TALLAHASSEE FLIES OUT AIRPORT RFP.

The Tallahassee Regional Airport wants a marketing campaign to position it as the “air transportation service provider of choice,” according to its RFP.

Located seven miles from downtown Tallahassee, the airport accounts for about a third of the passenger traffic from 32 counties in northwest Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.

The airport is serviced by US Airways, Continental, Northwest Airlink and Delta Air Lines. Those carriers fly to more than 200 destinations. US Airways is expanding its service from TRA in September.

Kent Rickey, who is handling the RFP, told O’Dwyer’s that TRA competes with airports in Tampa, Atlanta and Jacksonville. It needs a PR partner because “our prices are a little higher, and people are willing to drive” to other airports, he said.

TRA wants to play up its role as both a “community resource” and booster of the local economy.

The PR contract runs for three years, and could be worth as much as $300K. There are two one-year option years.

A non-mandatory pre-proposal conference is set for Aug. 15. The deadline for proposals is slated for Aug. 22. The contract will be awarded in October, and work begins Dec. 1.

Rickey is reachable at 850/891-8282 and [email protected].

COSTIGLIO TO ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION.

Peter Costiglio, who was VP-communications at Time Inc. from `89 to `05, is now director of communications for The Rockefeller Foundation in New York. He succeeds Andre Oliver, who announced plans to leave the Foundation earlier this year.

Costiglio, 57, reports to Richard Tofel, VP & general counsel of the Foundation with more than $3 billion in assets.

He chaired the PR Committee of the Magazine Publishers of America from `94-`97, and worked at Prudential-Bache Securities for a decade before stepping down as senior VP-communications. Costiglio began his PR career as press relations manager at Grumman.

John D. Rockefeller formed the Foundation in`13 to “promote the well-being” of humanity.

PROCTER-ROGERS LEAVES HBO.

Cheryl Procter-Rogers, president of PRSA and corporate affairs director of the North Central region of HBO, has left HBO after nearly ten years and has started her own firm, “A Step Ahead PR.”

A call to her phone number at HBO resulted in the message that she was no longer working for HBO and provided a number to reach her.

Reached at the number, Procter-Rogers refused comment and directed the call to PRSA h.q.

Her current PRSA contact information indicates she has formed A Step Ahead PR based at 250 Parkway Drive., Suite 150, Lincolnshire, IL 60069. Phone is 847/955-9944. E-mail: [email protected].

An assistant to Procter-Rogers at HBO said no successor has been hired.

The assistant said a comment would be sought from HBO executives but none was immediately available.

Procter-Rogers has been with HBO since 1997 when she joined as corporate affairs manager.

Previously she had her own firm from 1994-97 and was director of PR and advertising, Nielsen Marketing Research, Northbrook, Ill.

She was president of PRSA/Chicago in 1997-97.

She received a BS in English and journalism in 1978 from Bradley University.

OMC’s NET RISES 8%.

Omnicom posted an eight percent rise in both net income and revenues for the second-quarter. It earned $244.1M on revenues of $2.8B.

OMC’s PR units, which include Fleishman-Hillard, Ketchum, Brodeur and Porter Novelli, were up nine percent to $288.6M for the period, and five percent to $548.4M for the year.

CEO John Wren spent $36M for three acquisitions during the second quarter.

The ad/PR conglom added Entertainment Marketing Partners, which has offices in New York and Los Angeles, to Ketchum.

EMP, according to OMC’s investor presentation, provides clients “access to the entertainment community through relationships with studios, networks, production companies, sports leagues around the world and video game developers.”

OMC acquired Paris-based corporate communications firm Harrison & Wolf. It will be folded into TBWA.

EVB, a San Francisco-based ad agency, is another new OMC unit.

CRC GETS PRAISE FOR STONE.

Viacom’s Paramount Pictures is using Creative Response Concepts, the firm that publicized the Swift Boats Veterans for Truth group and its smear campaign of John Kerry, to build support among conservatives and evangelicals for Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center film that opens nationwide Aug. 9.

Stone, a charter member of the Hollywood elite, has been routinely trashed over the years by conservatives for his VietNam movies (“Platoon,” and “Born on the Fourth of July”) and films about Presidents Kennedy and Nixon.

In an effort to win support for WTC, CRC arranged a screening in Washington last month for conservatives such as Washington Times columnist Cal Thomas, National Review’s Jack Fowler, Media Research Center head Brent Bozell and Foundation for the Defense of Democracies’ Cliff May.

The movie about two Port Authority police officers who volunteered to rescue people trapped in the rubble of the World Trade Center received rave reviews.

Bozell issued a press release that called the film a “masterpiece.” He wrote: “Oliver Stone has created something spectacular and it deserves the nation’s gratitude. Conservatives and liberals will praise this movie.”

Thomas agreed. “Whatever one thinks of Oliver Stone, the man knows how to make movies. This is one of his best,” he wrote.

Fowler called WTC “dead-on.” May wrote: “God Bless Oliver Stone.”

Michelle Malkin, a conservative columnist and blogger, did not attend the screening. Of the praise for Stone, she wonders, “Is Hell freezing over.”

SEIU LOOKS FOR PR HELP.

The Service Employees International Union, which is in the forefront on the battles over raising the minimum wage and immigration reform, is looking to hire a communications director.

The Washington-based job calls for someone with ten-plus years of PR experience and organizing/political and government relations know-how. The person must be able to communicate with local labor leaders, members and reporters.

The SEIU bills itself as the fastest growing union in the U.S. It has 1.8M members and is busy organizing janitors and nurses.

Ben Long of Travaille Executive Search is handling the search. He is at 202-463-6342.

APCO ONLINE TAPS KING.

APCO Worldwide has named Internet veteran David King, associate director of its online unit.

King, who joins from U.K.-based Fullsix, has handled online projects for Pepsi, World Cup France `98 and launched UNICEF’s line of e-greeting cards.

He is the founder of DDB Interactive, the media/new technologies unit of DDB Needham Worldwide Communications, former managing director-Europe, Middle East & Africa of Digital@JWT, the digital solutions outfit of the former J. Walter Thompson Co. and CEO of Icon MediaLab U.K.

Evan Kraus heads APCO Online.

PAKISTAN GIVES QG&A $600K+ PACT.

Pakistan, which is on the front line in the ‘war on terror,’ has given Quinn Gillespie & Assocs. a contract worth $154K a-quarter through April `08.

The D.C. firm of Jack Quinn (former counsel to former President Bill Clinton and chief of staff to VP Al Gore) and Ed Gillespie (ex-Republican National Committee chairman) will promote a free trade agreement between Pakistan and the U.S.

It will work with Pakistan’s Ministry of Commerce to enhance the “quality of positive media stories about Pakistan and provide strategic advice in crisis communications.” [Pakistan hired Hill & Knowlton in `05 for PR duties.]

The contract calls for QG&A to enhance awareness of Pakistan as a “reliable and attractive member of he global economic community” and develop a “more robust bilateral relationship with the U.S. based on trade and security.”

Stuart Holliday, former U.N. Ambassador for Special Projects, coordinator of the State Dept. Bureau of International Information Bureaus and special assistant to President George Bush II, handles the Pakistan business with Adam Falkoff, a veteran of the Consumer Electronics Assn., American Express and McKinsey & Co.

TOMSETT JOINS HOFFMAN.

The Hoffman Agency has named Susan Tomsett managing director of its Asia Pacific operation.

She was COO of Burson-Marsteller’s Greater China unit, where she managed 120 staffers and accounts worth $8M.

Lou Hoffman’s high-tech shop entered Asia in `96 with the opening of an office in Singapore. The San Jose-based firm, which billed $9.5M in `05, now has offices in Hong Kong, mainland China, Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

QORVIS COLLECTS $3.6M FROM SAUDIS.

The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia paid its PR firm, Qorvis Communications, $3.6M during the six-month period ended March for support of Ambassador Prince Turki Al-Faisal’s “listening tour” of the U.S.

The firm also conducted extensive media relations work that resulted in editorial board meetings for the Ambassador with the Los Angeles Times, CNN and New York Times.

Saudi Arabia has plunged into the Israel/Hezbollah battle. King Abdullah offered Lebanon $1.5B in reconstruction funding. He also warned of a widening of the conflict. “Saudi Arabia warns everybody that if the peace option fails because of Israeli arrogance, there will be no other option but war,” Abdullah said.

ARTICULATE HIRES MICHAELS.

Eileen Michaels, a 20-year PR veteran, has assumed the senior VP slot at Articulate Communications, the New York-based high-tech shop founded in `02.

She had been executive VP at Lisboa in Washington, D.C., handling Internet business for Bell Atlantic/Sprint and Energy Star. Earlier, Michaels repped Informix Software, which was acquired by IBM, and Image Medical’s PracticeBuilder software, an acquisition target of eRad.

At Articulate, Michaels will handle CMP Technology, a unit of United Business Media.

Laura Grimmer, a former Associated Press journalist and FitzGerald Communications executive, is CEO of Articulate.

TIME INC. PULLS PLUG ON TEEN PEOPLE.

Time Inc. is shutting down Teen People, a People spin-off launched in 1998. The September issue, which hits the stands Aug. 4 will be the final number.

The magazine’s peak circulation was 1.6M in `01. It dipped to 1.45M at the end of `05, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Time Inc. plans to keep TP’s website in operation, and promises to absorb as many of its staff that it can.

The company’s People title is the No. 1 celebrity mag with a circulation of 3.7M.

WARNER LINKS WITH APPLE.

Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Group has made its classic TV programming available via Apple Computer’s iTunes Music Store. That content includes “Friends” and animated shows like “The Jetsons” and “The Flintstones."

Simon Kenny, president of Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, called the Apple connection an “important part of our digital distribution strategy.” The deal fits the plan to market Warner’s “entertainment properties across the widest selection of platforms and devices available.”

The Warner programs are available for $1.99 per episode. Edelman does PR for Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group. Apple handles its own PR.

TIERNEY MAKES MOVE TO MONSTER.

Brian Tierney, the ad/PR man who led the group that bought the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News from McClatchy, has forged an alliance with Monster Worldwide, the online jobs site.

The partners are launching a co-branded job site. Tierney says his papers’ Philly.com site gets two million unique visitors a month. Monster gets more than one million jobs a year, 10,000 of them are in Philadelphia.

WSJ’s KAPLAN NAMED CRAIN’S N.Y BIZ PUB.

Jill Kaplan is leaving the Wall Street Journal to take the publisher job at Crain’s New York Business in September. She will succeed Alair Townsend, 64, who will continue to do a column for the weekly.

Kaplan, 40, joined the WSJ in `97 as an international sales manager. She became director of U.S. sales at WSJ parent Dow Jones & Co. in `00 before rejoining the paper in `04. At the WSJ, Kaplan is general manager of the Weekend Edition, Personal Journal and Journal Report.

Townsend, a former New York City Deputy Mayor for Finance and Economic Development, joined Crain’s in `89.

GIBSON IS D.C. EDITOR AT TIME.COM.

Ana Marie Cox, founder of the snarky political website, Wonkette, has been named Washington editor of Time.com.

Richard Stengel, managing editor of Time, praised Cox as a “sharp and witty observer of the Washington scene.” She has the ability to “spot political trends in surprising places,” he said in a statement.

Cox, who joined the magazine in March, will continue to write features for the print issue.

She takes over for Matt Cooper. He becomes Washington editor of Conde Nast’s Portfolio in September.

MANSUETO SHIFTS TO 7 WTC.

Mansueto Ventures, publisher of Inc. and Fast Company is making its headquarters at Larry Silverstein’s 7 World Trade Center, the first building to rise from the destroyed World Trade Center site.

MV, which is currently located at 375 Lexington at 42nd St., has inked a 15-year lease on 40,000 sq. ft. It will take an entire floor of the building with a 360-degree view of NYC early next year.

John Koten, CEO of MV, said 7 WTC, the city’s first certified “green” commercial office building, reflects the “beyond the box” thinking that is the hallmark of MV. He says the lease is indicative that MV is bullish on the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan.

Moody’s Investor Services has signed a letter of intent to occupy 15 floors of the 52-story tower. Ameriprise Financial, the American Express spin-off, occupies the 39th floor, while the New York Academy of Sciences is moving to the 40th floor in the fall.

Gordon and Leach does PR for MV. Rubenstein Communications handles PR for Silverstein Properties.

TRUMP: ‘TWO-LEGGED MEDIA MACHINE’.

Donald Trump is a “two-legged media machine” at a time when other CEOs are scared silly by the media, according to Across the Board, the Conference Board magazine. His constant press presence is because he “publicly flaunts three vices that a lot of chief executives keep hidden: their greed, lavish living and sex lives.”

AB notes while many CEOs “cringe at making public speaking, Trump has never seen a microphone he didn’t love.”

IZAREK UPPED AT SCHOLASTIC.

Stephanie Izarek, executive editor of Scholastic Parent & Child since`02, has been promoted to editor-in-chief of the magazine with 7.5M readers.

She will focus on editorial content plus explore web opportunities. Izarek will create new feature sections for the magazine to join “Health,” “Wellness” and “Nutrition.”

SP&C has been on a roll as evidenced by a 9.4 percent boost in readers, according to the Spring 2006 MRI research audit.

The magazine has added articles aimed at parents with children aged 6-12, while maintaining its original mission of content for parents of kids up to age 6.

Prior to SP&C, Izarek served as executive editor of PC Magazine, writer for FOX News and editor for New York Times Custom Publishing.

She edited “In the Shadow of the Towers.”

The International Foodservice Editorial Council has awarded $18,000 in scholarships to five students who are pursuing a communications career in the foodservice business.

The winners are DaeTwaun Bogan (Los Angeles Valley College), Emily Butler and Ginnefer Cox (Culinary Institute of America), Sheri Hogan (California State University) and Andrea Loera (University of Houston). Each receives a grant of $3,600.

(Media news continued on next page)

CASE SAYS ‘SORRY’ ABOUT TW MERGER.

Former AOL CEO Steve Case is sorry that he merged the online service into Time-Warner and is disappointed with the outcome. He “confessed” during a July 21 interview on the “Charlie Rose Show” on PBS.

Case announced the $165B deal with then-TW CEO Gerry Levin in January of 2000. TW’s adjusted stock price traded near the $110 mark prior to that announcement. It now trades at $16.08.

Case and Levin promised the deal would offer synergies like the one announced on July 19 that linked Warner Brothers and AOL to launch In2TVEn Espanol, a Spanish language channel featuring classic TV shows.

TW CEO Dick Parsons plans to unveil a new strategy for AOL on Aug. 2.

FORTUNE TAKES SWIPE AT BW’S WELCH.

Fortune features “Sorry Jack” on its July 24 cover with a headshot of former General Electric CEO Jack Welch with a red diagonal line superimposed over it.

Staffer Betsy Morris penned a piece for the magazine arguing that Welch’s famous “rules for winning” aren’t cutting it these days.

Welch’s basic management philosophy is that a company must be either first or second in the market in order to survive. Morris feels that is out-of-date and points to the success of Apple Computer and Genentech to make her case.

Morris praised Welch as a “model not just for the can-do American executive but for a way of doing business that revived the U.S. corporation in the 1980s and dominated the world's economic landscape for a quarter century.”

She believes “Corporate America needs a new playbook” due to market volatility, competition from India and China and pressure from hedge funds. The edicts of the past, according to Morris are “starting to feel out of date.”

Jack and Suzy Welch write “The Welch Way” column for BusinessWeek.

YOUTUBE CREATES ‘CLIP CULTURE’.

YouTube CEO Chad Hurley believes the success of his video-sharing site has created a “clip culture,” according to a report on Dow Jones’ MarketWatch.

The average video length video on YouTube is 2 ½ minutes long, said Hurley, co-founder of the site that attracts 20 million unique visitors a month. One hundred million clips are viewed each day.

Hurley says he has no plans to sell the site, but that an initial public offering sounds very exciting.

NYT’S PRENDERGAST TO SCRIPPS.

Mark Prendergast, editor at the New York Times, becomes a visiting professor in the fall at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. He will take over for Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald.

Prendergast, in his 35-year career, has written for the Times, Washington Post, New York Daily News, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Associated Press. He has reported from more than 20 countries.

People ____________________

Edward Adams, public information officer for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, has been named editor and publisher of the American Bar Association’s flagship publication, ABA Journal. Adams, a 13-year veteran of American Lawyer Media, also wrote for the New York Law Journal and was executive editor for NYLawyer.com.

ABA Journal counts a circulation of 380K and is managed by a Board of Editors.

Gregg Fields, senior economics/financial writer for the Miami Herald, will direct Florida International University’s new master of science degree in business journalism, slated to debut with the fall 2006 semester. The school cited a “great demand” for business reporting. Fields stressed that the program isn’t about just covering business. “The first step is knowing how to follow the money,” he said.

James Oseland has been promoted to replace Colman Andrews as editor-in-chief of Saveur magazine.

Oseland had been executive director of the food title and was a contributor for about 10 years. He has written for Vogue, Food & Wine, Gourmet and Time Out New York, and has served as editor for Organic Style, the Village Voice, and TV Guide.

Sara Clemence, interim lifestyles editor for Forbes.com, has been named to that post on a permanent basis. She joined the portal in 2004 as a real estate writer.

Clemence previously covered chemical weapons and environmental issues for the Anniston (Ala.) Star and covered business for the Albany Times-Union.

Briefs _________________

Jupiterimages has launched a new search engine on its website which includes the ability to find images with and without people by gender, age and ethnicity. Users can also search by emotions (angry, worried, excited, etc…) and by subject looking at or away from the camera.

Delivery company DHL has started an e-newsletter for journalists to report on shipping volumes, special projects (the company handled military All-Star baseball ballots), and other PR information. DHL notes that shipping and transportation is a key economic bellwether of interest to reporters. The publication, produced by Loop Consulting Group, is called Door to Door.

People living in homes with digital video recorders read more magazines and newspapers and surf the web more frequently than households without DVRs, according to Mediamark Research. Nearly 12 percent of homes have a DVR. That is up from nine percent in `05.

Omnicom is in a frantic campaign to buy back its own stock and boost its stock above $92 lest it lose tax benefits associated with its billions of CoCo (contingent convertible) bonds.

It just borrowed nearly $1 billion and spent $958 million of it in the first half buying its own stock. It has reduced the float from 187 million shares in 2003 to 170M currently, thus improving earnings-per-share. OMC’s debt rose $800M to $3.37B.

Lehman Brothers predicts OMC will buy back another 3M shares in the second half and 7M more in 2007, reducing the float to 160M.

Despite this campaign, OMC has failed to stay above $90 a share, well below its high of $107 on Dec. 17, 1999.

CIBC World Markets said July 25 that “Prior OMC comments indicate that if the stock was below $92, it would lose tax benefits associated with the supplemental interest payment needed to induce bondholders not to put the issue back to OMC.”

OMC in 2001 floated via Merrill Lynch (at triple the normal underwriting fees) $850M of CoCo bonds known as LYONS (Liquid Yield Option Notes).

Instead of paying about $60M a year in interest, OMC was able to deduct “imputed” (phantom) interest of that amount from its earnings each year, thus saving about $24M (since its tax rate was 40%).

The CoCo bondholders were supposed to make out royally with projections of OMC reaching as high as $160 in a couple of years.

Rising debt, too many insider sales, and a tight information policy (including refusal to discuss finances with the press) hurt the stock.

We would love to discuss OMC’s share buyback program with company officials while bringing along Certified Financial Analysts who help us with the OMC financial reports but OMC isn’t talking ... a similar policy of non-communication is evident at PRSA where 2006 president Cheryl Procter-Rogers has yet to make a single public appearance (outside of three chapter visits). PRSA PR staff only knows of the chapter visits ...we have been busting on HBO, employer of Procter-Rogers, for the raw sexual content of many of its programs. However, HBO is not alone in this activity. Showtime, owned by CBS, has inaugurated “Sexual Healing,” a one-hour show each Thursday at 10 p.m. in which “regular people have full-on penetration sex,” according to New York Post TV critic Linda Stasi. “Big old backsides pump up and down” as couples work out their sexual problems, noted Stasi, whose comment on the show was: “blechhh!” ... HBO’s 11 channels with movies and sex shows are $11.95 monthly (for those who think HBO is too expensive for them to afford) ... PRSA has again renewed Sobel & Co. as its CPA firm after a review. Sobel is also used by Hunter PR, founded by 1984 PRSA president Barbara Hunter.

We got a lot of feedback on New York Times columnist Frank Rich’s definition of PR as “marketing,” “sales strategy,” “sloganeering,” press avoidance, “propaganda” and lacking in “principle and substance.”

The NYT’s Paul Krugman chimed in with a column headlined “Reign of Error,” saying one poll shows 50% of Americans now believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when we invaded it (up from 30%). The Bush Administration, says Krugman, publicized the recent discovery of chemical munitions but failed to point out these were “decayed” and from the 1980s. Krugman is amazed that the public can be so easily misled ... readers wrote that Rich, Krugman and the public get their opinion of PR from what they see PR people doing in movies like “The Sweet Smell of Success” and the current “The Devil Wears Prada” ... from our point of view, the biggest knock on PR from Rich is that it lacks “substance.” This can be attacked by organizations that practice transparency, provide detailed explanations of their policies, and answer questions from the press and public. PR pros can hold their heads high when they perform an educational role. Educators answer questions of students ... PR grads are miffed to find out that the “PR” jobs they take are often really sales and marketing jobs. “Almost all” the recent grads PR pro Rachel Beanland interviewed for the August PR Tactics of PRSA thought they also should have studied marketing. “Their jobs include more marketing than they’d counted on” and “their supervisors are usually marketers,” writes Beanland. Grads also are interested in having their own firms, a subject not covered in college PR programs. One recent grad cited a grab-bag of duties – web designer, newsletter editor, graphic designer, media buyer, copywriter, photographer, event planner and [last] media liaison.

PRSA/Georgia, second largest chapter with about 900 members, announced 11 new members – all women. Women now make up a record 57% of TV anchors, says the Radio & TV News Directors Assn. They account for 58% of TV reporters and 55% of TV middle managers, 66% of news producers and 56% of news writers ...The Female Brain, by California neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine, says “women perceive the world differently than men” because of important physical differences in their brains. “If women attend to those differences, they can make better decisions about how to manage their lives,” she contends. Women are “hard-wired” to have more self-control, are better able to read nonverbal clues like facial expressions, are more prone to worrying, and remember emotional events in greater detail than men, she says. The 7/31 Newsweek reviewed the book. The question for the PR industry is whether a mostly-female PR population will have any effect on the practice of PR ... IABC’s 2005 audit showed it’s in the black with net assets of $116,618 vs. a deficit of $502,377 in 2004. It took in $2,527,307 in dues and booked deferred dues of $1,495,187. It has a policy of not booking dues until they are earned ... PRSA, which does not have this policy, deferred $963,082 of its $4.4M in 2005 dues. Three college accounting professors have said PRSA should defer much more dues income.

--Jack O'Dwyer