SUN EYES PR CONSOLIDATION.
Sun Microsystems has begun a review to prune its roster of five PR and analyst relations firms.

“Our goal is to consolidate Sun’s PR and AR business down to two agencies,” Karen Klein, senior director of worldwide PR for Sun, told O’Dwyer’s.
Sun’s PR spending has been about $10 million for the last few years. It has about 30 in-house staffers.

Ogilvy PR Worldwide, Citigate Cunningham, Fleishman-Hillard, Bite Comms. and Chen PR are on Sun’s current roster. Eastwick Comms. has worked for the company in the past.

Klein said the five incumbents and outside agencies are being considered in the review.

Citigate Cunningham has handled a variety of work for Sun, including corporate and international PR and analyst relations. That relationship began in April 2001, when CC won part of Sun’s last review over incumbent Burson-Marsteller for that $2 million piece of business.

Lois Kelly of Foghound is working on the review.

SHIPLEY NAMED RF/D.C. CHIEF.
Ruder Finn has named Barbara Shipley, a Fleishman-Hillard veteran, managing director of its Washington, D.C., office. She replaces Craig Martin – who exited about a month ago – on April 4.

Richard Funess, president of RF/Americas, calls the Shipley hire “one of the most significant appointments” that the No. 2 independent firm has made in D.C.

He expects to add more people to RF/D.C., which had $2.4M in ‘04 net fees.

Shipley was creative director and deputy managing director at F-H, which is part of Omnicom.

SITRICK GOES TO BAT
FOR DODGERS.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have retained Sitrick & Co. to handle media and fan relations, and do PR for its owner Frank McCourt, the Boston real estate developer.

McCourt purchased the Dodgers from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. for $430 million in ‘04.
The New York Times, on March 8, noted that McCourt does “not own a reservoir of goodwill” among the fans after purging popular players.

The Dodgers are currently locked in a dogfight with the Angels for bragging rights in the City of Angels.

Angels owner Arte Moreno recently changed his team’s name to “Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim” in a bid to create a stronger identity in the nation’s No. 2 city.

Allan Mayer, who works on the Dodgers account with Kelly Mullens at Sitrick, told O’Dwyer’s the firm will not be involved in the PR battle with the Angels.

TELLER TO FINANCIAL DYNAMICS.
Harlan Teller, who was Hill & Knowlton’s chief client officer and head of its corporate practice, has joined Financial Dynamics as head of its Midwest operations/director of reputation management services. He is based in FD’s new Chicago office.

The 25-year PR veteran has counseled United Airlines, Sears and Kansas City Power & Light.
FD also has hired H&K’s Harlan Loeb and James Sloane. Loeb was the firm’s litigation services asset group director. He has represented Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, Allstate and Mitsubishi. Sloane was in charge of H&K’s corporate social responsibility unit.

Declan Kelly, CEO of FD/U.S., says the Midwest will play a ‘pivotal role’ in the firm’s growth.

LEXISNEXIS RELIES ON CRC.
LexisNexis Group, which is investigating how the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of more than 32,000 people may have been stolen, is using Creative Response Concepts to handle crisis control.

CRC is noted for work on behalf of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which ran the smear campaign against John Kerry. Most recently, the Alexandria, Va.,-based firm signed on to work for USA Next, the group that declared war on AARP for the senior group’s opposition to President Bush’s Social Security overhaul.

LexisNexis notified federal authorities about the data theft, and is cooperating with Justice and Treasury Dept. investigations.

CRC’s Sean McCabe is handling the account.

HUGHES HEADED FOR STATE DEPT.
Karen Hughes, one of President Bush's most trusted advisors, is slated to be nominated to the nation's top propaganda post.

Patricia Harrison is acting undersecretary of public diplomacy and public affairs. She took over last June when Margaret Tutwiler decided to take the top spokesman slot at the New York Stock Exchange.

Tutwiler had succeeded ad woman Charlotte Beers, whose efforts to boost America's image overseas were roundly criticized.

The nomination of a Bush confidant, such as Hughes, to the public diplomacy post may signal that the Administration will become more committed in its second term to improving America's reputation, especially in the Middle East.

Hughes left her White House post because she preferred raising her son in Texas rather than in D.C.

The Senate has to confirm Hughes, 48, to the post.

ZENO, STRAT@COMM
GUIDE ANTHEM PUSH.
Zeno Group and Strat@comm are guiding PR for a three-year campaign to “re-teach” Americans “The Star Spangled Banner.”

Amy Colton, VP at Zeno, told O'Dwyer's the campaign's goal, in addition to teaching the national anthem, is to highlight the importance of music education as budgets are slashed at schools across the country.

Strat@comm approached the Jeep unit of DaimlerChrysler, a longtime client, earlier this year about a national campaign being planned by the National Assn. for Music Education. Jody Tinson, account director for Strat@comm, a Fleishman-Hillard unit, told O’Dwyer’s the firm’s D.C. office pitched the campaign to Jeep, which signed on as national presenting sponsor.

Laura Bush is honorary chair of the project.
NAME, which has brought in Zeno to handle PR for the overall campaign, launched a March 10 event with the U.S. Marines and “The President’s Own” Marine band, members of Congress, school children involved in music programs and country favorites the “Oak Ridge Boys.”

A recent Harris poll found 61 percent of Americans don’t know the words to the national anthem – nearly 40 percent didn’t know the song’s name – but of those that know it, 70 percent said they learned it in school music class.

The national campaign is slated to run through 2007 with appearances at sporting events, concerts, in addition to community and school programs.

5W WORKS FOR ‘FREE’ LEBANON.
The Lebanese-American Council for Democracy has retained 5W Public Relations (once again) to build support for President Bush’s call for Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon.

The Washington, D.C.-based organization was the driving force behind the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act that was signed into law by Bush in December 2003. 5W CEO Ronn Torossian told O’Dwyer’s that his firm had worked with LACD on that effort.

The LACD, according to its website, blames the Syrian occupation for triggering a “mass emigration of Lebanon’s best and brightest, an increased control of Lebanon by Islamic fundamentalists and a shattered economy with a $30 billion debt.”

RIESTER~ROBB
WINS ARIZONA LOTTERY.
The Arizona Lottery Commission has dropped 10-year incumbent E.B. Lane Marketing Comms. and awarded a new two-year contract for advertising and PR to Phoenix-based Riester~Robb following an RFP process.

Eight firms, including Off Madison Avenue and the incumbent, submitted proposals, a field which was narrowed down to three.

The new pact, estimated at more than $9M a year, is slated to begin April 1, with three one-year options.

Katie Pushor, executive director for the Arizona Lottery, said the panel concluded R~R’s proposal was the most detailed service plan for the lottery’s future.

GAVIN ANDERSON
IN RATING BUSINESS.
Gavin Anderson, who founded a corporate, financial and PA firm in 1981 with much of its business abroad, selling it to Omnicom in 1990 when it had 75 employees, left it at the end of 2003 to start a new firm that would grade corporate boards.

“GovernanceMetrics International” was described in the March 6 business section of the New York Times.

Corporate governance practices of some companies are still in the “stone age,” Times reporter Gretchen Morgenson wrote in describing a “conclusion” drawn by researchers for GovernanceMetrics.

The firm looked at 3,220 companies worldwide and gave only 34 the highest rating of 10.

Anderson said the 34, including 27 in the U.S., outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index by an average of 11% in the 12 months to Feb. 28.

Potentially negative practices include related-party transactions and companies with dual stocks that give more voting power to insiders. Separating the chairman and CEO roles is seen as a positive as are having financial experts on board auditing committees and having “director training.”

U.S. companies had an average ranking of seven.
Biggest problem for U.S. companies was said to be high executive pay. This accounted for 31% of the red flags given to U.S. companies vs. 6% of red flags issued for European companies.

Anderson, who is CEO, said he had “25 good years” in PR and wanted to “do something different.”
His former PR firm employed 50 people in Asia at the time he sold it to Omnicom. He said OMC had been a “great employer” and he had stayed with the firm even though his contract had run out in 1996.

An annual report of the company in 1996 reported $20 million in fees with 51% coming from financial.

H&K REPS ALLBRITTON
IN RIGGS EXIT.
Hill & Knowlton has been brought in to handle PR for the Allbritton family, which has run the embattled Riggs National Corp. for over 20 years.

Robert Allbritton, son of Joe Allbritton, who took control of Riggs in 1981, resigned as chairman and CEO of the Washington banking company on March 7 after four years at the helm, the last of which have seen its main subsidiary, Riggs Bank, plead guilty for improper money laundering controls and become the subject of a Justice Dept. inquiry. The laundering charges stemmed from Riggs accounts for ex-Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and oil accounts for Equatorial Guinea. The bank paid $41 million in fines.

Sean Kevelighan, a director in H&K’s Washington, D.C., office, told O’Dwyer’s the firm has been quietly representing the Allbritton family for the last few months, noting H&K did not put its name on Allbritton’s resignation statement issued on March 7.

Allbritton said he plans to focus on the family TV business, Allbritton Comms. The family still owns 40 percent of Riggs stock.

Riggs is now slated to be sold to PNC Financial Services Group. Kekst & Co. is advising Riggs through the merger with PNC.

N.Y. TIMES MAKES
EDITORIAL CHANGES.
New York Times executive editor Bill Keller has killed “Circuits,” the weekly stand alone technology section. The last section will be published in the edition of March 24.

Keller said much of the technology coverage will be merged into the “Business Day” section and other sections of the paper.

Plans are being studied to publish Circuits as a special section on a regular basis.

New shopping section

Keller said a new mid-week cousin of “Sunday Styles,” focused on fashion, fitness, beauty, smart shopping and lifestyles, would start on April 14.

“It will provide a more eye-pleasing runway for the fashion coverage now tucked inside Tuesday “Metro,” and absorb the “On-Line Shopper” feature from Circuits. The section will include a number of engaging and consumer-friendly new features,” he said.

The Times will roll out a redesigned Business Day, Monday through Saturday, on May 5, with new features and writers.

Keller said Bizday will “remain, first and foremost, an aggressive news section, but we will be adding space to give each day a secondary focus, the way we have done with media coverage in Monday Business.”

On Thursday, he said the focus will be technology, and Bizday will absorb the core content of Circuits, including David Pogue, whose column will begin on the dress page.

On Saturday, the focus will be personal business, and “we will be beefing up and enlivening our coverage of media and related business, such as marketing” on Monday, he said.

Two new columns

The Times also started two human-interest columns called “Ink” and “Lens,” and adding a second op-ed page to the paper.

The new columns joined “Metropolitan Diary,” “Public Lives,” and “Boldface Names” in the weekday “Metro” section, on March 8.

Ink is an illustrated vignette reported by the staff of the Times. Lens features photos of unusual sights around town.

NATIONAL ENQUIRER
GETS NEW SECTION.
The National Enquirer is getting a women’s section. Paul Field, the paper’s new editor-in-chief, said the new “dedicated” section will have stories about health, diet, consumer, fashion, beauty, advice, recipes, TV and movies.

He welcomes suggestions for the section, such as a great human-interest diet story.

The editor said the larger news hole will also allow the paper to run more crime news reports and scandal stories.

The Enquirer, which is published weekly by American Media, is moving to New York from Boca Raton, Fla.

The N.Y. office will open on March 29.

PRESS RIGHTS AT STAKE
IN APPLE CASE.
A Superior Court judge in San Jose, Calif., has tentatively ruled that three online publishers must disclose where they got the confidential information for their articles about Apple Computer.

In Dec. 2004, Apple sued unknown individuals, identified in court documents as “Does,” who leaked specifications about an upcoming music product to Jason O’Grady, publisher of O’Grady’s Power Page; Monish Bhatia, publisher of Mac News Network, and the editor of AppleInsider, who is identified online and in court documents as Kasper Jade.

The online reporters have refused to cooperate, and attorneys representing them argued that forcing them to divulge their sources would create a “chilling effect” that weakens the media’s ability to report in the public’s interest.

George Riley, an attorney for Apple, has questioned whether the website operators are truly journalists or merely people who “disseminated” information.

If they refuse to tell Apple attorneys the names of their sources, who are presumably employees of Apple, they could be subject to criminal violations of the U.S. Trade Secrets Act, and might not be protected by the laws that ordinarily shield journalists.

On Jan. 4, Apple sued a publisher of another website that revealed so-called trade secrets about the $499 Mac mini computer.

Defendants in the case include Harvard Univ. student Nicholas Ciarelli, a reporter for The Harvard Crimson who writes ThinkSecret under the pseudonym Nick DePlume, and unnamed sources who tipped him off two weeks before Apple officially introduced the mini on Jan. 11.

GAWKER BLOGGERS
GET INCENTIVE PAY.
Gawker Media, a New York-based firm that has 10 blogs, is testing a bonus system based on the traffic to their sites.

Lockhart Steele, managing editor of Gawker Media, told a digital journalism class at New York Univ., taught by I Want Media founder Patrick Phillips, that “fulltime” freelance writers, who are paid a set rate of $2,500 a month, can more than double their pay.

“One of the things we do is to try to figure out what is going to get us highly ranked on Google,” said Steele.

MEDIA NUMBERS
6,200—Number of magazines currently published for the general public in the U.S., according to Samir Husni, a journalism professor at the Univ. of Mississippi.

35%—Percentage of Internet users who read, post or maintain a blog or are familiar with them, according to research by Gartner/G2, a management consulting firm.

457—The number of ad pages in Vogue’s March issue, making it the largest March issue in the magazine’s 112-year history.

(Media news continued on next page)

FORBES CREATES
LUXURY AUTO WEBSITE.
Forbes.com is starting a website geared to the luxury automotive market.

ForbesAutos.com will provide information about buying, choosing, pricing, financing, and insuring luxury vehicles. The site will also run reviews of near luxury, luxury and “It” cars.

Mary Butler, previously managing editor of cars.com, was appointed editor of the new site, which will go live in May 2005.

Forbes.com is headed by Jim Spanfeller, president and CEO.

The site covers business, technology, markets, personal finance and lifestyle, with streaming video broadcasts several times a day.

AUTO CLUB STARTS
NEW CUSTOM MAG.
Pace Communications, a custom publishing firm in Greensboro, N.C., will publish a new travel and lifestyle magazine for AAA members in eight Midwest states served by The Auto Club Group.

The new magazine, called AAA Living, is slated to be sent to approximately 2.5 million households. The organization plans to begin publishing with the March/April edition.

It will contain content that is customized for each AAA club territory whose members it serves. AAAL will replace Michigan Living and Home & Away in ACG’s eight-state, six-club territory, which includes Chicago, Michigan, Minnesota/Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wisconsin.

Kathy Harrison, who is publisher, is based in Burnsville, Minn.

PLACEMENT TIPS_________________
Chief Supply Chain Officer, a new quarterly magazine published by Helmers Publishing in Peterborough, N.H., focuses on technology, business, and career strategies vital to the success of the chief supply chain officer, an executive level position responsible for setting and directing strategies for supply chain innovations.

Each issue will feature three sections—Operations, Information Technology, and Management—that will explain emerging technologies, new business practices, and how to manage their successful implementation.

Dave Andrews is publisher/editorial director of CSCO, and Mark Reynolds is editor/electronic media. They can be reached at dandrews@ helmers.com and [email protected]. 603/924-9631.

The Michelin Guide New York City 2006 will go on sale for the first time in Nov. 2005.

The new publication, which is Michelin’s first in North America, will rate about 500 restaurants and 50 hotels in Manhattan.

Michelin inspectors have finished conducting anonymous visits to restaurants and hotels, and have begun making pre-arranged full inspections of each establishment with management to complete their findings for the guide.

Susan Magrino Agency launched the book.

Fabulous Floors magazine, which began publishing last year as a quarterly, is dedicated solely to flooring fashion as an interior design element.

The magazine features information about every flooring type, what’s new and how each can be used, from fashion to day-to-day practicality, according Sonna Calandrino, publisher.

“Our readers want useful information on fashion, decorating and coordinating their own flooring project, help with the shopping process, answers to questions they wish they could ask the experts, how flooring brings a room to life and where to find flooring fast,” said Calandrino, who can be contacted at Peachtree Communications, 226 Old Post rd., Ghent, N.Y. 518/828-3200.

PEOPLE_______________________
Martha Holmberg, formerly publisher and editor of Fine Cooking magazine in Connecticut, has joined The Oregonian in Portland, Ore., as food editor.

John Barron was promoted to editor of The Chicago Sun-Times, replacing Michael Cooke, who left the paper to become editor of The New York Daily News in January.

Don Hayner, formerly managing editor/news, was promoted to managing editor of the Sun-Times.

MEDIA BRIEFS__________________
Look magazine may be revived by Time Inc. as a magazine for movie fans, especially males.

A test issue of the new Look will be sent to a small percentage of Entertainment Week’s subscribers to judge reader reaction before making a decision on whether to publish on a regular basis.

Quick & Simple, a weekly magazine devoid of celebrities, will make its debut this fall.
The new title from Hearst Magazines will cover lifestyle topics like home, family, and fashion.
Susan Toepfer is editor-in-chief; Lisa Grace, managing editor, and Cary Barbor and Beth Lipton, senior editors.

Spectrum Magazine, which focuses on all facets of the autism community, is going national.

Evelyn Ain, a Hicksville, N.Y.-based autism advocate and parent, started Long Island Spectrum and New York City Spectrum in 2004 as a means to fill the void of information available to families who have developmentally disabled children.

Ain is now offering a national edition, called United Spectrum, which will publish six times a year, and cover a range of topics pertaining to autism written by mental health and medical authorities.
Allison Gayne of HLD/Blankman PR is handling PR at 516/536-6811.

The Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly debuted on March 14 at in the 15-county region surrounding Fort Wayne, edited by Rob Kaiser, a former business reporter for The Chicago Tribune.

Lizzie Grubman’s “PoweR Girls” show on MTV March 10 generated buzz last week, touching off 19 e-mails to odwyerpr.com.

Some condemned the image of PR put forth as the young and attractive PR “girls” dashed here and there, sometimes overwhelmed by the details of a nightclub opening.

Others felt Lizzie is doing a good job of publicizing herself. She is now a celebrity and wherever she goes, “heads turn,” as one of her staffers said.

Clients will come in because she is a power in New York able to deal with celebs since she herself is one. She could be the female Howard Rubenstein.

The show was about staffers enjoying themselves in a hectic atmosphere, which is much closer to what a newspaper city room is like than the stiff, defensive atmosphere of many corporate PR depts.

Reporters mostly describe their jobs as “fun” because it’s satisfying to bring facts and possibly deeper meanings to audiences. They like to mix with people who are also enjoying themselves.

Tim O’Brien, who wrote the “Spinning Frenzy” blast on PR for the Feb. 13 New York Times, returned to work last week after a two-week vacation and says he will continue to write about the PR industry.

Coverage of PR by major media is needed and may help bring about some reforms. We chided O’Brien for taking off two full weeks just after his story, leaving callers no way to contact him. A PR pro who did this would be condemned.

O’Brien had complained about not being able to reach Ketchum and Omnicom execs. “News does not take a vacation,” we told him. O’Brien’s article referred slightingly to the O’Dwyer Co. as a “gadfly” to the PR industry, ignoring the vast databanks we make available including three 600-page directories, newsletter, magazine and four years of searchable stories on odwyerpr.com... the NYT March 13 had another negative PR feature, this time on the Bush Administration’s alleged use of “Prepackaged TV News” (VNRs) to propagandize the public without full disclosure of the source... the New York Post, describing the O’Dwyer PR firm rankings in a top-of-the-page three-column story March 7, called the O’Dwyer website/NL “the bible of PR”...

O’Brien’s blast on PR no doubt touched off a secret “ethics summit” at PRSA h.q. set for the morning of March 22. This was not announced on the PRSA web nor via a press release and it took a week for anyone at PRSA to confirm the meeting.
PRSA won’t say what groups have been invited but did say one PR pro attending is James Murphy of Accenture, chair of the “PR Coalition Summit” in Madison, N.J., Jan. 14, 2003. Nineteen groups attended that meeting which was open to the press. Scandals at Enron, Worldcom, Global Crossing, etc., touched it off.

The press is not allowed at the PRSA ethics summit but there will be a press briefing in the afternoon.

A “Business Ethics Summit” April 21 will feature Paul Steiger, ME, Wall Street Journal; Lawrence Ingrassia, business editor, New York Times, and Matthew Winkler, Bloomberg. It will be hosted by Business Ethics magazine at the Helmsley (businessethics.com)...

The National Institute on Media and the Family told the Word of Mouth Marketing Assn. in a full page ad in AdWeek that the new WOMMA Ethics Code “Misses the Mark with Minors.” It urged marketers to “protect kids recruited for stealth marketing campaigns”.

Liberal critics want to add George Will to the list of journalists “on the take.” The $250K he got in February from the conservative Bradley Foundation is far too much $$ for a journalist to be taking from a group with a strong political agenda, they said. Pulitzer Prize winners only get $10K, they noted.

PRSA president Judy Phair, 2004 president Del Galloway, 1989 president John Paluszek and COO Catherine Bolton went on a trip March 2-14 to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, a boondoggle partly because there are only three PRSA members in all of China–one each at Burson-Marsteller and Golin/Harris and one at China Global PR Co.

PR pros who regularly go to China say their 10-day trips cost $5,000-$6,000 ($9,000 just for the flight if it’s first class via United and partner Air China). Good hotels are $150-$200 a day and meals at least $30 a day.

Oddly, Prof. Carole Gorney of Lehigh University was already in Beijing and met the PRSA foursome. She may spend a sabbatical in China next year.

Gorney, a former national director, headed the five-person Philadelphia Assembly delegation last October that unanimously voted against decoupling APR from Assembly membership.

PRSA leaders are fighting any move to decouple the national board this year. The trip was not announced in advance on the PRSA website.

Phair sent the site at least two e-mails from China on the visit. Previous boondoggle like this was the board’s four-day trip to London in 2000.

Travel/meals/hotels ballooned to a record $717K that year, more than double rent.

If PRSA has $$ for trips like this, why did it pinch pennies with the press at its New York conference last year? It demanded that reporters pay the full fees at any events involving food ($175 for opening reception and $125 for awards lunch).

Since no reporter would pay, PRSA relented at the last minute. Phair said PRSA will not try this again at the conference in Miami.

IABC hired Amanda Vaughn as PR/marketing manager at $50K but she quit after a couple of weeks, saying working for an association was “not a good fit.”

She reported to VP/marketing Joseph Uglade rather than president Julie Freeman, as did her predecessor.

– Jack O'Dwyer