U.S. FORCE TAPS
PR FIRM FOR IRAQ.
The U.S.-led military force in Iraq has awarded a $6M PR contract to Washington, D.C.-based Iraqex, a year-old business clearinghouse company formed specifically to provide a swath of services in the war-torn country.

Iraqex was set up by Lincoln Alliance Corp., a D.C.-based business "intelligence" company that handles services from "political campaign intelligence" to commercial real estate in Iraq.

Christian Bailey, an executive at Iraqex/Lincoln, told O'Dwyer's his company has established four off ices in Baghdad and an additional operation in Basra.

He said Iraqex began handling PR work for private entities in sectors like manufacturing and finance within the country last year and has established close ties with 300-400 members of the Iraqi media.

The company, which submitted a proposal of $5.5 million for the first year of the sweeping PR and advertising contract, beat five other firms. Its bid for the entire contract with options was $17.67M, the second highest. Tops was $31.7M, while the lowest was $5.4M.

The contract is with the Multi National Corps-Iraq, or MNC-I, based at Camp Victory in Baghdad.

COSSETTE ACQUIRES PAINEPR.
Cossette Communication Group has acquired an 80 percent stake in PainePR, the Irvine, Calif.-based firm with billings in the $9M range. The acquisition reflects the Quebec City-headquartered marketing communications company's "U.S. growth strategy," according to CEO Claude Lessard.

David Paine counts "cultural compatibility" as one of the reasons for cutting the deal. He also told O'Dwyer's that PainePR will be CCG's "lead PR firm" in the U.S. "Many of our blue-chip clients have been asking for international representation, and Cossette provides us with that capability," he said.

The deal, according to Paine, enables PainePR to move beyond media relations and offer clients a full-plate of marketing communications services.
Paine's 50 staffers counsel Archer Daniels Midland, American Suzuki Motor, Polaroid, Novartis, JP Morgan Chase, Dockers, Procter & Gamble and Novartis.

CCG's purchase price is based on the financial performance of Paine during the next four years. CCG, which has $127M in billings and 1,400 employees, acquired U.K.-based Band & Brown (85 staffers) in September and runs Optimum PR in Canada.

FCB LANDS ANTI-DRUG WORK.
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has awarded Foote, Cone & Belding its $150 million anti-drug media account, which had been handled by Ogilvy & Mather.

O&M had been at the center of a financial scandal concerning overbilling the drug office.

The firm, which was blasted in Congressional hearings, agreed to pay the U.S. Government $1.8 million in `02 to settle a civil suit under the False Claims Act. It paid $700K in cash, and reduced charges on the contract by $1.1 million to reflect the overbilling.

The settlement covered labor invoices in '99 and 2000 that were based on inaccurate timesheets submitted by employees. The Justice Dept. blamed O&M management for not exercising reasonable control to ensure that the billings for labor were accurate. O&M contended that it misunderstood federal regulations.

FCB, an Interpublic unit, beat out J. Walter Thompson, of WPP, for the anti-drug account.

APCO BECOMES NO. 4 INDY.
APCO Worldwide has completed its management buyout from Grey Global Group, which is being acquired by WPP Group. The transaction is completed almost a year to the day that GGG decided to unload APCO to its management team.

Five-year-old merchant banker WindRiver Group helped arrange financing for the management buyout.

With its 400 employees, APCO becomes the No. 4 independent PR firm, trailing Edelman PR Worldwide, Ruder Finn and Waggener Edstrom.

FIVE BIG CHAPTERS
WANT A.M. DEBATE.
Presidents of the five biggest chapters of PR Society of America favor putting the debate on decoupling APR from Assembly membership in the morning of the Oct. 23 meeting in New York.

PRSA president Del Galloway and other Society leaders have scheduled three hours of speeches for the four-hour morning session.

Galloway, via PRSA PR staffers Janet Troy and Cedric Bess, said he is considering the request. Galloway himself has not been available for comment.

Some delegates also want Galloway to have the Assembly's electronic voting devices to be programmed to collect name, occupation, chapter, district and other information of each delegate. He has not been available for comment on this suggestion either. (continued on seven)

CONOCO PHILLIPS
SAYS ‘HELLO IRAQ.'
ConocoPhillips announced Sept. 29 that it plans to invest $2 billion for a seven percent stake in Russian energy giant Lukoil.

The partners envision a joint-venture to ship Russian crude and gas to the U.S. and other international markets.

ConocoPhillips also will take a 17.5 percent stake in Iraq's West Qurna oil field. Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein granted that concession to Lukoil.

The interim Iraqi government said it will rule on the concession contract after the January elections.
Kristi DesJarlis, a ConocoPhillips spokesperson, said she wasn t aware of any other major U.S. oil companies operating in Iraq.

ConocoPhillips, which purchased its Lukoil shares from the Russian government, says both the Kremlin and White House heartily endorsed the deal as a way to further "bilateral energy development between the two countries.

ConocoPhillips has the right to purchase up to a 20 percent stake in Lukoil.

Jim Mulva, ConocoPhillips CEO, and Vagit Alekperov, Lukoil's president, announced the deal during a Moscow press conference.

They met with analysts and investors at the St. Regis Hotel in New York on Sept. 30. DesJarlis said Kekst & Co. helped out with that session.

MWW MOVES IN
FOR L.A. CONTRACT.
MWW Group is slated to pick up where Fleishman-Hillard has left off, handling PR for the Los Angeles Community College District under a new, streamlined $250K contract.

The 77-year-old institution, which spans nine colleges from the San Fernando Valley to the area's beach cities, is undergoing a $2.2 billion publicly approved construction effort that could run into the next decade. Under the two propositions that okayed the effort, the LACCD is required to educate the public on its progress.

Final approval on the MWW deal could come at the LACCD board meeting Oct. 6. Harvey Englander heads MWW's PA efforts on the West Coast.

F-H handled the work under a $400K contract before its billings practices were brought into question by the city over other contracts and the firm decided to not pursue renewals on work with L.A.

The Los Angeles Daily News pointed out an audit by LACCD found F-H's work to be acceptable and appropriately billed.

Kathy Vincent has left Ruder Finn to head Chandler Chicco Cos. healthcare business in its nine-month-old Los Angeles office. She also put in stints at PResence/EURO RSCG and Ogilvy PR Worldwide. The L.A. office counts Allergan/Inspire Pharmaceuticals Elestat, a treatment for ocular allergies, and Allergan's Prevage, an antioxidant skin creme, as its key healthcare clients.

Julie Adrian leads the West Coast office.

JOURNALISTS QUIT
AWARDS COMMITTEE.
Seven journalists, who write about food, have resigned from a committee that acts as the governing board for the James Beard Foundation's coveted restaurant chef awards in the wake of a scandal.

Melanie Young, whose PR firm is paid by the foundation to administer and publicize the annual awards, said the departing journalists were upset over the current investigation of the foundation's financial and operational issues.

The departing members were: David Shaw, a media and food writer of The Los Angeles Times, who is chairman of the panel; Susan Virbilia, the restaurant critic for the L.A. Times; Nancy Leson, the restaurant critic for The Seattle Times; Jerry Shriver, a correspondent for USA Today; R.W. Apple, an associate editor of The New York Times; Ed Levine, who contributes to the NYT, and Ruth Reichl, editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine.

Hundreds of journalists serve as judges and on other committees in five award categories, which include food journalism, cookbooks, design, broadcast media, and chefs & restaurants.

Young said none of the judges, or members of the other committees, have resigned. "I have gotten pledges of support from many journalists," said Young, who told a reporter: "We are desperate to get out the message that the awards are not being questioned."

The foundation's chairman, George Sape, recently disclosed an internal audit had found that the former board president, Leonard Pickell, may have misused hundreds of thousands of dollars in foundation money. Pickell, who resigned Sept. 9, denies the accusation.

The New York state attorney general's office is investigating the matter.

The foundation had earlier acknowledged that of the $4.7 million the foundation took in last year, only about $29,000 was spent on scholarships, a fraction of the amount that many staff members and supporters thought was being allocated.

James Haggerty, whose firm, The PR Consulting Group, was hired as the foundation's spokesman, said the awards program remains solvent and is not in jeopardy.

TOBIN KEEPS PUBLICITY
FIRM ON TRACK.
Maury Tobin was 28 years old when he opened Tobin Communications, a Washington, D.C.-area electronic PR service firm, on Sept. 15, 1996.
It was a watershed time for Tobin, who had been laid off from a radio media firm (now one of his main competitors) and was finishing graduate school at American University.

By going it alone, Tobin recalls, he could ensure clients that the messages and stories they pitched to the media would address two key elements—newsworthiness and positioning.

"I like to think of my PR philosophy as smart pitching, sans the hefty hard sell," said Tobin, who created "We Make It News" as the company's mantra.

Tobin believes radio is a "staple for many news consumers," especially commuters, who want an issue parsed and examined beyond what TV delivers, and need to know what is happening immediately in their local and regional communities.
Tobin is most adamant about avoiding "canned" news. He and his staff offer radio journalists "live" access to spokespeople and refuse to send out audio news releases, which are prepackaged sound bites.

PLACEMENT TIPS
The Los Angeles Times is reexamining its coverage of arts and culture.

Bret Israel, formerly editor of The Los Angeles Times Magazine, was named to direct all arts and cultural coverage.

John Montorio, deputy managing editor, said Israel will be directing a report "more intimately tied to the news and more watchful for that hidden aesthetic of cultural dimension embedded within major news events."

Arts editor Lisa Fung and her staff of critics, writers and editors will report to Israel.

The Boston Globe, which is owned by The New York Times Co., has started running more consumer-friendly features in its Sunday business section.

Caleb Solomon, the Globe's assistant managing editor for business, said the new Sunday business section will take a new consumer approach that widens the definition of business news, with features on cost of living, financial planning decisions and small business.

The new section will also have features about celebrity shoppers and tips on office etiquette, travel gadgets and spending and saving wisely.

The New York Times is expanding its arts section in an effort to focus on more news-centered coverage of the arts.

Nine editors were named to manage criticism and news reporting in architecture, art, books, classical music, dance, film, pop culture, TV and theater.
The focus on specialty coverage areas will also be reflected in the book review section, which will become more "magazine-like," the paper said.

Dow Jones Financial Information Services has launched LBO Wire, a daily e-mail newsletter covering the buyout market for executives of private-equity firms, and their investors, bankers, lawyers and others in the industry.

Led by David Toll, managing editor of Private Equity at DJFIS, LBO Wire is staffed by its own reporters, with contributions from reporters at other DJ publications.

PEOPLE
Holly Palance, who was editor-in-chief of Santa Barbara Magazine, has joined Distinction, a new Los Angeles-based magazine that targets readers in the wealthiest communities of Southern California.

Wendy Jackson, previously a senior editor at Star magazine in New York, will replace Palance as editor of SB, a bimonthly magazine.

Craig Marks was named editor-in-chief of Blender, a music magazine published by Dennis Publishing USA, replacing Andy Pemberton, who left.

Pemberton was one of 15 officers and editors let go to cut costs. Keith Blanchard, director of programming and a former editor of Maxim, also was dismissed.

The company also is shutting its West Coast operations and moving some employees to New York.

Tim McDarragh, who has been writing a gossip column for The Las Vegas Sun, has joined Us Weekly as the magazine's "Hott Stuff" columnist.

Melissa Scheweiger, formerly beauty editor for Sephora.com, was named fashion feature editor at Marie Claire.

(Media news continued on next page)

BOOKERS AT NEW SHOWS
BRIEF PUBLICISTS.
A sold out crowd of 180 publicists attended the Publicity Club of New York's Sept. 24 luncheon to hear three newcomers to the national TV talk show scene, and an old standby.

Marlaine Selip, who is senior producer for "The Jane Pauley Show," urged publicists to stick to "real-life personal stories" about people when pitching her producers.

Selip said Pauley loves to do real-person stories, especially if there is "some meat to it." Martha Stewart, who is going to prison on Oct. 8, is a perfect example of the type of guest that Pauley wants to build a program around, said Selip.

Therapists Wanted

She said Pauley also is "very intrigued by the mind, and what makes people tick. So great therapists are things that we re always looking for."

"We can take events that are in the news and build shows around them, so if you have people that apply, especially people that have been through this kind of thing, let us know," she said, stressing that politics is about the only topic Pauley will not cover.

Jeane Willis, who is talent executive for "Life & Style," a nationally syndicated afternoon talk show, said publicists should "come to us with the ideas of what you want, and how it's going to get done."

Willis said the show, which features a panel of women, is "very into new and innovative projects, people and places; so I look forward to hearing from you guys." She said new products are in demand.

"We are doing everything from celebrities to lifestyle issues to doctors to lawyers, just about everybody you could throw at us we re getting to put on," said Willis, who pointed out the show, which airs at 9 and 10 a.m. in most of the top 15 cities, is taped before live audiences on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays in New York.

"I really do believe that it is a place where some non-traditional people can get on TV," said Willis.

Tony Danza Is Tops in New York

Tommy Crudup, senior talent executive for "The Tony Danza Show," said this new show, which airs live Mondays through Fridays in New York on WABC at 10 a.m. following "Regis and Kelly," is the top-watched program in several cities, including New York, Philadelphia, Detroit and San Francisco.

Each show features interviews with two celebrities and "a lot of cooking. So anyone who has a chef or knows a chef please send them our way," said Crudup, who said Danza also likes "doing authors occasionally."

'Weekend' Has News and Features

Desiree Adib, a segment producer for the "Weekend Edition of Good Morning America," which began airing Saturdays and Sundays on Sept. 4, said the one-hour morning show, is pegged to news items in the first 30 minutes and feature-style stories in the second half-hour.

"Please don t pitch us stories that are too involved because we only have a short amount of time for the segment," she said.

"We like smart, quick, easy to explain, very user-friendly segments on a wide array of topics.

"We talk a lot about politics, entertainment, consumer information, cutting-edge technology, the latest medical study or medical innovation," she said.

Adib called attention to a signature segment on Sundays called "A Weekend Window To...," which focuses on a different "hot spot" in the U.S. every week. "It's really an interesting and visual story or place that we can profile. It's kind of like `travel and leisure with a twist," she said.

Selip, Willis and Adib provided lists and e-mail addresses of bookers to pitch. These lists were posted on PCNY's website (www.publicityclub.org).

MEDIA BRIEFS
Ten Magazines in Corona, Calif., said three of its consumer truck enthusiast publications (Ford Truck World, Dodge Truck World, and Chevy Truck World) will be sold on newsstands nationally on a quarterly basis starting with the Dec. 7 numbers. The publications were previously available by subscription only.

Yoga Journal in Berkeley, Calif., will test launch Yoga Journal's Balanced Living. It debuted on newsstands Oct. 5, and will remain on sale until the end of this year.

The second issue is scheduled to appear on newsstands in the fall of 2005.

The new publication will cover subjects ranging from family and home, to work and relationships, to physical and emotional health.

The new magazine will incorporate some yoga, but the content will be broader. The premier issue has features on the home of raw-food chef Rozanne Klein, how to do "nothing" well, and how to use the science of Ayurveda to determine one's stress type.

Kathryn Arnold, editorial director of YJ, which is published seven times a year, said the new publication is for "those who want sound, real-life solutions on how to live healthfully in a stressful world."

The New York Dog, a new magazine which went on sale nationwide last week, will have a dog obituary column. The 108-page first issue has three pages of eulogies to dogs that have died along with articles on canine fashion, dog horoscopes and advice from a pet shrink.

The magazine will be published six times a year by Gatsby Publishing in New York.

Edutopia is the title of a new magazine that will cover new ideas in the education field.

James Daly, onetime editor of Business 2.0, Red Herring, Wired and Forbes ASAP, is editor-in-chief of the New York-based magazine, which was started by the George Lucas Education Foundation.

The first debate between President Bush and candidate Kerry was won by Kerry based on most opinion polls.

However, even Bush supporters who say that Kerry "won" also say that it won t change their votes.

Both candidates delivered their "messages" undeterred by anything the opponent said.

Such is the level of public debate in lots of areas these days. Each side just digs in deeper no matter what "facts" may be presented. Facts can be subjected to lots of dispute leading to confusion and loss of interest by the public.

We're interested in the fashions of public discourse including what techniques are popular.

The Bush/Kerry debates, the talk by Helen Thomas in New York (page 7), the disbanding of the legendary AT&T PR dept. (page 2), and the press policies of PRSA we re encountering all say a lot about the current practice of PR.

Thomas spent quite a bit of time moaning about the lack of reporters access to democratic as well as Republican presidents. She said both Kerry and Bush mostly duck the press or limit questions. Even when the press gets a chance to ask questions, she noted, it does little good.

"No matter what question" press secretary Ari Fleischer was asked by the White House press corps, said Thomas, "you got the same answer."
Any time reporters "ventured off the page" at a daily press briefing, such as questioning the war, they faced the charge of jeopardizing the troops, she said.

She quoted Federal Judge Damon Keith of Chicago as saying, "Democracy dies behind closed doors." She also said the "greatest sin of the Nazi era was the silence of the German people."

The White House sets the tone for a lot of corporate PR. The strategy of WH press aides (and many corporate VPs of PR) is to limit press access and keep reporters "on message." Reporters who buck the trend are "demonized," said Thomas, who feels "90% of talk shows are conservative."

Many corporations follow the same policy and we think their PR heads get or set such policies at groups like PR Seminar, the annual private gathering of 200 blue chip corporate communications execs.
For one thing, the "limited access/keep them on the message" approach mostly works. George Bush is the odds-on favorite to be re-elected president.

We wonder if this "duck-the-press" policy is good for PR careerists. PR Seminar now needs more than 40 new members each year when it used to take in only six to ten. Careers at the top of a corporate PR department are becoming shorter than ever.

As an example, Connie Weaver, who headed the dismantled PR and related units of AT&T lasted only 22 months while previous PR heads included Arthur Page (lasted 23 years); Paul Lund and Edward Block (seven years each); Marilyn Laurie (11 years to 1997) and Richard Martin (5 to 2002).

AT&T PR, besides parts of it going to HR and marketing, no longer reports to the CEO which it did since 1925.

AT&T used to have one of the friendliest and open corporate PR units. We knew many of the PR heads personally and in recent years had talked often and met with "Bad News" Burke Stinson, so-called because he was the staffer who responded when AT&T was involved in some controversy. Stinson, who was widely quoted, was retired in 2001 and we lost all contact with the company. Stinson opposed PR reporting to marketing, the use of "marketing-speak," and the purchase of PR firms by ad agencies.

Illustrative of the "new" AT&T PR was how we got treated when we called in mid-day Sept. 27 and asked for someone in PR to discuss the changes. A memo had leaked out and was in the press. No one would talk to us. One PR exec simply hung up when we mentioned the subject. Weaver would not come to the phone. Finally, at the end of the day, an outside agency for AT&T called and helped us with the story. AT&T PR helped the next day.

In less than three weeks (Oct. 23), the supposed democratic legislative body of PRSA, its Assembly, will have its one meeting of the year.

It is far from representative of the members and one of the reasons is the apathy of rank-and-file members. They are told little about the inner workings of the Society and are given little voice in them. The 110 chapter presidents, for instance, were not brought in on the recent biggest financial decision in the 57-year history of PRSA–the signing of a $6 million, 13-year lease in downtown New York.

The disproportionate voting setup of the Assembly, in which a chapter with ten members gets one full vote while it takes 100 members for one vote in the larger chapters, cheats the majority of members. If the 90 votes against decoupling APR from Assembly membership last year came from the 72 chapters with the least amount of members (150 or less including about ten with 25 or fewer), it would have meant that delegates representing about 5,000 members frustrated the will of delegates representing the other 15,000.

Democracy thrives on information but PRSA did not collect the names or chapters of those voting against democracy when it could easily have done this.

As usual, many hours of speeches have been scheduled by the leaders with a minimum of time for open Assembly discussion. – Jack O'Dwyer