FOXWOODS GOES
BACK TO KLORES.
Foxwoods Resort Casino has hired Dan Klores Communications to pitch the $300 million expansion and upgrade of the Connecticut casino that is run by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.

Klores was runner-up to Euro RSCG Middleberg in the PR review for the mid-six figure account that the casino completed in November, Marty Kramer, Foxwoods director of advertising, told O Dwyer's. He said it was a very close competition, and that Foxwoods was thinking about arranging some projects for Klores to handle. RFBinder Partners also pitched.

Havas decision to fold its Middleberg entity into Magnet on April 1 triggered the "re-review" of Foxwoods PR, according to Kramer. "The firm we hired no longer exists," he said.

IPG's NET LOSS
NEARLY DOUBLES.
Interpublic s first-quarter net loss nearly doubled to $17 million following a $62.5 million restructuring charge. The ad/PR conglom also reported a $10.4 million operating deficit for the period compared to a $20.8 million profit last year.

CEO David Bell highlighted the six percent revenue gain to $1.4 billion in the period, a boost largely due to favorable currency translation. Revenues, on a constant currency basis, inched ahead by one percent. The CEO noted that "organic growth" slipped 0.6 percent, vs. a 1.1 percent decline in the previous quarter and six percent plunge a year ago.

He told shareholders that IPG s first-quarter results provide "further evidence that our turnaround is reaching the end of its initial phase." Bell promised to move IPG "through the change process as quickly as possible."

IPG s headcount dropped from 45,500 to 43,700 as of March 31.

BRODER LANDS
AT PITNEY BOWES.
Matthew Broder, who headed PR for United Technologies Sikorsky Aircraft Group, has joined Stamford, Conn.-based Pitney Bowes as VP-external relations. He is responsible for updating the stodgy image of the 84-year-old postage machine maker. PB envisions itself as a fast-paced organization "engineering the flow of communication" via mail/document management and back-office outsourcing.

Earlier, Broder served as director of internal communications at UT s Otis Elevator unit.

MIRAMAX HIRES
GLOVER PARK GROUP.
Miramax Film Corp. has hired The Glover Park Group to handle PR as it hunts for a distributor for Michael Moore s "Fahrenheit 911."

Walt Disney Co., Miramax s parent company, decided to back away from the film that highlights Bush family ties to members of the Saudi royal family. The flick also criticizes President Bush s handling of Sept. 11.

Moore's agent, Ari Emanuel, told The New York Times that Disney CEO Michael Eisner told him that he feared Walt Disney World (Orlando) could lose tax breaks if the company handled Moore s film. Jeb Bush is Florida s Governor.

GPG is mainly staffed by members of the former Clinton White House. Howard Wolfson, who handles the Miramax account, served as communications director for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. Bob and Harvey Weinstein, principals at Miramax, are major contributors to Democrats.

JACKIE COOPER
SIGNS WITH EDELMAN.
Edelman PR Worldwide has acquired Jackie Cooper PR, a U.K.-based consumer PR firm with billings in the $7.3 million range. JCPR founders Jackie Cooper and Robert Philips will combine their 70-member firm to give Edelman a total 160-member staff and $25 million in fees on the island.

Philips says his firm was approached by the publicly traded ad/PR congloms, but favored the independent Edelman. "We were always put off by their focus on profit margins over creativity, quality and client services," said Philips of the public companies.

SBC FIXES BIZ CARDS
AFTER COMPLAINT.
SBC Communications, a client of Fleishman-Hillard, added "Fleishman-Hillard contractor" to the business cards of ten F-H employees who work full time at SBC following a complaint by San Francisco Chronicle columnist David Lazarus, who has been covering a possible strike against SBC.
Lazarus wrote May 5 that SBC and F-H were not honest with him in allowing F-H employee Marc Bien to represent himself over a lengthy period as VP-corporate communications of SBC when he was actually one of a number of "F-H employees who assist with SBC s corporate spin."
The issue of "outside contractors" is one of the subjects that SBC and the union are negotiating about, said the columnist. (continued on seven)

COKE UNDER ATTACK.
"We plan to destroy the image of Coca-Cola, for which it has spent millions to cultivate" unless the company changes its labor practices in Colombia, Ray Rogers, director of Campaign to Stop Killer Coke, told O Dwyer's.

Rogers, who heads Corporate Campaign Inc. in New York, is organizing a grassroots drive aimed at colleges, unions, "progressives" and local governments, charging the Atlanta-based giant with using paramilitary thugs in Colombia to intimidate workers and thwart union activities.

Coca-Cola says the anti-labor charges are "false and outrageous." The company, which has been in Colombia for 70 years, claims it is an "exemplary member of the business community."

Amnesty International reports that 60,000 Colombians have been displaced, tortured, kidnaped or have "disappeared" since 1985.

Targets 'exclusive' Beverage Contracts

Rogers has focused most of his efforts on spreading anti-Coke messages on college campuses. Five colleges so far have booted Coke beverages off their campuses.

Rogers was kicked out of Coke s April 21 annual meeting by six security guards after he loudly criticized CEO Doug Daft.

According to the webcast of the meeting, Rogers said: "All the evidence shows the Coca-Cola system is rife with immorality, corruption and complicity in gross human rights violations."

Rogers was then surrounded by six security people, wrestled to the ground and escorted from the meeting, according to a report by the Atlanta Business Journal.

"I felt like I was hit in the chest and my back with a sledgehammer," Rogers told O Dwyer s.

The Washington Post reported that after Rogers was hauled from the meeting, Daft muttered to a colleague "We shouldn t have done that."
Lori Billingsley, who is Coke's issues director, is countering Rogers campaign.

"It is unfortunate that false allegations about our business in Colombia have been circulating on college campuses," she said via e-mail. "We provide this information to people through our consumer affairs department, on-campus visits, letters and on our website, www.cokefacts.org."

DONOHUE, BASHAW
JOIN OGILVY.
Ogilvy PR Worldwide has added Pat Donohue and David Bashaw as senior VPs at its New York health and medical practice.

Donohue was at Johnson & Johnson s McNeil Consumer & Specialty Pharmaceuticals unit. She served as director of communications handling PR for Tylenol brands and launching Pepcid Complete.

Bashaw joins from Edelman PR Worldwide, where he was senior VP. He also worked at Stratis Communications.

EFUNDS SENDS PR TO BRODEUR.
Electronic financial services specialist eFunds has tapped Brodeur Worldwide for its U.S. PR account in a "closed pitch" after the firm handled some work late last year.

Allison Estrada, director of corporate communications, told this NL the company dropped Schwartz Comms. last fall and hired Brodeur for project work. She described the process to award the full account as a "closed pitch," with just Omnicom s Brodeur gunning for the work.

eFunds is located in Scottsdale, Ariz. Estrada noted the firm has a local office in Phoenix. That unit will head the account, with assists from San Francisco, San Diego and New York.

Estrada declined to give a budget figure but quipped, "It s never enough for PR."

eFunds went public in 2000, after breaking off from check maker Deluxe Corp. It bought payment processing company Oasis Technology last year in an expansion move.

It claims to be one of the top three outsourcing companies for service calls and payment processing in India for financial, retail and telecomms. companies and has taken some heat from state and local governments for sending public sector work overseas.

KENTUCKY CONSOLIDATES.
The Commonwealth of Kentucky has consolidated its $14 million advertising, PR and marketing spending for all state agencies into a single contract with two firms – Louisville-based ad/PR firm New West, and Atlanta-based Fitzgerald+Co.

The two firms emerged from an RFP process that began with 18 firms, a field which was whittled down to seven.

In a statement, Governor Ernie Fletcher said: "We want to have one state, one vision and one brand." The move is believed to be the first by a state to put all outside deals under one contract.

Kentucky's consolidation comes as several states like Connecticut and Rhode Island have called on procurement specialists to examine and prune contracts with outside agencies.

MEYER LEAVES RUMSFELD
FOR H&K.
Don Meyer, who helped craft the Pentagon s PA strategy on Sept. 11, has returned to Hill & Knowlton as VP in the corporate practice at its Washington, D.C., office. He served as the top aide to former Pentagon spokesperson Torie Clarke, who had headed H&K/D.C. As special assistant to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Meyer devised PA tactics to support military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. He also handled the military s outreach to Capitol Hill and think tanks.

Meyer was a senior account supervisor at H&K, counseling technology, airline and communications industries.

SURVEY: CNN GETS HEAT
FOR VNR MIX-UP.
More TV journalists blame CNN than PR people for the recent scandal involving a video news release that was produced for the Dept. of Health & Human Services, according to a survey of TV broadcasters conducted by the publisher of Bulldog Reporter.

While 41% of the broadcast journalists believe the "Karen Ryan Reporting" VNR package was deceptive, 27% said the VNR was not deceptive and 33% said they did not know.

Only 8% of respondents blamed PR for the scandal, and 25% blamed CNN—which distributed the VNR to stations—for not vetting the incoming video. The majority said PR and CNN should share the blame.
Fifty-eight percent of the respondents said VNRs or B-roll packages are generally labeled properly as PR material.

"Sending video PR releases requires actions from those who get them, just as faxes and e-mail or whatever else PR sends requires certain kinds of actions," said a journalist. "There s nothing wrong with spoon feeding, but nobody says you have to swallow."

Other results from the survey, which are disclosed and analyzed in the May issue of Media Relations Insider, a BR publication, include:

—24% said their station used VNR or B-roll materials at least once a week.

—14% said they never used VNR/B-roll material.

—34% said VNR and B-roll packages are generally not adequately labeled.

—46% said the VNR package deserved to be skewered by the media.

—34% said sending and using VNRs is a completely acceptable practice.

—24% said sending/using VNRs is not acceptable.

FINANCIAL SITES
HIRE MORE STAFFERS.
CBS MarketWatch plans to hire 37 people, and Forbes.com is in the middle of hiring 40, according to a report by Mark Glaser for Online Journalism Review.

"Now that online advertising is making a revival, and the U.S. stock markets have picked up, it s no surprise that financial sites are on a roll again," said Glaser, who covers the technology fields for Tech Web and The New York Times.

"It might not be boom-era growth, but many of these sites are in the midst of hiring editorial staff and adding paid-subscription newsletters. The newsletters are a hedge against future ad busts and a nod at the growing acceptance of paid content," said Glaser.

After years of losses (including $9.7 million in 2002), CBS Marketwatch had its first annual profit of $2.7 million in 2003.

Larry Kramer, CEO/chairman, said he would be hiring 37 new editorial staffers—up from 80 today—to help with the news feed and the free site.
Kramer said four pay newspapers have been started in the past year and a half, with plans to start one per quarter.

He sees financial news readership driven by fear and greed.

Jim Spanfeller, president/CEO of Forbes.com told Glaser his site had hired 20 people last quarter (half editorial, half business), and has plans to add another 27 by the end of the year (mainly editorial).

Spanfeller said the site is increasing its coverage of personal finance, stock markets and specific areas of business—known as "verticals"—while adding four or five times the number of online video clips it produces in its own studio.

SHAPIRO NAMED EDITOR
OF LIFE MAGAZINE.
Bill Shapiro was named editor of Lifemagazine, which Time Inc. may relaunch as a supplement for distribution in Friday newspaper editions.

Life ceased publication in 2000.
Shapiro had worked on All You, a monthly women s magazine that Time Inc. plans to launch in the fall. He had also run the company s custom publishing division.

GRIFFIN IS EDITOR
OF COTTAGE LIVING.
Eleanor Griffin is editor of Cottage Living, which goes on sale Aug. 29.

Published by Time Inc. s Birmingham, Ala.-based Southern Progress division, CL will have two issues this year, and then increase its frequency to nine times yearly with a circulation rate base of 900,000.

Griffin said the magazine will be the "bible for relaxed, informal living." Articles will run the gamut from gardening and classic American recipes to renovation tips and design.

BERK TO EDITOR
OF LIFE & STYLE WEEKLY.
Sheryl Berk was appointed editor in chief of Life & Style Weekly, which will go on sale for the first time on Nov. 1.

Published in Englewood, N.J., by Bauer Publishing, which also publishes In Touch Weekly, Women s World and First for Women, the new magaxine will feature articles about celebrity lifestyles and trends.

MEDIA BRIEFS
Metro New York made its debut as a weekday newspaper for Manhattan commuters on May 5.

Gawker.com, a New York-based gossip blog, has started Defamer.com, a blog that covers film stars agents, publicists, and producers.

Former Vice President Al Gore and entrepreneur Joel Hyatt have acquired Newsworld International, a cable TV network, from Vivendi Universal, which they plan to relaunch for young adults (18-34).

PEOPLE
Sasha Frere-Jones, previously a writer at The Village Voice, was named music critic at The New Yorker.

Margaret Littman was named editor of The Mobil Travel Guide.

Elvis Mitchell has stepped down as film critic at The New York Times.

Marc Peruzzi, previously an associate editor at Outside, has joined Skiing as editor-in-chief.

Michelle McNally was named director of photography at The New York Times.

Patrick Honan, 43, executive editor of DM News, died May 3.

Jim Kelly, previously assistant managing editor of The Fresno (Calif.) Bee was named editor of Pacific Business News in Honolulu, replacing Gina Mangieri, who left to start a day-care operation.

Scott Matthews, formerly news director of Fox TV's Philadelphia station, was named news director for Fox 5 and UPN 9 in New York, replacing Neil Goldstein, who left.

Daryl Chen has joined Glamour magazine as books editor.

(Media news continued on next page)

ASSN. TRENDS DROPS
WEEKLY PAPER.
Association Trends, a newspaper for association executives and suppliers, has dropped its weekly print edition and replaced it with three weekly e-mail editions and a new monthly magazine.

"After more than 32 years of providing weekly, printed publications, Association Trends will now send subscribers three timely, insightful, weekly editions electronically," the paper told subscribers.
Breaking news will continue to appear daily on the website, www.associationtrends.com.

The new magazine will "dig deeper to give association professionals more in-depth coverage of a focus topic in print—more charts, more case studies, more information..." the paper said.
Jill Cornish is president/publisher of the Bethesda, Md.-based publication, and E. Francisco Dalere is managing editor. 301/652-8666.

ATTORNEY LAUNCHES
EXPERT SITE.
The Expert List.com is a new online site where journalists can get free access to experts with opinions on almost any topic.

Daniel Kennedy, an attorney in Champaign, Ill., who founded the site, wants "experts from every walk of life, from chefs and beekeepers to fly fishermen, master gardeners, lace makers and neurosurgeons—anyone whose knowledge will add interest to an article."

Kennedy said background checks of each registrant will be made before adding them to the list.

He will charge experts an annual fee of $100 to get listed on the site, which is open now only for experts to register; journalists and attorneys may begin using the site June 1.

Kennedy, who can be reached at 217/493-4762, has started three magazines, including a quarterly magazine for alumni of the Univ. of Illinois. He also has written articles for the ABA Journal and has done freelance work for several PR firms.

RIOT MEDIA TO PUBLISH
MAG FOR BOYS.
Riot Media, a new company headed by former TV Guide editorial executive Jay Gissen, has been established to develop, produce and market multi-platform entertainment programming and media products targeted at boys between the ages of 8 and 13.

Gissen, who was director of editorial operations and development at TV Guide, said the company is planning to publish a monthly magazine, comic books, books, games, licensed products and an interactive website with an e-commerce element.

"With 15 million boys ages 8-13 spending $18 billion annually on their own and influencing an additional $145 billion in spending, many companies have devoted considerable time and resources marketing individual products to them," said Gissen. "Yet no one has been able to successfully create an integrated brand that delivers content for multiple platforms simultaneously. We will fill this market niche in a way that our target audience will embrace and make their own."

Rob Edelstein, formerly sports editor for TV Guide, is editor-in-chief of Riot magazine and Riot online, which will be based in New York.

Mike Hammer, one of the founding editors of Stuff and Maxim magazines, is chief content advisor for Riot, and Cherie Cincilla, currently photo editor for Outdoor Life Magazine, is a photo advisor.

AdMedia Partners is RM's lead investment bank.

NEW AUTO MAGAZINE
TO BOW IN SEPT.
MPH (maximum performance horsepower)is the title of a new magazine for car enthusiasts.

Eddie Alterman, previously senior editor of Automotive magazine, was named editor of MPH, which American Media will start publishing this September.

Dan Pund, formerly a staff writer for Car and Driver and Auto Week, is executive editor, and Dave Merline, previously at Motorbody and Orbit magazine, is managing editor of the New York-based MPH. Mike Austin is road test editor.

MPH was described in a press release as "a broadly based lifestyle magazine that captures the spirit of the times for the new generation of car enthusiasts. Its graphics will have lots of energy while its content will have an irreverent tone and a no-holds-barred attitude. Its mantra will be the four S's— Speed, Sex, Service and Stuff."

MPH will publish 10 times a year. Its book size will be 116 pages an issue with a $3.99 cover price.

NORWICH LEAVES TIMES
TO REJOIN VOGUE.
William Norwich is leaving The New York Times, where he is style & entertaining editor, to rejoin Vogue magazine as a contributing editor.

Norwich will write a first-person "social diary" 10 times a year for the "Talking Fashion" section as well as feature articles and an entertaining column several times a year. He said his diary will cover national and international affairs.

Norwich left Vogue to start the Style & Entertaining supplement for the Times in 2000 with Style editor Amy Spindler, who died recently.

PEOPLE
Jamie Vance was named photo editor of Men's Fitness magazine.

Linda Massarella, previously a criminal justice reporter for The Associated Press, has joined In Touch Weekly as deputy West Coast editor.

Sean Portnoy was promoted to senior associate editor at Computer Shopper magazine.

John Stoltenberg was named managing editor of AARP Magazine, and Nancy Graham was named deputy editor.

The San Francisco Chronicle's complaint about the employee status of some of SBC's PR people (page one) puts the focus on the ethical codes of the Council of PR Firms and PR Society of America. These codes are not worth the paper they're written on.

They only leave the associations open to charges of gross hypocrisy. They give the false impression that the association is somehow concerned about and is enforcing behavioral guidelines and is following such guidelines itself.

The Chronicle's complaint has been answered by Fleishman-Hillard. It will have the business cards of its 10 employees at SBC also imprinted with their F-H affiliation. Their badges had already said this.

But we wonder if this is enough, especially when the CPRF code promises "total accuracy and truthfulness." CPRF finds no violation in the case of Marc Bien, F-H employee and VP-CC of SBC.

He is not a corporate VP of SBC in the normal sense of the title.

Corporate VP is a big deal in a company. Why couldn't someone from an outside CPA firm or law firm take the title of CFO or general counsel of a client or an A/E at a PR firm be VP-CC of a client? It's more impressive than A/E.

Our experience is that both the CPRF and PRSA and their members could practically commit murder and it would still not violate their codes.

The awful wrongdoing of the CPRF was its attempt to take the rankings of PR firms away from the legitimate press and its attempt to redefine PR as including paid ads and just about anything else.

This Newsletter worked 30 years to build a credible ranking of firms based on income tax returns, W-3s, CPA statements of total employment, lists of employees, and lists of accounts. Other PR publications also did rankings based on proofs.

The O'Dwyer rankings were put into about 20 textbooks and PR books and were widely quoted in the press.

The CPRF in 1999 said it would take control of the rankings, telling members only to submit data to it which would then be ladled out to publications.

CPRF wanted no proofs, only the word of the CEO or CFO. Not even account lists were required.
Last year, citing Sarbanes-Oxley, the nearly 50 conglomerate-owned PR firms dropped out of the rankings altogether, greatly damaging them.
SOX does not forbid PR wings from giving out total employees and/or payroll totals. These PR units are small fractions of the revenues of the congloms and their numbers are "not material."

PRSA's transgression was its massive copying and sale of the works of dozens of authors and publications without their permission in the years 1990-94. The practice had been going on previously but by then had built up to a volume of 3,400 and more packets yearly.

PRSA aimed to make money out of this "anthologizing" of other's works, assembling a list of 1,000 subjects (205 "quick access") and charging $55 for each packet to non-members.

A 25 by 11-inch heavy stock gatefold flyer was used to promote the sale of the packets.

PRSA operated a "chop shop" in which new books and publications were cut apart and distributed to the various subject categories: 40 pages from Shenson on Consulting to one packet, and 13 pages from Power and Influence by Robert Dilenschneider to another to name a couple. Most copied were O'Dwyer articles (about 100 pages in 11 packets) and PR Quarterly (52 pages in the same packets).

Four awful things were going on: copying without permission; knowingly doing it (invoices said originals were enclosed because PRSA was "precluded from making copies"); materials were "anthologized" or collected into new works which publishers do not allow even if originals are sent out, and the materials were not just for education, but for "professional development," meaning they were used for money-making and career-advancement purposes. This use made them even more valuable and the copying and sale of them even more serious.

PRSA's own records indicated a gross of about $200K over a period of years. A dozen authors hired a lawyer but PRSA claimed "fair use," apologized to the authors, and refused to pay them anything. Lawyers for the authors said arguing in court could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Not a peep was ever heard from PRSA's ethics board. It abandoned its enforceable ethics code in 2000. The ethics board complained about nominating practices in 2003. Both its chair and vice chair were replaced.

New chair Dave Rickey was not even on the ethics board.

We have asked Rickey what he and his board think of the employee identification issue but have received no response. Fleishman-Hillard has 47 employees who are members of PRSA, down from 70 in 2001. We have sent our stories on the 2003 nomcom issue to hundreds of senior PR people including members of PRSA and have received about 30 expressions of thanks and support for sending the material. A representative of PRSA has doubted this and we have offered to submit (in confidence) not only the letters but other materials to an impartial third party in a move to settle some of the issues between this NL and PRSA.

-- Jack O'Dwyer