NIH PLANS PR RFP.
The federal government's top research and education agency for neurological disorders plans to issue an RFP for a five-year PR contract in support of its research on the brain and nervous system.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Public Health Service, wants a firm to develop and plan its public and professional education outreach and seek out partnerships with medical institutions and other entities. That work will be alongside of its own Office of Communications and Public Liaison.

NINDS hopes to award a contract by early August and will begin collecting proposals from PR agencies in the next 15 days. It plans to tack on an incentive clause that could mean two additional years for a "superior performance," according to a pre-solicitation notice to PR firms issued by NINDS.

The RFP is slated to be posted on the agency's website. Mary Landi-O Leary is contracting officer (301/435-3807).

OGILVY TUNES INTO LG.
LG Electronics North American unit has consolidated its PR account for its four main divisions with Ogilvy PR Worldwide, following a review among its three firms. Cohn & Wolfe had handled its digital appliances and Bender/Helper Impact oversaw LG's mobile phones unit.

Ogilvy had been handling LG's consumer electronics division since September and the company heard from all three firms after starting a review in December, said Barby Siegel, managing director of Ogilvy's global consumer marketing practice.

South Korea-based LG bailed Zenith out of Chapter 11 in 1999.

CLARK BUILDS PR AT MDC.
Harry Clark, a former partner at Omnicom's Clark & Weinstock, is joining MDC Partners to build a PR/PA network for the Toronto-based holding company.

MDC owns cutting-edge creative ad shops in the U.S., such as Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners and Cliff Freeman & Partners.

With Clark on board, the company is now training its sights on acquiring PR firms/talent.
MDC, which chalked up $320M in `03 revenues, already owns Bratskeir & Co., which has counseled Chiquita Brands, Hasbro, Maybelline and Prada Beauty.

WAL-MART CHECKS OUT CASSIDY.
Cassidy & Assocs. has been hired by Wal-Mart Stores as the image of the world's largest retailer has been battered by charges of unfair labor practices and gender discrimination.

Wal-Mart executives and directors at its June 4 annual meeting admitted that the company has a major image problem and vowed to fix the situation.

C&A, an Interpublic unit, was hired for general public policy issues. Its COO Gregg Hartley, a former aide to Republican Whip Roy Blunt and ex-Missouri Governor John Ashcroft, spearheads the team.

Senior VP Juan Carlos Benitez, who was Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Labor Practices at the Dept. of Justice, is expected to be a key member of the unit. Wal-Mart has taken hits following news that its subcontractors have been charged with using illegal immigrants to clean its stores.

Also working on the Wal-Mart business are senior VPs James Hirni, a former staffer to Republican Senators Bill Frist (Tenn.) and Tim Hutchinson (AR) and Todd Boulanger, an aide to Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH), and VP Jared Craighead, a former DOJ and Federal Communications Commission staffer.

RF CELEBRATES MILLENNIUM.
Chicago has hired Ruder Finn to handle the official unveiling of the $475 million Millennium Park next month, an opening that the Chicago Sun-Times has billed as "one of the year's biggest media events."

The 25-acre lakefront park features a Frank Gehry-designed outdoor music pavilion that has fixed seating for 4,000 and a 95,000 sq. ft. lawn that can accommodate another 11,000 people.

Chicago anticipates the Park will attract up to three million visitors a year, and $150 million in tourism revenues. It expects the Park to be downtown's second tourist attraction trailing the Navy Pier.

RF's Lori Erikson is handling local and regional media for the week-long celebration. She said RF's New York office is pitching national and international media. Events include the first public concert at the Gehry facility, and a gala to honor donors, which include Ameritech, Tribune Co. and William Wrigley Jr. Co.

JENKINS MOVES TO PT/WS.
Pam Jenkins, who had co-headed Ogilvy PR Worldwide's global health & medical practice, has joined Powell Tate/Weber Shandwick's social marketing practice as its president.

She had led Ogilvy's team that developed the "Heart Truth Campaign/Red Dress Project" to build awareness of heart disease among women.

Nineteen top fashion designers have contributed to the Red Dress project to help make it a symbol for women of heart disease.

That PR effort, on behalf of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, earned an '03 Silver Anvil from PRSA. It was Ogilvy's sole Anvil.

Jenkins also worked on various programs dealing with obesity, asthma, cholesterol, cancer and high blood pressure for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
Laura Schoen, president of global healthcare at WS, said Jenkins background adds a "critical layer of expertise" to its work in product launches, scientific communications and educational outreach.

Cronin Shifts to Ogilvy

Kate Cronin, who headed Porter Novelli's New York healthcare practice, has moved to Jenkins' spot as co-head of the global health and medical group with Sherry Pudloski.

Cronin has 17-plus years of experience, counseling clients such as Baxter, Wyeth and Pfizer.

Ogilvy has more than 200 staffers in its healthcare group, and is steeped with specialists dealing with HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular disease, cancer and the central nervous system.

Clients are Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, Bristol-Myers Squibb and GlaxoSmithKline.

IABC RECOVERING,
BUT NEEDS 4 YEARS.
IABC, helped by a 15-month year and a $420,000 insurance settlement, showed a gain of $591,449 for the period ending Dec. 31, 2003 (having changed from a Sept. 30 fiscal year).

It had losses of $22,473 in 2002 and $718,069 in 2001. Its accumulated deficit has been reduced to $716K and it hopes to erase this in the next four years.

Total assets as of Dec. 31 were $1,209,269, up from $737,579 in the previous period. Liabilities were $1,924,962 vs. $2,044,721 as of Sept. 30, 2002.

Liabilities include $1,583,446 in deferred dues revenue, representing 61% of the group's total dues income of $2,586,809.

IABC, like most groups and almost all professional organizations, defers booking half or more of its dues revenue because the funds have not yet been earned through services provided.

Conference and seminar revenues, helped by a $420,000 payment from an insurance company because attendance at the 2003 conference in Toronto was hurt by the SARS scare, were $1,931,283, about the same as the $1,889,235 in such revenues in 2002.

Julie Freeman, president, said the work of the staff, board of directors and members helped IABC to produce a gain in assets for the first time since 1996.

The July/August issue of the group's magazine, Communication World, will include the complete audit by Deloitte & Touche.

The audit said IABC is a defendant in a lawsuit but that any liability is expected to be covered by the group's insurance policy. Details of the suit were not immediately available.

The group held its annual conference in Los Angeles June 6-9.

PRSA NAMES BLUE SKY
FOR E-MAIL.
PRSA has named Blue Sky Factory, Baltimore, as its e-mail marketing provider.

PRSA e-mails sales pitches to 16,000 of its 19,500 members that have given it permission to do this.

Products sold are its international conference and skills development courses. It also sends the PRSA E-Newsletter.

The e-mails from Blue Sky carry a "bug" that notifies Blue Sky whether a recipient has clicked on the e-mail, whether the recipient has "clicked through" to links on the e-mail, the time the e-mail was accessed, and whether the e-mail has been sent to an incorrect address.

Recipients can elect not to receive the e-mails.

Anti-SPAM legislation requires that unsolicited e-mails carry a notice at the end of the e-mail saying that further e-mails will not be sent if that is the desire of the recipient.

PRSA said that Blue Sky is not used to track individual day-to-day e-mails to members.

Some PRSA members wondered why the Society is not using its e-mail capability to poll members on their opinions or to conduct elections of officers and board members.

The last formal poll of member opinions and whose results were published was conducted in 1997.

There is no provision for direct election of officers and directors in PRSA's bylaws.

FCC'S CRACKDOWN
WORRIES PR PRO.
The Federal Communications Commission's crackdown on indecency worries Mark Hirsch, president of Mediahitman Inc., Boca Raton, Fla.

"Washington's current crackdown has left many news outlets, networks and the PR industry aghast," said Hirsch, whose broadcast PR firm distributes news content for clients such as Sony Music and Citigroup.

"A single incident at a local news station could bring FCC chairman Powell's quarter-million dollar hammer down, literally changing things overnight," said Hirsch, who pointed out the Broadcast Indecency Enforcement Act of 2004, which passed in the House with overwhelming bi-partisan support, has brought with it a ten-fold increase in fines for indecent content.

While the crackdown has not yet caused a crisis in the PR industry, it protends major changes in how TV news is gathered and delivered, he said.

"Live newsgathering outside of the 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. safe harbor poses considerable risks to broadcasters," said Hirsch, who cited a petition by CBS affiliates to the FCC protesting the crackdown.

If talent or a spokesperson casually uses an off-color adjective in a live interview, the FCC can fine the news outlet, and revoke the station's license.

"Any words related to sexual or excretory functions—regardless of the context—may subject TV newsrooms to fines as high as $275,000 per utterance with a maximum daily fine of $3 million," said Hirsch.

Nationwide broadcast news outlets have begun to put technology into place that will allow a tape delay of live news programs.

"Despite the reluctance of companies that sell satellite media tour production services to admit that Washington's actions could impact business-as-usual, we believe it is our duty to get the word out and ensure that the PR industry is informed, and that practitioners take all necessary steps to protect broadcasters," Hirsch told this NL.

"As content providers, we must take our share of responsibility and educate clients to protect live news gathering," he said.

PR FIRM STARTS SITE
FOR BRIDES & GROOMS.
Maffeo Media, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based PR firm, has started AZWeddingDirector.com to help brides and grooms with their wedding plans.

Mariane Maffeo, who is the chief architect of the site, said it will contain tips, tactics and timely information on weddings, wedding planning and purchasing and provide a cost effective ad medium for the thousands of small businesses in Arizona that service the bridal market.
O''REGAN NAMED FOUNDING
EDITOR OF CMO.
Robert O''Regan was named founding editor-in-chief of CMO, a new magazine for chief marketing officers that CXO Media in Framingham, Mass., will publish. O''Regan had been executive news editor of eWeek (formerly PC Week) before joining McKinsey & Co. in a senior editorial capacity with the consulting firm.

Elaine Cummings, previously managing editor of CSO magazine, was named managing editor of CMO, and Constantine Von Hoffman, who previously wrote for The Boston Herald and other newspapers, was hired as senior writer.

PEOPLE
Chuck Hawkins, previously managing editor for daily news at Congressional Quarterly in Washington, D.C., has joined The Associated Press in New York as deputy business editor.

Lawrence Downes, an editor on the national desk of The New York Times, was named an editorial writer, specializing in suburban issues, primarily for opinion pages to be introduced on June 20 in The Times Sunday Westchester and Long Island sections.

Rick Thames was named editor of The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer after serving since 1997 as editor of The Wichita (Kans.) Eagle.

He replaces Jennie Buckner, who is retiring.

Miranda Gatewood is succeeding Christine Giordano as editor of Networking, a monthly magazine published by Networking Newspaper for Women in Remensburg, N.Y. Giordano left to join The Villages Daily Sun, near Ocala, Fla., as a reporter.

Ricardo Pimental, op-ed columnist for The Arizona Republic, was named editorial page editor of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, replacing Michael Ruby, who resigned to collaborate with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson on a book about Richardson's life and government service.

Holly Cassin, previously accessories editor at CosmoGirl!, was named managing accessories editor at Shop Etc.

Justin Hibbard, a freelancer, has joined Business Week as a correspondent in Silicon Valley.

Jane Borden was named "Around Town" writer at Time Out New York magazine.

Kareen Wynter has stepped down as a reporter for WEWS-TV in Cleveland, Oh., to become a White House reporter for CNN.

John Roland, who is anchor of the 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 10 p.m. newscasts on New York's Channel 5, is leaving WNYW. The 62-year-old newscaster, who used to own Marchello, a restaurant in New York, may open a media consulting firm.

Gerard Baker was named U.S. editor of The Times of London. Baker, who was an associate editor of The Financial Times, will stay in Washington, D.C.

Gary Rivlin, previously a contributing editor at Wired, has joined The New York Times as technology reporter in the San Francisco bureau.

Jay Stowe, 36, who was executive editor of Outside magazine, will assume the top editorial job at Cincinnati magazine in mid-June from Kitty Morgan, who has been editor of the 30,000-circulation monthly for the past six years.

(Media news continued on next page)

STAGECRAFT A HALLMARK
OF REAGAN.
Terrence Hunt, an Associated Press reporter in Washington, D.C., since 1974, said President Reagan's funeral recalled the high style and stagecraft of his presidency.

"From Reagan's Hollywood days, the former actor brought a performer's talents and an appreciation for careful production of big events," said Hunt.
"Presidential appearances were arranged like movie scenes with Reagan in the starring role. There was a heavy emphasis on staging and lighting."

Hunt said Reagan's advisors boasted they made the visuals so compelling that TV networks could not pass up the story.

Little Left to Chance

Michael Deaver, who was president of Deaver & Hannaford, a PR firm, and worked with Reagan when he was governor of California before becoming his chief of staff, is credited with making sure presidential appearance put Reagan in the best light.

Deaver, who is currently vice chairman/international at Edelman PR Worldwide in D.C., left little to chance, said Hunt.

"Advance texts of most speeches were given to reporters hours before the president spoke, and he delivered the lines word-for-word," Hunt said. The practice of providing advance texts backfired on the White House on one of the biggest addresses of his presidency: Reagan's challenge in June 1987 to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.

Hunt said the speech was given to the travelling press corps in Venice, Italy, the night before Reagan was to deliver it in West Berlin at the Brandenberg Gate. "It was splashed on the front page of The Washington Times long before Reagan uttered the words: 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.'" Still, Reagan gave the speech unchanged, Hunt said.
"Unlike speeches, news conferences could not be scripted and were occasions of worry and anxiety for the White House," Hunt said. "Days in advance, presidential aides would ask the State Department, Pentagon and other agencies to draw up lists of questions that reporters might ask and to suggest answers for Reagan.

News conferences usually were followed by damage-control sessions in which Reagan aides corrected presidential misstatements.

PLACEMENT TIPS

The Wall Street Journal has started a new column, "Long and Short," in its "Money & Investing section.

The weekly column, written by Jesse Eisinger, will look at the issues related to investing and Wall Street. It will run each Wednesday, and some weeks will have extra columns on different days.

Eisinger was writing for the "Ahead of the Tape" column.

Life magazine, which ended regular circulation in 2000, will reappear as a weekend magazine in October.

At its launch, Life will be carried by more than 50 newspapers with a total circulation of nearly 12 million, and a potential reach of 26 million readers.

Among the papers that will distribute Life on Fridays will be The Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, The Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Daily News and Miami Herald.

Bill Shapiro, who was recently named managing editor of Life, said stories will be topical and have day-to-day relevance to readers. There also will be an element of service—mainly ideas to help make the time people spend with their family more special, he said.

Bigfish Publications, a specialty magazine publisher in Scottsdale, Ariz., is starting a new quarterly publication, Hiatus Travel Magazine, which will target owners of timeshare vacation homes.

The magazine will cover worldwide locations, both popular and remote, that have timeshare accommodations available for purchase, exchange or rental.

Resorts and activities will be reviewed by editors and recommended based on the editor's first-hand experience.

Kristin Puetz, who is editor of Hiatus Travel, can be reached at 480/367-9444, ext. 105; fax: 367-1110, and e-mail: [email protected].

Belo Marketing Solutions is producing "What's New America?," a 30-minute TV magazine program that provides local business owners the opportunity to tell their stories and promote their products and services during each program segment.

The "Houston Edition" debuted June 12 on KHOU-TV in Houston.

BMS will oversee the development of the segment, from concept and writing, through production and placement of the story.

The program will soon debut on Belo-owned stations in Dallas/Ft. Worth, San Antonio and Austin.

Lisa Shumate, executive director of BMS, is in charge of the program. She is at 214/977-6816.

REVIEWER RAPS
ESPN'S PR STAFF.
Richard Sandomir, who covers the sports media beat for The New York Times, gave ESPN's new series—"Then and Now"—high marks, but he rapped the network's PR staff for the way it promoted the program.

"Although it is easy to criticize ESPN for overly promoting itself—I am harboring 545 untrashed e-mail messages sent by its PR staff—its modesty in 'Then and Now' is not altogether becoming," he said in his June 8 review of the new show.

James Meigs, previously executive editor of National Geographic Adventure magazine, is joining Popular Mechanics magazine as editor-in-chief, succeeding Joseph Oldham, who retires in August.

PR Seminarians, who politely heard Richard Clarke's negative critique of the Bush Administration (page one), are mostly liberal-leaning, several Seminarians have told us.

They said that if a poll were taken at PRS, the majority would say they are going to vote for John Kerry rather than George Bush. Some other PRS members argued that just because an anti-Administration speaker highlighted the PRS program does not mean the group supports that point of view.

"We just listen to all sides," said the Seminarian.

"Piffle," retorted other members. They noted that the Arthur Page Society, to which many Seminarians also belong, heard three foreign editors at its spring meeting who excoriated the Bush Administration. No one challenged the editors, they added.

Communications people, including PR pros (many of them with media backgrounds), obviously have Democratic party and liberal leanings.

Myrna Blyth, in Spin Sisters (4/14 NL) documented the liberal bent of women's magazine editors and members of New York Women in Communications.

She found an attitude bordering on contempt for the Bush Administration and noted that no Matrix had ever been awarded to a well known conservative even though New York has such eminent candidates as Dorothy Rabinowitz of the Wall Street Journal and Andrea Peyser of the New York Post.

The outpouring of affection for Howard Rubenstein on his 50th anniversary in PR (page 5) was an amazing sight to see.

Some 3,000 people including many celebrities turned out. We watched as scores of people made their way to Rubenstein not only to congratulate him but to thank him for one thing or another. Some of these people were famous. Many were not.

The food and entertainment at Tavern on the Green were tops but can t account for the huge turnout.

Rubenstein is noted for being a problem-solver, a mediator, and for his sense of fairness. His firm is one of the most media-friendly in town. Calls are returned, no matter what the subject.

We called Rubenstein ourselves in 1994 when we got sued for millions of dollars for covering editor Dean Rotbart at the 1993 PRSA conference. We were a credentialed reporter covering an open session but got hit with a copyright suit for allegedly reporting too much of what was said. Rubenstein listened to us and said "Send over the materials."

We did and not only did he let us use his name for our legal defense committee but sent a contribution. Others joining included Harold Burson, Daniel Edelman and Peter Finn. Hal Warner, Joe Vecchione and John Beardsley, 1993, ‘94 and ‘95 PRSA presidents, refused to discuss the matter with us. It turned out that PRSA also held the copyright to the presentation. All charges were dismissed in Federal Court Jan. 31, 1995.

Rubenstein, while not revealing his fee income, has for many years given a staff count (170 in our latest directory) and published a list of 100+ clients.

Having written about sky-high HMO rates (6/9 NL) we wonder what the people who created the "Harry & Louise" commercials in 1993 now think. That ad/PR campaign killed Clinton Administration attempts to reform health insurance.

Created by Goddard Claussen, now part of Porter Novelli, for the Health Insurance Assn. of America, the ads said people would lose their choice of doctors and insurance would be so expensive few could afford it. HMO family rates are now at or above $20K yearly and even singles are paying $500+ monthly (heading to $1,000). Some 45 million Americans have no medical insurance.

Goddard Claussen Porter Novelli revived Harry & Louise in a campaign for CuresNow, which backs human cloning for medical research. HIAA sued the group to stop use of H&L.

The "PRSA Names Blue Sky for E-Mail" story on page 2 raises interesting questions.

PRSA has given, for sales e-mails only, the "blast e-mailings" of 16,000 of its 19,500 members to Blue Sky Factory. Such e-mails carry a "bug" that tells Blue Sky whether anyone has clicked on the main message or embedded links. The term "bug" can even be found in the routing instructions of the e-mail if this is opened. PRSA should tell members that clicking on these sales e-mails will send a report back to Blue Sky. Such members could now go on a "hot prospect" list that is singled out for attention. Whatever the use, some members don t like such "bugs" in their e-mail.

But the real issue is if PRSA can e-mail its members so easily, why doesn t it ask them for their opinions on something and to vote on officers and directors? Democracy is staring PRSA in the face but the eyes of the board are closed. We noted last year that BoardSource (boardsource.org) has a program called E-Vote that for $5,000 allows groups with up to 100,000 members to conduct secure voting.

Delaware allows remote voting by non-profit groups and will provide a state charter by phone for an initial $89 plus a few other minor charges. BoardSource says nearly 100 groups inquired about this but none has taken it. The groups say their own states don t allow it and they are reluctant to switch to Delaware.

So, the other groups are about as interested in member democracy as PRSA. Current state charters provide all sorts of protections to leaders of nonprofit groups and they re not interested in changing this.

-- Jack O'Dwyer