestern Mutual, is heading the search committee. He says the CEO position is well-suited for a seasoned executive wanting to give something back to the profession.

IPR is located at the University of Florida (Gainesville) College of Journalism and Communications. Its mission is to "combine the best academic knowledge in the field with the finest professional practices."

Applications for the post should be sent to IPR, P.O. Box 118400, Gainesville 32611-8400.

SARA LEE SINGS
‘BYE BYE' JIMMY.
Sara Lee Corp. has dumped country singer Jimmy Dean as spokesperson for the sausage company that he sold to the Chicago-based food/apparel conglomerate in 1984. "It's the dumbest thing," Dean told the Associated Press of the break-up.

Sara Lee showed the 75-year-old Dean, a self-described West Texas country boy, the door because it wanted the nation's No. 1 sausage company to appeal to younger housewives.

Dean, a fixture at the Grand Ole Opry, had his own TV show on CBS during the `50s. His "Big Bad John" was a No. 1 hit in the U.S. in 1961, and was No. 2 in the U.K. Dean's repertoire included "Old Pappy's New Bango," "Okie from Muskogee," "Night Train to Memphis," and "It Keeps Right on a Hurtin. "

Sara Lee retains the right to Dean's name and image. It uses Manning, Selvage & Lee for PR. The company recently made a splash when it sponsored the Jan. 1 dip into the Atlantic Ocean by members of the Polar Bear Club in Coney Island, N.Y. MS&L staffers set up a heated tent, and handed out sausage sandwiches to hungry spectators on that day. The event was so successful that the MS&L staffers ran out of grub.

FRANCO SAYS SAL. ARMY
STILL NEEDS $$.
Franco PR Group is helping the Salvation Army get the word out that the non-profit organization still needs donations and fund raisers to operate, despite a $1.5 billion gift bequeathed to it earlier this month.

Franco, a Detroit-based firm which represents SA in Eastern Michigan, is urging individual donors nationally to keep funds flowing into its local coffers.
The billion-dollar gift was given by the estate of Joan Kroc, widow of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc, and could be deemed the largest donation to a non-profit in history when its exact value is determined.

Franco and SA point out that the huge donation was restricted to paying for new community centers and to be set aside for an endowment, leaving the organization's other operating costs to be funded by regular donors.

ADECCO RECRUITS CUBITT.
Adecco, the world's largest temporary staffing company that is enmeshed in an accounting scandal, is relying on London's Cubitt Consulting to restore its reputation. CC was founded in `98 by Simon Brocklebank-Fowler, a former managing director of Citigate, and head of Shandwick's IR practice. Its U.S. unit, Cubitt Jacobs & Prosek, has more than 50 staffers in its Stratford, Conn., headquarters, and New York City office.

The Securities & Exchange Commission has launched its own investigation of Adecco, which also has been hit by shareholder lawsuits.

CC has posted a testimonial on its website from Adecco, praising the firm for having an "immediate impact on our global media profile."

TIMES TO PLAY UP
NON-FICTION REVIEWS.
The Sunday book review section in The New York Times will begin to give more column inches to reviews of new non-fiction books, and less to contemporary fiction.

In a recent interview with Margo Hammond, book editor of The St. Petersburg Times, and Ellen Heltzel, a freelance book critic from Portland, Ore., who co-write a book column for Poynter Online (www.poynter.org), Keller said the most compelling ideas tend to be in the non-fiction world. "Because we are a newspaper, we should be more skewed toward non-fiction," he said.

Keller said he has narrowed the list of Sunday book editor candidates to three or four finalists. He also intends to assign a reporter to cover the book publishing industry beat for the daily paper.

He indicated that Michiko Katutani, the chief critic, will continue to handle most of the literary fiction reviews for the daily "Books of the Times" page, and former movie critic Janet Maslin will continue to focus on commercial fiction reviews for the daily along with freelancers.

Steven Erlanger, the new cultural editor, has also reinstated the weekly book review in the Saturday "Arts & Ideas" section, with emphasis on the more topical releases from university presses.

SYNC'S NEW EDITOR SETS GOALS.
Tony Romando, who was named editor-in-chief of Sync magazine, a new men's lifestyle magazine published by Ziff Davis Media, said Sync's goal is to "make guys feel both cool and comfortable with technology."

"Gadgets intimidate us. We want to get the most out of what we buy without looking silly in the process."

Sync will publish its first issue this summer and then will publish bimonthly, starting with a rate base of 200,000, consisting primarily of affluent male readers, ages 25-44.

Romando, formerly executive editor of Men's Fitness, has been covering lifestyle, politics, fashion and entertainment for nearly 10 years. He broke the Whitney Houston scandal and has interviewed former New York Mayor Ed Koch, the Beastie Boys, Pamela Anderson, and many others.

Romando said he will hire new writers, generate story ideas, assign features and special sections, and manage the editorial staff.

NEW SHELTER MAG
ON DRAWING BOARDS.
Bonnie Fuller, chief editorial director for American Media Inc., said the company's plans to enter the shelter magazine market with an as-of-yet untitled magazine targeting women in their 20s and 30s is scheduled for launch this spring.

Sara Ruffin was named editor of the magazine. She has worked with Fuller previously at Living-Room Magazine, Glamour and Cosmopolitan.

AMI plans to test market three to four issues in 2004 with a distribution of 250,000. It may increase the frequency to six issues in 2005 and eight in 2006.

SPIN-OFF MAG
TARGETS OLDER MEN.
Jeff Csatari has been hired as editor of Best Life, which Rodale Press will publish as a magazine for the older, upscale male.

David Zinczenko, editor-in-chief of Men's Health, who is overseeing the new magazine, is hiring about six writers for the New York-based publication, which will be published three times in 2004 before going bimonthly in 2005.

ANOTHER HISPANIC PAPER
FOR L.A.
Tribune Publishing, Chicago, will begin publishing Hoy, a Spanish-language tabloid newspaper, in Los Angeles in March.

The paper will provide daily news and features of interest to the nearly eight million Hispanics in the Los Angeles area.

Hoy made its debut in New York in Nov. 1998 and in Chicago in Sept. 2003.

Hoy will devote pages each day to news from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Central and South America and the Caribbean. Each Friday, the paper will provide coverage of the latest trends in music, food, movies and local events in Vida Hoy, a weekend supplement.

In making the move, Tribune will be going head-to-head with La Opinion, which was established in Los Angeles in 1926.

Louis Sito, publisher of Hoy, said he expects to hire about 60 journalists for the new paper.

Tribune estimates that Hoy has a daily circulation of 93,000 in New York and 20,000 in Chicago, compared with El Diario/La Prensa's estimated circulation of 50,000 in New York and La Opinion's circulation of 124,000 in Los Angeles.

PLACEMENT TIPS
John Lippman, who is The Wall Street Journal's new "Hollywood Report" columnist, is looking for stories that can illustrate and explain the how or why certain decisions are made in the creation and production of movies and TV shows.

He said PR pros can help by putting him in touch with sources who are in-the-know.

Lippman can be pitched by phone at 323/658-3806; or at [email protected].

Matthew Sigel, who was recently named a segment producer at CNBC in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., is interested in booking top newsmakers as guests for "Special Report with Maria Bartiromo," a weekly 15-minute program, which airs each Monday.

He prefers to get e-mail pitches at matthew. [email protected] and follow-up calls at 201/735-3022.

(Media news continued on next page)

JOURNALISM REVIEW
SLAMS TRAINERS.
Media trainers have "turned the craft of the interview on its head," and the public is the loser, according to an article in the January/February issue of The Columbia Journalism Review.

Media trainers teach CEOs and politicians "all the fancy steps they need to answer the questions they want to answer, not those of an inquisitive reporter," writes Trudy Lieberman. "The result: in too many cases: interviews become excuses to practice PR, and instead of shedding light, they cloud public discourse."

Lieberman said media training, which got its start in the 1970s, has become a competitive and growing industry. She said as many as 70% of corporate CEOs have been taught how to parry reporters questions and deliver predetermined messages.

"Where once journalists took the lead, prepared in depth for interviews, zeroed in on specifics, and connected the dots for their audience, those being questioned now lead the way, coached precisely on how to wrest control," said Lieberman, who said the media trainer's goal is to create "positive perceptions of companies and their products, politicians, and their policies."

James Carey, a journalism professor at Columbia, believes journalists have lost control. "The upper hand has shifted to the PR apparatus and other groups," said Carey.

Virgil Scudder, a veteran New York-based media trainer, told CJR the biggest failing of reporters is not "pinning down or following up. And they ask a question too loosely constructed. It leaves too large a hole to go through."

Lieberman said TV hosts frequently make the mistake of asking open-ended questions. While they get guests to start talking, they also offer them a "broad platform to hawk their messages," she said.
When guests don t want to answer, Lieberman said they are taught to use phrases such as: "That's such a complex subject..." "Your question is not relevant..." "You bring up an interesting point, but before I discuss it, I want to talk about..."
"Such dodges serve as a springboard to the message the guest wants to send," she said.

TV NEWS VET OPENS
MEDIA TRAINING FIRM.
Bruce Francis, who covered information technology for nearly 20 years at CNBC, CNNfn and CNN, has opened a firm in New York, specializing in media training.

"After hundreds of interviews with CEOs and senators, angels and anglers, the innovators and the indicted, I have a clear understanding of what works and what doesn t work to get a story across," Francis told this Newsletter. "Many companies are reluctant about speaking to the press in the wake of corporate scandals, dropping stock prices and a faltering economy. But that isn t a winning long-term strategy. I believe that investors and customers reward companies that tell their stories with integrity and clarity. Effective media training ensures that the message gets through in an interview."

He said Long Island-based software giant Computer Associates is an initial client and has engaged him to provide media consulting.

Dan Kaferle, CA's SVP/PR, said he had admired Francis work as a correspondent—"tough but fair. So when we heard Bruce was going to open his own shop, I saw it as a great opportunity to improve our communications program."

Francis, 43, is seeking clients nationwide in all industries, with a technology and financial focus.
He can be reached at 212/496-5645 or bcfrancis @aol.com.

PEOPLE
Jerry Nachman, 57, VP/editor-in-chief at MSNBC, died Jan. 20. He had been a reporter at several radio stations, including WCBS radio in New York; a news director at WNBC-TV (Ch. 4) in New York, and editor of The New York Post.

Rosie Amodio has left Marie Claire where she was deputy editor in charge of features.

Tyler Brule, former editor of Wallpaper magazine, which he founded, has begun writing a weekly column for The Financial Times' weekend section.

Bill Henning has joined Genre magazine as editor.

Zorianna Kit, previously a reporter at The Hollywood Reporter, was recently named People's "Insider" columnist.

Johanna Bennett has joined Barron's Online as a reporter covering healthcare business. She replaces Evelyn Twitchell, who left.

Ellen Barry, previously The Boston Globe's health reporter, has joined The Los Angeles Times as its Atlanta bureau chief.

MOVING
Fairchild Publications, home to Jane, Details, and Women's Wear Daily, is moving to 750 Third ave. from 7 West 34th st. The publications will occupy seven floors and 234,000-square ft.

Niche Media, which publishes Ocean Drive, Los Angeles Confidential, Hamptons, and the new Aspen Peak magazine, along with Gotham, is relocating to the fifth floor at 257 Park ave. South in New York, from 910 Broadway.

Newsweek has raised its national ad rates. The four-color rate went up 4.4% to $200,000 for a full page, and the black & white rate went up 6.4%, to $131,000 for a full page. New one-time national ad rates took effect with the Jan. 12 issue.

Presidential candidate Howard Dean took so much static about his wife's absence from the campaign that she started appearing in print and on TV last week.

The best arguments for wifely participation were put forth by Michael Kinsley in the Jan. 26 Time mag. It's hard to know people, he argued, if you don t meet their mates – the persons they have chosen to spend their lives with.

"We want to meet the missus," says Kinsley, recalling the 1954 movie "Woman's World," where three men vying for a big job were judged on the basis of who had the best wife for the job.

Someone who introduces his or her mate to you is also saying how important you are, he noted. Ditto for inviting you to their homes and introducing you to their children.

The standard practice of PR in the 1960s and '70s was for the PR pro to make an all-out pitch to become "best friends" of reporters.

Spouses, mostly wives, were seen as integral to this. Most went along willingly since dinners at the best restaurants and "nights on the town" were involved.

PR pros went to great lengths to spend "quality time" with reporters and their spouses including home-and-home visits, picnics, sporting events, etc. Many activities were not especially costly.

But there were numerous corporate scandals in the 1970s including payoffs by companies doing business overseas. Media, perhaps goaded by the rising tide of "activists," got more aggressive than ever. The Society of American Business Writers forbade members from taking any but nominal gifts. Paid travel by story subjects was forbidden.

Despite all the wining and dining, it became apparent to businesses that reporters would cover any wrongdoing with unalloyed gusto.

New York Daily News editor Dick Oliver, frustrated in trying to reach PR pros at oil companies, said in 1974: "Oil companies seem to have made a decision to tell their story through ads."

The contrast between the PR "fashions" of the 60s and 70s is now quite stark.

Instead of the gossipy, breezy "media contact" that almost all big companies had (who would "shoot the breeze" for as long as the reporter wished), most corporate PR contacts now have their calls "screened" by an aide or let voicemail answer all the calls. If a reporter doesn't give the reason for the call, the odds are it will not be returned. Breezy dialog is rare.

The picture is similar on the agency side. Dispensing information while avoiding any human contact is the current fashion.

Previously, PR pros sent letters to writers praising them for any story the writer did and offering more help or providing new information. That practice ended long ago.
Anything that plays up the importance of editorial seems to be forbidden. For instance, the rules for PRSA's Silver Anvils advise: "Clips only = loser," "Don't expect clips to win," and "More research, fewer clips."

To sum up, PR pros who once couldn't socialize enough with reporters and who broke their backs doing favors for them, now are often aloof and unreachable. Instead of telling jokes for reporters, they become personally offended at any criticism of their employers. One act has replaced another.

Meanwhile, under this new template for PR behavior, a lot of PR jobs have disappeared.

* * *

Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP Group (Burson-Marsteller, Hill & Knowlton, Ogilvy PR, Cohn & Wolfe) told PR Week Jan. 12 that PR is an "interesting business" but "I don't think it's always been particularly well-run."

He thinks there are "too many people in the middle" and wonders why PR can t be more like consulting firms or investment banks that have "big producers at the top, and then a lot of arms and legs, a lot of soldiers." Getting the structure in PR right is "terribly important," he feels. "So I think having the senior people and the junior people and making the structures more efficient is very important," he said. He feels PR is "a very important part of the marketing mix for our clients."

Canadian PR pro Brian Kilgore's praise of the Canadian healthcare system puts the spotlight on the costly U.S. system where the HMO and Social Security taxes easily top $25K for a married-with-children PR pro earning $50K in New York. PR recruiters say they have never seen so many PR people who describe themselves as "freelancers" or "independent contractors" because it's been so long since their last real job...

Esquire magazine, which has a cover price of $36, has a "professional courtesy discount offer" of $5.99 for a year that can be paid in three monthly installments of $2 each. Magazines, and not just Esquire, have to work hard these days to keep up their rate bases...

The Georgia chapter of PRSA raised about $230,000 in corporate gifts for the 2001 national conference in Atlanta. No figure has been released for corporate gifts raised for the conference in New Orleans in 2003...

Thom Calandra, the chief commentator for CBS MarketWatch, resigned in the wake of an SEC probe into his trading activities. He helped found MarketWatch.com and since March has written a newsletter called The Calandra Report. CBS told Calandra to turn over his trading records and he resigned instead.

--Jack O'Dwyer