B-M BACKS MOSCOW’S
OLYMPICS BID.
Burson-Marsteller is pitching Moscow as a “vibrant and bustling” place in its bid to land the 2012 Olympic Games, Richard Mintz, global PA chair of the WPP Group unit, told O’Dwyer’s.

Moscow, he said, is well-equipped to handle the Games. The Moscow 2012 Olympic Bid Committee says 65 percent of the infrastructure needed to support the Games is already in place.

Mintz stressed that the political and economic landscape has drastically changed since Moscow last hosted the Games in `80, an event that was boycotted by the U.S. due to Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan.

He believes awarding the Games to Moscow would signal acknowledgement of Russia’s move to democracy, and the emergence of eastern Europe on the world’s stage.

The B-M campaign is run out of its Brussels office, with support from outposts in Moscow and Singapore. Mintz, however, said each of B-M’s 45 offices will have input on the account.

B-M staffers joined Moscow 2012 officials in Singapore last week to meet with International Olympic Committee staffers.

The IOC will announce the winning site in July. Moscow is competing against Paris, London, New York and Madrid.

GEPHARDT ADDED TO ONEX TEAM.
Former House leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.), an ally of organized labor in his 28 years in Congress, has signed on as an advisor for Toronto-based-Onex Corp., which aims to buy two of Boeing’s commercial aircraft operations in a $1.2 billion move that has drawn the ire of an aerospace union and workers.

Boeing is spinning the sale of operations in Oklahoma and Kansas as a way for the company to avoid “significant cuts in manpower.” The company has pruned over 9,000 workers from the two locations and told them to apply for positions with Onex, a move hit last week by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace.

The union has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against Boeing. Onex has not said how many ex-Boeing staffers it will hire. Boeing is Kansas’ largest employer.

Seth Mersky, managing director of $16 billion Onex, praised Gephardt’s “dedication to working with both companies and workers to keep manufacturing jobs in America.”

Boeing interim CEO James Bell said he expected the deal to be consummated.

‘GREATEST GENERATION’
IN PR HONORED.
Harold Burson, Daniel Edelman, David Finn, Al Golin, Robert Dilenschneider and Margery Kraus will be honored for their roles as the “Greatest Generation” in PR on May 17 following a breakfast at the Yale Club in New York.

The celebration is held in conjunction with publication of the 35th annual edition of O’Dwyer’s Directory of PR Firms.

There also will be a panel discussion by leading members of the PR services business. That will include Don Bates (Media Distribution Services), Larry Moskowitz (Medialink), Doug Simon (D S Simon Productions), Peter Wengryn (VMS), Robert Waggoner (BurrellesLuce) and Mark Weiner (Delahaye unit of Bacon’s).

Mort Kaplan, professor of marketing communication and director of PR studies at Columbia College, Chicago, will moderate the sessions.

The event is free. Contact Fay Shapiro, publisher of J.R. O’Dwyer Co., at (646) 843-2088 or [email protected] to attend.

MOORE JOINS WADE GROUP.
Richard Moore, a nearly 20-year veteran of Burson-Marsteller, is now senior VP at The Wade Group.

At B-M, Moore counseled the Government of Mexico, guiding it through the campaign for the North American Free Trade Agreement. He also handled Philip Morris, Eli Lilly, American Plastics Council, Hopi Indian tribe and Assn. of American Railroads. From `99 to `01, Moore directed B-M’s media department in Washington, D.C.

Prior to B-M, Moore was Press Secretary to former Senator Mack Mattingly and served as an Army journalist in Vietnam.

Terry Wade, who was in charge of Cohn & Wolfe’s worldwide PA business, established TWG in `02.

MEDIA UPSURGE,
PR ETHICS DISCUSSED.
Problems and opportunities caused by the proliferation of new ways of reaching consumers, including the Internet and word-of-mouth marketing, were discussed at Columbia College, Chicago, April 20 by panelists that included PR executives as well as editors.

The discussion, part of a series of events observing the 35th edition of O’Dwyer’s Directory of PR Firms this year, was supported by Media Distribution Services, BurrellesLuce, Medialink/U.S. Newswire, and Bacon’s/Delahaye. (continued on page 7)

CCF BOOSTS FIGHT
AGAINST ‘OBESITY INC.’
The Center for Consumer Freedom, the D.C.-based front group of the restaurant and food industry, has demanded that The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention retract its “deeply flawed study purportedly showing that obesity kills 400,000 Americans each year.” New research published last month reports that obesity is the cause of death for 26,000 Americans.

The Center put a press release on PR Newswire on April 28, criticizing CDC director, Julie Gerberding for neither endorsing the new research nor apologizing for “her agency’s embattled earlier estimate, even as it is now being written off by experts, the media and the public.”

The Center has also run ads that attack “obesity hype” in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today and Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Despite, the Center’s marketing push, “Obesity Inc.” is unlikely to go away, according to the NYT’s Gina Kolata. “And some social critics and medical researchers say that because there are so many groups with an entrenched interest in crusading against fat it is unlikely that the obesity epidemic will be declared over any time soon,” Kolata wrote in the April 29 paper.

VANCE TAPPED
AS IDFA’S PA CHIEF.
David Vance has been named PA director at the International Dairy Foods Assn. in Washington, D.C. He formerly was with The Harbour Group and Chlopak, Leonard Schechter & Assocs, which is owned by Gavin Anderson & Co.

The IDFA is composed of the Milk Industry Foundation, National Cheese Institute and the International Ice Cream Assn. Its more than 500 members represent more than 85 percent of the milk, cheese, cultured products and frozen desserts that are marketed in the U.S. each year. They combine for over $70 billion annual sales.

SCHWARTZ BACKS
‘JETSONS’ LAUNCH.
Schwartz Communications is representing DayJet Corp., which will launch an “air taxi” service next year.

The Del Ray Beach, Fla.-based company has ordered 239 six-seat microjets from Eclipse Aviation Corp. to handle trips up to 500 miles. Passengers will buy tickets online, and share the flight with others.

Dave Close, executive VP at SC, told O’Dwyer’s the high-tech PR firm got the account because DayJet is “50 percent software and 50 percent hardware.” It takes a “tremendous amount of software” to track the whereabouts of tiny jets (hardware) flying throughout the country, Close said.

SC picked up coverage on April 25 in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Times, Miami Herald and on CNN about DayJet’s debut.

Ed Iacobucci, co-founder of Citrix Systems, an $800 million technology company, is founder & CEO of DayJet. The company has been operating “under the research & development codename Jetson Systems to fill a market void for commercial-scale on-demand air transportation,” according to DayJet’s website.

NEW APR EXAM ATTRACTS FEW.
Low turnout is continuing for the new accreditation exam of PRSA and nine other groups.

Only three of the ten groups sent in any applications for the exam in the first quarter of 2005–PRSA (74), Florida PR Assn.(15), and National School PR Assn. (4).

Not sending in any applications were members from the Southern PR Federation, Puerto Rico PR Assn., Maine PR Council, Religion Communications Council, Society for Healthcare Strategy, and Texas PR Assn.

Twenty-seven passed the computer-based, multiple-choice exam in Q1 including 22 from PRSA, three from the Florida PR Assn., and one each from the National School PR Assn. and the Southern PR Federation.

PRSA has 20,000 members, of whom nearly 4,000 are APR, while the other groups have a total of about 8,000 members.

In the first 21 months of the new test, created by PRSA over a four-year period at a cost of $250,000, 98 new PRSA APRs have been created, which is far below the replacement rate. In the previous five years, an average of 278 new APRs were created yearly at PRSA (411 in ‘01; 234 in ‘01; 246 in 2000; 233 in ‘99 and 268, ‘98).

Since there are at least 5,000 drop-outs in PRSA yearly (5,769 in 2002 and 5,273 in 2001, the last years PRSA gave out such statistics), PRSA would be losing about 500 APRs yearly if only 10% of the drop-outs were APR. The renewal rate of members for 2001 and 2002 was about 70%.

PRSA refuses to say how many of the drop-outs in the 21 months to March 31, 2005 were APRs.

Blake Lewis, chair of the Universal Accreditation Board, the name given to the ten organizations participating in administering the test, said more PR people became APR in the 12 months from April of 2004 through March of 2005, than became APR in the same 12-month period in 2004.

“To me,” he said, “this signals positive momentum. While we still have a way to go to achieve our short-term target of 250 candidates by fall, we’re encouraged by the results from the past 12 months, as we’re seeing an increase in the number of candidates entering the credentialing process.”

In 2004, 90 PR people became APR. From April to March of 2005, the number of new APRs rose to 91, an increase of 11, said Lewis.

AGUGLIARO CHECKS
IN AT LIBERTY.
Alicia Agugliaro has joined Liberty Travel, one of the nation’s largest travel agencies, as director of communications. She reports to Susan Black, executive VP-marketing. Agugliaro is in charge of developing internal and external communications for LT’s more than 200 retail outlets pledged to deliver “simply exceptional” service.

Agugliaro had been at Cendant Corp’s RCI unit, promoting its luxury and global timeshare business.

Earlier, she was at Spring O’Brien working on the Cayman Islands Dept. of Tourism, Ritz-Carleton and Grand Cayman Resort accounts. Agugliaro promoted the Bahamas at Weber Shandwick and Dominican Republic at Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell.

BLOOMBERG PRODUCES
BUSINESS WEEKLY.
Bloomberg News will produce a weekly Spanish-language business section for El Nuevo Herald, a standalone daily paper published by The Miami Herald.

The section, titled “Negocioa con Bloomberg,” will begin appearing every Monday on May 9 in the paper, which has a circulation of approximately 90,000.

The supplement will feature international and local business news and data, with a focus on Latin America. Content will include coverage of international market news, Latin America economic news, corporate news, technology, local business stories as well as employment and real estate in South Florida.

This is Bloomberg’s first Spanish-language business news supplement in the U.S. It produces supplements with Chile’s La Segunda, Panama’s La Prensa and Venezuela’s El Nacional (starting in May).

COLUMN TARGETS
AFFLUENT TRAVELERS.
The Wall Street Journal Europe, based in London, is adding a new travel column—“Takeoffs & Landings”—to “Personal Journal,” its Friday leisure and lifestyle section.

The column, which began on April 29, will feature such things as the best places in Europe to get a face lift or tummy tuck; how to choose “the most luxurious” vacation retreats, and where and how to experiment with extreme sports.

The column, written by regular travel contributor Stephanie Gruner, will cover travel trends and news and tips, and will include stories about both business and pleasure trips.

In addition, the column will feature travel gadgets and helpful websites.

Dagmar Aalund, editor of Personal Journal, will edit the column.

Frederick Kempe, editor and associate publisher of the European Journal, said the new column is aimed at readers with deep pockets and who travel frequently.

Kempe said more than half of the Journal’s readers take at least 10 trips a year–whether for business or pleasure.

“This new column aims to give them new ideas on where to go and what to do, and also to equip them with practical advice and information for every type of trip,” he said of “Takeoffs.”

MAGAZINE TO FOCUS
ON FOOD/LIFESTYLES.
Rachael Ray, who hosts three of the Food Network’s top rated TV shows, is editor-in-chief of Every Day With Rachael Ray, a lifestyle magazine for food lovers that will make its debut in September.

The magazine, which will be published with The Reader’s Digest Assn., will offer recipes, as well as advice on food destinations and entertaining, and interviews with celebrities and cooks.

Kitty Morgan, formerly of Departures magazine and editor-in-chief of Cincinnati Magazine, is editor of Every Day.

Silvana Nardone, a former editor at Saveur magazine, is executive food editor.

LOCAL MAG TO SERVE
RICH BABY BOOMERS.
Tribune Publishing in Chicago has designed a new magazine to help aflluent adults age 55 to 64 make the transition to retirement.

Satisfaction magazine, which will be introduced in Sept., will be published six times a year as a regional magazine for readers and advertisers in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Satisfaction’s controlled circulation of 60,000 copies will be sent to targeted households and distributed at a limited number of public locations.

Mark Miller, previously editorial director of FluentMedia, an interactive content venture run by Tribune Media Services, was appointed editorial director of the magazine.

Miller said the range of topics to be covered include money, travel, real estate, fitness, careers, family and relationships, community involvement and consumer indulgences.

“When we cover personal finance, we’ll be talking about the issues around retirement portfolios, real estate issues and estate management that our readers face at this time of life. “And when we cover health, we’ll be talking about fitness and longevity,” he said.

PLACEMENT TIPS___________
Investor’s Business Daily is running four short articles, each showcasing a stock of interest from

The IBD 100 list of top-rated stocks, which has been revised.

The articles will appear in The IBD Monday Special weekly edition.

Additionally, an in-depth, 1,000-word story will run in the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday editions.
Chris Gessel is executive editor based in L.A.

Yoga Journal in San Francisco will publish the first issue of a Russian-language edition in May, with a print run of 20,000 copies.

The quarterly, which will be published in Moscow by Independent Media Publishing House, will contain 70% content from the U.S. edition of YJ, and 30% local content. Other foreign editions will start in Italy and Brazil later this year.

Dayna Macy can provide more information at 415/591-0555, ext. 304, or [email protected].

PUBLICITY HITS______________
Publicity efforts by Corbin & Assocs. for Artexpo New York 2005 resulted in a 30% increase in attendance, according to Sean-Patrick Hillman, VP.
Hillman said publicity generated $700,000 in media value for their client. Placement highlights include The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CBS “The Early Show,” The New York Post and New York Daily News.

Hanser & Assocs. in Des Moines got 109 total news story placements generating more than 7.3 million news media impressions for the 2005 Des Moines Home & Garden Show.

(Media news continued on next page)

YOUTH TUNE IN
TO LOCAL TV FOR NEWS.
Merrill Brown, who is the author of a report in the Spring edition of Carnegie Corp.’s magazine, said the U.S. news industry is “seriously threatened by the seemingly irrevocable move by young people away from traditional sources of news.”

“This audience, the future news consumers and leaders of a complex, modern society, are abandoning the news as we’ve known it, and it’s increasingly clear that a great number of them will never return to daily newspapers and the national broadcast news programs,” said Brown a former editor of MSNBC.com.

Brown cites data from a new survey of 18-to-34-year-olds by Frank N. Magid Assocs., that indicates young adults intend to continue to increase their use of the Internet as a primary news source in the coming years and that it is a medium embraced in meaningful ways.

“Newspapers and national TV broadcast news fare poorly with this critical demographic group,” said Brown.

Surprisingly to some, among 18-to-34-year-olds, local TV is ranked as the most used source of news, with over 70% of the age group using it at least once a week and over half of those surveyed using local TV news at least three times a week, he said.

The local TV ranking is driven in an overall sense by women and low- and middle-income groups, while the second-most-used weekly news source, the Internet, is number one among men, high income groups, and broadband users, he said.

Brown said Internet portals, such as Yahoo and MSN that include news streams all day, every day, have emerged in the survey as the most frequently cited daily news source, with 44% of the group using portals at least once a day for news.

Measured by daily use, local TV comes in second at 37%, followed by network or cable TV websites at 19%, newspapers at 19%, cable networks at 18% and national broadcast networks at 16%, he said.

The Magid survey shows young news consumers like the Internet, by a 41-to-15% margin over second ranked local TV, because it is “the most useful way to learn.” And 49% say the Internet provides news “only when I want it” versus 15% for second-ranked local TV.

MEDIA TRENDS__________________
NOP World’s new national study, which reveals face-to-face remains the strongest medium for spreading word-of-mouth, found more than half (53%) of the respondents make recommendations based on what they read in magazines, followed by in store displays and TV (53%); newspapers (47%); coupons (44%); radio (37%); websites (35%); free samples (31%), and e-mail (18%).

“Four years ago, there were 130,000 blogs. Today there are about 10 million. That’s a growth rate of 7,592%. Blogs have gotten so big that Bill Gates has his own blog,” says Ian Cooper, a former PR pro, who after years of “spinning the news,” is now offering buy and sell recommendations for The Taipan Group, a Baltimore-based investment firm.
“Once bloggers get a hold of a juicy story, whether bullish or bearish, and start spreading the news, there is no telling how high or low a stock will run,” said Cooper.

WEISSMAN NAMED
ED. OF CITY REPORTS.
Susan Weissman was named editor of “City Reports,” a section published by Pace Communications, and distributed in its three in-flight magazines—Delta Sky, United Hemispheres and U.S. Airways Attache.

The CR section combines traditional travel-related subject matter with a comprehensive look at the economic drivers and industry sectors that shape the lifestyles and business landscapes of a given region.

Weissman, 42, a former reporter, was most recently a media trainer and senior media specialist for The SheaHedges Group, a Washington, D.C. PR firm, specializing in technology clients.

Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, who is chair of the American Red Cross, founded Pace Communications more than 30 years ago. The company is based in Greensboro, N.C.

AARP BULLETIN HAS NEW EDITOR.
James Toedtman, a 20-year veteran of Newsday, has joined The AARP Bulletin in Washington, D.C., as managing editor.

The monthly newspaper covers news about Medicare, Social Security, health and medicine, consumer protections, caregiving, pensions and finances for AARP’s 35 million members.

Toedtman, who lives in Oakton, Va., had been Newsday’s managing editor and later its Washington, D.C., bureau chief and chief economics correspondent.

PEOPLE__________________
Paul Vitello, who has been with Newsday for 24 years, is joining The New York Times to cover Long Island.

Hanya Yanagihana, previously at Radar magazine, is slated to join Conde Nast Traveler on May 9 as a features editor.

Iris Sutcliffe, previously managing editor of Budget Living magazine, has taken the same position at Golf for Women.

Dave Berns, previously a reporter for The Las Vegas Review-Journal, covering gaming and special projects, was named editor and publisher of The Las Vegas Business Press.

Louisa Ermeling, formerly with InStyle magazine, has joined Publisher’s Weekly, to write book reviews.

Joe Sciacca was named to replace Jim MacLaughlin as deputy managing editor news at The Boston Herald. He will continue to direct political news.

David Andelman, previously business editor at The New York Daily News, has joined Forbes.com as executive editor.

The Business Week story on the explosion of blogs is a wake-up call to companies, industries, and PR firms that are tight with information.

Negative blogs have grown up like weeds around almost every famous brand name.

An industry is forming to track and maybe counterattack this “media of the masses.”

BW is afraid that companies will try to buy off key bloggers, start unbranded blogs, or start blogs that “tar the competition.” There are nine million blogs and 40,000 new ones daily, says BW.

While the bloggers are not reporters and can’t get their questions answered by companies (neither can a lot of reporters), they know what they have experienced in the marketplace and now they have the ability to share that with others. The rosy pictures they see in the mass media do not match their experiences.

Places where dissatisfied masses are using their cellphones and the Internet to organize include China, where anti-Japan elements use them to plan rallies; Ukraine, where it’s used by the “Orange Revolution,” and Lebanon, where democratic movements are communicating this way (from page one story in the New York Times April 26).

The NYT May 1 reported that the head of Los Alamos, Peter Nanos, is under fierce attack by an employee blog and may lose his job. The NYT itself has just spent $410 million on About Inc., which BW calls “a collection of 500 specialized web sites that smell strongly of blogs.”

Two current events illustrate the chronic blockage of information flow in the business world that has led to the burst of the blogs.

General Motors in April pulled $10 million in ads from the Los Angeles Times, demanding retractions. But it wouldn’t publicly say what the beef was.

Blogger AutomoBear.com said GM was mad at a comparison the Times made between two cars.

Pulling ads is a bad thing as has been shown many times. Also, GM is also in poor financial shape and it’s no time for it to reap further bad publicity.

In another incident, secretive Apple Computer banned an unauthorized bio of CEO Steve Jobs from its bookstores and removed dozens of other books by publisher John Wiley & Sons. Wiley is publishing “iCon: Steve Jobs, the Greatest Second Act in the History of Business.” Author Jeffrey Young says the book is “positive and laudatory” although it covers the personal life of Jobs including his divorce and bout with cancer. Apple sued 25 unnamed people, apparently employees, who allegedly leaked confidential information. It subpoenaed the Internet providers of three online reporters who wrote about the products to find out their sources.

Three highly secretive cultures are sitting over PR these days, advertising, investment banking, and law. Also making life difficult for PR pros is an undercurrent of anti-media sentiment among many business leaders, who see the press as Democratic.

Only three Republicans are willing to co-sponsor a shield law for reporters “thanks to anti-media hostility in the GOP ranks,” wrote columnist Robert Novak April 30.

Current trends and attitudes in PR and journalism were on display in the panel of PR execs and editors at Columbia College (page one).

Nancy Ruscheinski of Edelman PR Worldwide noted that PR pros have many ways to reach audiences besides the mass media. Some of these involve direct contact with target audiences.

Steve Singerman of Hill & Knowlton, said “mass marketing is dead” and marketers now aim to reach the “exact right consumer at the exact right moment of the day” with the proper message. He also said PR pros need researchers by their sides to help them track the “explosion of sources of information.”

Lewis Lazare, Chicago Sun-Times, had mostly complaints about PR practitioners.

Junior PR pros, who don’t know much about him or their subject matter, pester him constantly at inappropriate times.

When he tries to call one, only about one in 30 is there to pick up the phone. They’re “in meetings” and won’t come out. (Maybe the “meeting” is about his call). How can the new generation of PR pros be knowledgeable about anything if they don’t read, he wondered?

What Ruscheinski and Singerman are describing is advertising – custom messages aimed directly at target audiences, perhaps bypassing media, whether mass or specialized. We admit PR pros must also be ad people these days, conversant with the language and tools of ad/marketing. Companies can’t wait for media to carry their messages. A lot of PR firms would go broke just doing straight PR.

Singerman says PR pros are being inundated by information and need help. We suggest closer ties with reporters and editors who are also researchers. They can help PR pros even though such relations are frowned upon in some PR and business circles.

Lazare’s complaint about only juniors and not senior PR pros contacting him is something that has been heard for years. Seniors at PR firms and companies mostly no longer bother with press relations.

Red Herring mag in 2000 complained that “Trinket Know-Nothings,” including the “army of Regettes” of Regis McKenna, had overrun high-tech PR, causing annoyance and frustration among editors.
It could be the “know-nothings” actually knew a lot but were warned not to deviate from a script approved by clients.

The problem with keeping to the script is that telemarketers, who are much cheaper than PR pros, can also do that.

Such firms exist.

Bottling up information eventually results in it bursting forth whether by cellphone, PDA, Internet, or mass media.

– Jack O'Dwyer