GOOGLE SEARCH FINDS CARRYON.
Google has brought in Los Angeles-based CarryOn Communications to handle PR for the search giant's enterprise unit.

Google's enterprise business includes search technology for public websites and private company intranets, usually sold on a two-year license with hardware and software in the package.

CarryOn VP Sarah Evans told O'Dwyer's the firm is handling PR for the enterprise unit as one of the company's first outside agencies.

Leading up to its successful IPO this year, Google told O'Dwyer's it had no plans to pursue outside agency relationships at the time. The company has not returned a request for comment about CarryOn.

CarryOn staffs about 40 in three offices, including New York and Washington, D.C. Symantec and Tenet HealthSystem are among clients.

BIRDS EYE ZEROES
IN ON EDELMAN.
Birds Eye Foods has named Edelman PR Worldwide its agency of record following a competitive pitch.

The Rochester, N.Y.-headquartered firm traces its roots to Clarence Birdseye, who is considered the "father of frozen foods." He launched Birds Eye Frozen Foods in Springfield, Mass., in `30, and the company gained momentum during the Great Depression by leasing freezers to cash-strapped grocers.

More recently, Birds Eye recorded a 6.5 percent decline in first-quarter (ended Sept. 25) sales to $177M and a net loss of $220,000, compared to a $2.9 million year earlier profit.

Bea Slizewski, who is Birds Eye's VP-corporate communications, would neither name finalists nor budget. Cheryl Overton, Edelman's senior VP-consumer brands, will head the account from New York.

RAGONE JOINS OGILVY.
Regina Ragone, a registered dietitian and former editor of Prevention, has joined Ogilvy PR Worldwide's consumer marketing group in New York.

Prior to working at the health magazine, Ragone was test kitchen director at Ladies Home Journal and assistant manager at Campbell Soup Co.'s global consumer food center. Ragone also served as a nutritionist for Family Circle, where she directed the Family Circle Cooking School.

Ragone is the author of "Win the Fat War Cookbook" and "Decadent Diabetic Desserts."

SAUDIS SPEND $7.3M AT QORVIS.
Qorvis Comms. received $7.3 million from Saudi Arabia during the six-month period ended Sept. 30 for promoting the Kingdom's "commitment to the war against terrorism and peace in the Middle East."

The Washington, D.C.-based firm arranged one-on-one interviews with media luminaries, such as CNN's Wolf Blitzer, NBC's Tim Russert, CBS John Roberts, NPR's Diana Rehm and Fox News Tony Snow.

Qorvis drafted letters to Congress, conducted surveys, prepared ads and created the www.aboutsaudia-rabia.net for the Saudis.

The Patton Boggs affiliate also arranged a "road show" for Kingdom officials that featured stops in Los Angeles, Kansas City, Dallas, Seattle, Detroit, Chicago and Richmond.

Qorvis expenses included a $7,049 tab for CEO Michael Petruzzello's trip to New York (4/27-4/28) to meet with Saudi Arabia's U.S. Ambassador Prince Bandar and Crown Prince Abdullah's foreign policy adviser Adel Al-Jubeir, and $15,439 for managing director Shereen Soghier's visit to Riyadh and Jeddah to meet with a crew from "60 Minutes."

Sogheir, who was special assistant to Bill Clinton's social secretary, is in charge of managing the Saudi account. She joined Qorvis three months after the 9/11 attacks by 19 terrrorists, of which 15 hailed from the Kingdom.

SMITH RAPS PR 'BLOCKERS.'
Liz Smith, whose column is syndicated in 65 papers across the U.S., including the New York Post, used her entire Nov. 28 column to attack PR people who she says are blocking press access to their clients and employers.

The column not only rapped the big celebrity-handling PR firms like PMK, but PR pros working for "government and big business."

"Where the press once dominated publicists and treated them like slaves, the situation is reversed," she wrote.

PR people become "royalty" themselves when they represent a famous person and get in the position of being able to block access to that person, she said.

"The gates are locked against the press and much of the press, unable to do an end run, stands outside begging to be let in," she said. (continued on page seven)

MERRY
CHRISMAHANU-KWANZAKAH!
Cooper Katz & Co. in New York is handling publicity for Virgin Mobile's new holiday marketing campaign, which has dubbed Dec. 13 as the first offical commemoration of "Chrismahanukwanzakah."

The PR firm said Chrismahanukwanzakah celebrates the joys of all things like Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza, and elves (it even includes Scientologists and agnostics) with songs, images, ad spots, e-card, a roller disco skate party and $20 off Virgin Mobile handsets.

"Most companies dance around the different traditions that make December so festive, by just branding it all ‘holiday, " said VM chief marketing officer, Howard Handler. "When we looked at that ‘play it safe mentality, combined with election angst over the whole ‘morality issues, we thought it was high time to mix things up a bit by spotlighting aspects of each of the major December traditions to create one all-inclusive jamboree that's tongue-in-cheek, but also real about its message."

Anne Green of CK said more than 300,000 people have already downloaded the free Chrismahanu-kwanzakah carol — a song penned by alt band Ween called "We re All Snowflakes."

EG ADDS CASSIDY TO PR MIX.
Equatorial Guinea has signed Cassidy & Assocs. to a $360K pact to advance its relationship with the U.S. by explaining the northwest African state's "history, culture and strategic goals." Part of that effort is to build support for the government of President Teodoro Obiang Ngeuma, who was the target of an attempted coup attempt in March, and faces allegations that he has looted EG's treasury.

EG officials say two of President Bush's most trusted allies and members of the "coalition of the willing" Spain (under the former government of Jose Maria Aznar) and the U.K. were behind the overthrow effort.

Cassidy is the second D.C. firm to be hired by EG of late. C/R International inked a $250K pact in September. CEO Robert Cabelly told O'Dwyer's that EG is still a client.

CLARKE DRIVES
OVER TO STRAT@COMM.
Jody Clarke, who was VP-communications at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, has joined Strat@ comm, Fleishman-Hillard's transportation PA unit.

At CEI, which describes itself as a non-profit group dedicated to reducing government overregulation, Clarke worked on the campaign regarding the safety impact of federally mandated fuel economy standards. E.g., CEI believes higher fuel economy requirements force automakers to produce smaller and less safe cars.

Ron DeFore, a Strat@comm founder, lauded Clarke's "experience in the public policy think tank world" in announcing the hire. Clarke also worked as a broadcast journalist/anchor at CBS and Fox.

NEW PRSA TASK FORCE
IS DISPUTED.
PRSA president Del Galloway named ethics chair David Rickey to head a task force to study governance including nominating committee practices. Seven members were also named. Its work would not be finished until deep into 2005.

The announcement was criticized by dissident members who said Galloway had no right to name a committee when a new board will take office Jan. 1.

Further, they said, a majority of the 17-member board staged a revolt Oct. 22 that defeated a proposal by Galloway to probe the 2004 nomcom.

The board, by a 10-4 margin, blocked the nomcom probe and directed a general probe of governance.

The raucous meeting resulted in several directors being in tears and others leaving the room.

Galloway's leadership is over and he should accept it rather than trying to foist his selections on the 2005 board, said the dissidents.

They objected to many of the Galloway choices for the governance probe including Rickey, pointing out he is not a board member.

They question the naming of PRSA attorney Arthur Abelman as an ex-officio member, saying some PRSA leaders do not always agree with his advice.

In addition, they said that governance has been repeatedly studied for years without needed action being taken, such as allowing any member to run for national office and letting chapters send anyone they want to the Assembly (service for more than three years is barred). They say a task force headed by Jack Felton in 2000 urged that board members be barred from influencing the nominations. This recommendation was ignored.

Other task force members named by Galloway were Felton, Grace Leong, Ellen Hartman, Pender McCarter, Francis McDonald and Dr. Mark Schilansky (parliamentarian for 2004 Assembly).

SIMON YANKS
STATUE OF LIBERTY AD.
Simon Malls has apologized and yanked its ad featuring the Statue of Liberty urging consumers to visit one of its 13 malls in metropolitan New York.

The New York Times ad carried the tagline, "Very Inspiring. Now, where's the mall?"

The move to pull the ad followed an inquiry from this NL on Nov. 29 to Cathy Wilcox, who handles advertising at SM. O'Dwyer's wanted to know why SM is using a symbol of national freedom (especially during the Iraq war) to promote shopping, and whether other icons are used elsewhere in the country.

Les Morris, corporate relations manager, responded via the following e-mail: "Please understand that we meant no disrespect to this national icon of freedom. It was not our intent to be offensive; rather to promote our centers in a lighthearted manner. Please accept our sincere apologies. Lastly, we have pulled this ad and will not run it again. We heard your comments and have taken immediate action."

Morris said the ad is one in a tourism series, using familiar landmarks in the area.

EDITORS DISCOVER
HUNGER FOR FOOD NEWS.
Editors and advertisers across the country have discovered that readers are hungry for food stories, whether they explore emerging health issues or new cuisines, profile chefs or review kitchen products, or simply provide traditional recipes and how-to advice, reports Liz Halloran, a staff writer for The Hartford (Conn.) Courant.

Halloran recently wrote that food sections, "once pink-collar ghettos of wash-day recipe swaps, grocery coupons and `women's news, " are becoming showplaces for some of the news business best writers.

Increasingly reporters like Kim Severson, who recently joined The New York Times from The San Francisco Chronicle, are trading in hard news beats to bring their talents to food sections, said Halloran.

She also cited other reporters including David Shaw, a longtime media news reporter for The Los Angeles Times, who now writes a weekly food column; Frank Bruni, who swapped the N.Y. Times Rome bureau for a job as the paper's restaurant critic; Elizabeth Weise of USA Today, who writes about stem cell research as well as modified crops and weight-loss surgery, and R.W. "Johnny" Apple Jr., an associate editor at the N.Y. Times, who alternates political news coverage with features about meals he has eaten at offbeat restaurants.

Severson, a two-time Pulitzer finalist, who has no formal culinary training, told Halloran that "food is much more of the popular culture than it's ever been.

"There's a different sensibility among editors about what makes a story. They are increasingly seeing that food matters in peoples lives as much as the price of oil or the assault in Fallujah," she said.

Contributing to the spike in interest are the increasing numbers of younger people and women in the ranks of editors making these decisions, said Severson.

PR PROS DON'T CARE
IF MEDIA HATE THEM.
PR Fuel's online reader survey indicates PR pros could care less if media love or hate them.

These were some of the replies to the question: "In general, do you feel members of the media have a positive or negative view of PR pros?":

—"Love/hate relationship. Need us to feed them info but find us pestering and annoying."

—"In general, I believe they have an increasing negative view, but ought to be kissing our feet every once in a while since we help them fill countless inches every day."

—"Depends on which PR flack they are discussing."

—"Neither, but as a necessary evil. We serve them a banquet, they get to determine what they will eat."

When asked how the general public perceive PR pros, one respondent wrote: "People in the general public think I work for the newspapers because they see my clients there. I am constantly explaining to people what I do."

Another said: "The image of the Hollywood publicist is definitely the predominant one, followed by a White House spokesperson."

"As people who don t mind telling lies for a living, but who couldn t cut it as lawyers or politicians," replied another respondent.

MEDIA TRENDS
Publications targeting wealthy consumers, such as The Robb Report, Dwell, Cabin Life, Veranda, and Luxury Golf & Travel, are growing in number, according to MediaFinder, an online database of U.S. and Canadian publications, which is produced by Oxbridge Communications in New York.

"Niche magazines have mushroomed, and magazines pitched to the affluent market represent the ultra-niche," said Deborah Striplin, editor-in-chief of MediaFinder.

She said financial products and services as well as luxury products are part of the ad mix.

MediaFinder has information on more than 72,000 titles, including 15,300 magazines, 11,000 catalogs, 13,000 newsletters, 11,500 journals, 9,400 newspapers, and 3,500 directories and yearbooks.

Free online displays of the search capabilities are available at www.mediafinder.com.

TRAVEL MAGAZINE
CHARTS NEW COURSE.
Islands Weddings & Honeymoons magazine has changed its name to Destination Weddings & Honeymoons, and increased its frequency to four issues a year.

Under the new name, the magazine will encompass not just island travel, but places throughout the world that can host a wedding and honeymoon, according to Annette Burden, who is editor of the Santa Barbara, Calif.-based magazine, published by World Publications in Winter Park, Fla.

It will continue to focus on the burgeoning travel market. Of the 2.5 million newly married couples each year, 99% take a honeymoon. In addition, destination weddings are the hot trend, enjoying 200%+ growth in the past decade, according to Burden.

The majority of the content in DW&H will deal with tropical destination wedding fashion and how-to advice for planning a wedding.

Burden can be reached at 805/745-7100.

SHEPARD TO RETIRE
AS BUSINESS WEEK ED.
Stephen Shepard will retire as editor-in-chief of Business Week on April 1, 2005.

He plans to become founding dean of the new graduate school of journalism at the City University of New York.

Shepard has been editor of BW for 20 years, and has worked for 32 years for the magazine.

The process for choosing his successor has started, and Shepard will stay at BW to ensure a smooth transition, a spokesperson said.

(Media news continued on next page)

PROTEST LEADS
TO MORE EVENT LISTINGS.
The arts editors at The New York Times have decided to restore two full pages of entertainment listings in the Sunday edition after receiving a 615-page petition.

Most of the listings that had run in the old Sunday "Arts & Leisure Guide," which was replaced with a new feature, called "The Guide," were dropped when the culture section was revamped.

The petition, entitled "Save the Listings: Restore the `Arts & Leisure Guide to the Sunday New York Times," was sent to executive editor Bill Keller, according to Daniel Okrent, public editor at the Times.

Okrent said the petition contained 5,000 Internet-gathered signatures, "many of them accompanied by bits of testimony from variously beseeching, enraged or tearful" readers who do not like the new Guide, which runs a list of about 20 events on a single page. That compares to columns of agate type that had filled many pages of the old A&L section, with as many as 300 cultural events in a single edition.

While the editors tried to disparage the protest as "commercially inspired" by self-interested arts presenters and promotors who are worried that the box office will suffer, Okrent said they are now "prepared to alter their course."

"I gather that individual listings will soon be shorter, creating room for events that can t now make the cut. No one could have enjoyed reading all that agate type in the old listings, but comments in the petition and my conversations with readers suggest that most culture consumers would exchange a little eyestrain for news of more events," he said.

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
LOSES SMILEY.
Tavis Smiley, who has hosted "Tavis Smiley" for three years on National Public Radio, is not renewing his contract. His last scheduled day on air is anticipated to be Dec. 16.

In a memo to stations, Smiley, who was the first African-American to host an NPR show, expressed disappointment over not accomplishing "our goal of seeking a broader, more diverse and younger audience for public radio."

Smiley will kick off a second season on public TV on Jan. 7 as host of "Tavis Smiley," a national late weeknight talk show, produced by KCET/Hollywood.

Neal Kendall is executive producer of the show, which books guests from the worlds of politics, arts, literature, entertainment and news.

PEOPLE
Deborah Heard was appointed assistant managing editor for Style at The Washington Post. She succeeds Gene Robinson on Jan. 1.

Stephen Smith was named Washington, D.C., bureau chief of The Houston Chronicle.

Smith was previously VP of communications at the Brookings Institution in D.C., and before that, editor of U.S. News & World Report; executive editor of Newsweek and editor of the "Nation" section of Time.

Martha Stewart is getting "kid-glove" treatment from the prison guards at the Federal Corrections Camp in Alderson, W.Va., according to Sue Tyburksi, who is the attorney for Roman Catholic nun Carol Gilbert, who has been dining with the domestic diva.

Gilbert is serving a 33-month sentence on convictions of obstructing national defense and damaging government property.

NEW TV NETWORK
FOR MUSLIMS STARTED.
The American Muslim TV Network, which was started on Nov. 30, will broadcast from the studios of WNED-TV in Buffalo, N.Y.

The English-language network, which will target American Muslims, made its debut with an original news show hosted by former NBC News correspondent Asad Mahmood.

Muzzammil Hassan, founder/CEO of Bridges TV, hopes the programs on the new network will improve the image of the Muslim community around the world.

"Every day on TV we are barraged by stories of a Muslim extremist, militant, terrorist, or insurgent. But missing are the countless stories of Muslim tolerance, progress, diversity, service and excellence that Bridges TV hopes to tell," said Hassan.

The network will weave news coverage with music videos, animated children's shows, classic movies and programs about food, travel and culture.

It will be unlike Al-Jazeera or other controversial networks beamed from Arab or predominantly Muslim countries, said Hassan.

Bridges anticipates 50,000 initial subscribers.
Tayie Rehem, formerly of CBC Network in Canada, is executive producer of Bridges TV, and Jamilah Fraser is program director.

WHY ARE JAPANESE
DAILIES SO POPULAR?
USA Today's founder Al Neuharth believes newspapers in Japan are more popular than U.S. papers because they "put more news in their newspapers."

Neuharth said the big Japanese dailies are also "more reader-friendly and fair," and "more polite in their editorial comments or criticisms."

Japan's total daily newspaper circulation is 52.9 million in a country with a total population of 127 million. Total U.S. daily newspaper circulation is about 55.2 million, out of a population of 295 million.

The comparative circulations of the biggest dailies in Japan and the U.S. are:
—Yomiuri: 10.1 million
—Ashai: 8.3 million
—USA Today: 2.3 million
—The Wall Street Journal: 2.1 million
—The New York Times: 1.1 million.

Liz Smith's column (page one) is mostly about PR reps for celebrities stonewalling reporters but she also faults big biz and government.

She cannot be dismissed as "just a celebrity columnist" because a lot of PR these days involves celebrities. When they get into trouble, the companies that sponsor them get into trouble.

One part of the landscape is that the press, and especially the business press, has gotten so powerful that it cannot be manipulated in any major way.

Many large companies have just decided to cut press relations to a minimum.

It was the Post that led the criticism of Dick Grasso's pay that resulted in his ouster from the New York Stock Exchange.

The Post didn t hesitate to call Martin Sorrell of WPP Group a "hatchet man" (page 7) because his record is one of cleaning house when WPP buys an agency.

It pointed out that WPP and the other ad/PR holding companies are operating as single agencies when they promised that the agencies they purchased would remain separate to preserve client confidentiality and promote competition.

Clients are being squeezed. Where can they go when virtually every ad agency (and 50 PR firms) have been bought up by congloms often at inflated prices? This is why the top five have long term debt of about $14 billion (a topic so far uncovered by major media). This debt time bomb could explode if current minuscule interest rates rise.

Omnicom's stock was $107 on Dec. 17, 1999. It is $81 now. WPP was $100 in early '99 ($55 now) a nd Interpublic reached $58 on Dec. 17, '99 ($13 now).

The solution is for PR pros to become "marketing communicators," working closely with sales and marketing departments to better serve the best customers of clients ("customer relationship management"); going directly to other discreet audiences such as other customers, investors, local communities, age/income groups, etc., and opening new markets via the web and other means. The best PR is a satisfied customer.

When the press calls, PR's job is to roll out a red carpet and have a brass band playing instead of ducking and not reporting such calls to the CEO (a practice we believe is widespread). PR pros could again put on their educational hats and provide the reporters with important background and access to executives who can set the reporters straight.

Thomas Martin, VP of ITT Industries, and president, Arthur W. Page Society, said the "type of publicity" that Smith refers to "differs greatly from the type of PR I see practiced by corporate PR colleagues and Page members."

He said Page principles emphasize telling the truth and that PR pros who don t answer their phones are not following such principles. "Enlightened PR people know it is counter-productive to try and avoid the press," he said. PR pros must "tell our side in a reasoned and professional manner," he added.

PRSA president Del Galloway could not be reached via e-mail or staffers Janet Troy and Cedric Bess for comment about Smith's column.

Speaking of the corporate PR cold shoulder, we noticed in the seating list of the "Financial Follies" Nov. 19 of the New York Financial Writers Assn. that more than 200 reporters were guests of such companies as Bank of America (15 reporters); Weber Shandwick (14); Deutsche Bank (13); Kekst and Co. (8); Manning, Selvage & Lee (10), and Financial Relations Board (6), to name some.

This is one of the few occasions where financial press and PR get an evening of important "face time." Contacts are renewed and expanded.

Oddly, we noticed that Citigroup had two tables (18 PA people) and not one press guest.

We called it the following Monday but no one in PA would speak to us nor give us the e-mail address of PA director Leah Johnson. Same thing happened Tuesday. So we wrote a letter to her and mailed it.

Citi has plenty it would rather not talk about. Its list of transgressions caused Fortune Nov. 29 to label it "a serial sinner, seldom out of the news." Citi has broken repeated promises to reform itself.

"Scandal-generated" charges cost it $8 billion alone in 2004, said the article by Carol Loomis, who interviewed CEO "Chuck" Prince. Its Personal Banking unit was booted out of Japan in October for "selling unsuitable and even legally prohibited products," "laxity in screening customers including one suspected of money-laundering," and "general sloppiness." Twelve officers were fired, 11 had their pay cut and others were disciplined. Citi execs had to publicly apologize and bow before Japanese authorities. Persisting in our attempts to reach Johnson, we obtained a fax number from a staffer and faxed her the letter Wednesday morning.

Johnson replied by e-mail that Citi PA people spend lots of time at press functions, including a recent Knight Bagehot Dinner. She said that by the time of the "Follies" it was time to give staff a night by themselves.

Has PA been downgraded at Citi? Jack Morris, previous head, was VP and senior PA director. He joined Citi in 1991. Johnson, who joined Citi in 1999, was VP-CC at Standard and Poor's . Citi, said Loomis, repeatedly broke promises by former CEO Sandy Weill that it would be "more socially acceptable." Asked Loomis: "Was that just PR?"
Citi's "low-class stock" sells at 12X earnings, probably because of the scandals, writes Loomis.

– Jack O'Dwyer