S.F. WANTS PR TO SELL TRANSIT PROJECT.
A $4 billion project to put San Francisco’s rail
and bus lines into new digs and develop the surrounding neighborhood has the city looking for a PR firm to handle community and public media outreach.

The Transbay Joint Powers Authority, set up by
local and county authorities in 2001, is overseeing
the project to build a modern terminal for buses,
commuter trains and the future California High
Speed Rail Line – a proposed bullet train to Los Angeles – on the site of the city’s current facility at
Fourth and Townsend Sts.

The Authority, which has $175K allocated for
the initial stages of a PR program, has put out an
RFP for a firm to develop and implement a PR plan,
including policy and strategy recommendations for
addressing public issues and concerns, developing
and maintaining the project’s “identity, visibility and
consistent positive media coverage,” and supporting the Authority’s in-house staff.

A firm should understand the history of the project,
along with the social, public and political context
of the program, according to a copy of the RFP
provided to O’Dwyer’s.

The Authority is accepting proposals through
Jan. 19.

F-H SEVERS TIES WITH DOWIE, DWP DUO.
Fleishman-Hillard has cut ties with three employees
in the wake of probes into the firm’s work for
the Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power.

Former L.A. office head Doug Dowie, who was
on paid leave amid the investigations, John Stodder
and Steve Getzug, have all been jettisoned by F-H,
which did not comment on the departures. The firm
said it was not making accusations against the staffers.

Stodder joined F-H in 2002 as senior VP from
Edelman to head its L.A. public affairs unit, a similar
post he held at Edelman. Getzug was a sevenyear
veteran of F-H.

L.A.’s controller in November said F-H overcharged
the city by $4.2 million and demanded the
money be paid back, but F-H has challenged that figure. The firm said it can’t account for $652K in
DWP billings, following its own probe.

Dowie was also sued by the city over the DWP
account, but he recently tagged that action as “frivolous” and has demanded the charges be dropped.

WYNNE TAKES REINS AT ORACLE.
Oracle’s VP of corporate communications, Jennifer
Glass, has left for Sony USA in the aftermath
of the business software giant’s $10.3 billion takeover of PeopleSoft last month.

Bob Wynne, VP of media relations who was a
key spokesperson during the hostile takeover fight
for PeopleSoft, has taken over Glass’ role at Oracle.

He told O’Dwyer’s Oracle is interviewing all of
PeopleSoft’s PR team who are interested in a job, although that number is not large. Wynne noted PS
severance packages are “pretty generous” and not
everyone there wants to make the transition.

As far as PR firm relationships go, Wynne said
it’s too early to say, but added PS’ firm, Porter
Novelli, is “great” and Oracle is happy with its own
outside PR work.

EVIAN MULLS FIRMS FOR $200K ACCOUNT.
Evian Natural Spring Water has narrowed its PR
search to Lizzie Grubman PR, Dan Klores Communications, 5W PR and Lime PR, which is part of Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners. The Danone Groupe unit considered 15 firms for the $200K account.

Evian’s “2005 PR brief” says its PR strategy has
been “erratic and not as efficient as some of our major competitors like Fiji,” which uses Nike Communications for PR.

Its `05 communications strategy aims to “bring
Evian back into the ‘pop culture’’ through events in
New York, Miami and Los Angeles.

Evian wants 25 mentions positioning it as the
“in water and/or relating Evian to top celebrities/
glamour in at least 15 national publications.”

The company’s target market is “premium disposed
health and image conscious consumers” that
like “fine food and chic places,” and strive to drink
eight glasses of water a day.

PRSA BOARD SPURNS PRESS CONFERENCE.
Directors of PRSA, meeting in New York Jan.
13-15 (Thurs.-Sat.), possibly for the only time this
year, have rejected requests for a press conference.

Directors last Jan. 30 met five PR reporters at
PRSA h.q. but barred questions about PRSA. Del
Galloway, 2004 president, said it was “not a press
conference” but a meeting to discuss PR issues.

The 16 members of the new board, headed by
(story contines on page seven)

KETCHUM TOUTS EDUCATION LAW.
Ketchum, working for the Dept. of Education to
promote the No Child Left Behind Act, arranged for
conservative commentator Armstrong Williams to
use contacts with a group a black broadcast journalists to urge producers discuss the controversial education law.

USA Today, through a Freedom of Information
Act request, found the Bush Administration paid Williams’ PR firm $240K for the commentator to promote NCLBA and “to regularly comment on NCLB during the course of his broadcasts.” Williams reportedly persuaded TV personality Steve Harvey to invite Education Secretary Rod Paige on his show.

Williams, who runs the Graham Williams Group
in D.C., says he understands criticism that might
come from the relationship, but told the paper “I
wanted to do it because it’s something I believe in.”

The Associated Press reported Saturday that Tribune Media Services has dropped syndication of Armstrong’s weekly newspaper column. Williams said his judgment on the matter was “not the best” and said he wouldn’t do such a deal again.

The AP hit Ketchum last October for its work
on behalf of the education law, rekindling a debate
over the use of VNRs and using public money for
PR. The AP, then also using a FOIA request, rapped
VNRs used by Ketchum and covered criticism of the
firm for ranking journalists’ coverage of it.

Ketchum said then that tactics it used are standard
procedure or were done before a GAO report
questioned deceptive video news releases used by
Ketchum to promote Medicare earlier in 2004.

The White House said the deal with Williams
was worked out by the Dept. of Education, which
said it does not have plans to pursue another arrangement like the one inked with Williams.

LARK STEPS ASIDE AT SUN.
Andy Lark, VP of global communications for
Sun Microsystems, has said he will step down from
that post. Ingrid van den Hoogen, VP of brand experience and community marketing, is taking over for Lark, according to the company.

Lark, a New Zealand native and former head of
corporate marketing and communications for Nortel
Networks and the company’s chief marketing officer for the Asia-Pacific region, said on his weblog he’s moving on after three years at Sun.

Prior to Nortel, he was senior VP and partner at
Fleishman-Hillard, Sun’s PR firm where his wife has
also worked.

On his blog, andylark.blogs.com/andylark, Lark
did not outline specific plans but said “this is one of
the most exciting times to be a communicator,” noting the development of blogs, podcasting and digital media. Sun said he was pursuing other opportunities.

Lark said a turnaround is afoot at Sun and he's
“immensely proud of all we’ve done together and
the perceptual change we’ve been able to drive in
the market.”

QORVIS PROMOTES SAUDI AID BOOST.
Qorvis Communications publicized the Jan. 4 announcement that client Saudi Arabia has decided to triple to $30M the amount in humanitarian aid it
plans to give to victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami.

That donation tops the $27M pledged by Australia,
but falls far below the $63 million pledged by
China. Australia is the top donor, giving $1 billion.
Japan is next at $500M. The Bush Administration
has earmarked $350M for disaster victims.

The Kingdom’s donation is separate from the
$10M in relief aid provided by the Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank.

Qorvis, which is partly owned by Patton Boggs,
received $7.3M for PR services from the Saudis during the six-month period ended Sept. 30.

VV PARKS PR AT HWH.
Visionary Vehicles has hired HWH PR to promote
its plan to sell low-cost Chinese-made cars in
the U.S., Lois Whitman, president of the New Yorkbased firm, told O’Dwyer’s. “It’s a multi-million dollar PR campaign,” she said. Whitman added that
HWH got the account to promote the first effort to
sell Chinese cars here via a referral.

VV is the brainchild of auto entrepreneur Malcolm
Bricklin. He is responsible for importing the illfated
Serbian-made Yugo to this country during the
`80s, and inventing the Bricklin Safety Vehicle, the
electric-powered gull-winged vehicle that was built
in New Brunswick, Canada. More than 3,000 BSV’s
were sold until the operation was folded. Bricklin
scotched plans in `03 to bring back the Yugo.

VV has arranged a venture with China’s Chery
Automobile. The partners expect to sell 250,000 cars in the U.S. by `07 via their own dealer network. The cars will come in five models–from compact to SUV—and retail for 30 percent less than competitive offerings.

Whitman broke the VV story in the Jan. 2 Detroit
News, and received follow-up coverage in the
Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, Automotive
News and USA Today. Lou Dobbs, of CNN, and The
New York Times also did pieces.

MILLER SINGS FOR RIAA.
The Recording Industry Assn. of America, which
is leading the fight against online music piracy, has
hired CapAnalysis Group as its D.C. lobbyist.

CAG is headed by former Federal Trade Commission chief Jim Miller. He also led the Office of Management and Budget, and was a two-time candidate for the Senate from Virginia, losing Republican primaries to Ollie North in `94 and John Warner in `96.

The RIAA filed copyright infringement lawsuits
last month, targeting file-sharers at Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Old Dominion University and State University of West Georgia.

Cary Sherman, RIAA president, said the suits
were filed to protect legal online retailers who are
forced to compete against illegal free networks."

SPECIALISTS BRIEF EDELMAN’S EXECS.
Three media specialists, who spoke at Edelman
PR’s executive leadership meeting last month in
New York, offered their views on how PR pros can
capitalize on changes occurring in the media business.

The speakers were Phil Revzin, who runs properties
outside of the U.S. for Dow Jones; Jonathan
Klein, the recently named president of CNN in the
U.S., and Michael Wolf, a senior partner of McKinsey, who is in charge of the firm’s media and entertainment practice.

Richard Edelman, president of Edelman, reported
the speaker’s key remarks on his weekly weblog.
Here are some excerpts from his report.

Revzin said The Wall Street Journal will launch a
new edition in India in cooperation with a leading Indian newspaper, and it will start a China edition in '05.

The new editions will be targeted at both U.S. executives working abroad and the local business community, said Revzin, who pointed out the Journal has changed the title of its national news editors to global news editors.

Revzin said PR people can be helpful to journalists
by introducing them to the next level of executives
below the CEO; so a strong relationship can be
forged before ascension to the top job.

He underscored the importance of educating beat
reporters over time on a company and industry, and stressed the importance of PR pros having personal connections to company representatives with relationships built on trust and transparency.

Audience Tunes Out

Klein said broadcast has become too regulated,
which has caused the audience to tune out.

He wants CNN to cut through the background
clutter to make the news easier to watch and then understand. “We must constantly refresh our approach to get our message through. We have to focus on a few topics, such as terrorism and security,” he was quoted as saying.

Klein also wants to focus on high interest topics
such as music news and to win viewers back with
specialized cable networks such as the History Channel and Court TV.

More News From TV Shows

Wolf said consumers are watching less news, especially traditional news broadcasts than ever before. More people are now getting their news from late night talk shows and comedy shows, according to Wolf, who said people are looking for individual stories and are not relying on a single news brand to deliver the information.

He said tabloids are a very fast growing and influential news source, with heavy reliance on celebrity gossip and sex.

Suburban newspapers are another fast growing
news medium. He said they are more thoroughly
read than the urban daily paper because they offer
more local news and relevant advertising.

Wolf said product placements are not a fad, but
are here to stay.

Edelman believes these are the implications for
PR people:

1. “We need to expand our horizon to include a
broader set of delivery options for our messages.
We should go direct to end user of information via
cell phones, PCs, etc.

2. “We should recognize the importance of media
vehicles such as tabloids and suburban papers plus
comedy and late night shows.

3. “We can help our clients create compelling
content for distribution through their websites.

4. “We should persuade our clients not to fear
blogs but to participate in the wonderful democratic
world of communication.

5. “We have a great opportunity to take market
share from ad agencies by offering credible interactive entertainment programming.”

MEDIA BRIEFS
Time Inc. is acquiring the majority of Essence
Communications Ptrs., publisher of Essence and
Suede magazines.

Essence, a monthly lifestyle magazine that
reaches more than seven million African-Americans,
was founded 34 years ago by Ed Lewis, who will
stay on with the magazine after the deal is completed.

The magazine will relocate to the Sports Illustrated
Building on E. 50th st., New York, which will
be renamed the Essence Building.

The New York Times Syndicate has bought exclusive rights to syndicate branded material from all Meredith Corp.’s magazine properties, including Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies' Home Journal,
More and American Baby, to provide its network of
newspapers and their associated websites.

Congressional Quarterly will acquire Congressional Green Sheets Inc. The current staff, including Linda Cartwright and John Dineen, who have owned and operated the Weekly Bulletin, Green Sheets and Newsroom for the past 10 years, will continue with the enterprise under the CQ banner, according to Robert Merry, CQ president and publisher.

Readers of the publications, which cover environmental, energy and nature resource issues on Capitol Hill, include policy makers and opinion leaders within government, associations, lobbying organizations, law firms, corporations, interest groups, academia and the media.

Fifty-four journalists were killed throughout
the world last year, the highest news media death
toll in 10 years, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported. The most dangerous place for reporters, photographers and film crews was Iraq, where 23 journalists were killed, up from 13 in 2003.

(Media news continued on next page)

WALLACE IS CONDE NAST’S TOP EDITOR.
S.I. Newhouse Jr., chairman of Conde Nast Publications said editorial director James Truman, who resigned, has been replaced by Thomas Wallace, who was editor-in-chief of Conde Nast Traveler.

Truman is moving to Spain with his girlfriend after
11 years as editorial director in which he oversaw
17 publications.

Truman, who joined Conde Nast in 1988 as features editor at Vogue, has helped start several magazines for Conde Nast, including Lucky, Cargo, and the forthcoming Domino.

He also had a hand in revamping a number of
publications, including Details, which he repositioned
as a national magazine for men.

While editor of Traveler, Wallace, 55, also developed the magazine’s Readers’ Choice Awards, which led to the creation of The Gold List of the top hotels.

PEOPLE
Sara Nelson, previously books editor for The
New York Post, has replaced Nora Rawlinson as editor of Publishers Weekly.

Mark Vruno was named senior editor of
Graphic Arts Monthly, in Oak Brook, Ill.

Richard Wolffe was appointed senior White
House correspondent for Newsweek, succeeding
Tamara Lipper, who becomes a national correspondent, covering a range of Washington-based stories.

Kevin Peraino, previously Chicago correspondent,
was named Jerusalem bureau chief; Susannah
Meadows was promoted to senior writer in New
York; Claudia Kalb, a general editor, who writes
for the “Society” section, was promoted to senior
writer, and contributing editor Lorraine Ali, who is
based in Los Angeles, was promoted to senior
writer, covering the music industry.

NEW WEEKLY TO COVER TV STARS.
TV Guide is starting a new weekly magazine
that will focus on the lifestyles of TV stars.

Inside TV, which will debut in late spring 2005
on newsstands, will be designed specifically for
young female TV fans.

Steve LeGrice, former executive editor of In
Touch Weekly, which he helped start, was named editor of Inside TV. He said the magazine will report
on the latest entertainment news, style, and trends.

INVENTORS TO COMPETE ON NEW SHOW.
Undiscovered inventors and entrepreneurs will
compete to sell their inventions on HSN, the cable
TV shopping network.

Ken Mok, who created and is executive producer
of UPN’s reality series “America’s Next Top
Model,” will produce “Made in the U.S.A.”

The show will take viewers on a journey with inventor hopefuls as they and their products are put to the test at HSN headquarters and soundstages in St. Petersburg, Fla. The winning inventor will get an exclusive contract with HSN.

The USA Network, a cable TV program service
of NBC Universal Cable, will run the weekly program.

PLACEMENT TIPS
The Reader’s Digest has hired Julie Bain as
health director. Bain, a health and fitness writer,
has been a frequent interview subject for health stories in print, radio and TV.

Her writing has appeared in The New York
Times, Popular Science and many other publications. Most recently she was health director at Ladies' Home Journal, where she produced stories on health, fitness, diet, nutrition and psychology.

Jackie Leo, U.S. editor-in-chief of Reader’s Digest,
said readers will be “well-served by her ability
to translate complex medical news and research into readable, useful information.”

Helmers Publishing is starting a quarterly magazine and daily website aimed at supply chain managers.

Dave Andrews, editor-in-chief of Chief Supply
Chain Officer, said the magazine will focus on technology business and career strategies vital to the success of senior leval managers who are driving the transformation of their companies’ procurement, logistics, IT, and manufacturing strategies.

Three sections—Operations, Information Technology, and Management—will explain emerging technologies, new business practices, and how to manage their successful implementation.

Andrews is based in Peterborough, N.H. Amy
Riemer, who handles media media relations for Helmers Publishing, can be reached at 978/475-4441.

CMP Media will distribute Digital Connect
Magazine 10 times this year as a standalone publication with a circulation of 36,000.

The magazine, which was introduced last year at
the International CES conference, covers technology integration news and business issues for home and technology integrators.

The magazine will also offer reviews, how to articles, columns and training in multimedia, wired
and wireless networking, home automation, security and other market segments, according to editor Jeff O’Heir, who is based in Manhasset, N.Y. 516/562-7485.

MSN STARTS HEALTH & FITNESS CHANNEL.
An online health and fitness channel is being
started by MSN in Redmond, Wash.

Content providers will include HealthDay, a
health news service that provides daily feeds to media, hospitals, HMOs and insurers; Rodale Inc., publisher; iVillage Inc., a site with information on
women’s health issues; Mayo Clinic.com, and the
Harvard medical school’s consumer health publications.

New York counselor John Budd has described
the disastrous management and PR policies that have beset Merck, which was given the “most admired” company title seven times in a row by Fortune mag (what does that say about Fortune and its poll?).

Budd’s Observations newsletter says Merck (like
almost all drug houses, is a very difficult nut for reporters to crack) “cocooned itself in false self-confidence and in isolation from the sea changes in
public opinion.”

It faces class action suits possibly totaling $38
billion on charges it didn’t remove Vioxx from the
market soon enough. One study says the drug caused 27,785 heart attacks. Its stock has lost $40 billion in value and its P/E is the lowest of any big drug firm.

Merck’s PR response includes the board decision
“to investigate itself.” It “shot itself in the foot” by
naming the head of Ogilvy & Mather (one of its ad
agencies) to its board, says Budd.

Merck’s full page ads in defense of itself are
called “puny” by Budd. Worse, the company gave
“golden parachutes” to 230 execs who wanted to
jump ship.

Budd was unable to get anyone at Merck to pick
up the phone. Observations, published six or more
times a year, is $200 from Budd at 30 Beekman
place, New York 10022. [email protected].

PR Quarterly, whose founder, Howard Hudson,
died Jan. 1 (page 7) says that “almost every
major company and many associations” are giving to “good causes” of one type or another.

The right sponsorships “produce massive national
or worldwide media coverage and the most heartfelt public gratitude,” writes Ronald Levy, president of Episodic PR Assistants, New York, in an article in the most recent PRQ (845/876-2081).

He describes a dozen such programs including
Exxon Mobil and General Electric giving $225 million
to Stanford University to study ways to cut
greenhouse gases; McDonald’s sponsorship of
Ronald McDonald Houses for families of ill children;
White Castle’s “Knowledge Craver” program
to promote learning, and MassMutual’s free life insurance for qualified working parents to ensure their children can afford higher education.

While companies are portraying themselves as
good corporate citizens on the one hand, they have to watch out what they’re doing with their other hand.

New Yorker financial columnist James Surowiecki noted Dec. 13 that the corporate practice of companies holding up local communities for tax
breaks is under court challenge.

States and local communities hand out almost
$50 billion in tax breaks, cheap loans and outright
giveaways to lure companies or prevent them from
leaving. It doesn’t always work. Maytag bolted from
Galesburg, Ill., to Mexico despite years of being
plied with incentives. United Airlines closed a maintenance plant employing 1,000 in Indianapolis despite “hundreds of millions” of incentives either
spent or dangled by the city, county and state.

Nike ran into this problem two years ago when
Marc Kasky challenged its public service image by
pointing to labor conditions at the factories in China
that make Nike products.

The New York Stock Exchange, threatening (“implausibly,” says Surowiecki) to move to New Jersey, wangled a big subsidy from Mayor Giuliani but Mayor Bloomberg canceled it. New York has been one of the “worst offenders” in tax breaks.

A federal court in Cincinnati, ruling on a suit by
a group of local businesses, said that incentives
given to DaimlerChrysler to keep a Jeep factory in
that city were unconstitutional. The suit may take
years in court but “much of `corporate welfare’ may be technically illegal,” wrote Surowiecki.

Our ranking Nov. 24 of PR firms in the Google
ranking under “public relations” missed No. 2
which goes under the name of “Online PR Home
Page” but is sponsored by Robert Marston and Associates New York PR firm. It is a broad list of media, PR resources and related sites created by Marston staffer James Horton, who holds the copyright. It’s getting big action from the PR community. In the Jan. 8 ranking for “PR,” Edelman PR Worldwide was No. 4, Ketchum was No. 13 and Ogilvy PR Worldwide was No. 17...former Eastern PR exec Dallas Kersey, who last year rejoined Edward Jones & Co., private St. Louis brokerage house, has his work cut out for him. Jones just agreed to pay $75 million to settle charges it didn’t disclose marketing deals with mutual funds. It’s the largest penalty ever imposed over “revenue-sharing” agreements. Claims were made by the SEC, NYSE, NASD and U.S. Attorney in St. Louis. Kersey was with Towers Perrin and Mutual of Omaha...IABC is forcing its members to join local chapters and districts. Dues that used to be $175 for a New York member are now $278 and include $203 for national; $65 for the chapter, and $10 for the district...Susan Sontag, one of the great intellectuals of the past 100 years, who died in late '04 at the age of 71, gave this definition of a writer: “Someone interested in everything.” She liked New York because she believed her “fervency would find more scope in a great metropolis than in any variant of provincial life including the excellent universities I had attended.” She was “surprised that there weren’t more people like me” in New York.

—Jack O'Dwyer