KFC LOOKS FOR PR FIRM.
KFC, which operates more than 11,000 chicken restaurants in 80 countries, has put its PR account up for review, Jonathan Blum, senior VP-public affairs at parent company Yum Brands, told O'Dwyer's .

Edelman, the 28-year incumbent, declined to pitch the business. "We re very proud of the award-winning work we ve done and the value that Edelman has brought to the KFC brand for nearly three decades," said Richard Edelman, president and CEO.

KFC has been the target of an aggressive campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals for alleged cruelty to chickens. The company says its suppliers adhere to the highest standards of animal welfare.

Yum Brands also operates the Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver's and A&W All-American Food restaurant chains. It has made "teaming up sister restaurants" a corporate priority.

PIANO EXITS RAYTHEON.
Phyllis Piano, VP-corporate affairs & communications at Raytheon, will step down at the end of the year. The 48-year-old executive feels now is the "best time to take the next step in my career after almost six years at Raytheon."

Piano is proud in having built a "first-class communications function," but wants to consider new challenges.

She has been "approached about several senior communications positions," and plans to work with Raytheon management to help with the transition of her successor. Korn/Ferry International is conducting that search.

Prior to Raytheon, Piano was VP-PA at Cooper Industries, and had been with General Electric for over 15 years.

Raytheon, a defense contractor and aerospace systems supplier, had more than $18 billion in revenues last year. The Waltham, Mass.-based company employs 78,000.

S&B PA WORKS
FOR 'STOLEN HONOR.'
Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, Alexandria, Va., is coordinating PR for "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," the unflattering documentary of John Kerry set to air nationally this week on Sinclair Broadcasting's 62 TV stations.

PUBLICIS CONSOLIDATES
IN CHICAGO.
Publicis has folded its Publicis Dialog 12-member office in Chicago into Manning, Selvage & Lee's 30+ staffer unit in the city.

The firms share Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a consumer marketing and public affairs client, which is a primary reason for the merger.

Publicis says its other units in the PD network (New York, Salt Lake City, Seattle, San Francisco and Irvine) will remain affiliated with Publicis USA.

Nancy Brennan, managing dir., MS&L/Chicago, is in charge of the merged entity which handles Procter & Gamble, U.S. Army and American Dry Bean Board.

Brennan said Rose Ann Anschuetz, president of PD/Chicago, will help with the transition, but leave in January to pursue other opportunities.

QORVIS LANDS LAUER.
Qorvis Communications has hired Matt Lauer, who was executive director at the State Dept.'s U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, as a director. That panel played a key role in critiquing America's outreach to the Muslim world.

Michael Petruzzello, CEO of Qorvis, cited Lauer's "unique skills to foster understanding between the Middle East and the American people," in announcing the hire.

Qorvis represents Saudi Arabia.

Lauer told O'Dwyer's that he will be "working on a collection of clients, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia." After years of "building a bridge to explain U.S. issues to international audiences, I will now communicate foreign issues here," he said. He joined Qorvis because of its "international aspect."

TWO PRSA CHAPTERS
FIGHT APR REFORM.
The Philadelphia and Puget Sound chapters of PRSA (No. 8 with 460 members and No. 12 with 396, respectively) are fighting the APR decoupling motion proposed by the Cleveland chapter.

Philadelphia wants half of a chapter Assembly delegation to be APR while Puget Sound would allow one non-APR delegate every three years.

Christopher Lynch, former president of the Cleveland chapter, argued against the Cleveland proposal being "sliced and diced."

He said Cleveland had the support of many chapters for its proposal to let non-APR directors of chapters, districts or sections serve in the Assembly. (Continued on page seven)

KETCHUM DEFENDS TACTICS.
Ketchum has said questions about PR tactics it used to promote the "No Child Left Behind" law for the U.S. Dept. of Education are standard procedure or were done before a government report questioned deceptive video news releases earlier this year.

The Associated Press has re-kindled a debate over the use of VNRs and public funds for PR, a dustup which led to a General Accounting Office report in May declaring VNRs used by Ketchum to promote Medicare to be illegal. The AP on Oct. 10, citing documents and tapes obtained by a liberal non-profit group via a Freedom of Information Act request, rapped VNRs used by Ketchum to tout the controversial education law and hit the firm for ranking journalists coverage of it.

Ketchum VP Robyn Massey told O'Dwyer's the education VNRs were properly sourced and made in 2003, before the GAO's critical report. Ketchum has been in full compliance since the report, she said, and the firm still uses VNRs in its "regular mix" for clients. It continues to work with the Dept. of Education.

She said the VNR in question was not propaganda, but was targeting parents to tell them tutoring money was available for their children through states under NCLB.

The AP also punctuated Ketchum's use of a rating system to weigh news coverage and reporters as favorable to the Bush Administration's highly touted education law or critical of it.

Massey said such analysis is a separate issue from VNR criticism, but is also commonplace in the field. "It's another standard element of PR," she said. "The goal is to get a complete picture of media coverage – volume of coverage, geographic breakdown, in any particular subject at any particular point in time."

The Dept. of Education paid Ketchum $700K to produce the videos and rate the media coverage.
Critics have said such a rating system could be intimidating for reporters. Stephen Koff, Washington, D.C., bureau chief for the Cleveland Plain Dealer , began a 10/12 column on Ketchum's work by noting: "This article would not score highly."

WAL-MART STEPS UP
LOBBYING BID.
Wal-Mart Stores bolstered federal lobbying outlays more than 40 percent to $620K during the first-half in order to make its voice heard on Capitol Hill.

The world's largest company tackled issues such as the Federal Drug Administration's proposed bioterror regulations, Children Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act, genetically modified organisms, financial services overhaul, country of origin labeling, healthcare insurance/Medicare reform, worker overtime and Central American Free Trade Agreement, according to its latest lobbying filing.

Wal-Mart's lobbying team includes Erik Winborn (national government relations director), Angela Hofmann, (international trade director and former trade counsel to Sen. Max Baucus), and Laurie Smalling (manager of corporate affairs).

Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott plans to open up to 250 supercenters during the next fiscal year. The company's website has a section in which people can click, if they want a Wal-Mart in their neighborhood.

MS&L REPS OIL-FOR-FOOD
CONTRACTOR.
Manning, Selvage & Lee's Washington, D.C., PA unit is advising Swiss contractor Cotecna, one of two Western companies working on the embattled United Nations Oil-for-Food program in Iraq.

Cotecna, which handles inspection services and employed the son of U.N. Secretary General Koffi Anan as a consultant, has been assailed in Congress, along with fellow contractor Saybolt, for allegedly allowing Saddam Hussein to scam the program for billions.

The General Accounting Office says the program was played for $10 billion by Hussein. Allegations that political figures across the globe were invited to reap spoils from questionable deals have surfaced and are being probed by the U.N. and Congress.

The role of U.S. oil companies ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco is also being looked at, although both companies say oil purchases were within the law.

The Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led entity that ruled Iraq until power was transferred to an interim government, tapped Cotecna for a 100-day extension on its contract to authenticate goods entering Iraq through the U.N. program this year.

That contract expired Oct. 9 and the responsibility was turned over to the interim Iraqi government.
MS&L SVP of PA Ginny Wolfe, a longtime Republican operative, issued a statement acknowledging the completion of Cotecna's contract work in Iraq. "The programme is a complex one and we recognize that the [interim government] has its own challenges to overcome," that statement said, adding the company has offered to donate computers and servers and remains available to assist in training Iraqis for the work.

KELLOGG RESIGNS
FROM NELSON COMMS.
Fred Kellogg has decided to resign as CEO of Nelson Communications at the end of this month after a 13-year run at the Publicis Groupe unit.

He plans to consult at Publicis Healthcare Communications Group, which bills itself as the No. 1 marketing communications entity targeting pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors.

Kellogg has not returned a call for comment.

Elizabeth Krupnick, who recently stepped down as senior VP-global communications at MasterCard International, is handling inquiries about Kellogg's departure. She had joined MasterCard in Oct. `03 from Publicis Bcom3 unit. Earlier, Krupnick headed Manning, Selvage & Lee's U.S. corporate practice.
An MS&L staffer said Krupnick is freelancing for Nelson Comms.

BRIEF: Sam Bushman, who has been handling publicity for a variety of Philadelphia restaurants, clubs and businesses for 70 years, recently celebrated his 90th birthday by going to work.

NAMED CHICAGO TRIB'S
BUSINESS ED.
Jim Kirk, who writes the thrice-weekly "Business Beat" column for The Chicago Tribune, was promoted to business editor.

Rob Karwath, 40, who was associate managing editor for business, is joining The Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune as editor.

Kirk, 39, will replace Julie Truck as editor of the business section. Truck will be reassigned.

Kirk will continue to write his column -- which focuses mainly on marketing and media news in Chicago -- until a replacement is hired. The column will run once a week.

He was not sure if the paper would hire another marketing columnist or someone to write a broader business column as he has done in recent months.

David Greising, who wrote the lead business column from 1998 to 2003, gave up the column after editors moved it off the section's front page.
All of the changes become effective in the next couple of weeks.

PEOPLE
Kevin Williamson, 32, who recently resigned as editor of The Main Line Times in Ardmore, Pa., was named editor of a new daily paper serving Philadelphia and its suburbs called The Evening Bulletin, which will start publishing next month. Tom Rice, a local investment banker, is publisher of the paper that takes its name from a Philly broadsheet that was published from 1847 to 1982.

Elizabeth Spiers, founding editor of Gawker.com, and a contributing writer at New York magazine, is joining Mediabistro.com as editor-in-chief, an on- and offline resource for freelance writers and media professionals, which has 300,000 registered users.

Matt Schneiderman was appointed senior editor for technology at Cargo magazine.

Brian Moss, previously acting Sunday editor at The New York Daily News, has joined Metro U.S. as editor-in-chief. He will oversee papers in New York, Boston and Philadelphia.

Danielle Nussbaum was named entertainment editor of Nylon magazine.

Meagan Anderson, previously human resource director, was named managing editor at Teen Scene magazine.

Janet Cochran has quit as a senior editor at Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel magazine to do free-lance writing.

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 Santa Barbara, 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 "Hot Stuff" columnist.

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

Eric Gillin was named entertainment editor at Maxim magazine.

Pam O'Brien, previously executive editor of the now-defunct Lifetime magazine, has joined Organic Style as articles director.

Kristen Lombardi, a reporter for The Boston Phoenix, where her work on the sexual abuse scandal in the Boston Catholic archdiocese outpaced that of The Boston Globe by 10 months, is joining The Village Voice in New York this month.
Jarrett Murphy, previously with CBSNews.com, is joining the weekly paper as the "Press Clips" columnist.

Cindy Rakowitz, former PR director for Playboy magazine, will host an online radio show about the PR business called "Stars of PR," on Voice America.com.

Stars of PR can be heard live every Thursday at 7 a.m. (PT) and 10 a.m. (ET) starting Nov. 4.

Richard Laermer, who owns RLM PR in New York, has a starring role on a new reality TV series, called "Taking Care of Business," which debuted Oct. 16 on the TLC cable channel.

MEDIA BRIEFS:
Kirkus Reviews will charge $350 to have a book review published on a new website—Kirkus Discoveries, which will begin this fall.
For $95, Kirkus will recommend a selected lifestyle title in a listing on another new website called Kirkus Reports.

Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is relocating its headquarters from Alexandria, Va., to a new building in the heart of Crystal City's new "Main Street." PBS will occupy about 130,000 sq. ft. on several floors of 2100 Crystal dr.

(Media news continued on next page)

NEW YORK MAG HIRES
STYLE.COM EDITOR.
New York magazine is undergoing a three-part redesign under its new editor Adam Moss, was previ-ously editor of The New York Times Sunday Magazine.

"Phase one" is a new service section called "Strategist," which made its debut in this week's issue.

Janet Ozzard, who was executive editor at Style.com, was named editor of the new section. Amy Goldwasser has resigned as features editor.

Like the old "Urban Strategist" column, which offered advice on how to get hot Broadway tickets, the new section will run stories designed to help readers in their "search for the right townhouse or soap dish or spouse," the magazine told readers.

Another new feature is "Market Research," focusing on high-priced items and dirt-cheap bargains. The "Best Bets" page also is being changed, and the magazine has expanded its restaurant coverage.
Two other new sections will appear in the coming weeks.

In the issue dated Nov. 1, expect to see an "equally fanatical" treatment of arts and entertainment, called "The Culture Pages"; and a new "Intelligencer" column will debut in the Nov. 15 issue.

Deborah Schoeneman, who took over as lead writer of the Intelligencer column in September, has been devoting more space to coverage of people from the worlds of business, politics and the media, and less to celebrities in the past few issues.

PC MAGAZINE RANKED
#1 IN REACH.
PC Magazine, published by Ziff Davis Media, has the largest and most valuable readership among its closest technology competitors and business magazines, according to a survey by IntelliQuest.

The findings of the independent survey ranked PC Magazine with an average audience of 2,971,000, followed by PC World (2,724,000), Business Week (2,601,000), Forbes (1,868,000), Fortune (1,736,000), Wired (1,282,000), and Computer Shopper (1,191,000).

PCM also ranked first in reader loyalty with 52% of the magazine's readers saying they read 75% or more of an issue as compared with 48% for PC World, 47% for Business Week, 45% for Forbes and 44% for Fortune.

PR PRO SHARES PLACEMENT TIPS.
"Don't Overlook PR" is one of Joan Schneider's 10 rules for successfully launching a new product in her new book, "New Product Launches," which was just published by Stagnito Communications.

The Boston-based PR pro said "placing stories in the media where your customers congregate is necessary to building the awareness and credibility that are essential for a successful launch."

Schneider offered these placement tips:

—"Know your customers intimately so you can develop story lines for print, broadcast and the web that will attract their attention.

—"Keep your media messages sharp and focused so the features, benefits, and attributes that differentiate your new product come across loud and clear.

—"Develop both short- and long-term media relations strategies so your new product doesn't burst upon the media scene one day and then crash and burn the next.

—"Leverage consumer trends as much as possible to sustain interest in your launch beyond the introductory period.

—"Remember, the most effective launches use PR to build the brand and sustain it over time."

WSJ's TOFEL TO PRES.
OF FREEDOM CENTER.
Penny Abernathy, who joined The Wall Street Journal in June 2003, will replace Richard Tofel as VP and assistant publisher of the Journal.

Tofel left Oct. 15 to become president of The International Freedom Center, which is under construction on the site of the former World Trade Center.

Tofel, an attorney, joined Dow Jones as counsel in 1989. Before being named assistant publisher last year, he was VP/corporate communications for the company.

Abernathy will oversee the business operations of the Journal's international publications while continuing with the planning and execution of the "Weekend Edition," which is scheduled to launch Sept. 10, 2005.

PLACEMENT TIPS
USA Today's editor Ken Paulson wants his staffers to look for stories that have not been reported before or that can be told in a "distinctly different way."

"If someone beats us with a news report, our goal is to come back the next day with a story that's distinctively ours," said Paulson.

While the content comes, to some extent, from scoops, it also means "taking a fresh look at old subjects and approaching stories with a fresh eye," he said.

Financial Times has added a page in its U.S. edition called "FT Wealth." It is billed as a personal finance page for sophisticated, savvy investors.

Published every Tuesday in the front section, FT Wealth is edited by Stephen Schurr, markets editor, who will write "The Hands-On Investor" column.

Mold & Moisture Management will publish its first issue beginning with the Jan./Feb. 2005 number.

The quarterly publication will address industry needs concerning the rising influx in legal cases, building concerns and repairs required to solve the increasing caseload within the mold prevention and abatement industry.

Megan Headley is editor of M&MM, which is published by Key Communications, in Garrisonville, Va. She can be reached at 540/720-5584, ext. 114.

This is an open letter to the PRSA Assembly delegates who will meet this Saturday.

Since you're going to be in sophisticated New York, you want to be sharp and sophisticated yourself.
You re going to see and hear one of the greatest deal makers in the U.S.–Donald Trump.

Make "The Donald" proud of you and take con trol of your own meeting. He would never travel from a distant city to New York to hear hours of speeches by leaders who have had all year to spout off.

Read his The Art of the Deal. Don't be played for suckers. Tell the board: "You re fired."

Junk the elaborate agenda of the leaders which is nothing but a straight jacket that prevents you from "assembling." Pass your own simplified agenda:

1) Twenty minutes for house-cleaning details like accepting the minutes of last year and getting a lesson (at last) in Robert's Rules.

2) Cut to debate on APR decoupling for most of the morning.

3) In rest of a.m., hit leaders with questions (below):

4) Shift speeches by leaders to the afternoon. Limit them to five minutes each but allow full texts to be distributed (single-spaced, two sides).

Bar any speeches or award-making at Assembly lunch. Delegates were unable to talk last year because of incredible non-stop din by leaders.

Anyone interested in the "State of the PRSA," the plan for 2005-2007, a speech on how well the staff has performed, etc., can come back after lunch. Others can enjoy New York or have a nap and get ready for a night on the town.

Questions for leaders:

–Explain the departure of chief professional development officer and No. 2 staffer Rob Levy in July after only one year on the job. He had been highly praised by COO Cathy Bolton and others and had boosted PD revenues 61% to $1.28 million.

–Explain the loss of 15-year ad veteran Anne Fetsch and webmaster Robin Michaels, neither of whom has been replaced.

–Why isn't one of the presentations today by Carol Scott, APR chair, explaining the dismal turnout for the new APR process which only netted 41 new APRs in a year, the all-time low. The new program cost $250K and four years. The APR program has lost $2 million since 1988.

–How many APRs are among the 5,500 or so members who drop out each year (many APRs having cost $1,000+ in subsidies)?

–What would the balance sheet look like if PRSA, like practically every other association, had a deferred dues account of about $2 million, recognizing services owed to members in the future?

(Answer: coupled with $859,000 in bills owed, it would show net assets of about zero.)

–Why did the "old board" (prior to the nomination of Cheryl Procter-Rogers and Jeff Julin) rush in late June to give Bolton a two-year contract? Isn't PRSA still paying off the five-year contract of former COO Ray Gaulke, who was shifted out of PRSA in 2000 by a new board that rejected a COO picked by a previous board?

–What is the current salary of Bolton? Members are supposed to know. Her pay/pension was around $300K in 2003, far more than most PR pros get.

–Why can't leadership do the sensible thing and put this Assembly on a Monday afternoon of a conference, saving time and hotel and meal costs?

–Why can't the $100K June weekend-in-New York wet kiss to chapter presidents-elect be morphed into the former spring Assembly, which PRSA cancelled because it said it couldn't afford it?

–Why can't the delegates get a full set of financials such as are in the annual audit a week before the Assembly so they can study them?

–Why weren't the chapters consulted on the biggest financial decision ever–the $6 million, 13-year lease downtown, far from the PR, media, and advertising worlds? The last time PRSA moved, it said it wanted to be near those industries.

–Why are new national board members all but forced (without prior warning) to agree to being muzzled for their three-year terms, unable to tell their votes to the districts that elected them?

–Why were wireless voting devices introduced to the Assembly in 1999 without any discussion by the delegates? Why weren't they programmed to capture needed voting information which the constituents of the delegates are entitled to have?

–Why are only four of the 50 staffers of PRSA members of PRSA? Only one is APR and it's not Bolton. Neither was Gaulke. Dozens of doctors, lawyers, CPAs, etc., work at their groups.

–Why is the 2004 nominating committee being investigated when the 2003 nomcom was not although criticisms of both were voiced?

–Why was David Rickey, who had no experience on Board of Ethics, named its chairman in 2004, breaking long tradition?

–Why can't the members blast e-mail the delegates list? Why is this list kept secret until the day of the Assembly? Aren't all delegates supposed to be elected by the previous Dec. 1?

–Why hasn't the PRSA national board had a press conference since 1993 (called by Hal Warner)?

–Why doesn't PRSA put a full-time CPA on staff as indicated for a group of this size? John Colletti is a "Certified Management Accountant," meaning he keeps the books from management's perspective rather than the public's . CMAs are not licensed by the state.

– Jack O'Dwyer