OGILVY LANDS $1M DIVERSITY GRANT.

The private foundation set up by one of California’s largest HMOs has doled out a $1 million grant to Ogilvy PR Worldwide to lead a PR campaign showing the benefits of boosting ethnic diversity in the Golden State’s healthcare workforce.

The California Wellness Initiative, set up by Health Net in 1992 when the HMO went from a non-profit to a for-profit company, said data on healthcare workers in the state does not reflect its diverse population. Latinos, for example, make up 32 percent of California’s population, but only four percent of doctors and registered nurses, and six percent of dentists and nurse practitioners.

Ogilvy is charged with producing and disseminating a report on the state of diversity in California healthcare, raising public awareness of the issue with ads, and leading a PR push for policymakers and so-called opinion leaders. The firm is also slated to launch a website for information on entering healthcare careers, obtaining scholarships, loans and other opportunities.

TCWI gives out $40M in grants each year.

MONTANA SEEKS TOURISM PR HELP.

Montana is looking for a PR firm to highlight “Big Sky Country” as a year-round haven for travelers across the country and overseas, while protecting and increasing its market share of the millions who journey out west for vacations.

The state’s Department of Commerce wants a firm to work as a “collaborative partner” in the development, implementation and evaluation of a comprehensive public/media relations effort. Budget is $150K/year, part of the state’s total tourism PR budget of $377,600, all of which is allocated from a seven-percent tax on lodging. A one-year deal is planned which could be renewed for up to seven years.

Contracting officer Robert Oliver said there is no incumbent contract. Oliver ([email protected]) is the point of contact. Proposals are due Feb. 13.

Jeff Pryor has left the Los Angeles PR firm he started for a new in-house post at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Century City, Calif.

Pryor set up Pryor & Associates, now Priority PR, in 1990 handling several entertainment companies and working with MGM chairman Harry Sloan through client SBS Broadcasting, a European TV and radio station company which Sloan headed.

He leaves Priority PR in the hands of VP Kristien Brada-Thompson in Los Angeles and director Marylou Johnston in France.

DOWIE GAINS GROUND IN LEGAL FIGHT.

Doug Dowie, who headed Fleishman-Hillard’s Los Angeles office, claims that he was fired as part of a deal that the Omnicom unit made with federal prosecutors to avoid prosecution.

A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that Dowie, who has filed a “wrongful termination” against F-H, can have his lawyer depose Marc Beck, F-H’s attorney, about the matter.

Beck handled F-H’s dealings with federal investigators. Dowie contends that Beck, on F-H’s behalf, promised to cooperate fully with the government’s investigation in exchange for unspecified rewards, and that he was terminated as part of that cooperation.

Beck, according to court papers, stated last October that F-H was advised by the government that its cooperation “would, as always, be acknowledged and rewarded.” Dowie asserts that he is “entitled to know the details of that promise, what cooperation was required to secure the rewards, and what the rewards will be.”

Beck claims that Dowie has embarked on a baseless “fishing expedition.” No deposition date has been set.

The Court also has accepted an amended complaint from Dowie, charging he was terminated because he suspected F-H was wrongfully laundering campaign contributions and the firm wanted to conceal its conduct by discrediting and scapegoating him.

He alleges “bonus checks” issued to Los Angeles staffers “represented reimbursements for campaign contributions” in violation of state law.

F-M must respond to the amended complaint by the end of the month.

HARRIS RETURNS TO GM.

Steve Harris, who retired from General Motors in January ’04, is slated to re-join the struggling automaker as VP of global communications on March 1. Current VP Tom Kowaleski has resigned, effective that date.

The 54-year-old Kowaleski said he has increasingly missed being more involved in the product side of the auto business and added he’s been presented with “some excellent opportunities.” He joined GM as executive director of product communications in March 1999 and took on a VP role for North America in 2001.

Harris, 60, headed GM’s global communication unit from 1999 to 2003, when he retired and later took a post at The McGinn Group and as chief comms. officer for Clear!Blue Comms. in Chicago. Harris originally began with GM in 1967 out of college and later rose through the ranks at Chrysler to become SVP of comms. for DaimlerChrysler in 1998.

DoD WINDS DOWN FOREIGN MEDIA RFP.

The Pentagon has started the final stretch of a 10-month RFP process to engage a firm to monitor foreign media for the U.S. Strategic Command. The process, which was suspended in November, began with a request for interested firms last spring and is expected to conclude by March.

The Rendon Group is winding down its latest pact – an $8M+ contract through the last two years – and scores of companies have expressed an interest in taking over the work. The Pentagon expects the winning bidder, if it’s not the incumbent, to be transitioned in by April or May.

Lincoln Group is the latest PR industry firm (No. 80 on a list of 81 companies) to express an interest in the assignment. PR services vendors like TV Eyes, Delahaye, Factiva and Carma Int’l have considered a bid, although the Defense Dept. has called for a “non-commercial” contract, apparently shying away from pre-packaged monitoring services.

The winning bidder will be charged with tracking foreign press (print, TV, radio and Internet) in Europe, Africa, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Mexico. A $5.25M million budget has been set for 2007, but that figure is scheduled to more than triple to $18M/year in ’08, ’09 and 2010. The initial contract however, will only span through September ’06. The rest are option years.

When the solicitation formally began in April ’05, STRATCOMM told O’Dwyer’s the government was interested in fostering competition.

PAUL IS ABOARD HAGEL-SMITH TEAM.

Mike Paul began crisis work for Jennifer Hagel-Smith on Feb. 1, nearly seven months following the disappearance of her husband, George, from the Royal Caribbean cruise liner, Brilliance of the Seas. The couple was en route to Turkey on a honeymoon cruise.

Paul, who heads MGP & Assocs. PR, told O’Dwyer’s he will handle media for Hagel-Smith on the domestic and international front. Hagel-Smith made the media rounds last month, appearing with Oprah Winfrey and on “Scarborough Country.”

RC on Jan 5. posted a six-page press release on its website, defending its actions surrounding Smith’s disappearance.

KYNE TO CHAMBERLAIN.

GCI Group’s David Kyne has joined Chamberlain Communications as senior VP. He will handle Novartis and issues management.

At GCI, Kyne was global relationship manager for its biggest client, Boehringer Ingelheim. He managed its HIV franchise and supported its radiobiology and urology products.

Earlier Kyne was at Makovsky & Co. and Dillon Consultants in Ireland, where he repped Bristol Myers Squibb, Abbott Laboratories, Wyeth and the Irish Medical Organization.

Kyne is an Irishman and graduate of University College Dublin.

CALIF. COUNTY SEEKS PR HELP AMID BOOM.

California’s San Bernardino County, the 20K-square mile region abutting Los Angeles and the Mojave Desert, is looking for PR help to alleviate a byproduct of the housing boom – a crush of public inquiries swamping its tax collection offices.

The county, the largest geographically in the U.S., reports that in the week preceding its most recent tax installment payment date, the tax collector’s office received 31,000 phone calls from the public and 6,481 people visited the offices. More than 335K inquiries were logged last year, the result, the office says, of increasing property values, a rise in the number of new and used home sales, and a boom in refinancing.

The county has issued an RFP for a PR or public affairs firm with experience in public, government and community relations campaigns to target taxpayers, real estate agencies, title companies, escrow agents and mortgage institutions.

Questions are due by Feb. 14 and proposals must be submitted by Feb. 17. Tracy Calentti, project administrator ([email protected]), is overseeing the search.

UTAH TAPS FIRM FOR VOTER OUTREACH.

Richter7, a Salt Lake City PR and advertising firm, edged nine competitors to guide a one-year, $500K effort to educate Utah voters about voting changes as required by federal law.

Utah issued an RFP late last year for a firm to run a statewide education campaign teaching voters about new Diebold touch-screen voting machines, which will be put to use for the first time in primary elections in June. The campaign is also slated to include information about the elections and promotion of the lieutenant governor’s website on elections.

Richter7 had the advantage of counting Diebold as a past client. The firm worked with Diebold in the Utah market to highlight the benefits of the company’s machines to the public and a select group of elected officials before the state decided to purchase the machines.

Other agencies pitching the work included Crowell Advertising, Marketing & PR, Riester~Robb, Policy Impact Communications, W Communications, and Vanguard Media Group, among others. There is a one-year option on the contract.

IMPACT STRATEGIES REPS KING FAMILY.

The King family used Washington, D.C.-based Impact Strategies to announce the death of Coretta Scott King, the wife of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King. She died Jan. 30 at the age of 78.

Judy Smith, founding member of Impact, handled details. She represented Monica Lewinsky and her family during the Clinton impeachment hearings, World Health Organization during the SARS scare, U.S. Election Assistance Commission to ensure the `04 election was not a re-run of ’02, and the Chandra Levy investigation.

At Qorvis Communications, Smith worked on the Saudi Arabia business. She was joined by Dan Rene, another Qorvis veteran, on the King account.

CBS’ ROBERTS TO CNN.

White House correspondent John Roberts is leaving CBS to join CNN on Feb. 20 as senior national correspondent.

The 49-year old journalist had been among those touted as a contender to succeed Dan Rather as evening news anchor. Bob Schieffer, 68, has held that post on a temporary basis. The veteran newsman says he does not want the anchor job permanently.

New CBS president Sean McManus, however, said last month that Roberts had the skill but lacked the “stature” to replace Schieffer.

Roberts began his CBS career in ’92 as co-anchor of the morning news program. He has anchored CBS Evening News on Sunday since ’95, and is a substitute host on “Face the Nation.”

CBS has not named a replacement for Roberts, who called his time at the network an “amazing ride.”

REUTERS IN INDIA TV NEWS VENTURE.

The Times Group of India, a South Asian media conglomerate, has partnered with Reuters to launch an English-language, 24-hour news and current affairs channel in India called Times Now.

The network, which went on-air Jan. 31, uses the tagline “Feel the News” and targets urban Indians. It operates from Mumbai and Delhi with 14 bureaus throughout the country from Times Group and Reuters news operations (Reuters entered India in 1866 and employs 1,200 people there today). Stories from within India and international news with local implications will be covered, according to the companies.

India’s cable market has become the world’s third largest with 61 million subscribers.

Reuters has taken a 26 percent stake in Times Global Broadcasting Co. In addition to its broadcast operations, Times Group publishes The Times of India and The Economic Times.

MARKETWATCH ADDS EDITORS, REPORTERS.

Dow Jones’ MarketWatch has added a handful of veteran writers and editors to its global team.

Angela Moore, deputy editor for breaking news on Reuters’ headline desk, has joined MarketWatch as a senior editor for consumer reporting coverage.
Chris Oliver, money editor for the South China Morning Post’s Sunday edition, has joined MW as a correspondent in Hong Kong. He focuses on Asian coverage like daily market reports, breaking news and features about markets and investing opportunities in the region.

Ruth Mantell, a columnist for Barron’s Online covering SEC filings and insider trades, has joined MW's headline desk in San Francisco.

Simon Kennedy, reporter for Compliance Reporter, a publication by Institutional Investor, joins in London as a reporter.

NY TIMES PLAYS JEOPARDY.

The New York Times will be included periodically as a category on “Jeopardy!,” the top-rated TV quiz show, according to a marketing partnership ironed out between the paper and Sony Pictures Television production. The paper, in turn, will publish a Jeopardy! “clue of the day” with the correct response published in the next day's Times. The clue runs Monday through Friday adjacent to the “Tomorrow in the Times” box. On Sunday, it appears near the “Information Directory.”

The show’s “Brain Bus,” an outfitted Winnebago that conducts nationwide talent searches for Jeopardy! guests, will be parked at the New York Times Travel Show at the Javits Center in New York on Feb. 25.

CARTOONS STIR CONTROVERSY.

The Washington Post published a letter Feb. 2 from the Joint Chiefs of Staff in which they expressed outrage over a Tom Toles editorial cartoon that showed a quadruple amputee getting a visit from “Dr. Rumsfeld.”

Meanwhile, the Muslim world has turned to violence and mass gatherings to protest the publication of cartoons featuring caricatures of Mohammad.

In the Post cartoon, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is depicted scribbling on a pad: “I am listing your condition as battle hardened.”

Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, wrote: “Using the likeness of a service member who has lost his arms and legs in war as the central theme of a cartoon was beyond tasteless. Editorial cartoons are often designed to exaggerate issues, and The Post is obviously free to address any topic, including the state of readiness of the armed forces.

“However, The Post and Mr. Toles have done a disservice to readers and to The Post's reputation by using such a callous depiction of those who volunteered to defend this nation and, as a result, suffered traumatic and life-altering wounds.”

He concluded: “As the Joint Chiefs, we rarely put our hand to one letter, but we cannot let this reprehensible cartoon go unanswered.”

The Post’s media columnist, Howard Kurtz, got reaction from editorial page editor Fred Hiatt, saying that he considered the cartoon to be about the state of the Army, and not one designed to demean wounded soldiers. He said that he does not censor Toles.

European papers infuriate Muslims

European papers say they are standing for freedom of speech by printing the Mohammad cartoons.

“Just because the Koran bans images of Mohammad doesn’t mean non-Muslims have to submit to this,” Serge Faubert wrote in an editorial in France Soir, which reprinted the cartoons.

The office of Jyllands-Posten, the Danish paper that first published the cartoons – one featured Mohammad with a bomb in his turban – had to be evacuated after a bomb threat. The paper has apologized for any hurt caused to Muslims, but says opponents want to clamp down on free speech.

The Danish Government has been telling offended Muslims that it has no control over the press. Danish embassies in Damascus and Beirut were torched by protestors. Syria recalled its ambassador from Copenhagen. and Saudi Arabia and Libya made similar diplomatic moves. Violence also flared in Gaza and Afghanistan.

(Media news continued on next page)

People _________________

Chris Epting, author of eight books on traveling in the U.S., has been named editor of Chicken Soup for the Soul Magazine. The 44-year-old California resident writes the “It Happened Here” column for the magazine about lesser-known landmarks in the U.S. His latest book, about the location of pop culture artifacts, is due out in March.

Peter Kafka was promoted to editor, technology and media, at Forbes.com. He joined the publication in August ’05 after serving as a staff writer at the print edition of Forbes.

Marilyn Haddrill, former correspondent and editor for the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery’s EyeWorld magazine, has been named editor of AllAboutVision.com. The portal is published by Access Media Group, a vision care specialty publisher.

Haddrill was recently the “vision guide” for About.com and has freelanced for the Dallas Morning News and Chicago Tribune.

Ami Eden was promoted to executive editor for The Forward, a magazine covering Jewish Americans and culture. He had been news director and joined as a reporter in 2000.

Jill Swid, a stylist and fashion editor known throughout entertainment circles, has signed on with Glam.com as a style director and advisory board member. She is charged with helping the portal cover celebrity syles, fashion, designers and beauty trends.

Swid was formerly fashion director for Spin and headed fashion and beauty units at Mirabella, Talk and most recently Radar.

David Leckey has been named executive VP-consumer marketing at American Media. He had held a similar post at Hachette Filipacchi Media.

Andreas Lazar, who was at Allen & Co., has taken a senior VP-business development job at Sirius Satellite Radio.

Briefs __________________

Time Inc. laid off 66 staffers on Jan. 30 and others were offered departure packages, according to MediaWeek.

Time magazine lost 10 editorial staffers, and Money and Sports Illustrated staff were among the 40 business-side and 26 non-union editorial works axed.

Time Inc. cut 105 employees in December amid a reorganization effort.

The first issue of Jane under new editor-in-chief Brandon Holley will attempt to target a 20-something audience of women said to be overlooked by industry standards like Vogue and Seventeen. The New York Times reported that the Conde Nast title wants to get readership from so-called millennials - consumers born from 1980 to 2000. Jane’s VP and publisher Carlos Demadrid told the Times that millennials are the children of baby boomers "so they like to buy and they like labels."

Hearst’s Marie Claire is also making a push toward the demographic, the Times noted. Ad agencies Heat (Jane) and Berlin Cameron United (Marie Claire) are guiding campaigns to re-introduce the magazines.

Inc.com, the web news site for entrepreneur magazine Inc., has revamped. A redesign for sister site FastCompany.com is in the works.

New York magazine’s website, formerly nymetro.com, has relaunched as NyMag.com. Improved search and design, and faster loading pages are said to be features of the new site.

Conde Nast Traveler has inked a deal with Seabourn Cruise Line to distribute CNT content as "Conde Nast Traveler's Seabourn Insider Tips" to guests on the cruise line. Initial focus is information about eateries, attractions, bars and shopping at European ports of call.

Relish, a monthly food magazine by Publishing Group of America that is mainly distributed as a newspaper insert, debuted on Feb. 1 with a circulation topping six million, according to the publisher.

Three hundred papers like the Los Angeles Daily News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram are carrying the title and PGA said it has begun soliciting more papers to carry the publication.

Jill Melton, director of food and nutrition coverage for Cooking Light for 13 years, is editor.

The Asian American Journalists Assn., made up of 2,000 Asian-American and Pacific Islander journalists, will hold its annual confab June 21-24 in Hawaii.

More than 1,200 reporters and media pros are expected to attend the event. Craig Gima, assistant city editor at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, and Joann Shin, reporter for KHNL News 8 (Hawaii) are co-chairs.

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and CNN International have created an award for excellence in HIV/AIDS journalism in Africa. The award will be part of the CNN/MultiChoice African Journalist Awards.

The National Journal and “Washington Week” have joined forces. "Washington Week with Gwen Ifill and National Journal" debuts Feb. 17 on the Public Broadcasting Service political program.

NJ articles will sometimes be featured on the show, while the magazine's advertisers (Boeing and Chevron) have signed up to underwrite it.

WW airs weekly, and is watched by more than 1.8M. NJ is aimed at the Beltway. More than 90 percent of NJ’s 12,000 subscribers are in the national capital area.

The New York Times has unveiled a series of podcasts including “Front Page,” which is comprised of a synopsis of top stories of the day. Other podcasts cover culture and dining, the Olympics and interviews from the Times’ speaker series.

The hotel and resort industry staged a wonderful night of awards and entertainment for ad, sales and PR people Jan. 30 at the Marriott Marquis (pg.7).

The industry for 16 years has used the Academy Awards formula of lots of prizes and good entertainment to attract the top executives of the field. About 800 people paid $295 each. The program boasted 24 pages of ads by the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and others.

A problem with these events is that the awards portion may overwhelm the entertainment portion.

At the Jan. 30 event, 284 platinum, gold, silver and bronze awards were given in the ad category and 241 for PR (total of 525 awards). Also, awards were given for the “25 Most Extraordinary Sales & Marketing Minds in Hospitality and Travel.” The “creativity, intelligence and passion” in the industry is “too often unrecognized,” said Robert Gilbert, president and CEO, Hospitality Sales & Marketing Assn. International, based in McLean, Va.

Given the success of this night, which was in its 16th annual edition, we wonder why such PR specialties as healthcare, technology, beauty/fashion, sports and food/nutrition do not do the same. Similar events are held by N.Y Women in Communications, which will gross nearly a half million this spring with its star-studded Matrix Awards and the N.Y. Financial Writers Assn., which will gross nearly that with its “Financial Follies.”

PRSA, whose board met in New York last week, is in a financial bind because it takes its annual conference on the road most years instead of holding it in New York. Its biggest conference ever (4,000 attendees) was in New York in 2004 but PRSA won’t return for many years because of bias against New York by the staff, small chapters and one-person PR firms that run the Society. The 2006 conference will be in Salt Lake City and will probably attract fewer than the usual 4-5% of members. PRSA, by having its conference in New York, would save the travel, hotels and meals for the 30+ staffers who spend a week or more at the conference...if PRSA doesn’t speak out about the NewsUSA program that awards such items as bikes and 50-inch TV screens to editors who return clips (which has been condemned by the Newspaper Editors), it will have to scrap its much-touted “advocacy” program and never speak out about anything again.

Ethics head David Rickey of Alfa Insurance should address this. He was the first person to head ethics with no experience on the ethics board.. Chair Chuck Wood was axed after two years to make way for him. ...another moral crisis at PRSA is its failure to live up to the FTC Consent Decree it signed in 1977 promising not to engage in further “unfair” and “anti-competitive”practices. The FTC accused it of doing both for “many” years. Blocking 80% of members from running for national office (since 1973) and blocking students at 3,700 colleges from joining PRSA are both anti-competitive and unfair.

2005 president Judith Phair, who makes a pun out of her name (her firm is “PhairAdvantage Communications”) should know that frustrating members and students is anything but providing “fair advantage.” Phair should bow out and stop signing her name to announcements by 2006 president Cheryl Procter-Rogers. ...a PR problem we would like to see someone attack is CEO pay. The median salary for U.S. CEOs in 2004 was $11.8 million or 431 times the average employee, up from 41 times in 1980. CEOs in most other countries are still making 20-30 times average wages. ...since 2000, 470 of the “Fortune 1,000” companies have replaced their CEOs, says a Burson-Marsteller study released Jan. 31 by Leslie Gaines-Ross, Ph.D., chief knowledge officer. We bet a lot of them walked off with hefty severance packages. ...speaking of CEOs, James Dimon of JPMorgan Chase was raked over the coals by the Nov. 9, 2005 New York Times for “meandering” comments that “bordered on the unintelligible” during an investor conference call. Reporter Landon Thomas used this and other gaffs by executives to urge them to get media training.

Quoted were George McGrath of McGrath Matter PR firm and media trainer Virgil Scudder. Perhaps by coincidence, top PR spots at JPMorgan Chase are now open in New York and Chicago.

Newsweek’s Jan. 30 cover story on the “boy crisis,” noted that 56% of college students are women while 30 years ago it was 42%.

Girls and boys are “very different,” observes the magazine (thank you, Newsweek). It notes that girls mature two years earlier than boys, which is a big reason why women now dominate in college. A 50-50 M/F quota should be set to offset the inequity in maturation rates. PR professors tell us their classes are 90 to 95% “white female,” giving PR a diversity problem that no one is addressing. Male PR students are subject to taunts and jibes. ...former Enron IR exec Mark Koenig told Federal court in Houston last week how IR manipulated financial reports. The whistle was blown by insiders at Enron but it was not by IR or PR people. Koenig faces up to 10 years in jail, but execs Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling could get up to 100 years in prison. Already pleading guilty were 16 Enron execs. ...Omnicom was shamed by the New York Daily News Jan. 29 for taking 9/11 grants of $100K each for two of its units (Arnell Group and Levett, Koenig, Farese, Babcock) that were meant for “mom and pop” shops in the 9/11 area.

The News story, “Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: Big Firms that Looked Small” also rapped Dell, AXA group, Bank of China and others. OMC CEO John Wren got a $4 million bonus in 2004 although the stock went down $3 to $84 and remains there. He also got $193,159 in “personal use” of corporate aircraft. ...OMC, which has $2.57 billion in debt, mostly in “no interest” convertible bonds, is now paying 4.6% interest on $850M in such bonds floated by Merrill Lynch in 2001. Its other once “zero-zero” bonds cost the same, which is one reason for its stalled stock.

--Jack O'Dwyer