SOUTH CAROLINA ISSUES SAFETY RFP.
South Carolina’s Department of Public Safety has issued an RFP for a firm to develop and advise the state’s public education and information campaigns.
The Palmetto State intends to award a two-year contract, with three, one-year options.

Orlando-based Chernoff Newman, formerly Chernoff/Silver Associates, which has an office in Columbia, S.C., was the DPS’ previous firm. That pact has expired, said spokesman Sid Gaulden.

Under the new RFP, a firm must have experience in producing statewide multimedia campaigns, but is not required to be based in South Carolina.

The DPS encapsulates four divisions – security for the state entities like the capitol complex, supreme court, Governor’s mansion; training and certification of law enforcement; highway patrol and traffic/vehicle laws, and commercial vehicle law enforcement. Its last major campaign earlier this year was to encourage seat belt use.

The state, effective Dec. 9, has changed its seat belt laws to allow for primary enforcement, meaning drivers can be stopped for not wearing seat belts or if children are not properly restrained.

The DPS wants a contractor to brief lawmakers, civic leaders and law enforcement, develop PSAs and other marketing campaigns and direct conferences, among other tasks. Proposals are due by Jan. 5.

MARGARITIS MAKES COMEBACK.
John Margaritis, the former CEO of Ogilvy PR Worldwide, has joined Euro RSCG Worldwide, where he will be responsible for its Magnet unit.

He had been marketing director at Asprey, the upscale British jeweler, leather goods and rifle maker.

Margaritis, 56, has taken the newly created executive director slot at Euro RSCG Worldwide PR. Magnet, which just lost the services of wunderkind Aaron Kwittken, is his initial focus.

Margaritis exited Ogilvy in `97, and set up his own firm. Earlier, he was at Fleishman-Hillard (executive VP), Burson-Marsteller (director of client services) and General Electric (news bureau).

5W Public Relations CEO Ronn Torossian is looking to hire a COO to help guide the shop that is the fastest growing independent PR firm, according to O’Dwyer’s `04 rankings. The New York-based firm recently expanded to Los Angeles, and will open in Miami during the second-quarter of ’06. It has 48 staffers and will report fees in the $5M range for this year.

WATT GETS JAIL TERM.
A federal judge on Nov. 28 sentenced Ron Watt to 3 ½ years in jail for bank fraud, ending the legal saga of the 62-year-old executive who was once Cleveland’s leading PR counselor.

The former head of Watt, Roop & Co. was charged with bilking banks of $1.5M. He did so by cashing in on his reputation as a pillar of the community, said U.S. District Judge Dan Polster.

Watt had told six Cleveland area banks that he received more than $10M in stock—rather than the $30K that he actually received—when he sold WR&C to Fleishman-Hillard in ’99.

FOLTA TO LEAD VIACOM COMMS.
Carl Folta, executive VP of corporate relations for Viacom who heads all of the media giant’s communications and public affairs, will take on a new post to lead the company’s communications activities from the office of its chairman. Viacom is set to split into two publicly traded companies early in 2006.

Folta is slated to become executive VP of the office of the chairman and will be a corporate officer of both companies.

The 48-year-old executive will serve as senior advisor and spokesman for Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone and is responsible for positioning and outreach to media, the investment community and U.S. and international government officials.

New York-based Viacom said Folta will work in consultation with the boards of both companies and their CEOs – Tom Freston at Viacom and Les Mooves and CBS.

BOLTON RESIGNS AS COO OF PRSA.
Catherine Bolton, who joined PRSA in September 2000 as chief PR officer and was promoted to acting president and COO in December of that year when COO Ray Gaulke was shifted to the PRSA Foundation, has resigned effective Dec. 31, 2006.

PRSA president Judith Phair and 2006 president Cheryl Procter-Rogers are appointing a search committee.

PRSA’s Assembly, meeting from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 3 in Chicago, passed several bylaw changes including one that will let the five-member executive committee “serve as an efficient and flexible extension of the full board.”

The Miami chapter had said this bylaw change would “turn the rest of the (17-member) board into eunuchs.”

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FENTON PROMOTES VENEZUELA’S OIL AID.
Fenton Communications is promoting Venezuela’s discounted oil program for disadvantaged families in Massachusetts, New York and maybe Maine, an FC staffer told O’Dwyer’s.

The deal was brokered by Democrats William Delahunt (Mass.) and Jose Serrano (NY) with Venezuela’s leftist president Hugo Chavez, a fierce critic of President Bush.

The Wall Street Journal (Nov. 30) editorialized against the plan as a way for Chavez to pay back his “Congressional amigo,” a reference to Delahunt. The paper charged the “Venezuela tyrant” with using oil to gain influence in Washington.

FC, according to the staffer who did not wish to be named, promoted the Nov. 22 press event held in the home of a low-income North Quincy, Mass., couple that featured Delahunt and Venezuela’s Ambassador to the U.S., Bernardo Alvarez.

They outlined how Venezuela via its Citgo Petroleum unit, which has deep roots in the Boston market as evidenced by its landmark sign at Fenway Park, plans to provide 12 million gallons of oil to low-income families, nursing homes and hospitals, saving them from 60 to 80 cents a gallon.

Joe Kennedy’s Boston-based Citizens Energy Corp. will market the fuel.

According to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the program is a “simple act of generosity to help people in Massachusetts weather the combined economic storms of Katrina, Rita and the global oil shortage.”

The Boston Globe, however, said the program could be viewed as “slap in the face” to the Bush Administration.

Chavez frequently knocks the White House for caring little for the poor, and is now waging a campaign of “petro-diplomacy,” said the BG.

Venezuela also promoted its “humanitarian aid to those who need it” with full-page ads in the New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post and Houston Chronicle, Citgo’s hometown paper.

EAW SEEKS PAY FROM GAMBIA.
EAW Group CEO John Aycoth was deposed on December 2 in his federal lawsuit filed against Gambia to recoup the $500K in fees plus interest from Feb. ’02 that he claims his company is owed for D.C. representation. (A $5M countersuit lodged by Gambia against EAW was thrown out of court.)

Gambia’s Ambassador to the United Nations was deposed on Nov. 28, but other officials cancelled depositions that were slated that day.

The African state belittles work that Aycoth says he did for it, such as arranging meetings with Henry Kissinger and members of Human Rights Watch. Aycoth says he has “five boxloads” of work product to back up proof of his representation.

A “status conference” has been set for Dec. 16 and the deadline for depositions was Dec. 5.

Judge Gladys Kessler of United States District Court for D.C., who presided over the landmark tobacco trial, is expected to hear the case next year.

BOLTON NAMED PAGE PRESIDENT.
Roger Bolton, senior VP, communications of Aetna, has been elected president of the Arthur W. Page Society for 2006.

He succeeds Thomas R. Martin, senior VP and director of corporate relations, ITT Industries, who was president of Page two years. Those who are elected president normally serve two years.

Bolton, a member of Page since 1996, is currently treasurer.

He said the Society, under Martin’s leadership, “significantly stepped up its ability to serve our members and promote the Page Principles.”

“The board of trustees has reaffirmed our mission of advancing the policy role of the chief PR officer, and has adopted new goals that will guide our efforts going forward,” he said.

Bolton, SVP of Aetna since 1995, is a member of the Executive Council, the company’s senior management group.

He began his career as a newspaper reporter in Marion, Ohio after graduating in 1972 from Ohio State University with a major in journalism. He was then press secretary and staff director for U.S. Congressman Clarence J. Brown.

He was director of speech writing for the Reagan-Bush re-election campaign in 1984, joining the Reagan Administration as assistant U.S. trade representative for public affairs in the Executive Office of the President.

The U.S. Senate in 1989 confirmed President Bush’s nomination of Bolton as assistant secretary of the Treasury for public affairs.

From 1991-95, he was director of corporate media relations at IBM and director of communications for the IBM server and software groups.

NC LOOKS TO HIKE PR INVESTMENT.
North Carolina, following an audit of its economic development efforts, has moved to give PR a more prominent role in its efforts to market the state to businesses. The state’s Department of Commerce has issued an RFP for a PR firm to improve its outreach to the sector.

The Dept. of Commerce said its in-house PR staff is fully engaged in day-to-day operations and can’t take on a new project “of this magnitude.”

In April, NC hired Fleishman-Hillard for a $150K/year assignment to bolster ties between its military community and private sector businesses.

The state wants a firm with national experience to provide “publicity and perception analysis for marketing North Carolina as a place to do business.” The department said that must include experience with at least 10 state or community clients. The work includes assignments like pitching story lines to major business publications, developing a comprehensive strategic PR plan, organizing press trips, among other tasks.

Term of the anticipated contract will run from January 1, 2006 to Dec. 31. There are two one-year options. Proposals are due Dec. 19.
Questions should be sent to purchasing officer Brenda Allen ([email protected]).

WSJ TV SHIFTS TO FOX.
Fox News will air Dow Jones & Co.’s “Journal Editorial Report,” which completed its run on the Public Broadcasting Service on Dec. 2, next month.
The half-hour program will be hosted by Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot and members of the paper’s editorial board.

Fox says it approached Gigot months before the show figured in the storm surrounding the ousting of former Corporation for Public Broadcasting chair Kenneth Tomlinson.

He had brought JEP to PBS to add more conservative programming to offset what he viewed as public TV's “liberal tilt.”

A six-month probe by CPB inspector general Kenneth Konz charged Tomlinson “violated his fiduciary responsibilities” by dealing directly with Gigot.

The CPB distributes taxpayer money to stations to fund original programs, but is not supposed to decide on what gets on the air.

The Konz report says the $4.1M that CPB gave to DJ&C was way out of line with what other programmers got.

DJ&C claims it pulled the show from PBS because top stations would not air it. PBS denies that.

FRANCE EYES RIVAL TO CNN.
The Government of France plans to launch a 24-hour satellite TV service to present its slant on world events in the second half of ’06.

The world affairs-oriented station will be beamed around the world in French, Arabic, and English. Spanish is expected to follow.

France's cultural minister, Renaud deVabres said the station will be heavy on French “values.”

President Jacques Chirac said the channel is necessary to position France in the "front rank in the global battle of images."

NEUHARTH PAPERS TO LIB. OF CONGRESS.
The Library of Congress has acquired the papers of Al Neuharth, a key architect of Gannett Co. and founding editor of USA Today and Florida Today.

Neuharth, 81, called the acquisition “an honor.” He presented Librarian of Congress James Billington with the first three items of the collection on Dec. 1.

They included the first edition of a South Dakota sports weekly, SoDak Sports, that Neuharth, then with the Associated Press, founded with Bill Porter in 1952. The paper folded in two years.

Second, he presented a 1969 edition of Today, the first paper microfilmed and taken to the moon on Feb. 5, 1971.

Neuharth also presented an original first issue of USA Today, dated Sept. 15, 1982.

Neuharth’s papers will reside in the Library’s Manuscript Division, where works from Katharine Graham, Henry Luce and Joseph Pulitzer are archived.

Neuharth joined Gannett in 1963 as a GM and is credited with turning the chain of small-town newspapers into a billion-dollar media conglomerate. He retired from the company in 1989.

CHRISTINA LA REVISTA TO SHUT.
Christina La Revista, the No. 2 Spanish-language women’s magazine, is to shut down Dec. 31 after 15 years of publication.

The magazine of Hispanic TV talk show host Christina Saralegui, who is known as the “Oprah con salsa,” is being shut because of contract haggling with the publisher Editorial Televisa.

Christina La Revista has a monthly circulation of 88K. That is topped only by Vanidades.

CRAIN PLANS NEW FINANCIAL PUB.
Crain Communications will publish a pilot issue of FinancialWeek on June 5 to target the niche between general business publications and specialized financial magazines.

The plan is to begin publishing every other Monday starting in September and moving to a weekly basis in January.

William Bisson, publisher of Pensions & Investments and InvestmentNews, gets that title at FW. He promises a paper with “immediacy that captures the flair and drama of finance, yet consistently serves as a working tool for its readers.”

FW topics will include the latest in financing techniques, risk management, accounting, corporate governance, information technology and compliance.

The paper will be based in New York, and printed on high-quality, matted-finished paper.

Its controlled 55K circulation will be composed of chief financial officers, investor relations directors, treasurers, controllers and corporate secretaries. A sub will fetch $79.

LAFFOON POKES JOURNAL’S KR EDIT.
Polk Laffoon, VP-corporate communications at Knight Ridder, has ripped a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece by John Ellis about the prospects of the media combine that has put itself up for sale.

Ellis opined on Nov. 19 that potential suitors have expressed “zero interest” in KR. That statement came after KR announced on Nov. 14 that it is using Goldman Sachs to explore strategic options.

“The ink is hardly dry on the press release and Mr. Ellis, with no substantiation, pronounces game over,” wrote Laffoon in a letter to the editor published Nov. 29 in the WSJ.

Laffoon took issue with Ellis’ point that KR publishes “second-rate newspapers.” He wrote: “Can there be reasonable doubt that the Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald and San Jose Mercury News, to name three of many, represent a collection of first-rate newspaper franchises whose impact on their respective local communities is unique and of enduring value?”

Laffoon highlighted the chain’s 84 Pulitzer Prizes, and industry praise for KR’s Washington, D.C., bureau “for its skepticism concerning the buildup to the Iraq War or the lack of planning for its aftermath, while so many ‘first rate’ newspapers bought the government's party line."

(Media news continued on next page)

MAG NAMES FORMER INTERN AS EDITOR.
Harper’s has named former intern Roger Hodge to replace Lewis Lapham as editor of the 155-year-old magazine.

The 38-year-old Hodge joined Harper’s as an intern in 1996 and has been deputy editor since 2004.

Lapham edited the magazine for nearly 30 years, from 1976 through 2005, with breaks in 1981 and 1983. He said he’ll retire in the spring, but will continue to pen the “Notebook” column.

Hodge told the New York Times that he no plans for major changes. But John MacArthur, president and publisher of Harper’s told the paper that “it is very important to ramp up the journalism in the magazine and develop a more serious presence in Washington.”

People________

George Blooston, retail and consumer news editor for Bloomberg News, has joined AARP The Magazine in Washington, D.C., as features editor for personal finance.

He was formerly general editor of Bloomberg Personal Finance and senior editor for Entertainment Weekly.

Chrystia Freeland, deputy editor of the Financial Times, has been named U.S. managing editor. The 37-year-old Canadian succeeds Lionel Barber, who was named editor of the paper this month. Freeland will move to New York in 2006.

She was formerly deputy editor of The Globe & Mail (Toronto) and earlier was UK news editor, Moscow bureau chief and Eastern Europe correspondent for the Times.

Cracked Magazine has added Geoff Wolinetz, Nick Jezarian and Josh Abraham, all of YankeePotRoast.org, as contributing editors to the humor magazine and its website.

David Edelstein, movie critic for Slate and National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air,” has joined New York magazine as its new film critic, beginning in January.

Ken Tucker, the mag’s current film reviewer, plans to join Entertainment Weekly as editor-at-large in January.

Edelstein has penned reviews for the Village Voice, New York Post and Rolling Stone. New York editor Adam Moss praised the hire and said Edelstein will also be put to work on nymag.com, which is being re-launched.

Scott Salyers was promoted to associate publisher of Sport Fishing and Natasha Lloyd to associate publisher of Marlin magazine. Both are outdoor titles from World Publications.

Dan Salamone has joined Cleveland’s WOIO Channel 19 as news director. The 43-year-old exec was general manager of KOIN in the west coast city of Portland. He succeeds Steve Doerr who left in September to join Audience Research and Development.

Bill Applegate, general manager of WOIO, said Salamone has the ability to “move the needle.”

Glenn Proctor has been named executive editor of the Richmond Times Dispatch. He had been at the Star-Ledger in Newark, responsible for local news.

Proctor was at the Akron Beacon Journal for 10 years.

Kelly Harville, VP of strategic planning and new media at The (Nashville) Tennessean, has joined the San Francisco Chronicle as VP of marketing.

Placement Tip________

Celeste Monte, an analyst and program manager for Consumer Reports’ appliances and home improvement unit, is interested in up-to-the-minute new product information, exclusive pre-launch, if possible. Her staff follows product trends and is responsible for recommending new products for testing and reporting.

Products covered by the A&H unit include vacuums, humidifiers, smoke alarms, cleaning products and paints, among others.

E-mail is her preferred method of contact; [email protected].

Briefs________

Every Woman, a quarterly magazine that covers women’s healthcare and includes content from members of the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses, debuted on newsstands for the first time on Nov. 29.

Publisher Healthspring Communications, which is now offering subscriptions to consumers for $13.95/year, said the magazine was made available as a direct response to consumer demand. HC also publishes a Spanish-language edition called Toda Mujer.

The Association represents 22K nurses in the U.S.

Rolling Stone plans to produce a 3-D cover for the front page of its May ’06 issue to celebrate the magazine’s 1,000th issue. The cover will show a collage of movers and shakers that have had a major impact on the country's cultural and political scene. The cover is the brainchild of Jann Wenner, founder of the magazine.

The special edition will have an expanded rate base, up from 1.4M to 1.5M.

Officials at Oak Ridge High School (Tenn.) seized all 1,800 copies of the school’s paper, The Oak Leaf, because it contained an article about birth control and tattoos.

The birth control piece had success rates for various methods, while the other item featured a picture of a student with a tattoo that her parents didn’t know about. The paper may be reprinted minus the “offensive” items, said school officials.

According to USA Today, University of Tennessee J-School professor Dwight Teeter, blasted the seizure of the papers.

“Either the students are going to have a voice, or you’re going to have a PR rag for the administration,” he said.

Dominating PR news at the moment is the military “pay-for-play” scandal that broke in the Los Angeles Times on Nov. 30 and the New York Times the next day.

It’s alleged that the Lincoln Group, a “PR firm” based in Washington, D.C., headed by “businesspeople and former military officials,” according to the NYT, is sending articles written by American troops to be placed in Iraqi news media via advertising agencies.

Faced with a storm of criticism, the top military spokesman in Iraq, Major General Rick Lynch, said that insurgents are also using the media to advance their goals.

He made this accusation about Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who heads Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.

The U.S. Government’s role in placing the articles, while open at first, later became hidden, an unidentified Pentagon official told the NYT.

PR leaders were quick to denounce the purchase of editorial space in any form.

“This is utterly unacceptable behavior,” said Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman.

He called “pay-for-play” a “perversion of our business” that cannot be allowed.

Said Edelman: “We don’t buy space. We don’t pay journalists to be on our side.

We don’t fake out media by pretending that we don’t know much about our client, working under cover of night. We don’t say there is only one side to a story.”

Thomas Martin, president of the Arthur W. Page Society, said, “The practice of paying for what appears to be editorial placements is wrong, and is inconsistent with Page Principles, whether done in Iraq, the U.S., or anywhere in the world.”

PR people need to “make clear” the source of any advocacy campaigns and any relationships, paid or otherwise, between advocates and those supporting them, said Martin.

PR pros also noted that U.S. law forbids the military from “carrying out psychological operations or planting propaganda through U.S. media outlets.”

Some PR pros thought that what Lincoln is doing is not much different from U.S. media running “advertorials” or carrying sponsored articles or using video news releases without prominently mentioning the source of such materials.

“No one is saying that what we released and advertised in Iraq is not correct,” said Ron Levy, who heads Episodic PR, New York, which supplies prepared editorial materials to media.

PRSA’s new bylaw allowing the executive committee to be an “extension” of the board flies in the face of Sarbanes-Oxley, which many groups are voluntarily adopting in anticipation of a non-profit SOX.

SOX wants the full board to govern a company, not just the chair and a few close associates. SOX also wants independent directors on boards to provide perspective and objectivity...major changes at PRSA are in the wind with the arrival of Cheryl Procter-Rogers as president on Jan. 1 and the planned departure of COO Catherine Bolton.

The administration of Judith Phair was the most tight-lipped we have ever seen at PRSA with directors forbidden to express any opinions about PRSA or even PR.

Communication was blocked in many ways including obtaining opinions from members via blast e-mail. Assembly delegates were not posted on the PRSA website until one month before the Assembly, blocking interaction.

The “John Doe” case was withheld from members until it burst in the New York Law Journal and members didn’t learn of the end of their printed One Source directory until November... Procter-Rogers, from Time Warner, which has a great journalistic tradition, could be different. Will new directors be forced to take the usual “oath of silence?”...the Assembly used proxies for the first time Dec. 3 but we wonder if they will be used again. Two law firms and parliamentarian Mark Schilansky strongly supported PRSA leaders in allowing proxies. But Section 609(a) of the New York State law, as we interpret it, means that all 20,700 members of PRSA could vote by proxy. Judge Sol Dunkin’s decision in a case involving the Woodlawn Republican Club’s 1982 elections said that “members” of a group are not to be deprived of “such an essential and fundamental right” as voting ...this case law supporting proxy votes that was finally dug up on the day before the Assembly does not seem too relevant to proxy voting in the Assembly. If “several” proxy votes were counted, a tie for the presidency of the political club would have resulted. Those attempting to vote by proxy sued after the incumbent leaders rejected proxies.

Proxies were said to be an unalienable right by Justice Dunkin for members of a group.

But the Woodside Republicans were just voting on one slate vs. another, an either/or matter.

Assemblies of PRSA consider complicated changes to the bylaws. If significant amendments are made, a directed proxy cannot be changed.

The last major search for a COO took six months. Korn/Ferry International helped find Ray Gaulke, an executive at the Newspaper Advertising Bureau. He was at the Marsteller ad agency from 1965 to 1979, rising from a copywriter in Chicago to general manager in New York in 1969 and president in 1975.

In 1983 he joined Gannett Media Sales as president and publisher of USA Today Weekend. The K/F search cost $40,000 in fees and $5,100 in expenses. There were also expenses of members of the PRSA search committee...Gaulke received a signing bonus of $25K. His salary was $150K for each of the first two years with a pension of $14K each year. His contract included four weeks of vacation and a bonus if PRSA’s revenues and membership should increase.

– Jack O'Dwyer