THE 9/11 COMMISSION
TAPS EDELMAN FOR PR.
The 9/11 Commission will use Edelman PR Worldwide to generate political support for its recommendations, such as creation of a Cabinet-level intelligence czar, for beefing up U.S. defenses against terrorism, Rob Rehg, general manager of the firm's Washington, D.C., office, told O'Dwyer's.

Edelman, according to Rehg, plans an ongoing media campaign pairing the Commissioners two-by-two–one Republican and Democrat–to talk to the media and government officials about the need to put its recommendations into place. The pairing is to maintain the bipartisan nature of the 9/11 Commission, said Rehg, who describes himself as the "client point" on the account.

Edelman's staffing of the business also reflects the bipartisan nature of the work. For instance, vice chairman Leslie Dach, who worked for Democrats Ted Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and Geraldine Ferraro, and Mike Deaver, who worked for Ronald Reagan, co-lead the account. They are assisted by Edelman's media guru Craig Brownstein, whom the Commission lists as media contact on its website.

BAIRD BOUNCES TO PORTER.
Greg Baird, who handled global PR for Novartis, has joined Porter Novelli/New York as head of its healthcare unit. He replaces Kate Cronin, who left in June to join Sherry Pudloski as co-head of Ogilvy PR Worldwide's Rx unit.

Baird also served as VP-corporate communications for Genentech, and did stints at Burson-Martseller, Hill & Knowlton, Searle and Pfizer.

He told O'Dwyer's that he joined PN because it is committed to being the "best-in-class" in the healthcare game. Baird left Novartis in March for personal reasons. He turned down a posting in Switzerland because he didn t want to leave his family.

"I ve been on a rare sabbatical," he joked.
Michael Durand, the head of PN's health unit, said Baird will have responsibility for clients such as Amgen, GlaxoSmithKline, and Wyeth, and will serve as a senior leader in the firm's global health practice.

Eileen Murphy has been named VP-comms. at the New York Daily News and U.S. News & World Report. Most recently, she was communications director for NYC Dept. of Education chancellor Joel Klein. Murphy was VP/comms. dir. at ABC News for seven years and VP-corp. comms. at Primedia.

MEYER RULES OUT
AUCTION OF GGG.
Grey Global Group CEO Ed Meyer ruled out auctioning off pieces of its businesses, dealing a blow to his friend & Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Levy, who hoped to pick up some bargains in a fire sale of the owner of GCI Group and APCO Worldwide.

GGG issued a statement July 20 confirming that Goldman Sachs & Co. and JP Morgan "are assisting it in exploring alternatives focused on enhancing shareholder value." The company "does not intend to pursue a sale of individual business units in connection with this process." GGG also said it "will not discuss future development unless required."

WPP Group's Martin Sorrell is looking at Grey's books. Hellman & Friedman, the San Francisco private equity firm, and Havas may also take a peek.

C&W DINES AT IHOP.
Cohn & Wolfe's Los Angeles office has edged a field of competitors to handle PR for restaurant franchise IHOP, the Los Angeles-based corporation that licenses the International House of Pancakes eateries.

Hill & Knowlton was the incumbent and was invited to pitch, but declined. The account is in the six-figure range.

Patricia Godefroy, president and GM of C&W's Los Angeles office, told O Dwyer's the firm takes the reins to revitalize the IHOP brand through PR efforts like consumer publicity and community relations.

"We are going to take them to the next level," she said. SVP Jeremy Baka leads the account team.

IABC MEMBERS
DEBATE LAWSUIT.
A series of e-mails discussing the lawsuit lodged by former CEO Elizabeth Allan against IABC, its former interim president Lou Williams, his PR firm, and 20 as yet unnamed other defendants has drawn the biggest audience ever to the "MemberSpeak" section of IABC's website.

More than 690 views of the debate have taken place, more than double the number attained for any of the 291 other subjects discussed on the website.

Meanwhile, Alix Edmiston, president of the Toronto chapter of IABC, its biggest with 1,400 members, said she did not learn of the lawsuit until she was told by a reporter for this NL last week.

There are 3,300 Canadians among the 11,800 members of IABC. Allan is a native of Canada.
Many of the e-mails wonder why members were not informed of the lawsuit long ago. It was started on May 1, 2003 in the San Francisco Superior Court (sftc.org, case No. 419976). The website is free. (continued on seven)

CANDIDATE RUSSELL
SUPPORTS APR.
Maria Russell, PR professor at the Newhouse School of Public Communication, Syracuse Univ., and candidate for president-elect of PRSA vs. Cheryl Procter-Rogers of Home Box Office, is a firm believer in the value of the Society's accreditation program.

She told this NL she favors removal of the APR rule for Assembly membership but is hesitant to remove it for board positions.

She said decoupling the board should only be considered as part of a review of "the total framework" of PRSA governance. She might favor officers being APR and some directors, non-APR.

New APR Process Instituted

Asked about the small number of PRSA members taking the new multiple-choice exam that became available last July 1 [17 members took it and 12 passed it in the second half of 2003], Russell said a "total transition" from the previous system is taking place and this will take time. Members can now take the test any time during the year.

The APR board has yet to release the number of people taking the test in the first half of 2004.
Asked about the fact that only 5% of the questions on the new test relate to "media relations," Russell said, "The field is so broad and there are so many questions and areas to cover that 5% on media relations is reasonable."

Opposes Direct Student Membership

On the direct student membership question, which was tabled at the 2002 Assembly, Russell said membership in the PR Student Society of America, a PRSA program, should be limited to students in the 240 colleges that have PR study programs that are approved by PRSA and have PRSSA chapters.

Fans of direct student membership say this stops PRSA from pitching students in 4,000 colleges.

Asked why, as a member of the 1999 PRSA board, she did not publicly oppose the nearly year-long boycott of the O Dwyer Co. by the board and staff of PRSA, Russell said the vote was "confidential."

However, Jack O Dwyer, who conducted the interview, told Russell that 1999 chair Sam Waltz discussed the boycott with PR Week, which ran a story on it. Waltz claimed that O'Dwyer was "tying up the staff" by asking too many questions. Russell reiterated that complaint.

Many of the questions concerned the "Spokespersons Credibility" study that showed "PR specialist" to rank 43 on a list of 45 public figures in credibility while network TV anchor, local reporter, national syndicated columnist and reporter for a big newspaper ranked 12, 14, 19, and 23 respectively.

The PRSA and Rockefeller Foundations each paid $75K for the study which was conducted by professors from Duke and Columbia Universities.
Only a brief story on it (that did not include the ranking of spokespeople) ran in PRSA's PR Tactics.
Questions were also asked about the suppressed 1999 study of recruiters views of APR by the College of Fellows. The two-year study, by Rene Henry, said APR had little impact in the job market.

Is Anything Right About PRSA?

When Russell asked O Dwyer if "there is anything right about PRSA?" he said the undemocratic nature of PRSA is so "overwhelming" that it dwarfs whatever else might be said about the Society.

He said the APR rule bars 80% of members from running for the Assembly or national office and other rules for board and officer positions bar another 10 or 15%.

Since PRSA can blast e-mail its 19,500 members, O Dwyer asked Russell why it doesn't do so, asking them whether APRs should have any more privileges than the non-APRs?

Russell said PRSA's governance problems should be attacked on a comprehensive basis and that "pulling a piece here, and a thread there" was not the way to reform governance. "I m not opposed to looking at all of governance," she said.

PUBLICISTS RATED
ON THEIR PITCH IQ.
TV broadcasters and producers in this year's survey conducted by D's Simon Productions said 60% of the PR people who pitched them stories were " properly prepared," 62% had the "proper information," 64% identified them as the correct contact, and 69% had their name correct, up from 52% last year.

"This increase is a result of the increased use of e-mail," said Doug Simon, president/CEO of DS Simon. "If the name's wrong, they don t get the pitch," he said.

The study also found increased competition for airtime with approximately five percent of pitches resulting in stories. Broadcasters rate 37% of the pitches as good and 49% as bad, whether or not they use the story.

The study found 32% of the publicists to be considered knowledgeable about the program and 20% are considered to be knowledgeable about the specific reporter's beat.

Ninety-five percent of the broadcasters said they either like or love e-mail, while 79% either don t like or hate phone pitches.

The study did find the phone can be used effectively for introduction and follow-up calls.
Simon said 63 TV broadcasters and producers responded to the survey.

DESCRIPTIVE PITCHES
SELL EDITORS.
"The more descriptive you can be about your idea, the more receptive people will be" to the pitch proposal, according to Sue Morrow, who is director of photography at The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.

She recently offered these guidelines at a fellowship program at the Poynter Institute, for writing pitch proposals to editors:

—Define what the basic story is in one sentence by answering this question: What is the story?

—Why is this story important and relevant? What is the news in the story.

—Who are you trying to reach with the story? For example: senior citizens or 13-year-olds?

—Why is the story important to you?

—Put it together on a single page, and include your research materials.

PLACEMENT TIPS
Rumbo de San Antonio, a new Spanish-language daily newspaper based in San Antonio, Tex., began publishing July 26. It will be launched in Houston in August, and the Lower Rio Grande Valley and Austin in September.

The tabloid-size paper covers local and community news of interest to Hispanic men and women between the ages of 21 and 54, including education, personal finance, and health.

Edward Schumacher-Matos, CEO/editorial director of Meximerica Media, said the paper is the "first step in our long-term strategy to distribute a national newspaper targeted exclusively for the Spanish-speaking American population."

Publicists can phone 210/581-3550 to obtain more information about pitching news and features.

RedCoat Publishing in Beverly, Mass., has begun publishing American Health Executive magazine, which covers organizations in healthcare and the life sciences.

Jill Rose, editor of RedCoat's flagship business magazine, American Executive, which began publishing a year ago, welcomes pitches from publicists. www.americanexecutive.com.

Bloomberg Radio's all-new daytime program lineup featuring in-depth talk and expert guests, began July 12.

The new weekday shows still offer a mix of political analysis, interviews, live reports, and commentary from experts.

Among the new programs: "Bloomberg Simply Put" hosted by Michael Goldman and Tom Morgan; "Bloomberg Big Picture," with host Kathleen Campion, and "Bloomberg On the Economy," with host Tom Keene.

For booking information, publicists can get details from Pietra Jones at 212/893-4476.

Commercial News USA, the official export promotion magazine of the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, is returning after a one-year hiatus.

The new edition of the catalog-style magazine, which targets 400,000 potential buyers worldwide, will be published in September under a public-private sector partnership initiative between the Commerce Dept. and ThinkGlobal Inc.

The deadline for the next issue, which will be published in Nov. 2004, is Sept. 3.

More information is available at ThinkGlobal, 800/581-8533, or www.export.gov/enusa.

Bacon's Information is offering a Wall Street Journal Briefing Book. The book, which is designed to help publicists pitch stories, provides a detailed overview of the paper's coverage and a list of editors and reporters, including their PR pet peeves, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses.

ON THE MOVE: The Associated Press is moving its world headquarters from 50 Rockefeller Center to a building on 10th ave. in New York. As of Aug. 1, the mailing address will be 450 W. 33rd st., New York 10001. Most phone numbers, including the main line at 212/621-1500, will remain the same ... Backstreets, a fan magazine and website, which has covered singer Bruce Springsteen since 1980, is relocating to Carrboro, N.C., from Washington, D.C.

William Graves, 77, editor of National Geographic magazine from 1990-94, died June 12 in Lititz, Pa.

(Media news continued on next page)

BIZ 2.0 OUTSOURCES
REPORTING TO INDIA.
Business 2.0, a San Francisco-based technology and business magazine, outsourced reporting for part of its August issue to a team of stringers in India.

In his "Editor's Letter," Josh Quittner said he decided to ship off the entire "In Front" section, to see "what we'd learn" from the outsourcing experiment.

Shailaja Neelakantan, a Mumbai-born writer, who had returned to India after working for eight years in the U.S. for Forbes and Bloomberg News, was retained to oversee coverage of stories for the 18-page section. "The pieces were reported, written, and edited in India, then sent to us," said Quittner.

The stories have a heavy focus on Asian business.

Quittner said offshoring is "not yet" something the journalism business needs to worry about. "The Indian team, which was certainly competent, got the job done for less. But our business is an intensely local one, filtered through local minds who are steeped in local sensibilities," he said in his letter.

"The kinds of stories that we do are really ...in-your-face encounters where we send reporters out to talk to people. For that kind of reporting, there really is no substitute," said Quittner.

TV SHOW TO PROMOTE
BLACK-OWNED COS.
A new national cable TV show will encourage African-Americans to buy goods and services from black-owned businesses.

The program is being launched on Aug. 2 by B-A-M-M (Bust-A-Move-Monday), a movement started in 2001 by Dr. Kenneth Whalum Jr., who is the pastor of New Olivet Baptist Church, Memphis.

"B-A-M-M The TV Show," which will air weekly on PAX cable TV, will focus on tips and ideas of how to increase business and profits and supporting the B-A-M-M movement.

The show will be produced in Memphis by Echoing Soundz. Info.: Adee Drory, 818/787-7633.

READERS WANT TO KNOW
$$ SOURCES.
Most of the 1,000 randomly selected adults in a national survey by the Center for Science in the Public Interest said the media should mention whether scientists or organizations quoted in their articles get grants or funding from corporations.
CSPI said the media often fail to disclose the funding sources of apparently independent nonprofit organizations quoted on health and medical issues.

For example, CSPI said The New York Times sometimes cites the American Council on Science and Health, which is largely funded by chemical, food, and agribusiness companies, as a "science advocacy group" or a "private health education group."

"If a reporter is going to quote a group like ACS&H, that reporter should be sure to identify the corporations that fund it," said Michael Jacobson, CSPI's executive director. "If a group refuses to disclose its corporate funding, journalists should say so."

ADMAN HOSTS
TALK SHOW ON CNBC.
Donny Deutsch, chairman/CEO of Deutsch Inc., a New York-based ad agency, made his debut as host of "The Big Idea With Donny Deutsch," on CNBC July 25. Thirteen episodes will be aired this year.

Deutsch will interview celebrities about cultural happenings and themselves.

Susan Krakower is the show's executive producer.

MEDIA BRIEFS
"The Daily Buzz," a weekday morning news program, recently signed up nine new stations, boosting the show's market count to 136.
The show, which is jointly produced by Acme Communications and Emmis Communications, is relocating its operations to Orlando.

Girls Life Magazine is celebrating its 10th birthday with the August/September issue.

The Baltimore-based magazine was started by Karen Bokram, who saw a need for a service magazine for young teen girls.

GLM, which offers advice on dealing with friends and family, building self-esteem and growing up, claims to be the No. 1 magazine for young girls, reaching more than three million 10 to 15-year-old girls.
Bokram can be reached at 410/426-9600 ext 105.

CONVEY NAMED M.E.
OF BOSTON HERALD.
Kevin Convey, 48, was named managing editor of The Boston Herald. He had been editor-in-chief of Herald Media's Community Newspaper Co., a chain of suburban papers in the Boston area.

Convey, who started at the Herald as a business reporter in 1981 and rose to managing editor for features and the Sunday paper in '94, said he is committed to running more offbeat stories and celebrity photos.

He replaces Andrew Costello, who left in February.

CBS MARKETWATCH
TO DOUBLE STAFF.
Neil Chase, who joined CBS MarketWatch in Jan. 2000 as managing editor, was given the additional title of VP of news.

As part of the upcoming launch of the MarketWatch institutional news service for customers of Thomson Financial, he is charged with doubling the size of the reporting staff in less than six months.

His expanded international team of reporters will cover real-time market industry and U.S. company news.

PEOPLE
Stacy Morrison, previously No. 2 editor of Marie Claire, is replacing Ellen Kunes as editor-in- chief of Redbook magazine.

Ed Needham, formerly managing editor of Rolling Stone, was named editor-in-chief of Maxim.

Brad Wieners, previously executive editor at CIO Insight, was named senior features editor at National Geographic Adventurer.

A producer for CNN s "NewsNight with Aaron Brown" called us at 4:30 Wednesday July 21 asking us to hotfoot it over to studios at 58th st. and Ninth ave. to talk on-air about Martha Stewart.

The show said none of their usual PR spokespeople could make it and we were recommended.

We said this would be highly inconvenient but if they wanted us, we would go. Dropping everything to help the media is what we believe in.

But a few minutes later a producer called and said it was not necessary for us to come. Instead, we were asked for our opinion and we gave it ("bad PR, especially Stewart saying that `many good people such as Nelson Mandela have also gone to prison").

The point is that there are hardly any PR "celebrities" that programs like Brown's can call on to give PR s perspective on things.

About the only PR "celebs" in New York who regularly appear on such shows are Fraser Seitel, author of The Practice of PR, and counselor Mike Paul. Counselor Vic Kamber is a regular from Washington, D.C. Counselor Mike Sitrick is popular with West Coast TV hosts.

Absent from the public venue are the heads of the big New York-based PR firms such as Chris Komisarjevsky of Burson-Marsteller; Paul Taaffe, Hill & Knowlton; Lou Capozzi, Manning, Selvage & Lee; Ray Kotcher, Ketchum; Helen Ostrowski, Porter Novelli; Harris Diamond, Weber Shandwick, and Bob Feldman, GCI Group. Major figures from other cities include Marcia Silverman, Ogilvy PR, Fred Cook, Golin/Harris, Andrea Coville, Brodeur, and John Graham, Fleishman-Hillard.

Where are these leaders of the industry? They don t even make speeches (or at least supply the press with texts of what they have said).

The only ones supplying texts in recent years have been Richard Edelman of Edelman PR Worldwide, and David Drobis of Ketchum (who retired at 62).

The PR field is suffering because of this. The talk shows are loaded with lawyers, many of them telling how issues should be "spun."

PR is missing a bet because it has no PR for itself.

Del Galloway, PRSA president, could be a spokesperson. We wonder if he or the others have registered with the shows. Incoming PRSA president Judy Phair appeared on CNN s "Paula Zahn Now" July 7 saying "trust" will play a big role in the Republican and Democratic campaigns.

IABC members are starving for information about the lawsuit against it by Elizabeth Allan . The dialogue on the suit on the IABC website has pulled more than double the viewers of any previous topic. After hiding this suit for more than a year from its members (not even telling the full board about it until seven months later, bald proof of how weak and dysfunctional the board is), IABC put a statement on its website in early July saying, "If you ve been following reports in the trade media [this NL and The Ragan Report], you may already know that IABC is named as a co-defendant in a lawsuit filed against Lou Williams..."

IABC is admitting that the press is the place to find out news about itself. Secondly, the explanation that Williams is being sued and IABC is a "co-defendant" is misleading. The suit mentions IABC first and says IABC (meaning its board) failed to supervise Williams when he worked fulltime for it in 2001. The "spin" of IABC has been that this suit is mainly against Williams. His liabilities have been limited to $1M while no cap has been put on IABC s.

How can the IABC board supervise staff when it only meets three times a year and has no members in San Francisco where IABC h.q. is? Occupations of board members are only available to members on the IABC website. The 87-page analysis of IABC by the ASAE in 1980 said there was, in effect, no board, the executive director only getting "general supervision" from it. PRSA purchased the same type of analysis from ASAE but would not publish it. Neither IABC, PRSA nor the ASAE can now find copies of these reports.

Although non-profits as well as companies are required by Sarbanes-Oxley to have a visible entity that can handle complaints without the complainers being identified to management, we find no such secure entities listed on the IABC or PRSA websites.

The 1980 ASAE report to IABC warned it against getting involved in "accrediting" members. The group might be held legally responsible if one of these "certified" members fouled up, it warned. We think PRSA got the same advice. That is why no PRSA leader or staff will ever say that APRs are more qualified than non-APRs. Candidate Maria Russell (page 7) praises the APR process as being of "great value" and a "personal benchmark" but she never says APRs are one whit better than non-APRs. That could put PRSA at risk.

But the question arises, if APRs are no better than non-APRs, how is that only they are allowed to hold national office and vote in the Assembly? Russell, to improve her candidacy, should push for blast e-mailing the 19,500 members on whether they think APRs should have any special privileges. She should also call for the release of the "credibility" and APR/recruiters studies that were completed in 1999 and snuffed by the 1999 board of which she was a member.

-- Jack O'Dwyer