B-M SAILS WITH OLD NAVY.
Burson-Marsteller has won the review for Old Navy's PR account, beating incumbent DeVries PR and Manning Selvage & Lee.

The retailer -- which is owned by The Gap parent, Gap Inc. and runs 800 retail stores in the U.S. and Canada -- said it wanted to take a fresh look at its communications efforts.

Catherine Beaudoin, Old Navy's senior VP of marketing, said B-M's team showed "passion" for the brand and brought fresh ideas to the table.

DeVries is part of Interpublic, while MS&L is a Publicis unit and B-M is owned by WPP Group.

Select Resources International handled the review.

SCHUMACHER SPLITS FROM K-M.
Carol Schumacher has exited her SVP-corporate affairs post at Oklahoma City-based Kerr-McGee.
John Christiansen, a K-M spokesperson, declined to comment about the departure of the 48-year-old executive, and whether there are plans to name a replacement. He would only confirm that she is no longer with the oil & gas combine.

Schumacher joined K-M in ‘02 from The Home Depot, where she was VP-PR. She was featured in K-M's annual report that year standing next to CEO Luke Corbett. Prior to K-M, Schumacher was general manager of Edelman PR Worldwide's Atlanta office, and executive VP at Cohn & Wolfe.

LAZIO BANKS JOB
AT JP MORGAN CHASE.
Rick Lazio, the former Republican Congressman who lost the `00 New York Senate race to Hillary Clinton, will join JP Morgan Chase Oct. 1 as VP-global government relations and public policy.

The 46-year-old Long Islander was elected to Congress in `92. He served on the Commerce and Banking committees, where he specialized in financial services modernization issues. He entered the New York Senate fray five months before election day after then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani dropped out to deal with prostate cancer.

Lazio joins JP Morgan Chase from the Financial Services Forum, a group of CEOs from leading financial services firms that advocates for open worldwide markets. He was FSF's president/CEO.

FSF members include the heads of Citigroup, American Int l Group, Prudential Financial, American Express, Bank of New York, Fidelity Investments and JP Morgan Chase, which is led by William Harrison.

WEBER STARTS OVER AGAIN.
Larry Weber has left Interpublic, where he served as a consultant after heading its Advanced Marketing Services unit, to unveil the W2 Group in Waltham, MA.

Weber, under W2, has moved to acquire Racepoint Group, a PR firm headed by his former COO and longtime co-worker Marijean Lauzier. Linux pioneer Redhat is a flagship client of the firm, which staffs about 30.

Weber has also created Digital Influence Group as the second half of W2. That entity will staff about four or five and focus on "constituency management" -- PR -- within emerging technology and digital channels.

Weber said he maintains strong relationships with Interpublic execs and said selling his firm to the conglomerate to eventually create "the largest PR firm the world," Weber Shandwick, was the right thing to do. Weber has a non-solicit clause with IPG, but can compete with IPG firms, although he said he would never go after their clients.

He said he is bullish on the tech sector with the caveat that it will never be close to what it was for PR in the late 1990s and 2000.

The PR exec built The Weber Group into a tech powerhouse before eventually selling it to Interpublic for about $16 million.

"You didn t expect me to sit on a beach for the rest of my life, did you?" Weber asked.

SORRELL SPURS HAVAS.
Havas shares jumped more than 10 percent Sept. 27 following a report that WPP Group CEO Martin Sorrell has had conversations with French corporate raider Vincent Bollore. The Guardian quoted Sorrell saying that he has been "in touch" with Bollore, who owns 14 percent of Havas.

The Frenchman opposed Havas bid for Grey Global Group, a competition that Sorrell won. Bollore considered the deal too risky.

Sorrell, however, played down speculation that WPP was set to make a move for Havas. He told the paper that WPP is in no rush to make any more deals. It expects to wrap up the Grey acquisition by early '05.

A Havas spokesman said the ad/PR combine will not be "destabilized" over reports that it may be a takeover target.

Sorrell, meanwhile, was awarded a $30 million bonus in cash/stock under a WPP incentive plan. The award was granted to Sorrell's JMS Financial Services.

PN TACKLES GLOBAL WARMING.
Porter Novelli is helping the Business Roundtable in promoting member participation in its "Climate Resolve" program. CR was set up in ‘03 to help companies meet President Bush's call to voluntarily cut emissions of greenhouse gas 18 percent by ‘12.

The Omnicom unit, according to BR spokesperson Jennifer Handt, is assisting in media outreach, but she added that the bulk of the work will be handled in-house.

Handt said BR kicked off an ad campaign in the Washington Post and Roll Call on Sept. 23 to target key Congressional decision-makers. Michael Kehs, who works on the BR account, said PN created the ads.

There are also "one-pagers" in the works for Congressional aides, environmental officials and reporters to keep them abreast of efforts to control greenhouse gas. BR hosted a two-day CR workshop (Sept. 22-23) that featured presentations from the Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency.

BR, which represents CEOs that head companies with a combined $4 trillion in annual revenues, says 70 percent of its members have signed up for CR.

They are eager to avoid the mandated cuts that are going into effect in much of the world under the Kyoto Protocol, the pending international treaty of global warming.

LEWTON TAKES WAGGED POST.
Kathleen Lewton, recently a senior VP at Hill & Knowlton and 2001 president of PR Society of America, has taken a SVP post in Waggener Edstrom's Stamford, Conn., office. Lewton heads WE's East Coast bioscience work.

She was previously at Omnicom units Fleishman-Hillard and Porter Novelli for 10 years, resigning from F-H in December for the H&K post. Lewton was national healthcare head at PN before moving over to F-H.

She is co-chair of PRSA's 2004 International Conference.

WALSHCOMM REPS
CYRONICS OUTFIT.
The cryonics institution which is preserving baseball legend Ted Williams remains has brought in PR support amid national coverage of a legal battle for the Splendid Splinter's remains.

Phoenix-based WalshComm was tapped from among several firms in July by the Alcor Life Extension Foundation after being recommended by Alcor's lobbyist, Barry Arons, according to partner Deborah Johnson.

She told O'Dwyer's the firm is working to better inform the public and media about cryonics and to represent Alcor as the world leader in that field.

Recent placements include a segment on the History Channel and Arizona NPR station KJZZ.

The firm, founded by CPA and attorney Cheryl Walsh and formerly known as Growth Strategies Group, focuses on "high stakes" communications like crisis PR and litigation support including witness prep and media relations for court battles.

A Superior Court Judge ordered non-profit Alcor this month to present the "document of gift" to Williams nephews, who contest his son John Henry William's claim that Ted wanted to be preserved via cryonics.

The nephews say Ted wanted to be cremated. John died earlier this year.

The Red Sox legend died in 2002 at 83.

U.S. SENDS CAT BACK.
The Council of American-Islamic Relations denounced the Dept. of Homeland Security's decision to deport the former Cat Stevens (now Yusuf Islam) for alleged links to terror groups.
Nihad Awad, executive director of CAIR, said the decision to deport Islam "sends the disturbing message that even moderate and mainstream Muslims will now be treated like terrorists."
The Council released a statement during its Sept. 22 Washington, D.C., press conference referring to Islam as "one of the most widely known and respected personalities in the Muslim world. He has a long history of promoting peace and reconciliation and condemning terrorism."

The Council asked the Bush Administration to explain why Islam was barred from traveling here, and said his deportation "is not the way to win the hearts and minds of Muslims worldwide."

Islam, with his daughter, was on a London-to-Washington, D.C., flight on Sept. 22 when the flight was diverted to Bangor, Maine. A United Airlines worker in London missed Islam's name on a "watch list."

As Stevens, the singer had mega-hits, such as "Moonshadow," "Morning has Broken," and "Peace Train," during the `70s.

Islam last visited the U.S. in May with no governmental fanfare.

He converted to Islam in `77, and now heads a trust for Muslim schools in the U.K. In that capacity, Islam has met with Prime Minister Tony Blair and Prince Charles.

The Muslim Assn. of Britain called Islam's deportation a "disgrace."

STONE IS HURT IN CAR CRASH.
Bob Stone, a principal in The Dilenschneider Group, is recovering from serious injuries after being involved in a two-car collision on Sept. 3.

Stone, who turned 84 on Aug. 23, said his seat belt and air bags may have saved his life. "My seat belt allowed me to keep control of car, and the air bags prevented me from hitting the dashboard."

He was hit head-on by the other car, which he said was driven by "an elderly woman," who was also taken by ambulance to a hospital.

He is undergoing special therapy for an injured collarbone and torn rotator cuff as well as several bruises.

Stone, who does not know when he will be able to return to work, said he enjoys getting phone calls from friends. His number is 914/591-5534.

PROFS SEEK TOUGHER
PLACEMENT RULES.
Some 60 professors of journalism and law have asked the American Society of Magazine Editors to enact new rules to require disclosure of product placements in magazines, and to prohibit the disguising of ads as editorial content, or providing special favors to advertisers.

The letter, which was written by Commercial Alert, a group that opposes commercialism, was recently sent to ASME's executive director Marlene Kahan.

Mark Whitaker, editor of Newsweek and ASME president, has already announced that the group was going to reevaluate its ad guidelines (NL, Aug. 18). Under the current guidelines, publishers are not supposed to run ads next to stories about the same product, get products mentioned in stories, create contests linked to magazines, and run ads that look like magazine layouts.

In the letter, the professors said "magazine editors in the U.S. are under increasing pressure to weave advertising into their editorial content. In the past, advertisers have sought to influence stories, often with success. Now they are going further, and seeking to turn ads into articles."

The signers of the letter said these efforts are a "fundamental threat to press freedom and to the integrity of American journalism.

"If magazines become mere tout sheets for products and the interests of those who sell them, then every story will be suspect, and the reading public may have nowhere to turn for information that is truly independent of reigning commercial interests," the professors said.

Gary Ruskin is executive director of Commercial Alert, which has more than 2,000 members.

STUDY FINDS BIASED
NEWS REPORTING.
American Enterprise Institute economists John Lott Jr. and Kevin Hassett have released a new study titled, "Is Newspaper Coverage of Economic Events Politically Biased?"

The results from the study suggest U.S. papers tend to give more positive news coverage to the same economic news when a Democrat is in the White House than when a Republican is. Specifically, the highest bias is found in relation to the reporting of durable goods and unemployment, which trend positive towards Presidents who are Democrats by up to 25%.

Lott believes the study, for the first time, provides an objective measure of media bias.

He points out the major news services and the top papers -- The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, The Associated Press and The New York Times -- tend to be the least likely to report positive news during Republican administrations, while The Houston Chronicle slightly favors Republicans. Only one major newspaper treated one GOP administration significantly more positively than the Clinton Administration: The Los Angeles Times.

"Economists have been puzzled this year by why people's perceptions about the economy have lagged the economic data," said Lott. "For example, over the last 12 months the economy grew almost exactly as fast as it did during the best 12-month period during Clinton's two terms. But the economic mood of the country has been much different. This study helps explain why," he said.

CBS FAILED IN
' NEWS OBJECTIVITY.'
Andrew Bernstein, senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, Calif., said the failure of Dan Rather and CBS News to properly check their sources is representative of a widespread rejection of objectivity within the news media.

"No serious thinker any longer believes in a verifiable, objective reality," said one newsman. An article in the Atlantic Monthly concluded that it is "better to admit from the start the inevitable subjectivity of journalism, and then to treat it as a necessary condition."

Such mainstream advocates of what is known as the "new journalism" explicitly devalue, even outright repudiate, a rigorous commitment to facts and truth in the news, said Bernstein. He quotes an editor of The Washington Post, who said: "The old objectivity really wasn t the way to report."

Given such an approach, Bernstein asks, why should reporters bother to verify facts as long as a story is congruent with their political agenda? For example, he said CBS News still stands by its 1988 story of "combat veterans" confessing to heinous actions in Vietnam even though research by an independent writer later demonstrated the fabricated nature of the claims.

"Why should they bow before the facts?," Bernstein asks. "Or why should The New York Times bother to check the truth of the claims made by Jayson Blair? After all, `objectivity really isn t the way to report ."

The shocking truth of why news organizations often do not perform the most elementary tasks of fact checking is that facts are a decidedly secondary consideration to them. Promoting their own subjective view is all that matters, he concluded.

MEDIA TURNS TO IR PRO
FOR IPO VIEWS.
Hulus Alpay, SVP and head of investor relations for Makovsky & Co., has become a media star.
He has been featured recently on ABC "World News Tonight," CNNfn, The Financial Times and in The New York Times discussing his views on the communications issues confronting Google and other companies preparing for their IPOs, as well as disclosure issues for publicly traded companies.

Ken Makovsky, president of the PR/IR firm, said, "It is quite rare that IR counselors are quoted by the mainstream business media."

(Media news continued on next page)

STEIGER MAPS OUT
SATURDAY WSJ.
Paul Steiger, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, said the new Saturday edition, which will start publishing in Sept. 2005, will have "scoops of fact and scoops of ideas."

"The Weekend edition will be a sixth edition of The Wall Street Journal. It will involve all bureaus, all page desks, the entire news staff," he said.

He said the first priority is and will remain the coverage of business and environment -- the markets, the economy, companies, industries, technology and science, national security, social and political trends, health, management, and entrepreneurship.

Steiger said Dan Hertzberg and the desks and bureaus that report to him will play the same role in the Weekend Edition as they do the rest of the week.

Three editors -- Steve Adler, Joanne Lipman and Joe Disney -- who were assigned to help in the planning of the new edition, will continue to play major roles before and after the launch.

PLACEMENT TIPS
Crain's New York Business is searching for candidates for its upcoming "40 Under 40" section. The feature profiles businesspeople under the age of 40 who are based in Manhattan and are doing "extraordinary work" in their fields.

Valerie Block, assistant managing editor, is handling nominations. She prefers to get nominations by e-mail: [email protected]. The mailing address is Crain's New York Business, 711 3rd ave., New York, NY 10017. The deadline is Oct. 18.

Bride's magazine saiddestination weddings are a "hot new trend" in the travel field.

"With the Internet and the rise of the passport traveling class, more couples today are discovering how affordable and romantic it is to get married against an exotic backdrop," the magazine reports in its November/December issue.

Destination weddings have more than doubled in the past 10 years, and in three years the average number of guests has risen from 46 to 56.

Seventy-two percent of destination vows happen in the U.S. while the most popular places to celebrate are Hawaii, Mexico, and on cruises. Up-and-comers include Greece, Scotland, Italy, Africa, Thailand, Belize, Costa Rica and Canada, according to the magazine's survey.

Millie Bratten is editor of Bride's , which is published by the Fairchild Bridal Group in New York.

Fairchild Publications is starting a women's version of its new men's shopping and lifestyle magazine, Vitals.

The publication, which will be published quarterly, will have the same name, editor-in-chief, and logo as its male counterpart, which is also issued quarterly. The two magazines will alternate issues.
The new edition is slated to debut on newsstands on Feb. 15 as the March issue.

Joe Zee, editor-in-chief, said the new edition will be "infused with celebrity and high-profile people who have become the cultural influencers of our time."

Hoy, a Spanish-language daily, which recently admitted its circulation was artificially inflated, is boosting coverage of celebrities, gossip, movies and TV, and will also focus more on sports in each of its geographic regions.

Juan Arango is executive editor of Hoy, which publishes editions in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Rob O'Regan, editor-in-chief of CMO, a new magazine for senior marketing executives, told MarketingSherpa.com he prefers to get an interesting pitch on a new implementation or strategy.

He wants to hear about trends in the industry, new technology, and CMO profiles "if they have a great story to tell."

He tries to read all his e-mails, but if the subject line does not catch his interest, he will delete it.
Pitches can be e-mailed to O Regan (roregan@ cxo.com) or managing editor Elaine Cummings ([email protected]).

CMO is published in Framingham, Mass. 508/872-0080.

Parade has introduced a new column that focuses on the best products in home entertainment, including DVDs, books, video games and CDs.
Gerri Hirshey, a contributing editor, will write the column, which made its debut Sept. 26.

SPANIARD EYES
CHAIN OF CITY MAGS.
Carlos Yorka, a real estate tycoon in Madrid, is planning to launch a chain of luxury magazines in several cities in the U.S. and Europe.

Yorka's company -- Absolute Publishing -- already publishes three upscale, large-format magazines in Spain, including Madrid. It plans to introduce a similar magazine in New York in March 2005.

Caroline Miller, a former editor of New York magazine, was hired as editorial director of the new publication, which will be mailed free to homes in the New York area with household income of $500,000 and net worth of $1 million.

Ernie Renzulli, previously publisher of The Robb Report, is president/publisher of the new magazine.

KASH NAMED EDITOR
OF GC NEWS.
Wyatt Kash, who is editor of Big Builder magazine, in Washington, D.C., is joining Government Computer News as editor on Oct. 4.

Thomas Temin, who has been GCN's editor for more than 12 years, will continue as editor-in-chief of PostNewsweek Tech Media, which publishes GCN and Washington Technology, both based in D.C.

COOPER JOINS
EDIT BOARD AT N.Y. TIMES.
Helene Cooper will join The New York Times as an editorial board member and assistant editorial page editor on Oct. 18.

Since 2002, Cooper, 28, has been the assistant bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal's Washington, D.C., bureau, overseeing a group of reporters focusing on international economics and foreign policy.

A native of Monrovia, Liberia, she became a U.S. citizen in 1997.

NEW MAG ABOUT
EDUCATION STARTED.
The George Lucas Education Foundation in New York is starting a magazine called Edutopia to cover new ideas in the education field.

James Daly, former editor of Business 2.0, Red Herring, Wired and Forbes ASAP, was named editor-in-chief of Edutopia.

The first issue of the New York-based magazine, which has been sent to a qualified audience of subscribers, has articles about the effect of the Las Vegas building boom is having on the fastest-growing school district in the U.S.; proposals for lowering the voting age, and opinion pieces by George Lucas and Wynton Marsalis. Edutopia is designed for educators, legislators, parents and others interested in education.

The magazine will have profiles of heroes of education reform. "Our goal is to exchange ideas that ultimately bring about change in the status quo," said Daly. "We ll cover stories that open doors to a new world of learning."

PRSA president Del Galloway and ethics chair David Rickey have been most eloquent in calling for ethical and democratic behavior by all sorts of groups including the national political parties.

For instance, in August they berated the use of "front" groups by those supporting either the Republicans or Democrats.

PRSA members were reminded of the "Disclosure of Information" provision in the PRSA code "that is based on the premise that open communication is essential for informed decision-making in a democratic society."

They championed the "Free Flow of Information" in a bold-faced headline in the advisory.

PRSA members, it was said, "adhere to the highest standards of accuracy and truth in advancing the interests of those we represent and in communicating with the public."

We would think that the elected Assembly delegates would be cognizant of these high-flying words when it comes to how they vote in the Assembly.
But they aren t. No record is kept of how the individual delegates vote although it would be a cinch to do this.

For the past five years, delegates have voted using electronic keypads. They vote "yes" or "no" on candidates and issues. A gross total is provided.

But the keypads could easily be programmed to track the name and occupation of the delegate, chapter and district membership, years in PRSA, etc. Print-outs could be distributed immediately.

Armed with such information, leaders and members would know the identities of the 90 delegates who last year voted against decoupling the Assembly from accreditation, defying the wishes of the national board, most of the big chapters and virtually all of the sections. Was it educators? Members from small chapters? Corporate members? Non-profit members? Counselors? We don t know.

The Assembly once again remained a representative body that is unrepresentative of the people it's supposed to represent. Only 20% of members are APR but 100% of the delegates are. The privileged few are refusing to give up their special role.

The make-up of the Assembly itself is wildly undemocratic. Chapters with as few as 25 members (there are 13 of them), get one full vote each while it takes 100 members to get one vote in the larger chapters.

Fairer would be apportioning votes by number of members in the 110 chapters. A chapter with ten members would get one-tenth of a vote, 20 members would get two-tenths of a vote. To eliminate fractions, one vote could be counted for each ten-member block.

We're sure that decoupling would have passed last year if the votes were tabulated this way.

In any case, it's unconscionable for leaders and the Assembly delegates to keep the entire membership from knowing how delegates vote.

Delegates who crave anonymity and won t stand up to be counted don t deserve to be in the Assembly.

The names of the 2004 chapter delegates are not on the PRSA website although all were supposed to be elected as of last Dec. 1.

There's almost no information whatever on the site about the Assembly although the names of board, task force and committee members are there plus the names, titles, addresses and e-mails of all 430 members of the College of Fellows.

The electronic voting devices have been misused and under-used since they were introduced in ‘99.
That was the year Joann Killeen defeated Michael McDermott by one vote for treasurer.

The electronic vote was 123 in favor of Killeen and 122 in favor of McDermott.

The parliamentarian ruled the vote was invalid because 249 delegates were registered and Killeen only received 123 votes, which was not the required majority of 125. She asked that the vote be redone.

It appeared that four delegates either stepped out of the room momentarily or were not adept at using the unfamiliar keypads. Delegates only have 15 seconds to press the right key.

Under normal circumstances, the delegates would have been given another chance to vote, doing this by standing or paper ballots to make sure the will of the Assembly was being properly measured.

But PRSA's attorney, Arthur Abelman of Moses & Singer, who was present, over-ruled the parliamentarian and said that only a majority of those voting was needed. Sam Waltz, 1999 president, pronounced Killeen the winner. None of the delegates protested.

It's easy to see how Waltz and PRSA staffers preferred Killeen to McDermott.

He had a financial background and promised, in his pitch, to seek real duties for the treasurer. The bylaws give the treasurer no particular duties, he noted. McDermott, who lives in Riverside, Conn., 40 miles from New York, promised to make frequent trips to h.q. to oversee the books.

PRSA reported losses of $1.1 million in 1999-2000. COO Ray Gaulke and CFO Joe Cussick both left the Society in 2000.

Killeen also had financial training in her background and a long record of service to PRSA but she lives on the West Coast. We think it's obvious h.q. and certain leaders preferred a treasurer 3,000 miles away to one that was 40 miles away. In any case, a second vote should have been taken.

-- Jack O'Dwyer