NIDES TO SUCCEED
B-M's KOMISARJEVSKY.
Tom Nides, chief global administrative officer of Credit Suisse First Boston, is replacing Chris Komisarjevsky, 59, as CEO of Burson-Marsteller by the end of the year. He joins the WPP Group unit Nov. 8, and will work closely with Komisarjevsky during the transition.

At CSFB, the 43-year-old Nides managed more than 2,000 staffers, and was responsible for corporate communications, marketing, government relations, human resources and advertising.

His resume includes senior VP at Fannie Mae; principal at Morgan Stanley, chief of staff to the U.S. Trade Rep Mickey Kantor, and executive assistant to the Speaker of the House Tom Foley.

Komisarjevsky sent a note to B-M staffers, saying the time was ripe for a change at the top, and that he had been discussing succession with Ann Fudge, CEO of B-M's parent Young & Rubicam Brands.

The B-M chief said he hasn't spent much time with Nides, but is sure that he will bring a "new approach and new ideas" to the firm.

Komisarjevsky assumed the top spot in ‘98, after heading B-M/USA.

FOREST SERVICE LOOKS
TO PR FOR ‘VISION.'
The U.S. Forest Service is turning to PR to develop a new vision and strategic plan on the cusp of its centennial in 2005.

The agency, part of the Dept. of Agriculture, has issued an RFQ aimed at PR firms for its Eastern Region, a 20-state area stretching from Maine to Missouri that encompasses 14 national forests.
"We last did this 15 years ago and see it as time to update our plan," said Bruce Blackburn, contracting officer for the Forest Service in Milwaukee who is handling the solicitation. Proposals are due Nov. 19.

Blackburn told O'Dwyer's the agency is not currently working with any firms and expects to award a contract by mid-December.

The Eastern Region, which the FS says is the most geographically, ecologically, and socially diverse area in the U.S., wants PR help to develop a new "vision" to guide its efforts over the next hundred years, according to the RFQ.

The agency says a firm would be required to scan its current operating environment and conduct future research, complete a communications strategy and suggested tools for the final plan, with the possible option of executing the communication work.

KWITTKEN REPLACES
KRATZ AT MAGNET.
David Kratz, 46, has stepped down as CEO of Euro RSCG Magnet, and plans to pursue other business opportunities.

He is succeeded by 34-year-old Aaron Kwittken, president since the merger of Euro RSCG Middleberg and Magnet Communications in April.

Kratz sold his Kratz & Jensen firm to Havas in 2000, and agreed to stay on through the earnout period, which is winding down.

Jim Heekin, CEO of Euro RSCG Worldwide, credited Kratz with overseeing the integration of the firm's PR operations and a "seamless management transition." He praised Kwittken's "creativity, vision and dynamism" as the ingredients needed to take Euro RSCG Magnet to the "next level of success for its blue-chip clients."

That roster includes IBM, Symbol Technology, McDonald's , U.S. Treasury Dept., Johnson & Johnson, International Paper, and Absolut.

Kwittken is a veteran of GCI Group, where he ran its corporate and technology practices.

He also worked on IBM's "e-branding" campaign as senior VP in Fleishman–Hillard's information technology group.

Noelia Rodriguez, director of communications for First Lady Laura Bush for three years, is slated to join Spanish-language TV powerhouse Univision as VP of corporate communications on Nov. 1.

Rodriguez, who will report to CEO Jerrold Perenchio, was Bush's spokesperson from January 2001 until 2003, when she returned to Los Angeles to be external affairs director at The Broad Foundations. She was previously press secretary for Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.

APR RULE DROPPED
FOR PRSA ASSEMBLY.
The PRSA Assembly, after an hour and ten minutes of debate, on Oct. 23 removed from the bylaws the rule that says all its members have to be accredited.

The vote came at 12:45 at the New York Hilton, where the Society held its annual conference.

Taken with electronic keypads set to capture the names of the delegates using them, the vote was 181 for "decoupling" and 83 opposed, a margin of six votes. A two-thirds majority (at least double the negative votes) was needed for passage.
(Continued on page seven)

AVENTIS HIRES
FLU VACCINE LOBBYIST.
Aventis Pasteur, which is currently the nation's sole flu vaccine supplier, has hired Twenty-First Century Group, which is headed by the former powerful Texas Republican Congressman Jack Fields, to handle "vaccine-related issues."

The unit of France's Sanofi-Aventis has been front page news in the wake of the shutdown of Chiron Corp.'s flu production lines by U.K. regulatory authorities. Chiron and AP had provided half of this nation's flu medicine.

AP, which produces its vaccines at its Swiftwater, Pa., facility, and the Centers for Disease Control announced an influenza vaccine allocation plan on Oct. 12. That is designed to get flu vaccines to high-risk groups, such as the elderly, young, sick and healthcare workers. AP president Damian Braga said the allocation program represents a huge logistical feat.

The flu vaccine story has struck a political chord among Democrats who have bashed the Bush Administration and Food and Drug Administration for lax regulation. It also was a topic in the final Presidential debate.

Fields served 16 years in Congress, and chaired the Commerce Committee's subcommittee on telecommunications and finance.

He has represented Schering-Plough, Verizon, Quest Communications and Taxpayers Against Fraud.

AP is looking to beef up its PR staff. The company wants to hire a director of communications to help on issues management, crisis PR and vaccine advocacy, and a PR manager with three to five years of experience.

IRAQ 'HURTING' U.S. BUSINESS.
War in Iraq is "hurting" U.S. businesses ability to compete overseas, according to a survey of 200 top Bay State execs by Boston PR firm Morrissey & Co.

Massachusetts is considered an economic bellwether for sectors like technology and biotech and is home for blue-chip companies like Raytheon, Fidelity Investments and Staples.

Peter Morrissey, president of M&C, said Iraq troubles business people, but for different reasons than it worries most citizens. "Clearly, business leaders here are not yet persuaded that the war will make the world safer for American values and the spread of commerce," he said in announcing the findings of his firm's annual Corporate Reputation Survey.

Only nine percent of those surveyed said the war was "helping" economically, with 30 percent not sure of its impact. Sixty-two percent said Iraq is hurting America's ability to compete in the global economy.

C&W PITCHES HEALTH MUSEUM.
Clark & Weinstock is handling PR for the National Health Museum, a $200M facility slated for Washington, D.C., to educate people about the past/current/future of healthcare and encourage them to take better care of themselves.

The Museum has financial backing from the American Medical Assn., Novartis, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, BlueCross BlueShield Assn. and Eastman Kodak. The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services also has kicked in a $1 million grant for the NHM, which hopes to attract more than two million visitors a year. Dr. Louis Sullivan, former H&HS Secretary, is chairman of NHM.

The C&W team includes Vic Fazio (former California Democratic Congressman), Ed Kutler (aide to ex-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich), Niles Godes (one-time chief of staff to North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan) and Dirksen Lehman (special assistant for legislative affairs to President George W. Bush).

MEMORIAL FUND SET UP
FOR GUS WEILL.
Edelman CEO Richard Edelman and Burson-Marsteller CEO Chris Komisarjevsky have organized a college fund for the son of Gus Weill Jr. Weill committed suicide in New York three weeks ago.

He was 42, and had suffered from depression.

Weill had worked for Edelman during the '80s and '90s, handling Mexico and Israel. He moved to Burson-Marsteller to head its New York corporate practice before returning to head Edelman's PR21 unit in `01. Weill then went to Louisiana to follow in the lobbying footsteps of his father, who is considered the father of political PR in the Pelican State.

Robert Ambrose has information about the "Friends of Gus Weill" fund. He can be reached at [email protected] or 212/704-8121.

Edelman also is compiling a memoir of favorite memories of Weill that will be presented to his son, Gus III, on his bar mitzvah seven years from now.

PR MORE IMPORTANT
THAN ADS – TRUMP.
"PR is much more important than advertising," Donald Trump told more than 3,000 members of PRSA and its affiliated student society Oct. 24 at the New York Hilton, scene of PRSA's conference.

Trump, the country's best-known builder and who has his name on numerous activities, said a full page ad in a newspaper will probably be passed over by most readers but a story mentioning him in the same paper will get careful attention.

He said he is the subject of so many stories in the press both good and bad that it all evens out.
He has an open policy with the press but doesn't talk to reporters who print false stories about him.
"The press can kill you," he warned.

"Love what you do," was one of the pieces of advice he gave the audience, which included more than 1,000 members of the student society.

"Get even" with those who wrong you, he also said. "Work hard and you ll find you ll get luckier," was another piece of advice.

He urged attendees to be "a little paranoid" and not trust anyone. A known admirer of women, he called one female student to the stage and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

CHINESE MEDIA
ARE MORE 'WESTERNIZED.'
The large number of foreign publications which established Chinese editions during 2003 and early 2004 has created a more "western" approach to PR and media outreach in China, according to Johan Bjorksten, managing partner of EastWei, which is based in Beijing.

"Most striking is a totally new level of print quality and layout, where the standard of major Chinese magazines today is in line with magazines in Europe and the U.S.," Bjorksten wrote in the September issue of Traction, published by MDB Communications in Washington, D.C., for its clients.

"For PR professionals, these developments mean that the way of doing PR in China continues to become more similar to the West, with requirements for unique material, being first to know and exclusive stories. For the same reasons, media crises in China are also becoming more frequent," said Bjorksten, who offered these five tips for doing media relations in China:

Media Relations Tips

1. "Select your target. There are over 5,000 print media in China. Select target media and journalists carefully.

2. "Pitch articles to journalists individually. Chinese journalists are not used to working with wire services to the same extent as in the West. Phone contact is okay, but fact-to-face meetings are better.

3. "Find the local angle. Chinese media are mainly interested in news relevant to China. However, the `local angle also means being sensitive to the needs and habits of different cities and areas within China. What is hot in Beijing might already be yesterday's news in Guangzhou.

4. "Serve the story on a silver plate. Competition puts large demands on each reporter `filling his specific column or topic. The more help you can give, the better coverage you get.

5. "Be a source of news. PR consultants who can provide new and exciting stories beyond their own client range are appreciated. You scratch their back, and they will scratch yours when you need it."

Bjorksten, a former manager of corporate communications for Electrolux, moved to China in 1986 when the first foreign related PR agency was established.

"Today, the PR industry in China employs more than 10,000 professionals with a majority located in Beijing and Shanghai," according to Bjorksten, who has worked for several years as a radio and TV host with his own weekly Chinese program on Beijing TV and Beijing Music Radio.

MEDIA BRIEFS
"Good Morning America Weekend Edition" is airing a six-week series about the baby bedding and accessories industry.

The idea for the series was pitched by Allison Dawn PR in Beverly Hills, Calif., which put together a four-part segment for Nava's Designs with the goal of reinforcing its client's position in the baby bedding market as a trendsetter.

Child Magazine is also running a similar story.

All In, a magazine for poker players, has become one of the fastest growing magazines in the U.S.

Estimates suggest that over 50 million people either watch or play poker in the U.S., said Bhu Srinivasan, publisher of the New York-based publication, who can be reached at 212/880-6493.

Cook's Country has begun publication as a bimonthly magazine about "country folks and country food," said Christopher Kimball, who also founded and is editor of Cook's Illustrated.
CC should reach 250,000 paid readers by the end of 2005, Kimball said.

Like its sister publication, CC will carry no ads, and product placement pitches will be rejected.

The Brookline Village, Mass.-based magazine is also planning to start both a TV series and a cookbook publishing program in 2006.

Jack Bishop is CC's executive editor.

Deborah Broide is handling inquiries about CC at 973/744-2030.

Violet is a new family-oriented magazine that will be sold in Borders, Barnes & Noble and Tower stores in the U.S.

Keki Mingus, who is founder, editor and publisher of the new quarterly, said Violet will offer a mix of fashion, music, film, travel and lifestyle stories that will appeal to mothers, fathers and families of all kinds, including gay and multi-racial.

The first issue has feature stories on Filipino mail- order brides, Prader-Willi Syndrome, and profiles of atypical parents like championship surfer Shane Beschen.

Jolyn Matsumuro of The Brookes Co. handles publicity for Violet at 323/913-7000 ext. 202.

PEOPLE
David Duitch, 48, currently VP/news for WFAA-TV, Belo Corp.'s affiliate in Dallas/Ft. Worth, was named VP of the group's Washington, D.C.-based Capital Bureau, which houses Belo's TV and newspaper bureaus and a TV studio.

Paul Winston and Regis Coccia were promoted to editorial director and editor, respectively, at Crain Communications Business Insurance.

Robert Blau, associate managing editor of projects and investigations at The Chicago Tribune, was named managing editor of The Baltimore Sun. His wife, Leah Eskin, is a food columnist for The Chicago Tribune Magazine.

Rita Sharkey Zeiss, 90, a former PR pro, editor, columnist and freelance writer, who wrote a monthly column about senior citizens for The Asbury Park (N.J.) Press before retiring in 1994, died Oct. 17.

(Media news continued on next page)

OPRAH KNOWS
WHAT READERS WANT.
Thomas Huang, who is editor of Texas Living, a Sunday magazine supplement in The Dallas Morning News, believes newspaper editors can get more women and minority readers by copying Oprah Winfrey's magazine, O.

While newspapers need to break news, "we have to do more than that," said Huang in a story posted last week on Poynter Online. "Our front pages and our features sections need to appeal to the aspirations of our readers—people of all incomes and cultural backgrounds who want to live better lives. That means offering them relevant, helpful stories and local resources on the topics they care about: health, food, home, family, fashion and travel," he said.

O's staff knows how to approach these lifestyle topics in a way that is inclusive of all women, he said. "If we journalists ignore that diversity, we ll risk making our lifestyles coverage inauthentic and monochromatic. We ll risk turning away more readers," he said.

He pointed out that O's readers "gobble up" advice from Dr. Phil, Suze Orman and the Satellite Sisters. "Your readers want advice on relationships, finance and other topics, but they also want to know what other readers are going through," he told editors.

Appeal to Diverse Audience

"Newspaper editors need to take a second look at the advice columns they run—and whether they appeal to a diverse readership," he said.

O is also full of "success stories" about ordinary people who have overcome challenges in their lives, said Huang. Readers want to know who these people are, and how they succeeded, he said.

Like O, editors should also "commit space, staff and resources" to departments on health, books, relationships, food, style, fashion and beauty, and hire a diverse group of journalists to cover them, he said.

He said the stories in O are "clear, simple and relevant to readers daily lives."
"We as journalists need to know who our readers are, and what they re interested in, and what matters to them," said Huang.

PUBLICIST WRITES
FOR HIP HOP MAGAZINE.
Eugenia Wright, president of ISA PR in Burbank, Calif., was named a contributor to Crunk Magazine, a new hip hop magazine.

Desmick Perkins, founder/president of the Atlanta-based magazine, said Wright, known as the "Kleopatra Girl of PR," has been "instrumental in propelling our magazine forward by giving us lead stories on many of her past and present high profile clients, such as Chris Stokes, Marques Houston, Smooth, B2K, Irene Mama Stokes, and voice over actor J.D. Hall to name a few."

"It seemed like I was giving her a shout out in every issue," said Perkins.

Wright, an actress, recently performed in two film documentaries, "The Penitentiary" and "America The Beautiful," a film about America's obsession with beauty. She shares the screen with Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears and teen model Gerren Taylor.

Wright can be reached at 818/552-9459 or kleo [email protected].

PLACEMENT TIPS
Ben Silverman, who writes "PR Fuel," a weblog, said magazines and newspapers such as Better Homes & Gardens, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, Essence, and People are "working furiously now" to compile their holiday gift guides.

"To ensure optimal lead times, send out your holiday gift press releases in the next couple of weeks," said Silverman.

Citizen Culture Magazine, which published its first issue in September, wants to be a career launch pad for the best of today's undiscovered literary and artistic talents, according to Jonathon Feit, who is founder and editor-in-chief.

Mike Paul, who handles PR for CCM, said Feit started the magazine as a response to his own frustrations with the difficulty of pitching articles as a relative unknown to the magazines currently on the market.

Feit dedicated the magazine to "bringing interesting and varied content to both men and women, aged 20-40, across the country."

Articles of all types and styles are welcome, including investigative pieces, reviews of film, food, books, and theater, social commentary and ideological debate, personality profiles, original cartoons, poetry, fiction, and photos.

"We subscribe to no agenda and profess no bias; but believe that controversy breeds interested readership," according to the magazine's mission statement.

The magazine relies on freelancers for material.
CCM, which has an initial circulation of approximately 8,000, is published monthly and sells for $3 on newsstands.

The magazine's offices are located at 99 Hillside ave., #13i, New York, NY. Feit can be reached at [email protected] or 212/567-7468.

A media kit and editorial calendar are available at the magazine's website (www.citizenculture.com).

OverTime Magazine, a quarterly sports magazine which premiered in June, is distributed to a controlled circulation of 25,000 pro athletes, team owners and sports industry insiders.

OT, which features in-depth interviews and columns related to the professional sports industry, also covers the most relevant and controversial topics that affect professional sports.

Ryan McNeil is editor-in-chief of the Atlanta-based magazine, which is published by RMS Media Group, Boston. Stacy Small is editorial director. 866/536-4600.

The "decoupling" of APR from PRSA Assembly membership is a victory for those who want to restore democracy, sensibility and high ethics to PRSA.

PRSA's history for the past 30 years can be summed up as: smaller chapters come in, big money goes out.

Smaller chapters, led by 1980 president Patrick Jackson, took over in the 1970s, allowing the number of chapters (some with as few as ten members) to balloon from 59 in 1970 to 116 by the 1980s. Each teeny chapter got one Assembly vote.

This shifted control from New York and other big cities to the smaller chapters across the U.S.
The result was that blue chip corporate PR people went to the Arthur Page Society, founded in 1983, and execs of the big PR firms founded the Council of PR Firms in 1999.

With them went the Big Money.

Page, oddly chartered as a C/3 corporation (charity) gets about $200,000 in tax-deductible funds each year from about 15 big companies such as Nike, American Express, Johnson & Johnson and Burson-Marsteller. Even more money goes to CPRF.

Each one of the ten biggest PR firms contributes $50,000 a year to the CPRF and smaller firms pay tens of thousands of dollars (.065% of U.S. net fees). CPRF revenues are about $1M.

PRSA might have had funds of such magnitude if smaller chapters had not gotten so hung up on d ominating the Society, sticking it to PRSA/New York, and trying to cram APR down everyone's throat.

Support of PRSA by the big PR firms has continued to plummet. The 12 biggest, with 17,406 employees in 2001, had 617 PRSA members that year. The 2004 PRSA Bluebook showed 316 members, a decline of nearly 50%.

PRSA has now revamped its Foundation and has also taken on C/3 status itself in a move to go after "big money."

But it's not going to happen unless further steps are taken to show companies and PR firms that the smaller chapters are no longer calling the shots.
PRSA lost its previous C/3 "institute" in 1990 when it demanded the entire institute board be APR. Instead, the Institute for PR became independent of PRSA.

The new PRSA Foundation, started in 1990, has gone exactly nowhere. It can't even afford a staff of its own which is why PRSA is now also a C/3.

A bad signal went out to the PR corporate and counseling worlds this spring when the PRSA board allowed the staff motivated and engineered relocation of h.q. downtown, far from the PR, media, advertising and ad/PR service industries.

Another bad signal was removing from the 17-member board the only two New Yorkers on it–Phil Ryan and Art Stevens.

PRSA in 1992 asked PRSA/NY to leave h.q. after 40 years of being based there. The Society said it needed the space but promptly rented out a large area to a tenant (N.Y. Transit Authority).

PRSA/NY, which once had 1,200 members, sank to about 600 because of the open hostility of h.q. to it. Chapter directors gag each month when they make out a check for nearly $10,000 to an association management firm when some of the 50 PRSA h.q. staffers could easily help manage the chapter.

The worst rap we have on the APRs, supposedly the cream of PR, is their ethical failings.

The three legs of the Jacksonian philosophy, carried out to this day, were 1. shift power to the smaller chapters; 2. remove PR pros from h.q., replacing them with association people, and 3. tightly control all press relations.

Jackson made no secret of his animus towards the press. "We usually duck `em, find ways to go direct and screw `em," he told a PRSA ethics panel in New York in 1994. One of the panelists was Morley Safer of CBS-TV's "60 Minutes."

Rigid press policies were put in place. Whereas previous PR directors of PRSA were available for lunch every few weeks, PR director Donna Peltier was not allowed to lunch with the press unless COO Betsy Kovacs was present.

This NL had three lunches with Peltier in her nine years at PRSA, all of them with Kovacs present.
The worst ethical lapse came in the early 1990's when dozens of authors found that PRSA was copying and selling their articles and even entire chapters of books without their permission.

Volume of information packets sold was about 3,600 a year or about 10,000 over a period of three years. An average of five O'Dwyer articles was in each packet, meaning 50,000 copies of O'Dwyer articles had been sold. PRSA claimed it had a right to do this. It apologized to the authors for not asking their permission but refused to pay them.

Under the APRs, the ethics infrastructure and enforcement have practically disappeared. The previous ethics board and ethics code were erased and the new board can only recommend actions to the national board. Last year the national board turned down a request by the ethics board for an investigation of the 2003 nominating committee.

Decoupling the Assembly is a start but PRSA, to show it is out from under the thumb of the APRs, must decouple the national board. Among other reforms needed are removing the rule that delegates can only serve for three years, which guarantees a naive, easily manipulated Assembly.

– Jack O'Dwyer