TUTWILER, US
PROPAGANDA CZAR, TO NYSE.
The New York Stock Exchange has hired U.S. propaganda chief Margaret Tutwiler as executive VP, communications and government relations. She assumes that post July 12, taking over PR duties of Bob Zito. He had served as the right hand man for former NYSE chief Dick Grasso, whose nearly $200 million compensation package is the subject of a probe of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

The Exchange has issued no official word about Zito's future. A spokesperson told O Dwyer's that Zito is discussing his future with NYSE management.

Tutwiler, who officially replaced Charlotte Beers as the State Dept.'s Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs on Dec. 16, has close ties with the Bush White House. She was Assistant to the President in both Bush Administrations, and served as PA chief at the State Dept. and Treasury Dept. during the Bush I reign.

Tutwiler was serving as Ambassador to Morocco when tapped for the public diplomacy job.

CUMC SELECTS BOOTH.
The Columbia University Medical Center selected M Booth & Assocs. as its PR firm from a field of 20. It edged Fleishman-Hillard, Edelman PR Worldwide, Cohn & Wolfe and Dan Klores Communications for the job.

Booth also will promote CUMC's specialized schools, College of Physicians & Surgeons, School of Dental & Oral Surgery, School of Nursing and Mailman School of Public Health as national leaders in their respective categories. Joyce Yeager is senior VP and director of Booth's health group.

HOLT WINDS DOWN
AT WHIRLPOOL.
Barry Holt, VP of global communications for Whirlpool Corp., is slated to retire June 1 after four years with the appliance giant.

Holt, who caps a 35-year career in PR, joined the Michigan-based company in 2000 from ACNielsen Corp., where he was senior VP of global communications in Stamford, Conn.

Earlier, he was VP/CC at Philip Morris and director of public affairs for Pepsi-Cola Int l, following a VP stint at Burson-Marsteller, all in New York.

Steve Duthie, media relations manager for Whirlpool, told this NL "No plans have been finalized" to replace Holt.

L.A. MAY AX PR FIRMS.
Citing a "tough budget year," Los Angles Mayor Jim Hahn issued a directive to city department heads and other officials last week to review and move to cancel PR contracts with outside firms. The mayor's PA office told O Dwyer's it is collecting information on all outside firms and has not yet tabulated the value or scope of those contracts.

Records from Fleishman-Hillard have been subpoenaed in a federal investigation and the city comptroller's office is auditing the firm's work.

F-H, which collects about $3 million per year working for the city's Dept. of Water and Power and is a political donor to Hahn, has denied wrongdoing. The firm said this month it would not seek extensions for its current contracts when they expire this year.

The city's PR contracts were thrust to the forefront of the flap, as city councilmen and other officials questioned why departments would need outside counsel when they had in-house PR operations. But, as execs pointed out to this NL, the probes of city hall encompass a swath of contracts, not just PR.

"This whole thing is not about Fleishman, that's where most of the stories and information are really wrong," said Ron Rogers, president of L.A.-based Rogers & Assocs., which does PR work for L.A. World Airports "What is an issue is the policies or lack of policies, in the mayor's office. What has essentially happened, is that the mayor's office, either directly or indirectly through his appointees, has said, ‘Here's who you re going to hire, here's who you re not going to hire. "

EDELMAN IN COKE,
KRAFT OBESITY PUSH.
Edelman has been tapped to kick off a $12 million push aimed at childhood obesity and backed by Coca-Cola and Kraft.

The program, called Triple Play and planned for a January 2005 launch, promotes fitness, healthy eating habits and social programs through the Boys & Girls Clubs of America's 3,400 facilities, according to B&GCA PR director Amy Ruttkamp.

She told O Dwyer's the Clubs run a lot of fitness and sports programs, but those are generally geared toward kids that are already active.

Edelman VP Melanie Strah said the firm has worked with both Kraft and the Boys & Girls Clubs in the past and is currently supporting the launch announcement of Triple Play.

NIRI POSTS SLIGHT LOSS
FOR 2003.
The National Investor Relations Institute, Vienna, Va., had a 5% decline in revenues to $4,975,744 in 2003 but it still had $4,731,800 in cash and savings, a gain of $566.

While dues fell 4.6% to $2,549,884 and publication and member services income fell 21% to $370,502, NIRI netted $1,225,956 from its annual spring conference, a gain of 4.2% from the previous year.

Membership dues are $425. The annual NIRI conference draws about 100 exhibitors.
Conference fees fell to $1,934,940 from $1,961,740, while expenses dropped to $708,984 from $785,419.

Introduction to IR seminars, the second-biggest money-maker, grossed $297,450, a 19.5% decline from $369,718 in the previous year. But because costs were held down, net fell only 12% to $184,176.

NIRI has ten other types of educational programs (writing seminars, IR on the web, annual report, etc.) that brought in $614,944 in 2003 vs. $703,468 in 2002.

IR Update, the monthly of NIRI, grossed $178,756 and cost $209,220 in 2003. It grossed $202,717 in 2002 and had costs of $225,852.

Wyrwas Is New Chairman

Margaret Wyrwas, senior managing director, corporate communications and IR, Knight Trading Group (NASDAQ), Jersey City, was elected chairman until next March.

Wyrwas succeeds Mark Aaron, VP-IR, Tiffany & Co. She has a B.A. degree in liberal arts from Simmons College and was previously at Hill & Knowlton as group head of its New York Financial Communications division.

She was at Ames Dept. Stores and Mellon Bank.

Also joining the board were Paul Gifford, VP-IR, Goodrich Corp.; Tom Katzenmeyer, SVP, IR, media and community relations, Limited Brands; Matthew Stroud, VP-IR, Darden Restaurants, and Lynn Tyson, VP-IR, Dell.

MDB HITS DC LOTTERY.
MDB Communications has picked up the $10 million five-year DC Lottery account in a competitive pitch.

The Lottery will disclose neither the names nor number of firms that pitched the account, but Cary Hatch, MDB president, told O Dwyer's that just about everybody in D.C. showed up at the bidders conference. She does not know how many of those firms decided to pitch.

The firm had served as agency of record for the Lottery from `93 through `96. It will handle account planning, creative, advertising and media buying for all of the Lottery's offerings, including PowerBall.

MDB represents National Geographic, Fannie Mae, Kiplinger and National School Boards Assn. It works pro-bono for Partnership for a Drug-Free America and Samaritan Inns for the homeless.

ADELPHIA's EX-IR DIR.
WAS ORDERED TO LIE.
Karen Chrosniak, former investor relations director of Adelphia Communications, said she was ordered to use phony financial and subscriber numbers in press releases to make the company look better than it was to investors.

Chrosniak, 36, who took the stand to testify last week and as a prosecution witness in the conspiracy and fraud trial of Adelphia founder John Rigas and his two sons, Timothy, 47, and Michael, 50, and former assistant treasurer Michael Mulcahy, said she was directed to phony the numbers in financial statements, press releases and investor materials by Timothy Rigas, former financial chief of Adelphia Comms.

She said he also ordered inflation of customer numbers for basic cable and high-speed Internet services for presentation at investor meetings in 2001.

The plaintiffs are accused of scheming to steal more than $100,000 from Adelphia and mislead investors and the public about the company's operations and finances.

Chrosniak said she never told John Rigas, the company's auditors or lawyers that she thought the subscriber numbers were wrong.

In response to questions from the defense lawyers, who sought to damage her credibility by asking about her deal with the government to testify truthfully in return for immunity from prosecution, Chrosniak said she was paid $161,000 in 2002, $70,000 more than the year before, even though she was placed on leave on July 27, 2002.

Chrosniak's ex-husband, Tim Werth, who was Adelphia's former director of accounting, has pleaded guilty to fraud and will also testify as a government witness.

Chrosniak said John Rigas, 79, was "basically in the dark" about the company's effort to file its financial statements at the time when the government had begun investigating the cable company's accounting.

HAMMOND PROMOTES THAILAND.
Lou Hammond & Assocs. is pitching Thailand as a "beautiful destination," and not focusing on the pitched battles waging there between Islamic militant and security forces. Police gunned down more than 110 mostly teenagers –– wearing red head bands –– in the latest outbreak of violence on April 28.

The insurgents are trying to carve a Muslim state in the south of the mainly Buddist country. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the killings would stop the rebellion, according to the Washington Post. "After this, it will be hard for them to do these kinds of bad things again," Thaksin said.

Katie McCall is in charge of the Thailand account at Hammond. The firm has been positioning the client as "Amazing Thailand," focusing on its exotic architecture, culture, cuisine and traditions.

Tourism, which accounts for six percent of Thailand's GDP, last year dropped due to SARS and the invasion of Iraq.

BYRON: ARTICLE
MADE KOZLOWSKI FAMOUS.
An interview arranged by The Dilenschneider Group helped make Dennis Kozlowski, Tyco's CEO, a household name, author Christopher Byron says in his new book, "Testosterone."

Byron, a business writer, said Kozlowski, who was obsessed with Jack Welch's success as chairman of General Electric, hired the PR firm for "help in dressing up his act and getting some doors opened."

"The Dilenschneider team tried presenting Koz-lowski to the world as a corporate benefactor. Though he wound up making multimillion dollar gifts to Lincoln Center, as well as to the Metropolitan Opera, his alma mater, Seton Hall, the Whitney Museum and even the Boy Scouts, nothing generated much more than a polite thank-you," said Byron.

"Then in the spring of 1999, Dennis caught a break: Dilenschneider arranged for an interview with a reporter at Barron's. The Dilenschneider team gave it an extra spin that they knew the Barron's editors would find irresistable: Dennis Kozlowski was the next Jack Welch.

"And that is exactly how Barron's played it in a cover story for the April 12, 1999 issue: `Tyco's Titan: How Dennis Kozlowski is Creating a Lean, Profitable Giant. "

Byron said the impact of the Barron's story on both Kozlowski and Tyco was "immediate and dramatic. During the previous 29 years, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, had mentioned Koz-lowski a total of just 73 times.

"Yet the same two newspapers covered him extensively in 79 stories during just the first 24 months after the Barron's story—while Tyco's stock price soared 67%," he said.

Tyco Exec Was at TDG

Judith Czelusniak, a former Dilenschneider principal (1993-94), was press director for Tyco at the time that the story appeared in Barron's.

During the recent trial of Kozlowski, Tyco's former human resources director confirmed that Tyco had paid $18,500 per month for Czelusniak's New York apartment, along with $800 per month for a parking space, and $4,815 each month in rent on a Florida apartment.

Czelusniak, who recently turned down a PR position with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in Washington, D.C. (NL, March 24), said the perks were part of her executive compensation package.

WALL STREET JOURNAL
SHUFFLES STAFF.
Rebecca Blumenstein was promoted to technology editor at The Wall Street Journal.

Blumenstein, whose official title is bureau chief of the technology group, has replaced Laurie Hays.
Ken Brown, who was "Heard on the Street" columnist, was named to succeed Blumenstein as deputy technology editor.

In other staff changes, Julia Angwin, who covered the Internet beat, was assigned to cover Time-Warner for the marketing and media group; Dennis Berman, a tech reporter, was named to cover mergers and acquisitions for the money and investing group, and Almar Latour has joined the Journal as telecom reporter covering regional Bells.

Blumenstein and Brown are based in New York. She can be reached at 212/416-4337, and Brown is at 212/416-3154.

PAULSON NAMED EDITOR
OF USA TODAY.
Kenneth Paulson, 50, was named editor of USA Today. Paulson, who was executive director of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, has replaced Karen Jurgensen, who left the paper.

He made the following newsroom appointments after taking over as editor on April 29:

—John Hillkirk, formerly managing editor of the "Money" section, named executive editor.

—Jim Henderson, formerly deputy managing editor of the "Money" section, succeeds Hillkirk as managing editor.

—Carol Stevens, formerly editor of the editorial page, was appointed managing editor of the news section.

—Brian Gallagher, previously executive editor, was named editor of the editorial page.

AUTO EDITOR NAMED
AT MOTOR TREND.
Angus MacKenzie, who was editor of Car magazine in the U.K., has joined Motor Trend magazine as editor-in-chief.

MacKenzie has replaced Kevin Smith, who was promoted to editorial director of Primedia's Performance Automotive Group, overseeing the editorial design and direction of more than 50 automotive and motorcycle titles.

MacKenzie begins with Motor Trend, which is based in New York, this August.

PEOPLE
David Abolafia, a writer and editor for North American Precis Syndicate (NAPS) in New York, recently won $40,000 as a contestant on the "Jeopardy!" TV show.

James Kaminsky, who was editorial director of Playboy, was named VP/special projects.

Joe Hutsko is writing a new biweekly technology and consumer electronics column for TV Guide.

Patti Adcroft was named executive editor of Marie Claire magazine, and Fan Winston, previously editor in the "Books" section at Entertainment Weekly, has joined Marie Claire as a senior editor.

Lance Gould, previously editor-in-chief of Drill magazine, to Men's Fitness as executive editor.

Bill Phillips, previously managing editor, was promoted to deputy editor of Men's Health, and Matt Marron, who was health editor, was named articles editor.

Sara Austin was promoted to news director at Self magazine.

(Media news continued on next page)

EDITOR DESCRIBES
`FAVORITE PUBLICIST.
Paul Swift, editor and publisher of The Newsletter on Newsletters in Rhinebeck, N.Y., said his "favorite" publicist is a guy named John because he "understands lead time, respects deadlines, and he deconstructs every news item down to all of its component parts for a variety of audiences."

Swift, 61, a former editor of PR Quarterly, who acquired TNN three years ago from Howard Penn Hudson, said John, who developed his expertise as a daily newspaper reporter, "typically telephones me before he sends out a release."

ln his last encounter, he told Swift: "`I m preparing a number of releases, one for local consumption, one for the financial market, one for the healthcare industry and one for my publication and one other that covers the subscription newsletter field. "

Big Help

An alert like that helps him to establish lead time and a deadline, said Swift, who then asked John to send him all of the releases, so he could figure out a particular hook to the story.

"John asked me, once I had read the press releases, when it would be convenient for me to interview his CEO. This is a far cry from the more common demand that the CEO will be available for, say 10 minutes on Thursday at 6 p.m. or even the statement, `Everything my boss had to say is in the press release, " said Swift.

He also gave Swift the name and background into the financial arrangements of a management-led buyout. In addition, Swift was put in contact with the sellers of the company, a married couple who built it up from scratch in a picturesque seaside town north of Boston.

"They added a nice personal touch to the story, with their retiring early to sail their boat on the Seven Seas," said Swift, whose article provided the basic news, which his competitor limited itself to, as well as the story behind the buyout by the sellers own employees, plus how the top management, with no money of their own, found financing.

A couple of weeks after his article appeared, John called him with a good tip about an impending M&A. "I asked him why he took the trouble. `It's in my own self-interest, he replied, pointing out he cannot make the calls to his competitors that I can."

John told Swift he looks to his newsletter to see what competing companies are planning or doing.
"Combine a dozen years as a newspaper reporter with a blatant self-interest, add heavy doses of perspicacity and efficiency, and you ve got my favorite media relations contact," said Swift.

TOP GRID COMPUTING
JOURNALISTS NAMED.
Vendors of the growing computing paradigm known as Grid computing named these 10 journalists as the "most influential in communicating the potential of Grid computing" in a survey sponsored by Grid Strategies, a Portland, Ore.-based consulting and advisory group, and GRIDtoday magazine:

Alan Beck, editor-in-chief, GRIDtoday

Peter Coffee, technology editor, eWeek

Martin LaMonica, senior reporter, C/Net News.com

Steve Lohr, technology business reporter, The New York Times

John Markoff, senior writer, The New York Times

Jim Middlemiss, contributing editor, Wall Street & Technology

Aaron Ricadela, senior writer, Information Week

Ed Scannel, editor-at-large, Infoworld

Stephen Shankland, senior writer, C/Net News.com, and

Patrick Thibodeau, reporter, Computerworld.

Seventy percent of the respondents indicated it is more important to develop a media strategy designed to communicate a business case for Grid computing than a technical case.

NEW MAG COVERS
HOMELAND SECURITY.
KMD Media in Washington, D.C., will start publishing Homeland Security Today magazine in May.

HST is the first publication to provide insight and analysis into the policy, structure, politics and priorities of the $100 billion homeland security market, according to the publisher.

The magazine will focus on the strategy and standards of the Dept. of Homeland Security, which is the third largest government cabinet in the U.S.
HST will debut with a controlled circulation of 28,000 policymakers, managers and officials with homeland security responsibilities at the national, state and local levels.

David Silverberg, formerly with Homeland Defense Journal magazine as founding editor, has been named editor of HST.

Silverberg can be reached at 703/757-0520 or [email protected].

HWH LANDS
$59,000 PLACEMENT.
Lois Whitman, president/COO of HWH PR/New Media, said her firm had landed a placement in USA Today for its client, ZoMail, that was worth at least $59,000.

She said Edward Baig, who writes the "Personal Tech" column, devoted the column to a positive review of the new web-based e-mail service that blocks spammers and pop-up ads.

Based on USAT's half-page rates for b&w and color ads, she calculates the publicity was worth between $59,000 and $93,600.

She also said Baig's ZoMail article appeared on USA Today.com.

USAT has 6.5 million daily readers for print and online.

WELCH AND WEDS
FORMER BUSINESS EDITOR.
Retired General Electric CEO Jack Welch and former Harvard Business Review editor Suzy Wetlaufer were married last weekend in Boston.

"Its never been better, man," said Welch, 68, who has been married twice before, as he descended the steps of the Park Street Church. This was Wetlaufer's second marriage.

The wedding announcement in The New York Times, which ran in the Apr. 25 edition under a picture of the couple, told how the couple met.

The Times said Wetlaufer became involved with Welch after interviewing him for a Harvard Business Review profile, and left the magazine shortly after the relationship was disclosed.

The Times piece also said Welch's wife at the time, Jane Beasley, filed for divorce after the relationship came to light.

The Associated Press said a host of high-profile executives and media celebrities attended the wedding.

Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn's decision to suspend business with all PR firms in the wake of Fleishman-Hillard's withdrawal from city contracts (page one) is a drastic move.

The move is no doubt unfair to those PR firms that are doing a good job.

The focus now will be on the cost of PR services and what they accomplish.

Reports have been that the city paid F-H more than $20 million over the past seven years and that the firm contributed nearly $150,000 to Hahn and other city officials for political campaigns.

No charges have been filed against F-H but federal and local prosecutors are investigating the contracts with F-H and documents of the firm have been subpoenaed.

PR firms that have city contracts must make their case not only with the city but with the public.

We suggest obtaining statements from city officials showing that value has been obtained for reasonable prices. Quotes from reporters and editors who have been helped with stories should be sought.

Citizens who have benefitted from facts disseminated by the PR firms can be quoted.

The PR firms can contrast the cost of a full time employee of the city with the cost of using experts at PR firms only part of the time, showing that "out-sourcing" PR is the best way to go.

While the PR firms of Los Angeles can use the help of others in waging this battle, this is not an issue that PR Society of America should be sticking its nose in.

Society president Del Galloway is quoted in a press release as saying that the mayor's response is "overkill" and that "virtually every major corporation and thousands of government bodies and nonprofit organizations work with PR agencies when there are insufficient in-house resources to create or execute communications programs."

Wonderful. Then why doesn t PRSA employ a PR firm? It has not had a PR director since last June when Libby Roberge went on maternity leave.
Its PR is being handled by Cedric Bess, a 1999 college graduate who took over press relations on a temporary basis after Roberge left. He had been handling chapter relations.

Only four of the 50 staffers at PRSA are even members of the Society and one of them is an associate member–Kelly Albanese. The other three are Bess, Catherine Bolton, and Judith Voss.

PRSA has never had a major firm on retainer giving it PR advice, that we know of. It desperately needs this. The last press conference of the board that we know of was held for one-hour during the 1993 annual conference by president Hal Warner. PRSA's ethics process is a shambles. The 2003 ethics board chair and vice chair were replaced this year after they had the nerve, with six fellow board members, to ask for a probe of the 2003 nominating committee. Proposals for reform of the nomcom were voted down 8-6 in a March 2004 board teleconference. This shows that there is a tide for reform but help is needed. Members should write to h.q. and the board demanding such reform.

Instead of paying $75 to $100K and more for a PR director, PRSA should hire a PR firm that we can talk to.

A PR firm could also start work on the much-needed PR for PR program. At present, Del Galloway does not respond to any e-mails from this writer no matter how small the issue. For instance, we asked him what was meant by the report in the "Communigator" of the University of Florida that he "in 1989 set out to help unite eight PR organizations into what became, in 1997, PRSA."

There was no answer. The possible explanation was that Galloway, who is active in the accreditation program of PRSA, was talking about obtaining participation in it by other groups.

Galloway may be in violation of PRSA policy, stated in "Duties and Responsibilities of PRSA Officers and Board Members." It says, "The president also must be ready to respond to the media on any PR related subject and should expect to frequently make planned contact with the media."

The board, staff and volunteers at PRSA are under strict orders to let the president serve as the sole spokesperson for the Society.

PRSA's 2004 nominating committee, headed by Joann Killeen (page 7) must initiate reforms.
First of all, no one from the controversial 2003 nomcom should be back in 2004. Reed Byrum, 2003 president who promised the board he would not get involved in candidate selection and then did get involved, should recuse himself from the committee.

Although Galloway said in the Communigator interview that he "loves" the PR field because "PR is a reflection of a free and democratic society," the nominating and election process of PRSA is anything but democratic. Killeen's committee is laboring under bylaws that bar about 95% of full members from running for office or the board.

This has been true for 30 years, blocking large numbers of qualified members from even thinking of serving at the national level. PRSA seems incapable of reforming itself since the only members who can vote that are the APRs, who rejected the half-a-loaf decoupling move last October (removing the APR rule from the Assembly only).

--Jack O'Dwyer