DELOITTE TAKES ACCOUNTING OF PR.
Deloitte has sent an RFI to a dozen firms, looking to gauge their PR capabilities, Keith Lindenburg, director of national PR told O’Dwyer’s.

He said Deloitte uses a number of firms, but the lion’s share of its PR budget goes to Ogilvy PR Worldwide and Hill & Knowlton.

Lindenburg replaced Paul Marinaccio in March. He called PR a “critical discipline” and said Deloitte was “fully committed to building value through aggressive strategic communications.”

Lindenburg joined Deloitte from Waggener Edstrom, where he headed the firm's eastern operations.

He also was executive VP at Weber Shandwick, VP-corporate communications at IBM and general manager/Americas at Brodeur Worldwide.

PFIZER HIRES UCELLI.
Pfizer has named Loretta Ucelli, a former Edelman PR Worldwide and President Clinton aide, its senior VP-corporate communications. She reports to Jeff Kindler, vice chairman/general counsel and chief compliance officer.

Ucelli joins from Columbia University, where she was executive VP for communications and external relations.

In the White House, Ucelli was assistant to the president and director of communications.

Prior to that, she served at the Environmental Protection Agency as associate administrator for communications, education and public affairs.
After leaving the Clinton Administration, Ucelli worked in Edelman’s New York office as senior consultant and crisis manager.
Korn/Ferry International’s Bob Woodrum and Pepper Lunsford Binner handled the Pfizer search.

ESCUDIE RETURNS TO HOME FRONT.
Mike Escudie, an Air Force PA veteran of “Operation Enduring Freedom” (Afghanistan) and “Operation Iraqi Freedom” is now at Cox Target Media as corporate communications director.

Since `03, Escudie was assigned to the U.S. Central Command’s headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.

He was posted to the “Office of Public Affairs,” responsible for media relations in the two war zones.

CTM, which is based in Largo, FL, is a leading direct marketing company with nearly 200 franchises distributing its ubiquitous “Valpak” pouches to more than 45 million households each month.

CALIF. TEACHERS’ PENSION ISSUES PR RFP.
The California State Teachers’ Retirement System has begun a review of its PR account as Fleishman-Hillard’s three-year pact winds down.

The fund, which manages pensions for 755,000 public school teachers and has total assets of nearly $130B, is the No. 3 retirement system in the U.S. It is soliciting proposals through Sept. 2.

Firms must have an office within 120 miles of CalSTRS’ Sacramento base and have billed $1M from a California office in each of the last two years.

CalSTRS wants its firm to provide more of an advisory role than direct implementation of PR programs, according to Sherry Reser, comms. dir. for the system.

PT PROMOTES ISLAMIC INVESTING.
The Saudi Economic and Development Co., which is committed to becoming a leading Islamic wealth management company, has hired Powell Tate for D.C. lobbying work.

Jeddah-based SEDCO looks for investments in companies compliant with Shari’ah guidelines. That means avoiding so-called “sin stocks,” such as pornography, tobacco and alcohol companies and financial institutions involved with usury.

SEDCO’S direct investments group includes ownership of Arabian Entertainment Co. (owner of the first Applebee’s in the Kingdom), and Elaf Travel (organizer of pilgrimages to Mecca and Medina).

SEDCO has holdings in 17 countries, including the tallest office building in Houston and MetroWest, a multi-use development in Orlando.

PT’s SEDCO lobbying team includes Kathryn Gest, Bernard Adelsberger and Kara Delahunt.

Barbara McDonald has joined Public Relations Society of America as VP-marketing. The 13-year marketing veteran held posts at International Society for Technology in Education and International Data Group’s Web Publishing Inc. She reports to Catherine Bolton, COO of the Society.

FEW TAKE PART IN NEW APR TEST.
The new procedure for earning an “accredited in PR” designation from the ten organizations in the “Universal Accreditation Board” is not proving popular with rank-and-file members of the groups.
After two full years of the new procedure, only 104 members of PRSA have earned APRs while 25 from four of the other nine groups have done so.

(continued on page 7)

NRA TRAINS SITES ON CONOCOPHILLIPS.
The National Rifle Association has launched a boycott of energy giant ConocoPhillips to protest its opposition to an Oklahoma law preventing the firing of employees who keep guns in their cars parked in company lots.

That bill was approved after forest products giant Weyerhaeuser terminated workers in Idabel, OK, for having guns in their vehicles. Houston-based CP has filed a federal suit to prevent implement of the law.

Wayne LaPierre, executive director of the NRA, calls $140 billion CP “anti-gun, anti-gun owner and anti-Second Amendment.” He vows to make CP an “example of what happens when a corporation takes away your Second Amendment rights.”

LaPierre urges the NRA’s four million members and their families to stop filling up at Conoco and Phillips 66 stations. The gun group also will place billboards reading “ConocoPhillips is No Friend of the Second Amendment” next to key gas stations.

Jeffrey Callender, a CP spokesperson, sent an e-mail to O’Dwyers, saying that the company “supports the Second Amendment and respects the rights of law abiding citizens to own guns.”

It opposes the Oklahoma law on safety grounds. “We are simply trying to provide a safe and secure working environment for our employees by keepings guns out of our facilities, including our company parking lots,” he wrote.

Phillips Petroleum, which merged with Conoco in’02, traces its roots to its 1917 founding in Bartlesville, OK. The company employs more than 2,200 people at its former headquarters, and another 1,500 workers at the Ponca City refinery.

In March, CP announced plans to build two $5 million museums in Bartlesville and Ponca City to reaffirm its Oklahoma heritage.

CNOOC THROWS IN THE TOWEL.
China National Offshore Oil Co., which was advised by Public Strategies Inc., Brunswick Group and Burson-Marsteller’s BKSH & Assocs., pulled its $18.5 billion bid for Unocal on Aug. 2 due to the “political environment in the U.S.”

That exit paves way for Chevron to acquire the El Segundo, CA-based energy company.

The proposed CNOOC takeover stirred a hornet’s nest of protectionist and anti-China activity in D.C.

Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA), chairman of the House Resources Committee, said it is hard to determine whether CNOOC would be doing the bidding of the free market or the Chinese government as it views its energy, economic and security interests.

He called the CNOOC bid a “wake up call for America to get as serious about energy as China appears to be.”

Senators Jim Bunning (R-KY) and Kent Conrad (R-ND) sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez asking him to explore the role that the People’s Republic of China was to play in helping to finance the Unocal takeover.

They felt PRC loans to CNOOC would be in violation of World Trade Organization rules.

TRUDEL PROVES LIFE BEYOND H&K.
PR veteran Mary Trudel was the focus of a Wall Street Journal feature on Aug. 2 about executives leaving their jobs to “unwind.”

She quit Hill & Knowlton in March with no idea about what she would do next. She quickly filled the time. Trudel, according to the WSJ, traveled to Belize and Guatemala, took Spanish lessons, joined a book club, became more involved with her church, worked out regularly, went to the theater/ballet and woke up early some days to hear the birds sing in Central Park.

Trudel, 59, had enough money saved to last a year without a salary. She used her “downtime” to talk to more than 150 people about what kind of job she might find satisfying.

The veteran of Ruder Finn, Kahn Communications, Rowland Worldwide and Firestone Assocs. took a temporary three-month post at the Wallace Foundation in New York, which supports cultural programs. That led to a full-time slot as senior communications officer –arts and communities. Though Trudel is earning 40 percent less than she made at H&K, she has more time to pursue other interests.

The Journal noted that due to corporate restructures, exec churn and burnout, it is more acceptable for executives to take time off without lining up another job.

Trudel talked about her “voyage of discovery” during an interview with O’Dwyer’s. She said the “music stopped” for many PR people in the aftermath of 9/11. “There were no chairs for others,” she added in referring to the cuts and shutdowns in the recent PR recession.

B/W/R KEEPS GORE CURRENT.
Ogilvy PR Worldwide’s B/W/R/ entertainment unit helped launch Al Gore’s Current TV Aug. 1 into the homes of 20 million people.

The Beverly Hills-based firm of Paul Baker, Larry Winokur and Nanci Ryder counts the success of “American Idol” as one of its main achievements. The firm also has worked with Britney Spears, J Lo, Chris Rock, Pizza Hut, Universal Studios’ home video and the Dept. of Homeland Security.

Amanda Rothman and Kate Payne are repping Gore TV, which is aimed at the 18-to-34-year-olds.

The Aug. 1 Washington Post reported how the former stiff and wooden Gore, 57, now is likely to sport a “hip, open-at-the-collar, and all-black ensemble” as he smiles and jokes with his “new clique of beautiful twenty-and thirty-something” staffers that are housed in Current TV’s San Francisco studio.

BROADGATE VS. JOELE FRANK.
Broadgate Consultants is advising Shurgard Storage Centers on how to combat the $2.5 billion hostile takeover bid launched Aug. 1 by competitor Public Storage Inc. in the rapidly growing self-storage business.

PSI is represented by Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher.

SSC CEO Charles Barbo has derided the takeover play as an “opportunistic attempt to deprive shareholders from fully realizing the long-term value” of their investments. PSI CEO Ron Havner said joining the companies is an idea “simply too compelling to ignore.”

PR PRO: BLOGS WON’T REPLACE LUNCHES.
“Nothing will replace getting out and meeting reporters, and sitting down and having lunch or a beer,” said Bruce Lowry, head of global PR for Novell, a $1 billion+ enterprise software firm, who caused a stir for suggesting blogs will replace press releases in the next 10 years.

Lowry’s comment about press releases becoming obsolete appeared in a recent issue of The Economist. “I made the comment over lunch talking to a friend who writes for the Economist, and I was surprised to see it in print,” he told Jennifer McClure, managing editor of New Communications Blogzine, a bimonthly online publication.

Lowry said what he was thinking was “more logistical than substantive, in the sense that blogging technology and self-publishing are becoming so easy that the idea of putting a press release over the wire using a traditional outlet like PR Newswire or Business Wire just seems like a complicated and expensive way to do things.”

“So I think self-publishing, with whatever RSS feeds are available in 10 years, will be how we issue press releases, replacing wire services,” said Lowry, who got his first job in PR when he joined Novell in 1999 after a 14-year career in the State Department as a foreign service officer, heading up the Ukraine desk and being financial attache in the U.S. Embassy in Rome.

“Blogs are personal in a way that press releases can’t be,” said Lowry, who still believes PR must build personal relationships with reporters.

“PR is all about relationships—it’s knowing who the reporters are, what they like to write about, and how they like to interact.”

Media numbers ___________

195,000—The number of books published in 2004, up 14% from 2003 and 72% higher than 1995. At the same time, 40 million fewer books were sold last year.

10 NEWS STAFFERS LEAVE N.Y. TIMES.
Ten New York Times news staffers marked their last official day at the paper on July 29 after accepting the company’s buyout offer. They are:
—Neil Amdur, senior editor, news administration
—Jan Battaile, deputy editor, Washington, D.C., bureau
—Linda Amster, deputy, news information and technology
—Fox Butterfield, correspondent, Boston bureau
—John Darnton, associate editor
—Marjorie Goldsborough, researcher, Washington, D.C., bureau
—Robert Hanley, reporter, Metro desk
—Caroline Herron, staff editor, Book Review
—George James, reporter, Metro desk
—Iver Peterson, reporter, Metro desk

Jim Roberts, who is senior editor on the national desk, where he directed coverage of big stories for about 16 years, is replacing Richard Berke for the remainder of this year, overseeing all of the paper’s news desks. Berke will run the night side news desk for the next few months.

WONG JOINS FAMILY CIRCLE AS EXEC. ED.
Betty Wong was named executive editor of Family Circle magazine, and Darcy Jacobs was appointed articles editor for the 4.2 million-circulation title.

The appointments were announced by Linda Fears, acting editor-in-chief of FC.

Wong was health director at Ladies’ Home Journal, another Meredith Corp. title for the past year. She also was executive editor at Working Women, senior editor at Parents, and editor-in-chief of Parents Baby.

BUDGET LIVING ADDS TWO SENIOR EDITORS.
Angela Matusik, editor-in-chief of Budget Living, a magazine for women, has named Scott Cohen, executive editor, and Sharon Ludtke, managing editor.

Both staffers are based in BL’s New York headquarters.

Previously, Cohen was executive editor of the recently departed Giant magazine, and Ludtke was managing editor of All You magazine.

People _________

Tom Grasson, previously editorial director for Penton Media’s American Machinist, Cutting Technology and Welding Design & Fabrication magazines, has joined GIE Media in Cleveland as editor of Today’s Medical Developments magazine.

Sharon Weinberger, previously the lead military editor at Defense Daily, has joined the Aviation Week Group of the McGraw-Hill Cos. as editor-in-chief of its new magazine, Defense Technology International.

Lillian Rivera was named west coast fashion editor at In Touch Weekly.

Michael Scherer, previously with Mother Jones magazine as its D.C. correspondent, has joined Salon.com as its Washington correspondent.

David Shaw, 62, who covered the media and food beats for the Los Angeles Times, died Aug. 1.

Nicole Dizon was named news editor for Illinois in the Chicago bureau of the Associated Press, and John Henry, formerly the Houston Chronicle’s Washington, D.C., bureau chief, was appointed news editor for AP’s D.C. office.

Anne Russell has stepped down as editor-in-chief of Shape magazine.

Ariel Kaminer, previously deputy editor, was promoted to arts & leisure editor of the New York Times.

David Schimke, previously senior editor, was named interim executive editor of Utne magazine, and CEO Nina Utne will also assume the role of editor-in-chief, replacing Karen Olson, who is leaving to write a book.

(Media news continued on next page)

GORE’S CABLE NETWORK MAKES DEBUT.
The new San Francisco-based cable network Current TV, which some are calling the “Al Gore Network,” made its nationwide debut on Aug. 1.

Current is available in the New York area on Ch. 103 on the Time Warner systems and Direct TV, and in the Los Angeles area on Channel 116.

Current offers short-form programming, consisting of 15-second to five-minute segments that run throughout the day, exploring the people, places, happenings and hot-button issues of interest to young adults.

“The programming will be about subjects rarely found on TV—and almost never in a voice young adults recognize,” the network said in a press release. “Moreover, the network’s participatory model enables viewers to contribute their own video content, the best of which will be aired,” the release stated.

Current news and programs with an informational angle will comprise about 55% of the content.

These programs will cover an array of subjects, including new movie releases, books, new musical recordings, travel, protests, big news events, cars, and “stories traditional news media won’t touch or choose to ignore.”

Freelance film makers will be paid $250 for first-time submissions that air on Current. Current requires film makers to sign an agreement giving the network three months’ exclusive use of material it has accepted for air.

David Neumann is Current’s programming director.

GENERAL MOTORS ENDS AD BOYCOTT.
General Motors has resumed advertising in the Los Angeles Times after a boycott that started in early April.

The world’s largest automaker pulled its ads from the paper over what it called factual errors and misrepresentations in the paper’s coverage of the company.

TGM yanked its ads after the paper’s auto writer Dan Neil urged the automaker to “dump” CEO Rick Wagoner and called its Pontiac G6 “a sales flop.” The company said at the time its decision was not connected to a specific story.

GM spokesman Brian Akre issued a statement saying that “GM and the Los Angeles Times have had productive discussions regarding our complaints about the newspaper’s coverage of GM.”

The boycott covered GM corporate and brand advertising, but not to ad space purchased by GM car dealers.

PLACEMENT TIPS _________

Rap-Up is a new quarterly “hip-hop” music magazine for teenagers started by Devin and Cameron Lazerine, who are college students.

“It’s a magazine for Generation Y by Generation Y,” Devin, a 21-year-old communications major at the Univ. of Calif.-Santa Barbara, who is editor-in-chief, told the New York Times.

The magazine is sold in more than 20 countries and outlets including Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble, Borders and Tower Records.

Devin’s younger brother Cameron, a business major at UC-Berkeley, is publisher and assistant editor of Rap-Up.

Overtime magazine’s fall number, due out in Oct., will showcase the 2nd annual “OT Hot List,” with upscale gifts for the professional athlete and his or her friends and family.

Ryan McNeil is publisher and editor-in-chief of the year-old business and lifestyle magazine that is distributed to a controlled circulation of more than 35,000 pro athletes, team owners and sports industry media and insiders.

McNeil, a veteran NFL player, is based in Atlanta at the Maven Media Group. 866/536-4600.

Sunset Publishing’s test magazine Living 101, which will target 20-something readers, went on sale Aug. 9 in 13 Western states.

The magazine will cover Sunset Publishing’s four cornerstones: home; food; garden, and travel.
Jess Chamberlain is editor of the magazine, which may be published regularly if the trial run is successful.

Toyota Motor Corp.’s luxury division is seeking national magazines willing to allow Lexus to provide cars in order to illustrate stories.

While Lexus is actively pursuing print product placement, the company would not pay for placement or make advertising conditional upon placement, a spokesperson for the company told Ad Age.

READERS ‘DON’T GIVE A HOOT.’
Celebrity addicts don’t care how publications get their stories and photos of stars, according to Samir Husni, the Univ. of Mississippi journalism professor and magazine expert.

Readers “don’t give a hoot” how the story came about, he told USA Today in a story about the U.S. launch of OK!, a celebrity magazine, which openly acknowledges paying celebrities for access and giving stars editorial approval.

“In one way or another when it comes to celebrities, all magazines have a big sign that says `For Sale,’” said Husni, who pointed out other celebrity magazines pay for access in such ways as promising cover placement, donating to a celebrity’s charity or buying photos from other publications that got them by paying a celebrity.

Sarah Ivens, previously No. 2 editor at the British OK!, who is editor of the new U.S. edition, said there is a “big misconception that we pay everyone for everything.” She estimates it is “probably less than 5%.”

She said people come to OK! because they want to be photographed beautifully, and they trust their words will not be twisted.

OK! is based in New York.

Worth noting: Phrack Magazine, the bible of many hackers, which was believed to be the first ever electronic magazine, has stopped publishing for “the foreseeable future.” ...Gannett Co., which increased its ownership of weeklies from 122 to 207 in 2004, is now the leading owner of non-daily publications in the U.S., according to Editor & Publisher.

“The conventional news media are embattled, attacked by both left and right in book after book, rocked by scandals, challenged by upstart bloggers...”

So went a page one story in the New York Times Book Review July 31. The article and eight recommended books on media are helpful reading for PR pros dealing with the press.

Critics are mostly concerned with mass media rather than business and trade publications and websites.

Article author Richard Posner says, “The latest, and perhaps gravest, challenge to the journalistic establishment is the blog,” partly because “large commercial enterprises” like the NYT “depend on the good will of advertisers,” which the bloggers do not.

Newspapers delay news coverage because of cross-checking involved while bloggers can just blast it out, notes the article.

Meanwhile, the impact of “RoveGate” is apparent in news coverage. Presidential advisor Karl Rove cautioned Time reporter Matthew Cooper that Rove’s information on Valerie Plame was on “double super secret background.” But Rove got “outed” anyway by Time Warner.

Executives and company spokespeople, after this betrayal, are more cautious than ever in speaking to reporters if they speak at all.

A major story in the NYT Aug. 1 on “troubled Interpublic” was laced with anonymous quotes and spokespeople who couldn’t be found or wouldn’t say anything.

An anonymous IPG executive said he couldn’t be identified because PR exec Philippe Krakowsky is the only one who can speak for the company. Kevin McCormack of WPP told the NYT that questions about IPG’s Bank of America account could only be answered by BofA. Patricia Sloan of Omnicom “didn’t return calls.” Both WPP and OMC may be pitching BofA.

The NYT recently has taken to quoting “a person” for key facts and opinions, not even hinting of the location, occupation or status of the source.

While Cooper avoided jail when his employer obeyed a court order, Judith Miller of the NYT remains in jail on the same issue.

Greenwich, Conn., (our home town for 26 years) has been invaded by hedge funds, said a page one story in the Wall Street Journal Aug. 3.

So many funds have flocked to this town of 60,000 that is the first stop in Connecticut from New York that trains from New York to Greenwich now carry about as many as those going to New York. “Peak hour” rates are charged for the reverse commuters.

The image of Greenwich, which always had some luster, has been polished to such a high gloss that hedge funds that can’t find an office in the town put “Greenwich” in their titles anyway, says the WSJ.

Office space near the train station is $60-$70 a sq. ft. vs. $55 for top space in New York. A building “filled with hedge funds” sold for $97M, or $743 a sq.ft. vs. $515 for the best space in New York.

The highly speculative hedge funds have exploded to 8,000+ in the past five years, says the WSJ.

Real estate friends of ours in Greenwich say the hedge fund influx has been going on for several years and the impact is obvious.

About half the houses on a street near ours have been torn down and “McMansions” put up.

Split-level ranch houses that initially sold for $45,000 in the 1960s now command $2 million and often become a hole in the ground in a few days.

A somewhat sad note is that few grown children of Greenwich residents can ever afford to live there unless they move in with their parents.

New York Post columnist John Crudele on Aug. 4 decried the “overheated housing market” in general, saying “people are probably paying prices that they will come to regret.”

He believes false government figures are making people believe the economy is stronger than it is. Mortgage rates are “incredibly and dangerously low,” he wrote.

Greenwich is desirable partly because of its “lower property taxes,” notes the WSJ. The town almost went bankrupt in the Depression and since then has allowed no debt... One of the nine golf clubs in town, which only cost $5,000 to join in the 1970s, now costs $75,000.

It’s about time leaders paid attention to PRSA’s efforts to sell the APR exam to members of nine other groups for $410 ($25 application fee and $385 for the test). It hasn’t worked.

Five of the ten “participating” groups in the “Universal Accreditation Board” have not participated at all in the first two years, not one member even applying to go through the new process of Readiness Review and computer-based multiple choice test. Only 25 members of the other four earned APRs.

Participation by eligibles (at least 20,000) is less than one half of one percent.

APR “signifies a high professional level of experience and competence,” says UAB literature. Then a press release on the first two years should reflect this expertise.

But instead of a two-year wrap-up, a July 25 press release devotes two graphs only to second quarter results.

We had to dig to find out that only one other group had successful APR candidates in Q2–five from the Florida PR Assn.

The release claimed a 69% increase in candidates in the first half of 2005 to 99 based on 117 applying in calendar 2004.

The release assumes 99 will apply in the second half of 2005, an assumption that cannot be made. If this release is evidence of the “high level of competence” of APRs, which it should be, there is a problem.

– Jack O'Dwyer