TREASURY WANTS FIRM FOR NEW $100 BILL.

The U.S. Dept. of the Treasury has issued an RFP for a firm to help develop and implement a global PR program to introduce a redesigned $100 bill in 2007.

Burson-Marsteller won a multi-year $55M assignment in 2002 to be the main firm for the kickoff of new $20 and $50 bills over the last few years. It has handled recent new currency assignments for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing since 1996.

The Treasury Dept. has said it plans to update U.S. currency every seven to 10 years to keep up with counterfeiters. A new $100 was last introduced in 1996 and a new $5 was unveiled in 2000.

The BEP, which administers and funds currency introductions with help from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and U.S. Secret Service, put out a feeler for interested firms at the end of 2005. The RFP wants proposals from firms by June 2.
Johnathan Bangura ([email protected] .gov) is contract specialist for the solicitation and is taking questions by e-mail.

CATLETT TO EURO RSCG LIFE.

David Catlett, who had headed Ketchum’s healthcare practice, took the president post at Euro RSCG Life PR on May 8, according to Tony Russo, CEO of the Havas unit.

Russo, who sold Noonan Russo to Havas five years ago, says Catlett will concentrate on marketing and operations. Russo will focus on corporate and biotech clients. Lorraine Thelian, Ketchum’s senior partner for North America, heads that firm’s health group.

SITRICK CLEARS UP LIMBAUGH CONFUSION.

Sitrick & Co. issued a press release on behalf of Rush Limbaugh to correct media reports that he was “arrested” for doctor shopping in an effort to obtain prescription painkillers.

Limbaugh also told his radio audience last week that he arranged in advance to appear before Palm Beach County prosecutors. He said he was “voluntarily processed.”

In a deal with Florida, Limbaugh filed a plea of “not guilty,” and must remain “clean” for 18 months and pay a $30 a-month charge for the cost of “supervision.”

Limbaugh’s lawyer, Roy Black, said the conservative commentator had intended to remain in treatment so the “outcome for him personally will be much as if he had fought the charge and won.”

Michael Sitrick, Tony Knight, Tammy Taylor and Anne George rep Limbaugh.

RUSSIA HIRES KETCHUM.

Ketchum has picked up Russia’s multimillion-dollar PR account as President Vladimir Putin wants to improve his country’s image in the west. The hire is in advance of the G8 summit in St. Petersburg in July.

On the Kremlin’s website, Putin promises that Russia as the G8 host nation “regards it as its duty to give a fresh impetus to efforts to find solutions to key international problems in energy, education and healthcare.”

Putin’s use of Russia’s vast energy reserves as a political weapon has many in Europe concerned over its reliability as a supplier. That was evident early this year when Russia “cut off” gas supplies to Ukraine in a political spat. Last week, Vice President Dick Cheney attacked Russia for using oil to gain leverage over other countries. Ketchum is an Omnicom unit. Other OMC agencies Gavin Anderson (Japan) and Maslov, Sokur & Assocs. (Moscow) are assisting with the work.

BLUE EXPLAINS HIGH GAS PRICES.

Edelman’s Blue Worldwide has created ads to buff the battered image of Big Oil and explain the rise in gasoline prices.

The effort supplements Edelman’s work for the American Petroleum Institute, which has been in the forefront of the industry’s PR effort.

API also has commissioned economic consulting firm Lexecon to write a 17-page study to outline “why fuel bills are getting more expensive” and “what has caused the price of crude to push past $70 a barrel and how that crude price affects the price of gasoline and other refined products.”

That primer, “Understanding Today’s Crude Oil and Products Markets,” is posted at api.org.

SPELICH EXITS GATEWAY FOR F-H.

John Spelich, VP of corporate communications for PC maker Gateway, has joined Fleishman-Hillard’s Los Angeles office as a SVP. He is charged with directing the firm’s litigation support and investor relations practices under GM Richard Kline.

Spelich, who was at Gateway for two stints, served as the No. 3 PC maker’s chief communications officer after its 2004 merger with eMachines. From 1999-2001, he was director of corporate communications and later director of investor comms.

He was VP of corporate communications for the Walt Disney Co. and director of global news and information for the Ford Motor Co., where he also served as an attorney in the company’s product litigation group.

Spelich began his career in journalism.

IPG ASKED TO RECOUP ILL-GOTTEN GAINS.

Interpublic will face pressure to return any “ill-gotten gains,” as a shareholder at its annual meeting will demand that the ad/PR conglom recover bonuses that it paid top executives based on financials that ultimately were restated.

CEO Michael Roth will face a shareholder resolution called “recoup unearned management bonuses” in New York on May 25.

Noting that IPG was forced to restate its financials from 2000 to 2004, the resolution calls for IPG’s board to “review all bonuses and other awards that were made to senior executives on the basis of having met or exceeded performance targets during the period of the restatement, and recoup for the benefit of our company all such bonuses or awards to the extent that these performance targets were not achieved.”

The unnamed shareholder believes there is no excuse for “over-compensation based on discredited earnings at any company.”

A similar proposal was voted at the 2004 Computer Associates annual meeting.

That company also restated its earnings, and based then-CEO Sanjay Kumar’s $3.2M bonus on its “supposedly superior performance.”

[Kumar pleaded guilty on April 24 for his role in the $2.2M Computer Associates accounting fraud. He could face at least 10 years in jail when he is sentenced on Sept. 12.]

The IPG stockholder resolution states: “It is not enough for IPG’s compensation to encourage good work. It needs also to discourage bad work and misstatement of results.”

The company opposes the measure because it is “overly rigid” and would require the board to “mechanistically recoup bonuses in inequitable circumstances and potentially violate Interpublic’s existing contractual commitments.”

EDELMAN PROMOTES GETTY/GERE TIE.

Edelman is promoting Getty Images’ partnership with actor/activist Richard Gere to raise money for Friends of Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Visitors to GI’s “Change Me” section of its website pick an image and describe why they feel that image has the power to change perceptions.

The Seattle-based distributor of visual content will donate $10 to Friends for each description. The selections may be part of a traveling exhibition and appear in a book.

In a statement, Gere said he wants to raise the profile of the three diseases that are “easy to put out of our minds. Change Me uses powerful images to create an experience of personal reflection and commitment to change.”

AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, which are preventable diseases, kill six million people a year, taking a devastating toll in the world’s poorest countries. The Friends group seeks to encourage governments throughout the world to join its fight.

LINCOLN GROUP OPENS UP.

The Lincoln Group, the Pentagon’s PR firm in Iraq, has “changed its attitude,” and is now more open with the press, co-founder Paige Craig told O’Dwyer’s.

Part of that reasoning is due to the confusion about what LG does. LG has been the subject of a barrage of stories in the press, largely connected with planting stories in the Iraqi media.

Craig described the firm as “client-driven,” and the new transparency is what LG’s clients want.
TLG threw a Cinco de Mayo bash on May 5 at “Paige’s Casa” that began at 7:30 and ran until sunrise.

The invitation recalls how a French army invaded Mexico in 1862 to collect debt and contribute to the Confederate cause.

At the Battle of Puebla, an untrained force of Mexicans – many armed with only with machetes – defeated a French army of more than 6,000 troops. Mexican tactics included stampeding a herd of cattle through the French lines.

The invite says “retreating from third world armies was later to become the French national sport,” and “You can bet the Mexicans would have joined us in eating Freedom Fries on that day.”

TEXAS CALLS FOR WINE PITCHES.

Texas is looking for PR help to develop and pop the cork on an eight-month media outreach campaign to boost Lone Star state wines and wineries.

The state’s Dept. of Agriculture has taken the lead to collect proposals to highlight Texas wine trails and agritourism, coordinate media visits, and provide press staff for events. Funding is provided by the Texas Wine Industry Development Fund.

There are 85 operating wineries in the state, which ranks fifth among U.S. states for production and got going in the business in the 1970s. Chardonnay, chenin blanc, sauvignon blanc, cabernet sauvignon and merlot grapes grow in Texas.

An RFP was issued (proposals are due May 12) and outlines a two-part program. The first is a three-month planning stage to review market research and create a “comprehensive, short-term, consumer-centric campaign” with a budget of $150K. The second stage, implementation, allocates $100K for paid media and another $15K for PR.

Delane Caesar, assistant commissioner for marketing and promotion, is leading the search.

EH&C PITCHES CLEV. TO FINANCE PROS.

Edward Howard & Co. is developing a national marketing plan to attract accounting and finance people to Cleveland.

The firm is acting under a federal grant made to the Ohio Dept. of Job and Family Services. The jobs are to fill positions during the next three years at the Defense Dept.’s finance and accounting office that handles military payroll.

The Pentagon had expected to shut down the Cleveland facility, but backtracked after much political pressure.

SUIT SOCKS XM SATELLITE RADIO.

XM Satellite Radio has been hit with two shareholder suits, alleging that management unloaded shares and misled investors about promises to cut spending. That news helped drive shares of the No. 1 pay radio company to a two and a half year low of $16.86.

Shareholders claim XM CEO Hugh Panero misled them about his ability to trim outlays needed to snag subscribers.

The Washington, D.C.-based company dramatically bolstered spending in the fourth-quarter of '05 to offset "buzz" generated by rival Sirius Satellite's landing of shock jock Howard Stern.

XM says the suits are "allegations without merit" and plans to "vigorously defend the matter."

Sirius doubles loss

Sirius Satellite Radio suffered a $458.5M first-quarter net loss, largely due to a $284M expense for stock compensation.

Nearly 80 percent ($225M) of that total went to Stern and his affiliates. Sirius stock is trading at $4.76, near its 52-week low of $4.36.

The New York-based company added more than 760K subscribers during the period, ending the quarter with 4.1M customers. Revenues nearly tripled to $115M.

CEO Mel Karmazin expects to end the year with 6.2M subscribers and an operating loss of $565M.

He is bullish with plans to stream “The Howard Stern Show” via the ’Net to Sirius subscribers by Father’s Day, and the launch of “wearable” satellite radios in the summer.

TW’S LOGAN GETS PAY HIKE IN RETIREMENT.

Don Logan, who retired Dec. 31 as chairman of Time Warner’s media and communications group, is getting a pay increase, according to the proxy statement of the world's largest media company.

The 60-year-old Logan had a $1M salary in ’05. As a part-timer through ’09, he is to receive $1.25M a-year for “transition and advisory services.”

The employment agreement has no bonus target. Logan was granted a $6M bonus in ’05, down eight percent from the year earlier period.

His contract contains a “non-compete” provision. He also is restricted from investing in the stocks of any TW competitor.

Logan is credited with forging the biggest corporate magazine group, having more than 150 titles (Sports Illustrated, Time, Cooking Light, People, Real Simple, Fortune and Entertainment Weekly). TW’s publishing group had $5.9B in `05 revenues and $1B in operating income.

Logan, who joined TW with its acquisition of Southern Progress-publisher of Southern Living-during the ’80s, has returned to his Mountain Brook, Ala., home to do some fishing.

Parsons’ bonus sliced 6%

CEO Dick Parsons, who fended off a raid from Carl Icahn, took a six percent cut in his `05 bonus to $7.5M.

The board considered his leadership role in 1) expanding the cable unit via the acquisition of some of Adelphia's assets; 2) introducing TW Cable's digital phone service, and 3) forging an alliance between AOL and Google. The board also credited Parsons for representing the company before the press, Wall Street and shareholders.

The bonus cut is because TW “did not exceed its financial goals by as much as it did in ’04 and ’03.” TW’s net income last year fell 13.6 percent to $2.9B. Revenues rose 3.7 percent to 43.7B.

Parsons' total compensation in ’05 was $16M, compared to $16.2M in ’04. The company claims that Parsons' total ’05 cash compensation ranks in the “lower end of the media peer group.”

That group includes Comcast Corp., Cox Communications (through Dec. 4 when it went private), McGraw-Hill Cos., Viacom, Yahoo!, Walt Disney Co., and News Corp.

TW's stock, which now sells for $17.26, has gone nowhere in ’06. Its 52-week range is $19 and $16.10.

Parsons, in his letter to shareholders, called the stock price “disappointing,” and held back by “concerns about competition and potentially disruptive effects of new technologies.”

CBS ROLLS ‘INNERTUBE.’

CBS Corp. has introduced “Innertube,” a free broadband entertainment channel that offers clips of programming like “The Late Show with David Letterman” and original entertainment shows, such as “Greek to Chic,” a fashion makeover item.

Nancy Tellem, president of CBS Paramount Network Televison Group, promises to deliver “edgy” programming aimed at a younger audience. She envisions Innertube as a “content playground” that attracts “new talent and ideas.”

Verizon Communications and Cadbury Schweppes are charter advertisers.

Hollinger International, which publishes the Chicago Sun-Times and other papers, is looking forward to changing its name to Sun-Times Media Group.

Shareholders must approve the new moniker at the June 13 annual meeting. The move is designed to distance the company from the legal woes of ousted CEO Conrad Black.

Yahoo! has launched Yahoo!Tech, a website intended to offer consumers “plain-English” advice on purchasing tech products.

The site, tech.yahoo.com, features licensed content, product listings with community ratings and reviews, and options for shopping for products in 19 categories like MP3 players or digital cameras.

Tech “advisers” include Dory Devlin (“The Mom”), Gina Hughes, founder of the TechieDiva blog, Christopher Null, founding editor-in-chief of PC Magazine, and Robin Raskin, former editor of PC Magazine, EIC of FamilyPC and a USA Today columnist.

The site will also include video content of episodes of a four-minute program called “Hook Me Up.”

(Media news continued on next page)

U.S., U.K. TRUST GOV’T OVER MEDIA.

People trust the media more than their governments in many places across the globe with the exception of the U.S. and Great Britain, according to an international opinion poll by the BBC, Reuters and The Media Center.

On average in countries like Russia, India, and Indonesia, media scored trust from 61 percent of respondents, compared to just 52 percent for governments. In the U.S., however, 67 percent said they trust the government, compared to 59 percent for the media. Fifty-one percent of British respondents said they trust the government, with 47 percent favoring the press.

A whopping 82 percent of Indian citizens said they trust the press, compared with 66 percent for government. Russia was nearly even at 58-54 percent, press to government.

Internationally, 56 percent said TV was the most important news source, followed by newspapers (21 percent), the Internet and radio (9 percent each).

A sampling of 10,230 adults were questioned in the UK, USA, Brazil, Egypt, Germany, India Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, and South Korea in March and April.

People_____________

J.P. Donlon has re-joined Chief Executive as editor-in-chief to replace William Holstein.

Donlon worked at CE for 22 years, serving as EIC from 1981-’01. He left CE in ’01 to become a principal for The Dilenschneider Group, a post he held through 2004, when he left to become EIC of Directorship, a corporate governance title.

Nathan Lump, features director for Travel and Leisure magazine, has joined T: The New York Times Style Magazine, as travel editor.

Lump was previously associate edtior for SmartMoney from 1999-’00, and associate editor for Conde Nast Traveler.

Musician and activist Bono will serve as editor of The Independent (U.K.) for the day on May 16.

The Irish singer, who was handed the editor reins of BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program in 2004, is expected to use the paper’s resources to highlight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria woes in Africa. Half of the paper’s revenues for the day will go to Bono’s Product Red initiative, which has multinational companies donating funds to combat disease in Africa.

Tami Booth Corwin, who assumed the president post at Rodale Books last June, is resigning her post to focus on being a full-time mother. She is pregnant with her second child.

Corwin is credited with reviving Rodale via the acquisition of best-sellers such as "The South Beach Diet." She also acquired Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" book about global warming that is being released this month.

Briefs_____________

Connecticut Business Magazine, which was purchased last year and has been on hiatus, relaunched on May 10 as CT Business Magazine, based in Hartford.

The publication has aligned with the Connecticut Business Industry Assn., Conn. Economic Resource Center, and Conn. Center for Economic Analysis. Publisher Michael Guinan said the only similarity to the original publication is the title.

Coverage includes industries like finance, gaming, healthcare, insurance and sales/marketing, along with lifestyle features.

Sujata Srinvasan is editor of CT, which is slated to publish 11 times a year and claims to be the state’s only statewide, full-color, glossy business magazine.

Circulation is approximately 15K, targeting C-suite executives and business owners with more than $1M in revenue.

Crimson Communications is handling PR for the re-launch with an event slated for May 16 in Hartford.

Alternative Medicine magazine has launched a website, alternativemedicine.com, on alternative healing methods, therapies and news.

Neotrope has launched Advertising Industry Newswire, an online magazine with news, podcasts and other content about the ad industry.
Christopher Simmons, founder of Neotrope, is overseeing the portal.

A report by JupiterResearch says wireless carriers can significantly grow subscriber bases and revenues by targeting teenagers and parents with separate marketing messages.

The Jupiter study found that 58 percent of teens have cellphones, while 70 percent of adults own one.

Jupiter research director Julie Ask said that marketing phones for teens as add-ons to adult plans is “not the most lucrative proposition for carriers.”

The study noted that 29 percent of teenage cell phone users have their own plan and consume more premium content, resulting in a higher yield for carriers.

AOL has launched a blogging network covering the “most watched and widely held companies.

Bloggingstocks.com will feature commentary and analysis of companies like Time Warner (AOL’s parent), Google, Yahoo, Apple, eBay, Microsoft, Wal-Mart and General Electric. Each company has its own dedicated blog and team of bloggers, including analysts, financial pros, current and former reporters.

AOL said the network is editorially independent but will be part of its “Money & Finance” portal.

“Individual investors are most passionate about individual stocks,” said AOLM&F VP Marty Moe, who noted the blogs will focus on what “average investors” care about: giving readers an interactive platform to get behind the headlines and exchange insights.

New York Daily News publisher Mort Zuckerman is expected to be among the bidders for McClatchy’s Inquirer and Daily News papers in Philadelphia.

Real estate developer Bruce Toll is the hometown favorite.

California billionaire Ron Burkle is backing a union bid for the papers.

“Baghdad ER,” showing the carnage among U.S. soldiers in Iraq, will air Sunday May 21 on HBO.

It will be one of HBO’s finest moments and in the HBO tradition of showing the strongest material.

The sight of soldiers, some with horrible wounds and minutes from dying, will bring home the human cost of the Iraq war in a way that regular and cable TV have not. “The government and the media are careful to keep the worst of it (war casualties) out of the sight of the average American,” wrote New York Times columnist Bob Herbert May 1. More than 17,000 soldiers have been wounded in Iraq, many of them severely, in addition to the more than 2,300 who have been killed.

The only problem we have with “Baghdad ER” is that it’s a one-shot deal. This should be a series that is on every night for an hour or two, replacing the porno shows and trash-talking comics that HBO runs...another HBO production that is educational but stomach-churning shows teenagers who have received catastrophic injuries in auto accidents. Many are on life support connected to a thicket of tubes and monitors. HBO has also done a program on AIDS but what’s needed is frequent shows on the large variety of sexually-transmitted diseases. That might take out some of the jollity out of the “cathouse” series that features workers at the “Moonlite Bunnyfarm”...perhaps one reason for the graphic programming at HBO is that cable TV has lost 20 million customers to satellite TV in the past ten years, the New York Post reported.

Time-Warner’s cable business is helping to offset “worsening results at its AOL unit,” the NYT said May 4. TW Cable accounted for 25% of the $10.5 billion in revenues in Q1, which were up only one percent. HBO has 28 million customers.

The story most accessed on odwyerpr.com in April was a commentary on alleged overbilling practices of PR firms by the Strumpette blog. Strumpette argued that such practices are far from uncommon, especially at some of the bigger firms. Strumpette said the emphasis should be on accomplishments and not hours.

The topic was touched off by the trial of former Fleishman-Hillard executive Doug Dowie on fraud and conspiracy charges in Federal Court in Los Angeles. F-H has paid almost $6 million to settle a lawsuit. Eric Moses, who worked for F-H for 18 months, said he “might have once” billed on a “value” basis, where the value of something accomplished is the basis for charging rather than the time spent on the activity...other popular web stories in April were PR pros seeking an M.A. in PR at New York University; Burson-Marsteller counseling Duke University in the wake of rape charges against some members of the lacrosse team, and Tony Snow’s appointment as White House press secretary...Oprah Winfrey is one of several leading African-Americans who are openly opposed to the use of profanity on the air. Many of the comments that rapper “Ludacris” made on her show recently were cut, causing him to complain that she gave him “a hard time,” reported the New York Post...Gangsta rappers are going to “great lengths” to shine their images by doing various good deeds in public, said the April 26 NYP...John Wren of Omnicom was named by Forbes as one of the 150 highest paid CEOs in the “Forbes 500.” His 2004 pay of $13.4 million (2005 was not yet available) gave him a rank of 102. Forbes, meanwhile, found he was not too “efficient,” meaning giving value to his company for the pay received. He ranked 89 out of 189 CEOs in this regard. The six-year “annual total return” of OMC was clocked at -2% while Wren collected an average of $5.6M annually. OMC stock, $107 in 1999, grew several points to $90 last week. It’s being helped because fewer shares are outstanding. OMC has spent nearly $1 billion recently buying its own stock....the 500 CEOs studied by Forbes were paid about $5.4 billion in 2005 or $10.8M each. Pay was up only 6% after a huge 54% jump in 2004.

Cheryl Procter Rogers, president of PRSA and a spokesperson for HBO, who has told PRSA chapter members not to join a company unless they believe in its values and ethics, conducted the first PRSA leaders’ calls that we have heard in which no leader asked her a question. More than 600 leaders were invited to two calls May 5 including 230 chapter presidents and presidents-elect; more than 300 Assembly delegates, section and district chairs and chairs-elect; 20+ past presidents, and the 16 other directors (treasurer Jeff Julin was one who did not participate).

At the end of the morning call, Procter-Rogers asked for questions and declared the session over after waiting a few seconds. She should have waited longer. She did the same thing on the afternoon call and people started hanging up except for Tim Roscoe, who had questions about the Global Alliance. President-elect Rhoda Weiss talked to him for several minutes. Also absent from the call was announcement of the total number of people on it, usually about 50-60.

Procter-Rogers, the only person allowed to speak for PRSA, has not talked to us since March 20 and her next public appearance is not scheduled until Sept.7...the news we got out of the conference call is that Linda Cohen of the Caliber Group in Tucson has been named to replace Dave Rickey as ethics chair and Kelly Albenese, head of chapter relations, has left the staff...the June 9-10 “Leaders’ Rally” apparently has been expanded to include heads of districts and sections besides presidents-elect. Attendees traditionally have received $500 each to defray expenses...PRSA revenues declined 6.7% to $10,206,606 in 2005 because of the cancelled conference in Miami Beach. Dues income was flat at $4.44 million. PRSA has gained 2,400 members to 21,000 from 18,600 in 1998 or 300 yearly (1.6% average annual growth...Suffolk County (Long Island) plans to give free wireless Internet access to the 1.5 million people in its 900 square miles. There are similar plans for Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

--Jack O'Dwyer