BIG FIRMS MULL RUN AT CENSUS ACCOUNT.

The U.S. Census Bureau drew extensive interest from big PR firms during its recent “industry day” as the government entity charged with counting every American mulls its marcom plans for the 2010 count.

Among the firms interested in the future RFP for PR are Burson-Marsteller, Capstrat, Fleishman-Hillard, GolinHarris, Hill & Knowlton, Home Front Communications (of Karen Ryan VNR fame), Ketchum, MWW Group, Qorvis Communications, Ogilvy PR, Porter Novelli, Strat@comm, and Weber Shandwick. Holding companies Young & Rubicam – which fielded a team of agencies that won the lucrative 2000 account – and Interpublic were also present at the Census Bureau’s initial event.

Dozens of ad agencies and vendors companies also attended.

Cohn & Wolfe led PR for Y&R’s 2000 effort, which spanned three years and billed over $160M overall. Burson-Marsteller handled a 2003 project for the Census Bureau.

STEWART TAKES EVP POST AT APCO.

Kirk Stewart, former chairman and CEO of Manning, Selvage and Lee who recently retired from Nike, has joined APCO Worldwide as an executive VP and head of its corporate communications practice.
Stewart retired as head of global communications for Nike, after an eight-year career with the company.

APCO CEO Neal Cohen said the firm worked directly with Stewart for several years while he was at the sneaker giant.

Cohen said Stewart will apply his experience to build APCO’s corporate business.

Stewart was at MS&L for 18 years, serving as managing director for Los Angeles and president of its U.S. operation before acceding to CEO and chairman.

Earlier in his career, he was a director of public affairs for TRW and senior A/E for Burson-Marsteller.

John Tsantes, president of Porter Novelli’s Advanced Technology unit, has left the Omnicom unit to re-launch his firm.The former editor of Electronic Engineering Times, EDN and Electronic Business sold Tsantes & Assocs. to PN in ’01 because he needed “mainstream PR capabilities.”

His new shop, Tsantes Consulting Group, is located in San Jose. It will develop markets for clients with complex technology. Services include brand awareness strategies, corporate consensus audits and media training.

DOWIE, STODDER GET DAY IN COURT.

The hotly anticipated trial of former Fleishman-Hillard head Doug Dowie and John Stodder opened in Los Angeles on April 4.

The pair faces conspiracy and wire fraud charges alleging they bilked the Dept. of Water and Power out of more than $300K. Both say they are innocent.

The trial is expected to last a month. Discovery has included more than one million e-mails, billing records and other documentation.

Dowie has filed a separate suit, alleging F-H executives are scapegoating him to cover-up illegal money laundering activities. F-H denies those charges.

“It is not a complicated case,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Cheryl Murphy said in her opening statement. “It’s third-grade math and first-grade morals.”

COLLENDER MOVES ON TO QORVIS.

Stan Collender, a Congressional budget expert who set up and managed a Washington, D.C., office for Financial Dynamics, has joined Qorvis Communications.

Collender, a go-to source for reporters covering the budget and a corporate speaker, previously was national director of public affairs and financial communications for Fleishman-Hillard in D.C.

At Qorvis, he counsels clients in financial communications, public affairs and media training and joins the firm’s media and presentation training teams.

Collender will continue to pen the “Budget Battles” column for NationalJournal.com.

FD acquired Dittus Communications late last year, significantly beefing up its burgeoning D.C. office. Collender joined FD from F-H in 2004.

O’RORKE OUSTS INCUMBENT FROM L.A. PACT.

San Francisco PR and social marketing firm O’Rorke Inc. has beaten incumbent Valencia Perez & Echeveste for a six-figure PR and media relations contract with the California agency responsible for air pollution in Los Angeles and Orange County.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District, which develops plans and regulations to curb emissions from businesses in the region, has increased the PR contract by $90K to $340K over the next two years.

O’Rorke has worked for several state entities, mostly in the Bay Area, in its 20 year existence. The firm is charged with providing media relations, drafting op-eds, placing AQMD executives on TV and radio, and developing collateral materials.

VP&E, which was a finalist with O’Rorke, and TLC Media Works held the account since 2004.

EXXONMOBIL GRILLED FOR MASTERS TIE.

ExxonMobil shareholders plan to introduce a resolution at the May 31 annual meeting in Dallas calling for a report on expenses made in conjunction with places that discriminate against woman.

The resolution is aimed at ExxonMobil’s sponsorship of the Masters Golf Tournament that is held at Augusta National Golf Club, which bars women.

Martha Burk, director of the Corporate Accountability Project at the National Council of Women’s Organizations, is behind the resolution. She led the noisy protest at Augusta in `03.

Burke says ExxonMobil’s Augusta ties are an insult to its female employees. She is certain that the energy giant would not be connected with an institution that discriminates against racial minorities. “It should be no different for women,” she said in a statement.

ExxonMobil denies that it discriminates against anybody. It says the Masters sponsorship offers an ideal platform to communicate to a sophisticated audience.

GREENPEACE CLAIMS WHALING VICTORY.

Greenpeace is telling members to pick up a package of Gorton’s fish sticks to celebrate the decision of its parent company, Japan’s Nissui, to get out of the whaling business.

The activist group hails the decision as the most important victory on the “save the whales” front since commercial hunting of whales was banned in `86.

Nissui and its four corporate partners killed up to 1,000 whales a-year for “scientific research.” The meat ended up on Japanese supermarket shelves. Nissui, which had been hunting whales since 1934, acquired Gorton’s in 2001.

Greenpeace had organized a boycott of Gorton’s of Gloucester to protest the whaling activity of Nissui. More than 25,000 people either sent postcards to Gorton’s or attended high-profile demonstrations against Gorton’s such as the one that featured “Flo” the inflated whale’s appearance at the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C., this month. (Tokyo donated the trees to D.C. in 1912).

The Nissui-led group plans to transfer ownership of its six-member whaling fleet to the Japanese government. Japan says it will continue the annual scientific hunt of whales, and says that whale meat is an important part of its culture.

GOLDBERG TO FD.

Kal Goldberg has left Hill & Knowlton for a senior VP slot at Financial Dynamics, where he will work in the special situations practice. He will advise clients on mergers & acquisitions, Chapter 11 filings, restructurings, litigation and regulatory matters. Goldberg reports to Hollis Rafkin-Sax, vice chairman of FD/USA.

At H&K, Goldberg advised MCI Communications on its acquisition by Verizon, Suntory Water Group’s merger with Groupe Danone Waters, and America West Airlines on its marriage to US Airways.

He also dealt with SEC, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Federal Reserve Bank issues.

CALIF. RFP DRAWS INTEREST FROM FIRMS.

Thirty firms are considering a run at California’s $5M a year recycling communications account, which is under review by the state.

MWW Group, Ogilvy PR Worldwide, The Rogers Group, Fleishman-Hillard, Weber Shandwick, Hill & Knowlton, Manning Selvage & Lee and incumbent Riester-Robb are among agencies considering a run at the lucrative account.

R-R has held the contract since 2000 and has not subcontracted any of the work, which runs from PR and social marketing, to advertising, collateral and business outreach efforts.

The state is concerned that recycling rates have not kept pace with the exponential sales of drinks sold in recyclable containers. Of over 20 billion beverages sold last year, only 12 billion of those containers were recycled in California. The overall goal of the PR contract is to boost recycling rates and increase the number of companies with recycling programs.

Other firms attending a mandatory pre-proposal conference in late March included Singer Associates, Greenbaum PR, O’Rorke Inc., McCann Erickson/L.A., OneWorld Communications and Katz & Associates.

H&K KICKS OFF ADIDAS PUSH.

Hill and Knowlton is handling the “Impossible Team” marketing campaign for adidas, which is the exclusive athletic brand English-language advertiser for the FIFA World Cup that kicks off in Germany on June 9.

The story line is about two kids picking the all-time greatest soccer team. They will be featured in ads that will run during all 64 matches televised on ABC and ESPN. Those spots are backed by PR, movie/outdoor/ online and point-of-sale ads.

H&K handled PR for the kick-off lunch of the campaign in Spain that featured England’s David Beckham, and Spain’s Raul Gonzalez.

Kevin Burke, in H&K’s sports and automotive group in Irvine, Calif., is on the adidas account. Adidas America is headquartered in Portland, Ore.

KURDS PAY BG&R $320K.

Barbour Griffith & Rogers received $320K in second-half `05 lobbying fees from the Kurdistan Democratic Party for working the White House, National Security Council, and other government entities.

The KDP claims to support a democratic, pluralist and federal Iraq as long as the Kurds have the right to self-determination. It also speaks for Kurds living in Turkey and Iran.

BG&R has Robert Blackwell, who was President Bush’s envoy to Iraq and Afghanistan; Ed Rogers, who worked in the Bush I White House and was an aide to the legendary Lee Atwater; Keith Schuette, a deputy to former Secretary of State Al Haig, and Andrew Parasiliti, ex-foreign policy advisor to Sen. Chuck Hagel, are handling the account.

BG&R also reports $760K in lobbying fees from Taiwan, $240K from India and $160K from Qatar.

SITRICK, RUBENSTEIN IN ‘PAGE SIX’ SCANDAL.

Michael Sitrick represents Ron Burkle, the California billionaire who says the now suspended New York Post gossip writer Jared Paul Stern wanted $220K in protection money against false items appearing the paper.

Sitrick told the New York Daily News that his client had fruitlessly complained to NYP management about bogus items that ran in the paper. During a face-to-face meeting, Stern told Burkle that he could control coverage in return for cash. "It's a little like the Mafia," said Stern during the session that was secretly videotaped.

Rubenstein is defending freebies bestowed on Page Six's chief writer Richard Johnson. "Girls Gone Wild" producer Joe Francis threw a bachelor party for Johnson last month at his estate in Punta Mita on Mexico's Pacific Coast. The Post has touted soft porn producer Francis as the next Hugh Hefner.

ABC and Mercedes Benz paid for Johnson's trip to the Academy Awards (first-class airfare and three night stay at the Four Seasons Hotel with car and driver.)

Rubenstein acknowledged those trips, and told the News that Johnson will "not let his coverage be determined by anything he may have received for free, or any other benefits including the trips and the bachelor party."

The Post, said Rubenstein, has no response as to whether Johnson's freebies violated its ethics code.

HILTZIK PITCHED COURIC'S CREDENTIALS.

Freud Communications' president Matthew Hiltzik played an intense behind-the-scenes PR role pitching the hard news credentials of Katie Couric, who is leaving “Today” to take over for Bob Schieffer at the “CBS Evening News.”

The New York Observer (April 10) reports that Hiltzik prepared a 15-page document that laid out her qualifications to become the country's first solo evening news anchor.

[There is a lively debate about Couric’s bona-fides on the CBS News’ “PublicEye” blog.]

The book contained bullet-pointed news reports extolling Couric's achievements. It breaks up Couric's interviews into sections called "heads of state and world leaders," "American political leaders," "business leaders" and "controversial figures and events." President Bush, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Tony Blair and O.J. Simpson are among people interviewed by Couric.

Hiltzik joined U.K.-based FC’s New York outpost last year from Miramax, where he was senior VP of corporate communications and government relations. He is a former press secretary for the New York State Democratic Committee who has worked for Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer and Elliot Spitzer.

The Observer reports that Couric hired Hiltzik in November after a wave of rough treatment in the press. She felt NBC's media relations department was not doing enough to shield her, wrote Rebecca Dana in the weekly.

Couric will become anchor and managing editor of “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” beginning in September. She will also contribute to “60 Minutes”and anchor CBS News primetime specials as well.

STUDY: NEWSROOMS NOT LABELING VNRs.

A watchdog group critical of broadcast PR tactics like video news releases said last week that TV news stations are running PR video at an “epidemic” rate without attribution and under the guise of news copy.

The Center for Media and Democracy, a Wisconsin non-profit that produces the website PRWatch.org, said it identified 98 instances across 77 TV stations from large and small markets in which VNRs or satellite media tours were aired without disclosure of source to viewers. The watchdog’s research spanned 10 months and focused on 36 VNRs from three broadcast PR vendors – MultiVu, Medialink, and D S Simon Productions. It unveiled the results in a Washington, D.C., press conference last week with FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein.

CMD, which often calls VNRs “fake news,” said its project was geared toward informing the debate in recent years in which Congress, the FCC, journalism professors, reporters and the public have expressed concern about VNRs.

Tim Bahr, president of MultiVu, the broadcast PR unit of PR Newswire, likened VNR usage to media's utilization of press releases and said VNRs are properly labeled after production.

“As they have for decades with printed news releases, media organizations use their own editorial discretion when using broadcast PR content in connection with their reporting,” said Bahr. “MultiVu supports them by ensuring that every VNR is delivered with proper attribution. Our own policy is not to distribute anything without including a verified, identified source of the content. We firmly support the media's editorial judgment of how to use that attribution.”

The New York Times, as it has in the past, sparked the latest flare-up over VNR usage with a story ahead of CMD’s unveiling of its study.

John Stauber, executive director of CMD, said: "Fake TV news is the worst plagiarism scandal in American journalism, and it must be stopped by labeling all VNRs on screen so viewers can tell if its news or fake news."

Omnicom cracked Forbes’ list of the 2,000 top global companies, checking in at No. 436. WPP Group (442), Publicis Groupe (896) and Interpublic (1188) follow. Havas is a no-show.

The rankings are based on sales, profits, assets and stock market value. Citigroup, General Electric and BankAmerica top the list.

National Lampoon has launched the National Lampoon Humor Network to aggregate the “best of the best” comedy websites targeted at the 18-34 age demographic.

Those websites, says NL editor Scott Rubin, must “conform to the ‘non-conformist’ sensibility that has made National Lampoon the must influential brand in humor.” The network kicks off with 26 affiliates with an average monthly reach of 40 million unique views, according to NL.

(Media news continued on next page)

AMERICAN MEDIA SHUTS CELEBRITY LIVING.

American Media is closing Celebrity Living after a run of less than a year. The mag failed to gain traction vis-à-vis category leader People, a Time Inc. offering. CL had a rate base on 225K. That’s a fraction of People's 3.7M circulation.

AM also has decided to return The National Enquirer to its previous Boca Raton, Fla., headquarters. The supermarket tab moved to New York last April, but found the Big Apple too pricey.

CMP PLANS EE TIMES FOR EUROPE.

CMP Media’s Electronics Group are planning to launch a European version of EE Times, including a pan-European website, in May.

Initial focus is seven regional markets in Europe in English and local languages. The site will feature regional news and analysis, a new products section, and 13 “Index” pages covering sectors like automotive, consumer electronics and wireless. News-only local language editions will be available in Germany, France, the UK and Scandanavia. Plans are in the works for Israel, Eastern Europe and Russia.

CMP plans to launch an English-only print and digital edition in September with an initial circulation of 55K. The company says that base would make it the largest electronics industry news publication in Europe. EE Times Europe and its digital editions are slated to be bimonthlies.

CMP existing Electronics Express monthly tabloid will become the product section of the new publications. Editorial and sales operations will be based in Brussels. Richard Wallace heads the editorial team.

Editors include Christoph Hammerschmidt (Germany); Peter Clarke, Colin Holland and John Walko (UK); Henri Arnold and Jean-Pierre Jossting (Belgium), and Anne-Fracoise Pele (France).

People __________________

Advertising Age has promoted Scott Donaton to associate publisher. He was named editor in October 1998 after three years as executive editor.

Jonah Bloom was promoted to editor to replace Donaton.

Harold Burson told USA Today (April 2) that it is best to know a lot about many things than knowing much about a single subject. "When one knows a little about a lot, he should mostly listen. When the other person does 90 percent of the talking, they will be impressed by how much you know," he said. Burson says two-thirds of his reading covers a broad variety of subjects.

Fortune magazine’s managing editor Eric Pooley announced several promotions at the magazine last week.

Andy Serwer, editor-at-large since 1998, was named senior editor-at-large. He pens the “Street Life” column and writes features.

Bethany McLean, credited as one of the first reporters to raise questions about Enron, to editor-at-large.

Peter Elkind to editor-at-large, based in Dallas. He was a senior writer who co-wrote a book about Enron with McLean.

Ellen Florian-Kratz to writer, after serving as a writer-reporter.

Oliver Ryan to writer-reporter, writing for the “First” section and an online column on tech news called “The Browser.”

Kate Bonamici to writer-reporter, working on middle-of-the-book features and the “Business Life” section.

Kenny Mero was promoted to reporter.

Briefs ______________________

InformationWeek has extended its deadline to April 21 for entries to its IW500 listing of the most innovative IT users. Companies must be U.S.-based with a minimum of $500M in annual revenues. It's an opportunity for tech PR pros to generate buzz for their clients. The IW site has an application.

The Central Intelligence Agency has just published the 2006 edition of the indispensable "World Factbook." It carries information nuggets such as the population of France is five-to-10 percent Muslim. Two percent of France is Protestant and one percent Jewish. The WF may be searched or downloaded for free online at cia.gov.

BusinessWeek (April 10) reports that a growing number of call centers in India are switching to processing orders by e-mail. The trend is fueled as Americans are "increasingly hostile" to overseas cell center agents. More than 60 percent of callers rate as "disappointing" their latest experience with an overseas agent, according to Opinion Research Corp. BW called its feature "Making Bangalore Sound Like Boston."

Custom publications continue a six-year run of growth, according to a study by the Custom Publications Council and Publications Management.

Circulation per title (to 378K), pages (13.8 per issue) and revenue allocated ($45B), and paid ads all went up in 2005.

Average frequency and number of custom titles per company has remained constant over the last few years.

Walt Disney Co. is launching a mobile service aimed at the "tween market" that will allow parents to keep track of the whereabouts of their kids.

By visiting a Disney site, parents will be able to access information from a global positioning satellite to find the location of their child's phone. Parents also will be able to track use of the phone and set times that it may be used. The Disney wireless service is offered in a deal with Sprint Nextel Corp.

AOL has unveiled a mobile browsing service that automatically adapts web pages to cell phone screens. The move comes as a survey by AOL, Associated Press and Pew Research Center found that 30 percent of adults want to surf the `Net via cell phone.

More than half of Americans keep their cell phones on all day, while 40 percent of those aged from 18-29 plan to drop their landline phones.

Our editorial last week on the low state of morale among many college PR professors brought many comments from profs; some agreeing and some not agreeing that this is reality.

One thing is certain: they’re all trying as hard as they can to work with the raw material presented them.

And raw it is, say the professors. Quite a few students haven’t yet learned to think, much less write or express themselves verbally, they say.

We heard tales of chronic lateness to class, failure to carry out assignments, sloppy dress, students having a “sense of entitlement,” and students having an ingrained habit of “gaming the system.”

The last is the worst, say the profs.

From almost first grade, students have learned that the way to get good marks is to cozy up to the teacher and get his or her opinion of how the student has done on the latest assignment.

Armed with the teacher’s suggestions, the student aces the assignment and walks off with an “A.”

The focus is on “grades” rather than “learning,” say the PR profs. After nearly 12 years of such habits, it’s hard to break them in college, they say.

“Students won’t be able to go to an employer or client and expect all their mistakes to be corrected in advance,” said one professor. “They must do their best work at the first crack,” he added.

Lateness is attacked by some teachers by taking points off grades. They advise students who get jobs to get in before starting time and don’t leave when others, particularly the boss, are still working.

Since the average student graduates owing nearly $20,000 (says Get a Financial Life by Beth Kobliner), students must make sure they are getting their money’s worth.

Our advice is to take the hardest possible courses such as calculus and organic chemistry and sprinkle in the hardest liberal arts (although they don’t compare with the previous two) such as history, philosophy, literature, language, etc. PR and communications can also be studied. You’re supposed to go to college to learn how to think. Students will soon find themselves in very tight spots where hard thinking is required and mistakes will be severely punished. Probably no one will or even can help them with their thinking.

One problem with studying “live action” subjects like PR and politics is that the subject companies and organizations are alive and kicking and don’t like being probed. It’s like operating on a live person without anesthetic.

They’re going to kick, scream, and possibly hurt you. It’s better to study the Punic Wars or ancient Greece where everyone has been dead hundreds of years and no amount of probing will disturb them. Students then learn the meaning of thorough research and can spot bogus research. Here’s another tip we got from PR pros: do your writing at night and on the weekends when you have time to think. Service clients during the day.

“Gaming the system” was the hot topic on odwyerpr.com last week when we carried a commentary by “strumpette” saying PR A/Es are pressured to run up billable hours as high as possible and that this pressure is particularly strong at PR firms owned by conglomerates. The emphasis is on hours billed rather than “mission accomplished,” claimed strumpette, whose remarks drew 14 commentaries. ...Daily News columnist Errol Louis on March 31 called for a “war” on the “street culture” of the African-American community which he said is destructive to that community. He wants black leaders to espouse middle class values such as “education, hard work and personal decency” and denounce the “seductive street culture that exalts lawlessness, addiction and anti-family behavior.” He didn’t mention HBO by name but he did mention “Hollywood, Madison ave., radio stations, the recording industry and other purveyors of vulgarity and irresponsibility,” which he said “pump out the Big Lie hour after hour.” What side are PRSA leaders on in this struggle? ...PRSA/NY (page 7) is taking what might be the first step towards independence. Its $80 membership offer (no payment to national) could attract hundreds of new members and re-establish PRSA/NY as the largest group of PR pros in the city. It needs a large membership to be able to attract top speakers which it did in the early 1970s when 300-400 crowded the Waldorf-Astoria each month and membership was 1,200. Prime member candidates are financial PR and IR people who are socked with $475 dues by the National Investor Relations Institute plus $100 local dues. The non-New Yorkers who run PRSA have done nothing but spit in the face of the chapter for many years including kicking it out of h.q. in 1992 when there was plenty of space; kicking all New Yorkers off the 17-member board; moving h.q. downtown to 50% more space and eliminating use by New Yorkers, and (the latest) cancelling the 1,000-page annual directory, perhaps the main benefit of membership in national. About all PRSA/NY members get from national for about $150,000 in dues are Tactics and Strategist. That makes them very expensive publications. ...“Thank You for Smoking,” a current movie, tells how Washington, D.C., PR pros put the best face on clients such as the cigarette industry, liquor and guns. PR pros for these groups, nicknaming themselves the “MOD Squad” (Merchants of Death), joke at lunch about how many people their industries killed that day. “Guns don’t kill people,” says the gun industry PR pro, explaining, “It’s the bullets.”

The cigarette PR pro argues that adults should have the freedom to smoke or not. He is given the assignment of putting cigarettes back into the movies which are credited with popularizing smoking in the 1920s and 30s. The cigarette PR pro argues as best he can on TV shows and in a Congressional hearing but in the end quits the tobacco industry.

Asked by reporters to define his job he answers, “I talk,” which are the last words in the movie. We like that a lot. It’s far better than running and hiding.

--Jack O'Dwyer