ARIZONA, UTAH POST RFPS FOR VOTER PR.
Arizona and Utah have issued separate requests for proposals for statewide voter education PR and marketing efforts ahead of a federal deadline for implementing voting changes. Both solicitations are open to PR, advertising or marketing agencies.

The efforts stem from the Help America Vote Act passed by Congress in 2002, which was aimed to fix problems that surfaced in the tumultuous 2000 election in Florida. HAVA standards of upgraded voting systems and voter education must be in place in U.S. states by 2006.

A one-year budget for the Utah campaign has been set by the Lieutenant Governor’s Office at $500K. A one-year extension is possible. Questions go to Nancy Orton ([email protected]) through Nov. 30. Proposals are due Dec. 14.

Arizona’s Secretary of State is also looking to contract with firms for a similar effort, but that push stresses the state’s diverse population of Spanish, English and Native American speakers. The state notes that changes in registration, voter fraud procedures, overseas and military voting and other elements have brought on the need for a statewide campaign. Proposals are due Nov. 30.

PR is said to be a key aspect of the quest for an advertising/PR contractor, according to the RFP. Budget is up to $1.5M.

MCMULLEN TO EXIT JPMORGAN CHASE.
Melinda McMullen, who joined Bank One Corp. in 2001 as senior VP, communications and public affairs, and who became senior VP, Chase/Bank One Communications after the merger of Bank One with JPMorgan Chase, is leaving the bank at the end of ’05.

McMullen, who is based in Chicago, said she prefers to remain there and start her own consulting practice. She said she does not want to start a PR firm. (312/787-0963; [email protected]).

She was the top communicator at Bank One, working under Jamie Dimon who became president/COO of the combined bank and who is to be CEO as of Jan. 1.

Frederick Hill is executive VP, marketing and communications, of JPMorgan Chase.

McMullen began her career with Ketchum in San Francisco and worked for Burson-Marsteller, American Express and Fireman’s Fund Corp. She founded student-owned “Food from the 'Hood,” in Los Angeles in 1993 following the riots there, earning several awards, including a Silver Anvil and a cover story in Newsweek. McMullen later went to IBM from 1995 to 2001, rising to VP, communications, IBM Global Services.

BANGLADESH TAPS TWG FOR $330K PACT.
Bangladesh has given Ketchum’s The Washington Group a six-month $330K contract to improve its image in the U.S.

Former Congresswoman Susan Molinari, who leads the Bangladesh team, wants to “dispel misconceptions about alleged human rights abuses, corrupt government practices and Islamist militancy,” according to the contract between the parties.

Business investment, debt relief and military-to-military collaboration are other topics that TWG handles.

The firm will work to “open doors at the senior levels of major U.S. corporations such as Bechtel, General Electric, Lockheed Martin and Wal-Mart to interest them in projects of importance to the People’s Republic of Bangladesh,” according to the pact.

AMTRAK BOARD RIDES WITH PR FIRM.
Omnicom PR firm Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter and Associates is working on behalf of Amtrak’s board of directors, which is taking heat for ousting the railroad’s president in a controversial move this month.

Bob Chlopak, partner at CLS&A, citing a policy of not discussing clients, declined to comment on the work.

Congressmen on both sides of the aisle have criticized Amtrak’s board for firing president David Gunn after three and a half years on the job. Lawmakers have cheered Gunn’s work at stabilizing Amtrak.

Gunn told the Associated Press on Nov. 15 that he was fired because he was “merely an obstacle to destroying Amtrak.” Gunn said he learned he would be fired when he found a private PR firm handling matters in Amtrak’s public affairs office, apparently a reference to CLS&A working for the board. CLS&A has worked for Amtrak on and off since 1997.

PROXIES AT PRSA ASSEMBLY BLASTED.
Dissident members of PRSA are blasting the proposed use of proxies at the Assembly Dec. 3 in Chicago, saying they are an unnecessary break with the tradition of in-person Assembly debating.

Delegates are being misled into thinking that proxies are required when New York State law says they are only “allowed,” it was said.

Dissidents fear that use of proxies, coupled with the 46 votes by PRSA management (17 directors, 19 section chairs and 10 district chairs) will allow easy control of the Assembly by leaders.

PRSA/Miami said the EC proposal would turn the rest of the board into “eunuchs” and a majority of the

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TRG COLLECTS $56M FROM PENTAGON.
The Rendon Group has collected more than $56M from Pentagon contracts since 9/11, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune.

The contracts were for tracking foreign reporters, planting TV news segments promoting U.S. interests and “pushing” news favorable to American troops.

TRG’s $16M contract inked Oct. 3, `01 called for it to test public opinion and analyze press reports in Istanbul, Cairo, Jakarta, Tashkent (Uzbekistan) and Islamabad (Pakistan).

That pact called for TRG to track the “location and use of Al Jazeera news bureaus, reporters and stringers.” TRG also is paid by the Pentagon to advise foreign governments how to handle their media.

John Rendon told the paper that his firm “has been helping foreign governments to correct things that are bad or wrong in the news cycle, and amplify those things that are not bad.” He denies pushing pro-U.S. news.

Judicial Watch, the Washington, D.C., watchdog obtained the TRG’s Pentagon contracts under a Freedom of Information Act request.

Takes issue with Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone, in its current issue, profiles John Rendon as “Bush’s general in the propaganda war.” TRG on Nov. 18 posted a “letter to the editor” on its website, criticizing the RS piece.

The firm takes issue with author James Bamford’s claim that Rendon “rises at 3 a.m. each morning ...and begins ingesting information... an assortment of government documents, many of them available only to those with the highest security clearance.”

The firm says Rendon “does not have access to classified material in his home or via Internet, and his limited access to such material is no different from that of thousands of other DoD contractors who work for the U.S. government.”

AMG SQUARES OFF VS. CSV.
Abernathy MacGregor Group is helping Philadelphia-based Sovereign Bancorp ($63 billion assets) fend off criticism of its plan to sell a 19.8 percent stake to Spain’s Banco Santander Central Hispano for $2.4B, and use that sum to finance a $3.6B takeover of Brooklyn’s Independence Community Bank.

The transaction has triggered sharp criticism from investors who say the Spanish got the better of the deal, while Sovereign is overpaying for its acquisition. They want the right to vote on the issue.

Citigate Sard Verbinnen is spearheading media relations for Relational Investors, which holds a 7.3 percent stake in Sovereign. San Diego-headquartered RI has run ads in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post panning the deal. It is joined by Franklin Mutual Advisers and the New Jersey state pension fund.

SB contends that the New York Stock Exchange does not require a vote on the Santander transaction because the investment does not exceed the 20 percent threshold.

The Council of Institutional Investors said Nov. 16 that shareholders should vote because the Spanish bank has the right to buy Sovereign.

WAL-MART BOYCOTT DROPPED.
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has dropped its boycott against Wal-Mart for its alleged bias against Christmas. CL leader Bill Donohue announced the boycott on Nov. 9, and contacted more than 125 religious groups to ask for their support.

He was incensed that a Wal-Mart customer service rep belittled the origins of Christmas to a shopper who complained that greeters of the world’s biggest retailer were wishing shoppers “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas.”

That rep sent the disturbed shopper a statement, noting that the majority of the world does not celebrate Christmas, and that the Christmas stems from Siberian shamanism.

It went on to say that “Santa is also borrowed from the Caucuses, mistletoe from the Celts, yule log from the Goths, the time from the Visigoth and the tree from the worship of Baal.”

Donahue sent the statement to Dan Fogelman, Wal-Mart’s senior PR manager. Fogelman apologized to any group offended by the “inappropriate and inflammatory comments made by this former associate.”

He also noted that Wal-Mart celebrates Christmas by shutting its stores in observance, the only day in the year that Wal-Mart is closed.

Donahue called off the boycott on Nov. 11, calling the effort a “sweet victory.”

Edelman does image work for Wal-Mart.

THERE SHE GOES.
Bragman Nyman Cafarelli will help Miss America Organization publicize the move of its pageant from Atlantic City to Las Vegas, Jenni Glenn a spokesperson for MAO, told O’Dwyer’s.

The Atlantic City Convention Center & Visitors Center released MAO from its contract on Aug. 25. That somewhat faded Jersey seaside town played host to the pageant for 85 years.

MAO announced Nov. 16 that Aladdin Resort & Casino on the Strip is the new home for the beauty contest. Art McMaster, CEO of MAO, said the move will bring “new energy” to the competition, and help “grow the brand.” MAO also plans to capitalize on the more promotional opportunities offered by Las Vegas.

The Jan. 21 pageant will air on CMT, the country music cable TV network that is owned by MTV Networks. CMT reaches more than 77M households.

Glenn said her PR “team is working closely with the CMT PR team, the Aladdin PR team and our agency of record BNC in Los Angeles” to promote the move.

WIDMEYER LANDS $1M ANTI-POISON PACT.
The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services has selected Widmeyer Communications to handle a $1M anti-poisoning campaign. That effort will have a bio-terror component, according to Jason Smith, senior VP at WC.

WC is to educate the public about HRSA’s network of poisoning control centers and its toll-free hotline.
Smith is also is in charge of HRSA’s “Take a Stand. Lend a Hand. Stop Bullying Now.” public education campaign that was just renewed at WC for $500K.

DOW JONES PULLS PBS SHOW.
Dow Jones & Co. has pulled the plug on the “The Journal Editorial Report,” the Public Broadcasting Service program that was nurtured by former Corporation for Public Broadcasting chairman Kenneth Tomlinson.

DJ&C says the decision was made prior to the Nov. 15 report issued by CPB’s inspector general Kenneth Konz, charging that Tomlinson “violated his fiduciary responsibilities” by dealing directly with Paul Gigot, editor of the Wall Street Journal’s editorial pages, about the program.

Tomlinson provided tips on the show’s format, which led to longer segments and on-scene news coverage. The former chairman felt the conservative program would balance what he saw as a liberal tilt to PBS.

The Konz report also questioned the $4.1M price paid by CPB to DJ&C. That amount is said to be out of line with what other programmers get.

The CPB distributes taxpayer money to stations to fund original programs, but is not supposed to decide on content.

DJ&C says it decided earlier this month not to produce a third season of the show. The company was contacted by the IG’s staff during the probe, but was not asked about contacts with Tomlinson.
The last JER airs Dec. 2.

Tomlinson played politics

The six-month Konz probe depicts Tomlinson as a political operative, committed to wiping out any liberal tilt at the pubic TV/radio stations. The Republican is charged with working to withdraw funding from PBS unless it “balanced its programming” with more conservative views.

The report said that Tomlinson did not get board approval for hiring a consultant to monitor the politics of guests appearing on the now-defunct “Now With Bill Moyers.”

That consultant rated guests as whether they were “pro-Bush” or “anti-Bush,” or “pro-DeLay” or “anti-DeLay.” The rating session was expanded to include “The Diane Rehm Show,” “Tavis Smiley Show” and “Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered.”

Tomlinson, who stepped down in September, has denied any misdeeds. He called the Konz report “irresponsible.”

BOOK PR PITCHES SWAMP ‘DAILY SHOW.’
Book PR people have been swamping Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” with pitches to capitalize on the political clout of its host Jon Stewart, reports Crain’s New York Business.

Stewart, anchor of DS, is as important in shaping political opinions today as Walter Cronkite was in the ’70s and Huntley and Brinkley in the ’50s and ’60s, Seth Siegel, co-founder of the Beanstalk Group, told Crain’s. “There’s no other journalist today, real or fake, who is more significant for people 18 to 25,” said Siegel.

Stewart’s influence has spread with the launch of “The Colbert Report,” featuring bogus newsman Stephen Colbert, who was a DS correspondent.

Stewart’s Busboy Productions produces TCR.

SCHEER, RAMIREZ AXED BY LAT.
Robert Scheer, the liberal columnist who was fired by the Los Angeles Times on Nov. 11, says he was axed because Jeff Johnson, who became publisher of the Tribune unit in ’05, “hated every word that I wrote.”

Sheer, who had his op-ed column since ’93 and reported for the LAT for 17 years prior to that, was a strong critic of the Bush Administration’s Iraq policy. His only regret is that his “pen was not sharper and my words tougher.”

Johnson said he had a role in Scheer’s firing.

Michael Ramirez, the conservative editorial cartoonist, also is being dropped by the Times at the end of the year. He believes that it’s a “sad day” for editorial cartooning at the Times because it has decided not to fill his position. Of the layoffs at the LAT, Ramirez said “they are cutting meat off the bone.”

TIMES: ERA OF ‘PERSONAL PUBLICIST’ OVER.
The era in which Hollywood publicists like the legendary Pat Kingsley or Leslee Dart were able to dictate what was written about their clients in a fawning celebrity press appears to be over, according to the Nov. 13 New York Times.

There has been a fundamental shift in the balance of power with the celebrity media and publicists, wrote Allison Weiner on the front of the “Sunday Styles” section.

She zeroed in on Tom Cruise, who has just dumped his sister – Lee Anne Devitte – as PR spokesperson for Rogers & Cowan’s Paul Bloch.

Managed by Devitte, Cruise’s image had “gone off the rails,” so he turned to Bloch, “one from the era when handlers had the authority to order clients to keep out of trouble, and when they did embarrass themselves, found a way to quiet things up or to spin-wash the evidence in the press,” wrote Weiner.

That may not be possible because of “aggressive coverage of magazines, tabloid papers and the Internet.”

Kingsley guided Cruise for 14 years before he turned to his sister in ’04. She was the first publicist to demand magazine covers and the right to pick journalists and the subjects they would write about.

Stephanie Mansfield, who did a ’92 profile of Cruise for GQ, recalled how Kingsley sat in during her interview with Cruise, “mommying him.” Mansfield claims that Kingsley got angry after she talked to a high school friend of Cruise. Cruise had a “hissy fit” when the person’s name came up, and Kingsley demanded that the information could not be used in the story.

Mansfield disagreed, and Kingsley told her that “she was going to be around for a long time,” and would never allow Mansfield access to any of her clients.

Celeb PR pro Howard Bragman told Weiner that Kingsley “runs her business with the fear factor. She likes it like that.”

Weiner believes celebrity PR may not be the best career choice.

“Even under the best of circumstances,” she wrote, “the job of personal publicist – part media relations and business adviser, part close friend – is stressful.”

(Media news continued on next page)

ONLINE READERSHIP RISES.
Readership of newspaper websites surged 11 percent in the last year, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

One out of every four Internet users visited a website for a print newspaper.

NYTimes.com was the top site for a paper with 11.4 million unique visitors in October 2005, up 15 percent since 2004. [The New York Times Co. landed at No. 10 in the Nielsen/NetRatings list of the top 10 parent companies on the ’Net. Microsoft, Yahoo!, Time Warner, Google and eBay were one through five.] USAToday.com (10.4M) and WashingtonPost.com (8.1M) were the other top newspaper sites before a dropoff in readership in millions on the list.

The Internet market research company found that more men than women – 56 percent to 44 – read newspapers online. Fifty-two percent of online paper readers have a bachelor's or postgraduate degree.

Briefs__________

Inside TV, is being shut down after eight months as publisher Gemstar-TV Guide International racked up losses in the $30M range. The full-size glossy carried TV listings and was aimed at young female readers.

Gemstar, which recently launched a bigger version of its flagship TV Guide, is laying off 40 staffers with the Inside TV shutdown. That includes editor Steve LeGrice.

The Russian News and Information Agency Novosti has launched a English language version of the RIAN News Service.

Dmitry Survov, deputy director, said the service will soon be a “must have source” for media and business people who want the “most comprehensive coverage of daily news in Russia, the Baltics and the former Soviet Union states.”

Irina Demchenko, who worked at Reuters, has been hired as Russia managing editor. The service initially plans up to 100 stories a day.

Ilya Merenzon of the PR Group has the scoop on RIAN at 914/525-6058.

The New York Times Magazine introduces T: Holiday on Dec. 4 as the latest addition to its lineup of “T: Style” magazines.

Each annual edition will include gift guides to upscale products and services, entertainment tips and information on the hottest catalogs, stores and boutiques.

The magazine went on display Nov. 21 in the Christmas window display at Saks Fifth Avenue’s New York flagship store.

The mag will be handed out to Saks shoppers and the department store will also host a VIP gala in Rockefeller Center to mark the unveiling of T: Holiday.

The Times also announced it will launch PLAY, a sports magazine, to be distributed inside the paper’s Super Bowl Sunday issue on February 5.

Mark Bryant, who was at Outside, will edit the magazine that promises to “get behind the scenes how sports are really played today.” Three more PLAYS are planned for the fall, and the material will be available on the paper’s website.

The Times will send 150K bonus copies of Play to affluent readers outside its New York region marketing base.

Diane McNulty (212-556-5244, [email protected]) has info about PLAY.

Snowshoe Magazine will debut in December as the only magazine dedicated to the sport. Denver-based Alford Publishing plans another issue in January, and four more for the ’06/’07 season.

SM’s target audiences include racers, backcountry enthusiasts and first-timers. The maiden issue will have stories on snowshoeing in Australia, yoga, and a calendar of upcoming races and events.

The print publication follows the launch of a website last year that has been renamed snowshoemag.com.

Ryan Alford (303/332-4993) has details.

Campus Life magazine will change its name to Ignite Your Faith with its January/February 2006 edition.

Publisher Christianity Today International said the move is being made to clarify confusion over the magazine's intended audience, which is Christian teens, not college students.

The publication was founded in 1942 as “Youth for Christ” magazine. CTI was co-founded by Billy Graham in 1956. Circulation is about 100K.

Uptown magazine, which targets affluent African-Americans, is set to expand into Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Chicago with its Fall 2005 issue.

The quarterly, year-old magazine, which launched in New York, reports a circulation of 100K.

PC World’s December 2005 issue unveils its new "Reviews and Rankings" section of product reviews, combining its previous "New Products" and "Top 100" features.

The magazine has also scrapped its “star ratings” system for a 100-point scale called “PCW Rankings.”

PCW has also added three sidebars to its reviews – “Ask Our Experts,” “Tech Trend,” and “Gotcha!”

People_________

Lewis Lapham, who edited Harper's Magazine for the past 30 years, will step down in the spring. The replacement has not been named.

John Loftstock, editor of Oil Express Inside who was at Convenience Store News for eight years, has been named editor of Convenience Store Decisions, part of Penton Media in Bensalem, Pa. Loftstock left CSN in 2003 to start OEI, which covered the downstream petroleum and convenience store business. CSD targets executives and management personnel of convenience store chains, franchises and petroleum marketers. Circulation is pegged at 41,000.

Robert Messenger, senior editor and a founding group editor for the New York Sun, is slated to leave the paper at the end of November for the Atlantic Monthly.

The PRSA Assembly in Chicago Dec. 3 could bring about major changes in the Society that would benefit itself as well as the PR industry.

Key members at the chapter and district level are fed up with a lot of things, especially the dysfunctional governance of the national organization.

The dissidents have made a good case for there being no proxies at the Assembly.

Dissidents feel leaders are trying to “pack” the Assembly so power in the five-person executive committee will be “formalized.”

Proxies can help to do this because allies can be lined up in advance who will provide the needed votes. A “campaign” is going on, say the dissidents, to encourage delegates to vote the “right” way.

PRSA is predicting upwards of 200 delegates in Chicago and only 100 are needed for a quorum.

So why the sudden need to have proxies when they never have been allowed before?

Proxies are legal but PRSA leaders are not supposed to be distributing proxy forms and offering to cast “directed” votes, say these members.

New York State law, which PRSA leaders just conveniently discovered, “allows” proxies but does not “require” them.

With probably 1,000 non-APRs now eligible to be delegates (directors of 110 chapters, 19 sections and 10 districts), there’s no shortage of delegates.

PRSA governance is dysfunctional because too few people are making too many far-reaching decisions without consulting members. This includes the move of h.q. to downtown New York (an hour round trip from midtown where most PR and media are located); the legal pursuit of “John Doe” (who didn’t have enough money to make a lawsuit worthwhile), and the proposed cancelling of the One Source directory (without asking members about this). Members also weren’t told in advance about the downtown move.

Treasurer Rhoda Weiss has now revealed the members of her committee who studied killing the printed One Source directory.

There’s nothing wrong with studying this but there is with keeping it from the membership.

Blame for this is now shared with committee members Mary Barber, Sue Bohle, Gerard Corbett, John Deveney, Margaret Ann Hennen, Steve Lubetkin and Thomas Vitelli.

Basic PR is that the members be brought in on such a momentous change. Isn’t PRSA supposed to be the citadel of PR?

Barber says the switch to online takes advantage of “modern technology.”

So why didn’t PRSA leaders allow a debate on this subject on the PRSA website starting early this year when the Weiss committee started studying it? That would be taking advantage of “modern technology.”

PRSA leaders told complaining delegates on a teleconference Nov. 4 that PRSA’s own website was “old-fashioned” and hard to change (11/9 NL).

There are 273 Assembly delegate e-mail addresses on the PRSA website but a member who wants to express an opinion to them would have to keyboard all 273 to do so. “Modern technology” would be allowing members to blast e-mail the delegates their opinions on One Source and the nine bylaw changes.

PRSA blast e-mails its 20,000 members all the time to sell them things. It only uses “modern technology” when it suits the purposes of leaders.

“Technology has changed the world,” says president Judith Phair, and members must change their habits even though this can be “uncomfortable and difficult.”

The “uncomfortable” change that PRSA h.q. must make is cutting deeply the time spent on the annual five-day conference that attracts a little over 5% of the members. Assembly direction is needed on this. The tip-off of staff concentration on this is that 32 staffers were registered for the Miami meeting.

The Assembly itself is dysfunctional because chapters with 10-25 members, of which there are about ten, get one full vote each as if they had 100 members.

This skews power to smaller chapters.
Leadership including 17 national directors, 19 section chairs and 10 district chairs should not have votes in the Assembly since they’re voting on their own proposals. The leaders tend to stick together on issues. PRSA/Houston once complained about this but got nowhere.

Why can’t the Assembly meet all year long by teleconference, the way the board does? That would be using modern technology.

Assembly delegates can’t get much experience meeting one day a year. Most of the time even then is taken up by leader speeches.

Delegates must pay close attention to the financial statements of PRSA on its website. The loss of the 2005 conference in Miami has been a severe blow with the full effects yet to be seen.

PRSA had, as of Sept. 30, $3,450,767 in cash and investments and $384,51 in receivables ($3.8M).

But it had payables of $500,472 and it still isn’t paying the rent. This delayed expense, which has to be paid some day, has gone up from $277,157 to $404,622.

To this $905,094 should be added about $2M in dues that PRSA has yet to earn.

PRSA stands alone among CPAs, lawyers, doctors, the ASAE and IABC in booking full dues as soon as they come in instead of laying them off, month by month.

This $2M should be a liability. So this leaves PRSA with about $900,000 in unrestricted net assets, the way our CPA advisors see it. This financial situation, not “modern technology,” may be the real reason for the rush to kill One Source.

The income statement shows $1,461,334 was budgeted for 2005 conference “registration” but the actual total was only $1,270,270, a $191,064 shortfall.

– Jack O'Dwyer