EDS UNIT HEARS
FROM FINAL FIVE.
EDS/Americas heard 90-minute PR presentations from Interpublic's FitzGerald & Co. (Atlanta), 5W Public Relations/New York, Ruder Finn/Chicago, Waggener Edstrom/Austin and Casey Sayre & Williams/Santa Monica last week.

EDS has considered about 50 shops for the $500K PR business of its Americas marketing unit. The work had been at Edelman PR Worldwide.

John L Abate, marketing and communications consultant in EDS financial services, energy and transportation sector, is coordinating the review.

The $21 billion (annual revenues) computer services/consulting company is looking for a PR firm that can deliver quality media hits.

Ross Perot founded Electronic Data Sys. in 1962.

HOPSON SPLITS FROM B-M.
Andy Hopson, CEO of Burson-Marsteller's northeast region, is leaving the firm after serving less than a year. The former Publicis Dialog COO is setting up his own shop, "Real Good Idea," which will scour the globe for ideas to help businesses grow. The venture is a partnership with Manhattan attorney Steve Gordon.

Hopson, in a farewell letter, said he felt it was time to move on to pursue his dream of running his own business. The 49-year-old executive cited the improving economy as a good time to become an entrepreneur. Upon joining B-M last July, Hopson called the WPP unit the "best of class" and said he felt like he was "joining the New York Yankees."

Chet Burchett, president of B-M USA, left in January to become president of Reed Exhibitions.

BRANDMAN BAGS BARBADOS.
The Brandman Agency has won the $500K Barbados Tourism Authority account, which was resigned by Ruder Finn. RF shed that Caribbean island after it picked up the Jamaica account that bills in the $1M range.

Melanie Brandman presented a pitch that targeted "niche market travellers" that she believes are essential in luring first-time and repeat visitors to the island. The firm also plans to position Barbados as the "best value" for the travel dollar.

Brandman is a former VP/corp. affairs for InterContinental Hotels Group. She counts InterContinental and Thompson Hotels Group as clients.

PR IS `LESS WORSE
AT WPP GROUP.
PR remains the corporate sad sack at WPP Group, according to CEO Martin Sorrell, who says the unit "continued to be the sector most affected by the recession, but started to perform less worse in 2003."

In the ad/PR conglom's 30-page release announcing `03 financials, Sorrell said PR revenues declined 0.6 percent to £426 million for the year. He praised Ogilvy PR Worldwide, Cohn & Wolfe, Robinson Lerer & Montgomery, Penn Schoen & Berland and Finsbury for doing well. No comment was made for PR flagships Hill & Knowlton and Burson-Marsteller.

The CEO describes WPP's corporate quest as a mission of the "management of the imagination." He wants to ensure that WPP is a "big company with the heart and mind of a small one."

WPP reported a 5.1 percent rise in `03 revenues to £4.1 billion, while operating profit soared 52.4 percent to £415 million ($776 million). The firm employed 54,324 at yearend, compared to 56,074 at the end of `02.

EDELMAN COUNSELS PARMALAT.
Edelman is advising Parmalat's North America dairy operations, which together have filed a chapter 11 petition in bankruptcy court to continue operating while they seek a buyer.

The firm's Toronto office is handling media inquiries into Parmalat USA, along with its main Farmland Dairies unit and a subsidiary, Milk Products of Alabama. Parmalat's North American operations are based in Toronto.

Senior account manager Gillian Hewitt told O Dwyer's that Edelman has handled reputation and issue management work, along with employee communications for the company since 1999.

The U.S. subsidiaries said they have received letters of intent from parties interested in buying their assets, which were listed at $414 million, with $316.5 million in debts.

Milk producers in states like Pennsylvania and New Jersey (Parmalat buys half of the milk produced in the Garden State and supplies 70 percent of the milk in New York City) have been worried since the company made late payments in January and has sought protection from paying creditors.

Italy-based Parmalat has been rapped by columnists here as the European Enron, after accounting irregularities were discovered to be masking billions of dollars in debt.

DIEBOLD LAUNCHES $1M `OUTREACH' DRIVE.
Diebold Election Systems has launched an "outreach campaign" to educate Maryland voters on how to use its electronic voting machines, David Bear, a DES spokesperson, told O'Dwyer's.

He dismissed an Associated Press characterization of the campaign as a "PR blitz" intended to build support to overcome negative publicity about security flaws in the Diebold machines.

Bear said the five-year $1M campaign is mandated under the "Help America Vote Act of 2002." The outlay is part of the $55 million the state is paying Diebold to manufacture 16,000 touch screen computer terminals.

The campaign, which is handled by Compliance Research Group in Lauderdale Lakes, Fla., involves billboards, radio and TV commercials, a website, distribution of more than 1.5 million pamphlets/brochures, and demonstrations about how to use the machine. "We found that people are much more acceptable about electronic voting if they get to touch the screen beforehand," said Bear. Voters also can log onto www.mdvotes.org and cast a sample ballot to see how the system works.

The terminals will be used throughout Maryland starting with the March 2 primary. Baltimore uses electronic machines made by a different company.
The Diebold machines gained national attention after Avi Rubin, an associate computer science professor at Johns Hopkins University, published a report saying the machines were rife with security flaws.

Some critics fear that Diebold, which is based in North Canton, Ohio, is not a disinterested party in the upcoming Presidential elections, pointing out the close ties that CEO Walden O Dell has with the Republican party.

O'Dell is a Bush "pioneer," meaning that he collected a minimum $100K in political donations for the president. He also made the infamous remark about delivering Ohio's electoral votes to the president, igniting fuel for conspiracy theorists. O Dell's remark, however, was referring to his fund-raising savvy.

Dix & Eaton, is Diebold's PR firm.

F-H MOVES TO ACQUIRE G&F.
Fleishman-Hillard is moving toward the acquisition of Geduldig & Ferguson PR, a New York-based firm with billings around $3 million and a staff of 10.

Integration of the firm is expected to begin March 15 and should be completed by the end of May.

Principal Donald Ferguson is slated to relocate to San Francisco to take over and build up F-H's West Coast corporate practice. He told this NL the move seemed like a "good next step," adding that he brings Oracle and ChevronTexaco business with him.

F-H West Coast president Curt Kundred and senior VP/GM Kelly McGinnis are overseeing the merger. [Also in San Francisco, F-H has folded its UpStart tech unit into its office there.]

G&F's Al Geduldig would become a senior consultant and a member of F-H's corporate advisory unit, remaining in New York. Ferguson said G&F's search operations would likely continue in the advertising sector but not in PR.

Also from G&F, Tricia Gibney would be named a VP at F-H under Ferguson but based in New York.

Remaining staffers will not make the move to F-H and the principals are now trying to place them elsewhere, Ferguson noted.

Under the deal, several G&F clients would move to F-H while some would be served by G&F execs under other arrangements. The firm has worked for Exxon, Episcopal Church, IBM, Hitachi, and others.

SAUDIS SNAGGED;
QORVIS DEFENDS.
Saudi Arabia's Supreme Council for Tourism changed its website following complaints by Brooklyn Democrat Anthony Weiner that the site listed "Jewish people" as one of four groups that would not be entitled to visas to visit the desert Kingdom.

The Congressman, on Feb. 26, called on President Bush to close U.S. borders to Saudis until the visa policy was clarified, and keep them sealed until the policy was changed.

Qorvis Communications, on Feb. 27, distributed a release, saying Weiner was wrong in stating that its client has a policy of excluding Jews from visiting the Kingdom. The statement, however, admitted the Council had incorrect information on its site, and the erroneous material has been removed. The statement called Weiner, author of the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act, a "consistent critic." It quotes Prince Bandar, saying while the U.S. and Saudi Arabia should be working toward greater understanding and trust, Weiner and his actions "only serve to spread doubt and mistrust."

The Congressman retaliated by issuing his own statement, claiming he is a consistent critic for good reason. "The Saudis have a lamentable history with regards to Israel and people of the Jewish faith, having spent decades supporting Palestinian suicide <%-2>bombers, and espousing virulently anti-Semitic views.<%0> President Bush should demand a full accounting regarding the Saudis visa policy toward Jews," said Weiner, a former aide to N.Y. Sen. Chuck Schumer.

While Weiner is glad the Council removed the offending passage from its website, he said: "It will take more than the quick actions of its webmaster and the rhetoric of Prince Sultan to ally our concerns."

Patton Boggs is an investor in Qorvis.

WEBB TAPPED
IN ‘BRAND NAME SUIT.
Cache La Poudre Feeds has brought in PR help as it filed a $132 million suit against Land O Lakes for "stealing" its brand name.

Peter Webb, president of the Denver-based firm that bears his name, told this NL his firm was brought in to help with media training and other PR efforts surrounding the suit, which alleges Land O Lakes poured $17 million into marketing livestock feed under the brand "Profile" while Cache has marketed its Profile brand of livestock feed for 10 years.

PRO ATHLETES ARE
TARGETS OF MOVES.
Moves, a new quarterly lifestyle magazine for professional athletes and those involved in professional sports, was mailed last month for free to 30,000 players, coaches, agents, executives and sports medicine specialists.

The magazine's founder, 34-year-old Brian Riccioni, who runs the Hallmark Title Agency in Somerset, N.J., described Moves target audience as young, rich, and big spenders.

"The advertisers, specifically high-end luxury advertisers, find it very appealing to have their product in front of the demographics that these athletes possess," said Riccioni, who started the magazine on the advice of a friend who is an agent for NFL football players.

Advertisers in the first issue include companies that rent out private jets and luxury charter buses, and sell jewelry safes and luxury watches.

Riccioni said the editorial content will focus on lifestyle issues that affect athletes. All editorial content in Moves is handled in Miami by Armando Salguero, a sports reporter for The Miami Herald and ESPN.

Rick Sedler, who was formerly ad director of The Robb Report, is publisher of Moves.

"Yes, athletes make a lot of money, drive fancy automobiles, live in sprawling homes and wear the finest watches and jewelry," Sedler wrote in a letter to readers in the first issue.

"But they also tackle daily issues that the rest of the population will never comprehend. For example, who has the best advice for preserving your hard-earned contract?"

Sedler's company, the RMS Media Group in Watertown, Mass., specializes in matching luxury brand advertisers with upscale niche publications.

REAL MAG TO FOCUS ON `REAL WOMEN.
Real Magazine will make its debut on newsstands in mid-June with Mary Monroe as its editor-in-chief.

The magazine, which will be published bimonthly this year and 10 times in 2005, will contain information of interest to "real women," according to Tony Gordon, who is publisher and owner of Revue Media in Park City, Utah.

"Too many of today's magazines take a superficial approach and don't explore the full depth and breadth of real women's daily lives—the challenges and triumphs, fears and hopes, goals and dreams," said Gordon, who also started ePregnancy and Women's Health & Fitness magazines.

Real Magazine will give "more in-depth, intimate and personalized perspectives and insights. We don't really think of Real as a magazine—it's more of a guide to how women think, feel, work, play and live," he said.

Each issue of Real will feature a scrapbooking column written by Angie Randall, who is editor-in-chief of PaperKuts Magazine, and author of a soon-to-be-released book—Let's Scrapbook! A Beginner's Guide.

Monroe, who is based in Los Angeles, has been a freelance writer for several years, specializing in writing women's articles for several publications, including Better Homes & Gardens and USA Today.
She can be pitched at 323/255-0143 or [email protected].

Gordon can be reached at 435/602-2714.

FORBES STARTS
ISRAELI EDITION.
Gil Tamari was named editor-in-chief of the new Israeli edition of Forbes magazine, which is slated to begin in June. He is the Washington, D.C.-based reporter for Israel 10 News.

Half of the new edition will consist of content from the U.S. edition and from Forbes Global, while the other half will consist of local content.

SBC plans to publish lists of population segments chosen by socioeconomic criteria, a list of the 400 richest people in Israel, and a list of Israel's largest companies.

MEDIA BRIEFS
Hoy, a Spanish-language newspaper published by the Tribune Co., made its debut on newsstands in the Los Angeles area March 1.

Reynaldo Mena is editor-in-chief of the tabloid-size paper.

Guideposts magazine put its March issue on newsstands for the first time in its 59-year history.

The March number features a cover story on author/financial advisor Suze Orman, who is the personal finance editor on CNBC, and hosts her own CNBC-TV show, which airs every Saturday night.

PanAmSat Corp., in Wilton, Conn., is launching the Wealth TV cable network on June 1. Wealth TV will provide a behind-the-scenes look into how the wealthy achieved and enjoy their success.

PEOPLE
Jonathan Wolman, 53, SVP of The Associated Press, joined The Denver Post as editorial page editor.

John Wilburn, 52, who started The Houston Press in 1989, was named managing editor of The Houston Chronicle, and Jennifer Sizemore, 35, previously with The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, was appointed deputy managing editor.

Norman Bell, 55, previously managing editor/ news for ANG Newspapers, a group of five Bay Area publications including The Oakland (Calif.) Tribune, joined The Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal as its new editor, replacing Gregg Parker.

Janet Rae-Dupree, who has written about technology for U.S. News & World Report, Business Week and the Mercury News, was named technology editor.

(Media news continued on next page)

NY TIMES DROPS
EX-PUBLICIST AS STRINGER.
Jay Blotcher was dropped as a freelance reporter by The New York Times apparently for his past activities as spokesman for Act-Up, the AIDS political group.

Blotcher, who has been a stringer for the Times since Sept. 2001, said he was involved with Act Up from 1989-90 and also did some work for the American Foundation for AIDS Research from 1995-99.

Susan Edgerley, who is the paper's new metro editor, told Blotcher in an e-mail "We are going through our stringer and legwork lists, asking for resumes, meeting people face to face and in general trying to determine how well we know these whom we occasionally ask to work for us.
"I am setting the bar high to protect against any appearance of conflict of interest that might result through the hiring of stringers and leg-people. My motivation is expediency as well as ethics—we simply do not spend as much time checking into the backgrounds of independent contractors as we do of fulltime staff people," she said.

Blotcher said he later found out someone had recalled he had been spokesman for Act Up during a period when members of the group had badgered editors and reporters at the Times for more coverage of the AIDS/HIV epidemic.

In his reply to Edgerley, Blotcher pointed out the Times Code of Ethics only forbids "current affiliations with political groups, and I have no current political affiliations. Nor have I written pieces forLew (Serviss) or Patrick Farrell that dealt with AIDS."

"What puzzles me is this policy seems applied inconsistently; I know of longtime Times reporters who have engaged in political work in the past. In fact, one current Times reporter was my successor at Act Up," he told Edgerley.

He asked her how his past involvement in AIDS issues could bias his news reporting from the Mid-Hudson Valley, where the issues are "increased development, farm land and rising real estate costs."
Edgerley did not respond to his question, but thanked Blotcher for his letter, saying she was happy to have "heard you out. Alas, we agree to disagree."

Blotcher, who will continue to freelance for otherpapers including the Advocate, a newspaper for gays, has been at the forefront of the gay marriage movement.

He and his partner were the first gay couple married in Vermont when it was legalized last year, and this past weekend Blotcher got married again by the mayor of New Paltz, N.Y., in a first-ever ceremony in the state.

Blotcher was quoted about the event in a story by The Associated Press, but was left out of a report by the Times.

FEARS NAMED EDITOR OF YM MAGAZINE.
Linda Fears has replaced Christina Kelly as editor-in-chief of teen magazine YM, and Sally Lee, editor-in-chief of Parents, the company's flagship title, was given additional duties as editorial director of YM.

Kelly resigned after Axel Ganz, who is acting CEO of Gruner + Jahr USA, criticized YM's editorial content at a staff meeting.

YM has been having circulation problems. Its paid circulation for the second half of 2003 fell 1% to 2.18M, according to Audit Bureau of Circulations.

FLASTE REJOINS NY TIMES
AS SCIENCE ED.
Rick Flaste has rejoined The New York Times as an associate editor for science news. He has been features editor at The Los Angeles Times for the past two and a half years.

John Montorio, deputy managing editor of the L.A. Times, said Flaste was one of the principal architects of the paper's redesigned and new sections.

Flaste had worked for the NYT for 30 years.

RUDY MAXA RELOCATES
TO MINNESOTA.
Rudy Maxa, 54, one of the most prolific travel writers in the U.S., has relocated from Washington, D.C. to St. Paul, Minn., to be with his fiancee.

He is known to radio listeners as "The Savvy Traveler" and to public TV viewers as host of "Smart Travels—Europe With Rudy Maxa."

AL-JAZEERA TO OFFER PR ADVICE.
Al-Jazeera will offer PR advice to companies in the Arab world on its new English-language channel, which will start in May.

A spokesman for al-Jazeera said the Media Training and Development Center, which opened last week at the broadcaster's Doha headquarters, will address the need for a regional vocational center that deals in all aspects of broadcast TV and print.

Later this year, the broadcaster, which is watched by 35 million viewers a day around the world, plans to start a sports channel, followed by an al-Jazeera channel for children.

REUTERS AND CORBIS
FORM PHOTO PACT.
Reuters has formed an alliance with Corbis, theSeattle-based commercial photo service owned by Bill Gates, to offer publicity photo services to companies.

The London-based news and information group developed a pictures service in 1985, but it has been restricted to news photography rather than commercial photography.

Under the new arrangement, Reuters will add a rights management service that works with ad/PR agencies and helps companies that sponsor events to exploit images from those events in their marketing.

The new alliance will put Reuters in competition with Getty Images in the picture archiving and licensing market. Getty Images is also based in Seattle.

The Associated Press recently formed a commercial photo alliance with PR Newswire, which makes AP's photographers available for PR assignments.

Stan Sauerhaft's book (page 7) recalls a previous era in PR when clients almost begged to be on the roster of what was then the crown jewel of the PR counseling business—Hill and Knowlton.
Imagine—H&K would interview clients rather than vice versa.

The firm did not chase after clients in those days. It had nearly 500, many of them the bluest of the blue chips.

H&K thought of itself as a psychiatrist does. If you don't come voluntarily to a psychiatrist, vowing to change your ways, there's nothing the doctor can do to help you.

That made PR much easier to do than it is today.

Bert Goss, longtime head of the firm, had his own definition of PR. "All we re talking about here is good will," was the way he phrased it. A client had to show its "heart was in the right place." This included being open, humble, and ready to acknowledge and correct any wrongdoing.

Merely having H&K as outside counsel was good PR for the client.

With the 1980s and 1990s came the go-go years when many of the largest PR firms sold out to ad agencies and the bottom line became all-important.
H&K had to chase after clients just like anyone else.

It could no longer afford to sit on its laurels.

Goss worried that competitive pitching meant PR firms would outdo each other in promises to clients. He knew PR was no magic wand and that quite often, it could only offer minor help.

We think a lot of business came to H&K because blue chips wanted the "biggest and the best" to be on their side in case anything happened. H&K got a retainer just for being "on board." H&K staffers told us that years would go by on some accounts without any substantive work being done.

This was one of the things that made it so profitable. Many an alumni walked out with a million dollars or more in profit-sharing. H&K racked up 25% net year after year.

PR firms now not only have to chase after business, making many promises, but must measure the results of what they do in terms of numbers of one sort or another. Goss would not be too happy with the frenetic pace of today's PR counseling business nor the application of advertising measuring tools to PR.

Sauerhaft's book will be read with interest by staffers at both H&K and Burson-Marsteller. He spent a total of 36 years at the two firms. Sauerhaft found a lot of people to like as well as dislike and some readers will try to figure out exactly whom he is talking about and how much is real and how much is imagination in this book.

PRSA president Del Galloway, in saying he will wait for the chapters to speak on the topic of decoupling APR from office-holding (page 7), has, in effect, resigned his presidency. He has taken off the leader's hat not only on this issue but others including bringing outsiders to PRSA's board (as urged by Sarbanes-Oxley); allowing at-large student membership; trying to restore gender balance to PR at a time when almost no men are PR students; investigating the numerous abuses perpetrated by the 2003 nominating committee, and failing to restore a proper deferred dues account to PRSA's balance sheet.

Under Galloway's "stay the course" philosophy, the annual $100K butter-up the bootless presidents-elect party will be held in New York June 4-5. The Assembly will again be on a Saturday, costing hundreds of members two extra days of hotels and meals in New York...

PRSA, needing members to replace the non-renewals (it is a month and a half late in announcing 2003 membership totals), is conducting a "Get a Taste of PRSA" promotion in February/March that suspends the $65 initiation fee but that is distributing false and misleading documents.

Prospects are told that membership "opens effective, challenging and rewarding avenues to leadership" both at the national and local levels. "PRSA's members may also participate as a delegate to the Assembly," the materials say. Nowhere does it warn prospects that national board and Assembly delegate posts are open only to those who have taken and passed an accreditation test and paid an extra $275...

The June 4-5 leadership rally, bootless because presidents-in-waiting rather than the real presidents are invited, could easily be an Assembly that could pass decoupling across-the-board and let non-APRs compete for national posts this year for the first time in 30 years. A PR firm or group of rank-and-file non-APRs is needed to rally the 15,500 second-class citizen non-APRs to demand equal treatment and restore democracy to the Society. Deadline is May 3 because 30 days notice of an Assembly is required. That leaves most of March and all of April for campaigning, which is plenty of time. One hundred delegates are needed because an Assembly quorum is one-third of the total. Hundreds of members from across the U.S. will be on hand for the Silver Anvil Awards night June 3. This is a drive that could win a PR firm a Silver Anvil and make lots of friends among the long disenfranchised non-APRs...

The 116 chapters, obeying Galloway's insistence that no one should tell chapters who should represent them, should send their presidents to the leaders rally this year and if they re not APR, should send an accompanying person who is APR and eligible to vote for decoupling.

--Jack O'Dwyer