R&A DEFENDS $3.5M
ANTI-SMOKING ACCT.
Rogers & Assocs. has defended its California Dept. of Health Services anti-smoking PR account following an RFP and review which began late last year.

A DHS staffer told O'Dwyer's several firms expressed interest in the work, but R&A emerged as the lone finalist. The new PR contract is budgeted at $3.5 million over three and a half years, with two option years.

The DHS Tobacco Control Section said it wanted a firm to build on previous efforts and "break down apathy" from the public with regard to anti-smoking initiatives.

The DHS notes the tobacco industry sponsored over 30,000 "bar nights" in California in 2004, undermining its efforts to prevent youth smoking. The new PR contract begins in March and runs through June 2008.

On the heels of the PR contract award, the DHS has begun a review for its advertising account, which includes five annual budgets of $15 million.

FEEHERY TAKES MPAA POST.
John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert and former staffer to Majority Leader Tom DeLay, has taken a six-figure post as executive VP of communications at the Motion Picture Assn. of America.

The 41-year-old Republican was brought on board by Dan Glickman, a Democrat and president of the MPAA, which was criticized last year for Glickman's hire amid a GOP majority in Congress.

Prior to working for DeLay, Feehery was an aide to Rep. Bob Michel (R-Ill.).

Feehery's wife, Kerry, is spokeswoman for Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.).

MPAA is the film industry's top lobbying group. It has made a priority of cracking down on domestic and overseas piracy of films, taking the lead from its music industry counterpart, the RIAA.

General Electric has shifted its corporate PR work from Peppercom to Ketchum. Peppercom, last month, picked up Tyco International.

Former Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski used GE as a model in building the fire/security, electronics, healthcare, engineered products/services and plastics/adhesives combine.

STODDER PLEADS NOT GUILTY.
John Stodder, the 49-year-old former SVP at Fleishman-Hillard in Los Angeles, has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of wire fraud connected with accusations that the firm overbilled the city.

Stodder made his plea Feb. 7 and a trial is slated to begin in early August. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central Dist. of California declined to comment on future indictments.

The indictment alleges Stodder was responsible for $250K in phony bills submitted to the L.A. Department of Water and Power. It also says the Port of Los Angeles, Gehry Partners and the World Wide Church of God were overbilled as part of the scheme. Padded billings were known as "write-ups," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors have compiled CD-ROMs with the equivalent of 40 binders of documents, including "probably well over 1 million e-mails," according to the L.A. Daily News.

Stodder's attorney maintains that his client will be exonerated.

F-H cut ties with Stodder and two other execs who worked on the DWP account –– former L.A. office head Doug Dowie and Steve Getzug –– in early January. A seven-year veteran with F-H, Stodder joined the firm from Edelman, where he was a SVP/public affairs.

F-H, a favorite political target in L.A. amid a contentious mayoral race, has said it cannot support $652K in billings questioned by the city's controller and has offered to settle the matter in mediation.

D.R. SAILS WITH BVK.
The Domincan Republic Ministry of Tourism has awarded its multi-million-dollar marketing communications account to Milwaukee-based BVK, which has an Hispanic unit in Miami.

The D.R., which counts Christopher Columbus as its first tourist, plans to ramp up its $3 million marcom budget to between $4M and $8M.

BVK, as the Ministry's U.S. agency of record, is charged with handling U.S. PR, advertising, market research and media planning for the country.

A tourism official for the D.R. told O'Dwyer's the country has not had a U.S. marcom agency "in some time."

BVK's BvkMEKA Hispanic unit is based in Miami, where the D.R. has a key tourism board office.

WAL-MART TACKLES
LABOR CRUNCH.
Wal-Mart's in-house corporate affairs team is handling PR with help from Canadian firm National PR as the retailer has opted to close a Quebec store where employees have unionized.

A spokesman for the company's Canada operation told O'Dwyer's the bulk of labor issues and communications are being handled internally, but that National PR's Toronto and Montreal offices are assisting with the work.

Wal-Mart said it will shutter its Jonquiere, Quebec, store because of lofty demands from its newly organized workforce.

Media scrutiny of the move comes as Hill & Knowlton is guiding a national campaign in the U.S. to help the company put out the "unfiltered truth" and correct "urban legends" about the No. 1 retailer.

The company said it could not sustain operations in Quebec if it were to meet the demands of workers, who unionized with the United Food & Commercial Workers Canada in September, but had not reached a labor agreement with the retailer. Wal-Mart plans to close the store in May.

WOMMA PUSHES TRANSPARENCY.
The Word of Mouth Marketing Assn. released its code of ethics on Feb. 9, requiring people to disclose their relationships with marketers when talking up a product or service with others. WOMMA calls it "Honesty ROI"—honest disclosure of relationship, opinion and identity.

The group stands for transparency, and is "opposed to all forms of deceptive practices such as "shilling falsifying identities and anything that deceives the consumer," according to its statement.

The code, said WOMMA co-founder Pete Blackshaw, is an "attempt to define what's right before we all have to live with what's wrong." Blackshaw said e-mail marketers never took control of their business, and now must fight spam daily.

Burson-Marsteller, Edelman and Rowland Communications are WOMMA members.

LIVINGSTON LANDS AZERBAIJAN.
The Livingston Group has picked up a two-year $600K contract from Azerbaijan to promote U.S. political and economic ties. Azerbaijan has precious little to show for the independence it gained in `91 following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The country has lost 16 percent of its territory in the war with neighboring Armenia, and now supports more than 800,000 refugees and internally displaced people. (Azerbaijan has eight million people compared to Armenia's three million.)

Corruption, according to the "CIA World Fact Book," is "ubiquitous and the promise of widespread wealth from Azerbaijan's undeveloped petroleum resources remains largely unfulfilled."

Bob Livingston, the former powerful Congressman who resigned the House as Speaker-designate, and ex-Rep. Toby Moffett lead the account.

FAY SHAPIRO JOINS O'DWYER CO.
Fay Shapiro, most recently senior director of marketing and media relations, Market Wire, Los Angeles, has joined the O'Dwyer Co. as publisher.
She is in charge of marketing, PR, advertising sales, and circulation promotion for the five O'Dwyer products––website, newsletter, magazine, and directories of PR firms and corporate PR units.

Shapiro was VP of the Media Directory Product Group of BurellesLuce, New York, from 2000-2004, handling development of the company's first Media Directory Online Service.

She was in charge of customer service and client training for the online directory.

As publisher of Oxbridge Communications, New York, from 1989-2000, she headed marketing, sales, product development and production for its print and electronic publications including the Oxbridge Standard Periodical Directory, a basic reference tool used by most public libraries.

Shapiro was at Bacon's PR and Media Information Systems, Chicago, from 1984-89 as editorial director, handling media research, editing, layout and directory production.

She has a B.S. in journalism from the University of Illinois and an M.S. in Communications Studies from Northwestern University.

She is past treasurer and director, Publicity Club of New York and directory chair, Newsletter & Electronic Publishers Assn.

"I m happy to bring my 19 years of publishing experience to the O'Dwyer Co., which is noted for its thorough coverage of PR, media, marketing communications and PR services," she said.

Among other activities, Shapiro is arranging PR/media panels in Chicago and New York in April and May to celebrate the 35th Edition of O'Dwyer's Directory of PR Firms.

ATC SCORES WITH REEBOK.
Alan Taylor Communications has been hired by shoe marketer Reebok International as its "sports and performance apparel PR firm," Diane Pelkey, a spokesperson at the $3.8 billion company, told O'Dwyer's . "We met with a few folks before selecting Alan Taylor," she said. Pelkey feels comfortable with ATC because she had hired the New York-based company during the mid-`90s.

Bret Werner, ATC's managing partner, will handle the Reebok business. Part of ATC's work will be to leverage Reebok's "sports assets." Those assets include athlete endorsees such as Curt Shilling, pitcher on world championship Boston Red Sox, and Donovan McNabb, quarterback of the Super Bowl losing Philadelphia Eagles.

Allen Iverson (Philadelphia 76ers), Andy Roddick (`03 U.S. Open champ) and Carolina Kluft (Olympic gold medalist) also are on Reebok's payroll.

Pelkey said Reebok uses HL Group (New York) for fashion PR and PMK/HBM for entertainment PR.

MAGAZINE TO TAP
NEW MOM MARKET.
Katherine Lee is editor of Working Through Pregnancy, a new biannual magazine that will tap into the $32 billion spent by the new mom market.

The new publication, published in New York by Working Mother magazine, will bring out two issues—spring/summer and fall/winter—in 2005, as guides to lifestyle and work solutions during pregnancy.

WTP will be distributed to human resource departments at Fortune 500 companies (50,000) and to OB/GYN offices (300,000).

Carol Evans, CEO of Working Mother Media, which also owns the National Assn. for Female Executives, said the new publication fills a void in the marketplace for the more than two million working women who will give birth this year.

The magazine, which is based in New York, will have three editorial sections: "You"—Preparing for the physical and emotional changes of pregnancy and birth; "Work"—Maternity leave benefits, childcare, financial planning and on-the-job nursing, and "Family"—Nutrition, baby gear and self-esteem for new parents.

The editorial staff of Working Mother will provide the content for the sections. The Rosen Group is handling PR for the new magazine. Publicists can pitch ideas and information to Lee via e-mail at [email protected].

SAVOY TRIES TO MAKE
A COMEBACK.
Jazzy Communications, a division of Chicago-based Hartman Publishing, is restarting Savoy this week as a lifestyle magazine for affluent, professional African-American readers.

Monroe Anderson, former community affairs director at WBBM-TV, is editor of the new Savoy.

The 116-page combeback issue, which features Sen. Barack Obama and his wife Michelle on the cover, has 14 articles, features and several news columns, including one by Terrie Williams, a New York-based PR pro for many years and a motivational speaker, and the "Today" show's "Domestic Diva" Wayne Johnson.

Savoy ceased publication in Dec. 2003 when its parent company Vanguarde Media filed for bankruptcy. The magazine had a total circulation of 325,000 at the height of its popularity.

Savoy's new publisher, Hermene Hartman, started N Digo in Dec. 1989 as a monthly "magapaper" highlighting Chicago's black leaders and newsmakers.

The paper's circulation has grown from a 50,000 circulation publication to a weekly readership of 625,000, making it the top African-American weekly in the U.S.

Savoy will be sold on newsstands nationwide, and will publish 10 times a year with a cover price of $3.99.

BRIEFS
Courtney Smith, who runs his own money management firm in New York, was arrested Feb. 7 after he was indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles for allegedly promoting GenesisIntermedia, a now defunct company, from late 1999 to mid-2001 as a financial commentator on CNBC, CNN and Bloomberg TV.

Unknown to viewers, Smith got $100,000 in cash and company shares valued at $1.2 million, the indictment said.

Overhaul & Maintenance, published by McGraw-Hill's Aviation Week Group, will expand publication to 11 times a year in 2005, adding an Aug. issue.
The magazine is read by managers and executives in the aviation and aerospace fields.

Frank Jackman is editor-in-chief of O&M, which is based in New York.

Yoga Journal, San Francisco, released its second annual "Yoga In America" survey that shows Americans spend $2.95 billion a year on yoga classes and products, including equipment, clothings, vacations and media (DVDs, videos, books and magazines).

The study, conducted by Harris Interactive Service, revealed that 7.5% of U.S. adults, or 16.5 million people, now practice yoga, an increase of 5.6% from the prior year and 43% from 2002. The fastest growing segment is the 18-24 age group, which increased by 46% in one year.

Alan Weinkrantz and Lois Whitman have joined the swelling ranks of PR bloggers.

Weinkrantz, whose San Antonio-based firm has focused on U.S. and Israeli technologies companies, will offer his personal observations, news and analysis on his blog, alanweinkrantz.typepad.com.

Weinkrantz believes his comments will appeal to journalists, analysts, vendors, and end-users.

Whitman, who heads HWH PR/New Media in New York, will also share her personal views about PR and other topics on her new blog, which is located on her firm's website at hwhpr.com.

Dick Martin, AT&T's longtime head of PR who watched a series of top executives try to remake the long distance phone company following its breakup in 1984, recounts some of the missteps that happened during his 30 years there in "Tough Calls" (AMACOM, 294 pages, $24.95).

(Media news continued on next page)

POOLEY JOINS FORTUNE
AS TOP EDITOR.
Eric Pooley will take over as Fortune's top editor on April 1 when he replaces Rik Kirkland as managing editor.

Pooley, 45, currently editor of Time magazine's European, Middle Eastern and African editions, joined Time in July 1995 following a 12-year career at New York magazine where he started as a freelance fact checker in 1983, before moving up to senior editor, contributing editor and political columnist.

He wrote several cover stories for the magazine on subjects ranging from politics, crimes and urban affairs to sports, the arts and media.

From Jan. 2001 to Sept. 2002, Pooley was nation editor for Time in the U.S., overseeing the magazine's political, military and national affairs coverage.

HOFFMAN REJOINS
CNBC AS PRESIDENT.
New CNBC president Mark Hoffman, who was rehired to revive the 24-hour business news channel, said he will continue to focus on CNBC's core audience of wealthy investors.

Hoffman, 47, who had worked for CNBC in the late 1990s and rose from executive producer to president of its CNBC European operations, left in 2001 to become president of NBC-owned WVIT-TV in New Britain, Conn.

In taking over all day-to-day operations, programming and technology, Hoffman has replaced CEO/president Pamela Thomas-Graham, who was named chairman of a new unit to handle "new strategic opportunities," including spinning off shows.

DIETICIAN TO EDIT
COOKING SMART.
Jill Melton has joined Cooking Smart, a new national consumer publication for home cooks, as editor-in-chief.

Melton, a dietician, will oversee editorial content and overall direction of the magazine, published by Coincide Publishing in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Kyle Cox, publisher of CS, said Melton has a "flair for putting together features that are timely, relevant, distinctive and personable."

Melton spent 10 years as the senior editor/food editorial director of Cooking Light magazine before leaving in 2004.

CS, which made its nationwide debut in January 2005, takes a positive approach to eating well. "Eating should not be about deprivation, but instead emphasize balance, variety, moderation and good taste," said Melton, who lives in Birmingham, Ala., and can be reached at 480/237-7100, or via e-mail at editors at CookingSmartMagazine.com.

BIG BOARD CHIEF
MEETS THE PRESS.
The New York Stock Exchange chief John Thain met with about 24 Wall Street reporters on Feb. 8 in the exchange's sixth-floor boardroom.

Paul Tharp, a business reporter for The New York Post, said the meeting, which was attended by Thain's key executives and spin doctors, have been a rarity for the NYSE.

The meeting could be the start of regular roundtables with reporters, said Tharp, who pointed out the invited reporters "tend to attack the NYSE from all sides, and compete to spread leaks."

NYFWA ELECTS OFFICERS.
Richard Koreto, editor of Advising Boomers Magazine, was elected president of the New York Financial Writers Assn. at the annual meeting on Jan. 26.

Other new officers for 2005-2006 are: Britt Tunick of IDD, VP; Grace Weinstein, a freelance writer, treasurer, and Sheila Mullan, Market News International, secretary-assistant treasurer.

The 264-member group finished its fiscal year on Jan. 26 in the black with $15,157, as compared to a net loss of $7,745 last year, according to a preliminary financial report that was handed out at the meeting.

The assn.'s total income rose to $351,215, stemming from higher ticket sales and program ads from the annual Financial Follies dinner/show ($275,935) and the annual spring awards dinner ($62,690). Total expenses, which dropped by about $500, totaled $336,057.

The assn.'s cash assets now total $450,531.
Jane Reilly, who is NYFWA's executive director, was paid $34,744 in 2004, up from $30,173 in 2003.
It was also disclosed at the meeting that 30 new members had joined in 2004, and 43 dropped out of the organization.

The assn. began its new year with 176 active members, 27 associates, 16 students and 45 life members.

PLACEMENT TIPS________________
Architectural Digest will feature outstanding architecture from across the world in the first Architecture Issue, which will be published in May.

The special edition, which is being produced by Paige Rense, editor-in-chief and her staff, will feature projects by big-name architects and fast-rising talents, from classic to contemporary.
The issue's ad close is Feb. 21.

"Prism" is a new one-hour interview-talk radio show on WHAT-AM in Philadelphia, co-hosted by Bonnie Squires and David Brown.

Squires is president of Squires Consulting, a PR firm, and Brown, is CEO of Brown Ptrs., an ad agency in Blue Bell, Pa.

The program, which airs on Sundays at 2:30 p.m., features interviews with prominent Philadelphians. A recent guest was Pliver's . Clair Franklin, CEO of International House of Philadelphia.

The shocking firing of Hewlett-Packard's Carly Fiorina dominated business news last week. The numerous stories had some common threads.

These were that Fiorina's style (such as holding "pep" rallies for workers) was opposite to that of the H-P culture; she did too much "grandstanding" around the world and not enough "hands-on" work; she introduced a "cult of personality" that included hanging her portrait next to [sacred] founders Bill Hewlett and David Packard at corporate h.q.; she used "hardball" tactics on opponents, including firing veteran managers; she enforced a strict ban on employees talking to the press; she lied to the press in January when she described her relationship with the board as "excellent" when it wasn't .

The difficult merger with Compaq she pushed didn't help.

Dave Murray of The Ragan Report said 3/31/04 that the "happy culture" of HP flipped after Fiorina joined it. The tradition was "The HP Way" of being "casual and confident" that resulted in "lots of great employee communications programs," he wrote.

But after Fiorina, he said, he found a "stiff" corporate treatment like that of Ford, IBM, and Disney.

"Rip-off 101" is a study that attacks the soaring cost of college textbooks.

The three major PR textbooks, The Practice of PR, Effective PR, and PR: Strategies and Tactics, all sell for more than $100. Used copies are $60-plus.

Wholesale prices of textbooks soared 62% in the past decade while regular books went up only 19%, says the New Jersey Public Interest Research Groups (students and consumers).

It says U.S. students pay up to twice as much as foreign students for the same books. They re also forced to pay extra for CDs and other materials that are "shrink-wrapped" with the books. A chemistry text, formerly $152, is now $223.75 because of materials "bundled" with it.

Our advice: students and professors should follow the PR trade press and websites because much of what's in the textbooks does not match the reality of the current PR job market or PR industry.

For instance, PR counselors have become more specialized in recent years, many spending their entire careers in such areas as healthcare, technology, financial, food, travel, etc. Students should pick a career track early.

On the corporate side, those with M.A.'s and other advanced degrees, plus records of community service, political activity (especially on the Republican National Committee), and knowledge of marketing, advertising, etc., do well. Media experience is less important.

Students need to follow the Ketchum/Williams "pay for play" story and related incidents that are under investigation by the GAO, FCC, Inspector General, Congress, the Pentagon and Dept. of Education. Extensive reports on this appeared in the Feb. 13 New York Times under the byline of Tim O'Brien, who notes the unavailability of Ketchum execs, and in CorpWatch by Chris Raphael (corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11836). He describes the firm's ranking of reporters who covered the "No Child Left Behind" Act. Those who didn't follow the DOE line were given negative marks.

Kenneth Remson, Vermont principal, was given a -70 for an article in the Burlington Free Press that had "12 negative messages." An op-ed piece by then Education Secretary Rod Paige got the highest marks. Critics of NCLB include the National Education Assn. and Amer. Fed. of Teachers.

Instead of rating reporters on how well they followed the line, Ketchum's PR pros should have studied their criticisms to see if any were valid. That would have been better PR.

Since Ketchum is being so quiet, we turned to some of their PRSA Silver Anvil Award winners to see if they could hold up under examination.

One that caught our eye was the Anvil won with Atlanta web designer Enterpulse in 2003.

Ketchum's "research" found that Enterpulse's "user-centric" approach to web design and construction "was not matched by any other competitor."

Our Google search of "web design" found 35.1 million entries. How could Ketchum know what all these other web builders were doing?!

Another statement, setting up a classic "straw man," was that "Competitors ... built websites filled with technology for its own sake."

The Atlanta Business Chronicle lists 25 major web builders in the area including Enterpulse. We called up some. None said they "fill their websites with technology for its own sake." The firms were shocked that anyone could make such a statement.
Ketchum did a survey of web users that found many were dissatisfied with websites. It got good publicity, including a column under the byline of Henry Devries of the San Diego SourceBook that was basically the Ketchum Anvil entry.

Enterpulse had $8 million in sales and 66 employees in '02. The company's PR firm is Hope Beckham of Atlanta, headed by Bob Hope (ex-Burson-Marsteller) and Paul Beckham.

We give an "A" to the website of Enterpulse which provides address, phone numbers, and picture of CEO Jerry Eickhoff, who responded to a call.
Eickoff founded Enterpulse in 1998. It survived the dot-com bust and now has 80 employees.

–Jack O'Dwyer