D.C. AREA WANTS DISASTER PR HELP.
Armed with federal Dept. of Homeland Security funds, the nation’s capital and surrounding areas are looking for help to develop a multi-year PR plan showing the public and media that the region is prepared to respond to a disaster.

The push would follow-up on a $5M advertising-based campaign led by the Washington, D.C., Emergency Management Agency with Burson-Marsteller last year (dubbed “Be Ready. Make a Plan.”), according to Merni Fitzgerald, chair of the communications emergency support function for the region. She declined to provide a budget for the new effort and indicated it would be based on proposals received.

The local D.C.-area governments want to stress that the public, not just governments, plays an important role in preparing for a disaster. The new search for a PR firm comes after Hurricane Katrina created public doubts about crisis preparation across the country.

“It is clear from the pointed questions raised after Katrina that many members of the public and the media remain unaware of the NCR’s disaster preparations,” reads a copy of the RFP obtained by O’Dwyer’s which refers to the acronym for the “national capital region.”

The RFP notes that more than 50 percent of Americans now say they are no better prepared for a disaster than before Katrina.

That region – encompassing Washington, D.C., and the surrounding Virginia and Maryland counties – issued the RFP on Jan. 17.

Proposals are due Feb. 16. Contracting officer is Mary McMahon ([email protected]).

GREISMAN JOINS MASTERCARD.
Harvey Greisman, who was VP-corporate communications at IBM, has signed on at MasterCard International as global head of communications. He joined Big Blue in `97 to head PR for its software and global services groups.

Greisman had been at GTE Corp. for more than 15 years, leaving as senior VP-public affairs and communications.

At that phone company, Greisman was a member of its executive leadership committee and worked with the office of the chairman on strategy issues.

Earlier, Greisman handled media relations for Allied Corp, which is now Honeywell. He directed PR for the United Nations, and began his career at the Corp. for Public Broadcasting.

Sharon Gamsin is MasterCard’s VP-global communications.

BUFFETT MOVES ON BUSINESS WIRE.
Berkshire Hathaway, the $75 billion conglomerate run by Warren Buffett, has moved to acquire Business Wire in a deal expected to close by the end of the first quarter of ’06.

Buffett snapped up the company for over $300M, according to Bloomberg.

BW’s management team, led by newly promoted CEO Cathy Tamraz, will remain in place and operations will not be affected by the ownership change, according to BH. BW will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of the conglomerate.

Tamraz told O’Dwyer’s that she sent Buffett a letter last year after reading a story about him in the Wall Street Journal and getting a “hunch” there might be a fit. “That led to a conversation and some talks. He checked us out and said he liked what he saw, and he made an offer,” she said. Tamraz said BW’s independence is a good fit with BH’s traditional hands-off demeanor.

BW, which is privately held, said it posted double-digit growth in 2005. It has grown significantly overseas in the last few years, staffs 504 people with annual revenue over $120M.

Last month, founder and CEO Lorry Lokey promoted Tamraz, a 26-year-veteran of the company, to the top executive post and said he would pursue his philanthropic pursuits, which have totaled $160M to date.

BH companies include Benjamin Moore & Co., Fruit of the Loom, Buffalo (N.Y.) News, and GEICO Auto Insurance, among a roster of 42 companies.

LINCOLN GROUP ADDS TO PR TEAM.
Lincoln Group, the PR firm guiding wartime communications operations for the U.S. in Iraq, has added a veteran PR executive to guide media relations for the company.

Bill Dixon, senior VP and director of media relations for the powerful D.C.-area investment bank Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, has left to become director of media relations for Lincoln, he told O’Dwyer’s.

Dixon is a former PR manager for Google and The Motley Fool. He has worked on various political campaigns in D.C., Wisconsin, Colorado, California and Virginia.

Laurie Adler is director of marketing and government relations at Lincoln and served as the company’s spokeswoman as it came under scrutiny late last year for its Iraq work.

Dixon noted Lincoln is moving from K Street to Pennsylvania Avenue next week.

GREENPEACE WANTS GORTON’S BOYCOTT.
Greenpeace is calling for a boycott of Gorton’s of Gloucester, marketer of fresh and frozen seafood. The action is to protest the whaling activity of Gorton’s parent company, Japan-based Nissui.

Commercial whaling was banned 20 years ago. Japan, once again, will kill up to 1,000 whales this winter under the guise of “scientific research.” The whale meat finds its way to Japan’s supermarkets. Nissui launched its first whaling expedition to the Antarctic in 1934. It bought Gorton’s in 2001.

Dave Weber, Gorton’s VP-environmental affairs, told O’Dwyer’s that Gorton’s “has neither engaged in whaling activities, nor killed a single whale in its 156-year history, and never will.”

The company, he noted, is committed to environmental sustainability. “We strongly advocate for and support responsible management of the ocean’s resources through the use of sustainable fishery practices.”

Gorton’s, he added, is a financial supporter of the Whale Center of New England, which is focused on protecting the mammals.

Greenpeace’s ship, Esperanza, has been harassing the whalers. Its campaigners have driven small inflatable boats between the whales and whalers.

The environmental group is asking supporters to host “whale parties” on Jan. 27 to watch a video of the Esperanza taking on the whalers. They will also hear from Esperanza crewmembers, and receive petitions urging a Gorton’s boycott.

Mullen handles Gorton’s PR.

CRT/TANAKA TAPPED BY ATKINS.
Atkins Nutritionals, the struggling low-carb institution, has brought on CRT/tanaka as part of a $40M marketing push with ad shop DZP Marketing Communications.

Atkins emerged from bankruptcy this month, but still carries about $110M in debt, down from $300M when it filed last year. It has scaled back its product offerings to “higher quality, better tasting products.”

Patrice Tanaka, co-chair and chief creative officer for CRT/tanaka, told O’Dwyer’s her firm had worked with Atkins CEO Mark Rodriguez – a veteran of Acirca, Great Brands and Danone International – in the past. She said the firm’s healthcare and consumer experience helped land the work.

Tanaka oversees the account with VP Stephanie Kannel.

Last August, Atkins was using Euro RSCG Magnet as its main PR firm. Magnet at the time unveiled a marketing practice called PopWorx to handle viral marketing, gaming and blog-related work with Atkins as the unit’s flagship client.

In 2004, Atkins acquired New York firm Williams Whittle Rothstein PR, placing president Richard Rothstein at the helm of corporate communications at the height of the low-carb craze. The firm had handled PR for Atkins for six years prior to that.

Tanaka noted that Atkins’ in-house PR now falls under VP and chief marketing officer Beth Neumann.

STATE DEPT. MAY ISSUE ANTI-POPPY PUSH.
The State Dept. may issue an RFP for an “Afghanistan public information campaign for the reduction in illegal poppy cultivation.”

The document was expected to be posted earlier this month, but is still being reviewed by State’s legal team, according to contract specialist Anthony McIntosh.

The State Dept. effort is overdue. The Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 18 on its front page that the heroin trade is soaring in Afghanistan despite its occupation by U.S. and NATO forces. Military commanders are reluctant to take on poppy farmers because they neither want to alienate the locals nor distract attention from the mission to wipe out the Taliban.

Afghanistan earned more than $2.7 billion from opium exports in `05, which accounted for 52 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. “You probably can’t build democracy in a country where narcotics are such a large part of the economy, John Carnevale, a counternarcotics official in the Bush I and Clinton Administrations, told the WSJ.

Heroin from Afghanistan is mainly used by addicts in Europe, but is slowly making its way to the streets of New York, according to Justice Dept. officials. The surge in poppy production has cut the street price of Afghan heroin below the price of South American heroin.

GMMB GETS HEALTHY PACT WITH ILLINOIS.
GMMB/Fleishman-Hillard has beat 12 competitors to snap up two parts of a lucrative contract to promote major healthcare initiatives for the state of Illinois.

The state issued an RFP in December to find a firm or firms to handle marketing communications for both its ambitious “All Kids” plan to insure every Prairie State child (along with other state efforts to help the uninsured) and its prescription drug plan for seniors.

The state Dept. of Healthcare and Family Services decided to enter its separate contracts with GMMB/F-H for both components. Budgets are $2.47 million for the All Kids work and $2.2 million for the prescription drug push, both over three years. Both contracts carry two options worth $220K per option year.

The San Jose Group, Jasculca-Terman, Burrell Comms. Group and Hill Rawls Marketing Consultants were among the bidders.

The All Kids initiative, slated for a July 1 launch and pushed through by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, is a Medicare-backed program touted as the first program to insure every child in a state. It is being closely covered and watched in and out of the state.

GMMB is F-H’s PA arm.

Hill & Knowlton has named Wendy Hutter its U.S. business development and marketing director.

She had been a partner at In The Round, a brand consulting firm. Hutter also held marketing/branding posts at Standard & Poor’s, Sotheby’s and Publicis.

She hopes her background “will infuse new energy into the company and leverage H&K’s intellectual capital to its fullest potential.” She reports to MaryLee Sachs, U.S. chair, and serves on H&K’s executive committee.

VNU MULLS BUYOUT, ACQUIRES WEB SHOP.
VNU, publisher of Adweek, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter and another 320 pubs, has received a buyout offer from a private equity consortium. That group includes Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Blackstone Group, Thomas H. Lee Partners, Permira, Carlyle Group and AlpInvest Partners.

The investors have been discussing a buyout with Netherlands-based VNU for the past few weeks, and the company has agreed to provide more info to the group.

The offer comes after VNU was forced to terminate in November its bid to buy IMS Health, a data firm, following heated shareholder opposition. That failed deal led to the resignation of VNU CEO Rob van den Bergh.

Acquires Web Tracking Shop

VNU last week announced plans to acquire online media tracker BuzzMetrics and add it to the company’s Nielsen unit. BuzzMetrics is slated to merge with competitor Intelliseek, the company credited with coining the term “consumer-generated media.”

The web trackers will operate under the Nielsen BuzzMetrics name and be based in New York, according to VNU, which would own 50.1 percent of the combine.

VNU noted the deal is the third in a series of “word-of-mouth research” investments for the company, following its acquisition of a stake in Israel-based Trendum, which later bought BuzzMetrics.

BWO ‘OUTS’ ANOTHER PAID COLUMNIST.
BusinessWeek Online has nabbed another columnist for Scripps Howard News Service for taking corporate payments without disclosing them.

BWO, which outed payments from Jack Abramoff to two columnists in December, said Michael Fumento, a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute, was dropped by the news service after the magazine inquired about a $60K grant he solicited from Monsanto to write a book on the agribusiness and biotechnology industries.

BWO notes Monsanto was the “frequent subject of praise in Fumento’s opinion columns and a book.”
News service editor Peter Copeland apologized to readers in a statement and said that Fumento did not tell editors about the ’99 grant.

Fumento told BWO that the money flowed from Monsanto to the Hudson Institute to support his work.

He said he sees no conflict because the grant was several years ago and added that disclosure of financial transactions between op-ed columnists and the companies they cover wouldn’t be practical.

NEW YORK OBSERVER ON BLOCK.
The New York Observer, the cheeky weekly focused on the city's movers & shakers and media elite, is up for sale.

Editor Peter Kaplan has approached trade publishers and wealthy individuals who may want to take the paper off the hands of former Wall Streeter Arthur Carter.

The paper is losing $2M a year, and was hammered by the fall-off of real estate advertising following 9/11.

Carter landed the Observer, which has a circulation of 45,000, in ’87 and poured more than $40M into it.

CNN GIVES TALK SHOW TO BECK.
CNN Headline News has given a one-hour prime time talk show to radio talking head Glenn Beck, who earned recent fame by organizing pro-war “Rallies for America” when he was at Clear Channel.

CNN HN president Ken Jautz describes Beck’s style as “self-deprecating cordial.” He is said to be “conversational, not confrontational.”

Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting takes issue with Jautz. It noted how Beck, 41, fantasized on-air about killing Michael Moore, and about former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich bursting into flames.

Beck was pretty harsh on the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the families of 9/11. Less than two weeks after Katrina, Beck said: “I didn’t think I could hate victims faster than the 9/11 victims.”

Beck’s hire is part of Jautz’s plant to “launch different types of programming.” According to Beck’s website, he started broadcasting when he was 13 and moved to bigger markets until “alcoholism and drug addiction” took over when he was 30. Beck went into recovery and credits his baptism as a Mormon for his comeback.

Former Republican Congressman J.C. Watts is also set to join CNN as a regular contributor.

WGAw RAPS ‘PRODUCT INTEGRATION.’
The Writers Guild of America, west, is taking aim at the upswing in “product integration,” the practice of weaving a product into the storyline of a TV show or film.

The group uses a spoof website, productinvasion.com, to tell how it is “getting a little tired of advertisers taking over any reality show with a ratings pulse so they can insinuate their miserable products a little bit more deeply into our consciousness.”

The site singles out Procter & Gamble, Home Depot and Pepsi for stopping at “nothing to insert their brand names into every TV plotline. These diabolical advertising fiends are turning our favorite TV shows into cheesy infomercials!”

Patric Verrone, president of WGAw, believes viewers need to understand the difference between a product placement and integration. “Product placement is simply putting a branded box of cereal on the kitchen table in a show,” Verrone told the New York Times. “Product integration is having the characters talk about the crunchy deliciousness of the cereal or provoking them to go out and tell their neighbors to buy that cereal.”

The WGAw site pays tribute to Federal Communications Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, who spoke out against “stealth advertising” and the commercialization of the American media last May.

Google was busy last week. The search giant moved to acquire radio advertising company dMarc Broadcasting for an initial payment of $102M. The deal could cost Google $1.136B in potential payments. It will be folded into Google Adwords, its first radio component.

Also, the company is fighting the federal government, which is trying to subpoena search records in a pornography crackdown. Google’s unveiling of its new video service was hit by some in the press as falling flat.

(Media news continued on next page)

HISPANIC PUBS SURGE.

Over 200 Hispanic publications have hit the market in the last ten years as general interest, men’s and women’s titles have declined, according to the latest edition of The Standard Periodical Directory published by Oxbridge Comms.

The publication reports that Hispanic titles jumped from 124 in 1996 to 329 in 2006.

Oxbridge said a boost in the number of both regional and national Hispanic titles was notable.

Other categories showing growth were interior design (213, up from 125), wedding (from 50 to 130) and golf (from 102 to 170). Declines were evident in the college student press (from 4507 to 3097) and business and industry titles (down to 1126 from 2505).

Oxbridge noted 3,665 publications are available in electronic format only.

The latest directory is $1,595 in print.

People ___________________

GE mogul Jack Welch and his wife Suzy, former editor of the Harvard Business Review, have signed on to write a bi-monthly column for BusinessWeek.
“The Welch Way” is described by the magazine as providing “no-nonsense, get-it-done answers” to questions from readers about business, company and career issues.

The column debuted with BW's Jan. 30 issue.

Jack Welch was GE's CEO from 1981 to 2001.

Playboy has named Louis Mohn to replace departed publisher Diane Silberstein, who left for the top post at Penthouse last month.

Mohn, 49, was president of Primedia’s consumer automobile group for five years and earlier was SVP at Real Names Corp., an Internet startup. He was previously SVP of sales for BusinessWeek and began his career at BW parent McGraw-Hill Cos.

Barbara Britton has stepped down from the helm of Essence magazine after 17 years to start her own multicultural marketing firm. Essence is her first client.

Britton will transition from VP and associate publisher to a consulting role of publishing advisor.

Jay Fogarty, VP of sales and development for online business application developer Interland, has moved on to The Boston Globe as VP of strategic planning for its new Boston Globe Media unit.

Fogarty, who starts in the new position on Jan. 24, is charged with assessing new business opportunities and setting the growth strategy for the unit, which is owned, along with the newspaper, by The New York Times Co. BGM president Rick Daniels noted Fogarty’s strong background in developing multi-media growth plans.

Jeremy Miller, publisher of Down magazine, has re-joined hip-hop magazine The Source as president and CEO. Miller left The Source last year as COO to start Down, which focuses on southern hip-hop music and culture and continues to be published.

Patricia Van Arnum, executive editor, Chemical Market Reporter, has joined Pharmaceutical Technology magazine as a senior editor. Kaylynn Chiarello-Ebner was promoted to managing editor for the mag, which is published by Advanstar Comms.

Howard Brashman, an appellate litigator and author of the “How Appealing” weblog, has joined Law.com as a columnist. Brashman writes a weekly column, “On Appeal,” of analysis and commentary relating to state and circuit appellate courts, judges and cases. His first column, “Who’ll Be the Supreme Court’s Next Swinger?” appeared last week.

Law.com is published by ALM, parent to The American Lawyer, The National Law Journal and Corporate Counsel, among other publications.

Debra Bulkeley, who oversaw website launches for TechTarget targeting IT managers, has joined Electronic Business magazine, as executive editor. She manages print and online operations for the Reed Business Information title, which is based in Waltham, Mass.

Ira Gabriel was promoted to publisher of Motor Trend, the influential Primedia publication which claims readership of seven million. Gabriel was VP of sales and marketing for Primedia’s performance automotive group, which includes Hot Rod, Truckin’ and Motorcyclist.

Bill McCarren, president/founder of U.S. Newswire, was awarded the National Press Club's Berny Krug Award for volunteerism to the group. Richard Dunham, White House correspondent for BusinessWeek and president of the club, cited McCarren’s leadership of the press club's speakers committee and praised his contacts in both the news and PR communities in D.C. McCarren founded U.S. Newswire in 1986. It was acquired by Medialink in 1999.

Robert Woodworth, former CEO of Pulitzer Newspapers Inc., has joined Advance Publications to help find a new publisher for The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. Alex Machaskee, who currently holds the publisher post, announced his retirement last week and has agreed to stay on until a successor is named.

Briefs ___________________

Bloom: Your Guide to Beauty and Cosmetic Enhancement, a magazine aimed at beauty mavens, is now on newsstands and sold in spas and salons in Colorado.

The $9.99 mag carries up-to-the-minute news on skincare, cosmetic enhancement and tips from board-certified plastic surgeons.

Bloom Media expects to launch local versions of the magazine in Dallas, Houston and Arizona later this year. Betsy Martin is contact at 303/680-7004.

Embattled publisher Hollinger Int’l said it would split its Sun-Times News Group into two parts and prune 300 staffers, 10 percent of the group’s workforce.

Bauer Publications has combined its sales teams for In Touch and Life & Style. L&S publisher Rosanna Giacalone is out.

The Jan. 19 edition of The Economist has a positive article on PR, headlining that, “As advertising struggles, PR steps into the breach.”

Quoted are Richard Edelman and Pam Talbot of Edelman; Dorothy Crenshaw of Stanton Crenshaw; Hans Bender, PR exec at Procter & Gamble; Al and Laura Ries, authors of The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR, and Veronis Suhler Stevenson, investment house specializing in media and that is also a publisher and compiler of media statistics.

The Economist did not mention it but affiliate VSS Communications Partners owns PR News and Media Industry Newsletter among 50 other aviation, telecommunications and defense publications. VSS itself employs 70 and had $6.5 million in revenues in 2005, says Yahoo!Finance.

VSS statistics are cited on the growth of PR since 1999 but PR pros won’t like the headline on the chart – “The wages of spin.”

According to VSS, PR spending in the U.S. went from about $2 billion in 1999 to $3.8 billion in 2005 and should go to $5.2B by 2009. We have a hard time trying to make sense of these numbers.

The chart appears to measure only PR firm income, ignoring the amount spent on corporate, organizational PR, and government PR. There are at least 350,000 people employed in PR-related jobs, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Our ranking of PR firms in 1998 showed the top 50 alone had $2.26 billion in net fees. We collected income tax returns, W-3 forms showing payroll, CPA-attested employee counts, and other proofs. The 1999 total for the 50 was $2.8B with some figures supplied by the Council of PR Firms.

So if the top 50 alone billed $2.8 billion in 1999, how can VSS report U.S. PR spending was $2 billion that year? There are at least 10,000 other PR and “publicity” firms in the U.S. (based on Yellow Page lists) that do untold billions of business. There are also 16,000 ad agencies and almost every one claims ability to handle PR. PR spending, including lobbying, is in the tens of billions.

The Economist article says the ad business has become “fragmented” by the many media choices and that consumers want more information than is in ads. It quotes P&G (which has an ad budget of $4 billion), as saying PR “often” provides a better return than traditional ads. Talbot says companies can’t get away with “a tight, straight message via the media by issuing a one-way press release.”

P&G, according to the New York Times Jan. 15, “earned the wrath” of the Writers Guild of America West for “turning product placement into product drama.” In the TV show “What I Like About You,” two characters, as part of a plot, audition for an ad for P&G’s Herbal Essence shampoo. Singer Jadyn Maria also competes providing additional product exposure. The real ad then appears, featuring Maria. Such paid-for product-pushing plotlines, which payment is not revealed to the audience, have caused the writers to launch a website called productinvasion.com. It attacks advertisers “who want to turn our reality shows into infomercials.” ...German liqueur Jagermeister was portrayed as a fabulous PR success story in the Jan. 23 Time. Sidney Frank, who died in January at 86, popularized the product in college bars by having pretty “Jagerettes” pour free shots, boosting sales from 500 cases in 1974 to 2 million+ last year. Frank also introduced $30 Grey Goose vodka in 1997, selling it to Bacardi in 2004 for more than $2 billion. ...Owners of movie theaters are quaking in their boots because a new film called “Bubble” is going right to consumers via cable TV and DVDs. No need anymore to schlepp to the theater and pay $4.50 for a small bag of popcorn. ...PRSA, in a financial bind because of money lost on the Wilma-cancelled national conference, has told committee members they will have to pay their own travel, meals and hotel expenses. Such spending by volunteers and staff is about a half million each year, having reached a peak of $717K in 2000 when the board went to England. One president ran up expenses of nearly $200,000, sources say. The ex-presidents of PRSA, of which there are 25, get lifetime free dues and free admittance to the annual conference ($1,025 for other members). ...PRSA will have a hard time replacing Catherine Bolton as COO. The last search, by Korn/Ferry in 1993, turned up only two viable candidates: Ray Gaulke, who got the job, and Mitch Kozikowski, PR counselor.

Dozens turned it down because they didn’t want to get involved in politics-ridden h.q., which bars senior PR pros from working there, a policy set by 1980 president Patrick Jackson. Realizing a long search was needed when Gaulke suddenly and without a full explanation shifted to the PRSA Foundation at the end of 2000 (with four years still to go on his $250K contract), PRSA promoted Bolton to COO when she had been hired to do PR for the Society.

Travel Weekly (Jan. 16) quoted PR sources as criticizing the new “aggressive” PR policy of the Royal Caribbean cruise line in the wake of charges that passenger George Smith of Greenwich, Conn., was murdered during a cruise last year.

Cable TV networks have devoted thousands of hours to coverage of the unsolved death. Cruise line execs are now giving interviews, staging press conferences and have set up a website to answer questions.

Don Stacks of the University of Miami (Primer on PR Research, 2002), said RC’s response was “way too late.” Cruise retailers note that neither RC nor any cruise lines are booking fewer passengers in spite of the onslaught of TV coverage.

Critics of the cable TV news shows say they are using the RS story and the unsolved death of Natalee Holloway in Aruba to dodge coverage of a much more difficult subject—Iraq.

--Jack O'Dwyer