CALTRANS ROLLS OUT $15M POLLUTION PACT.

California’s Dept. of Transportation has issued an RFP for a storm water public education campaign.

Caltrans has budgeted $15M for the marketing communications campaign to build upon the current “Don’t Trash California” effort.

The program’s goal is to reduce the amount of storm water pollutants, including litter that enters highway storm drain systems. The scope of the work could include training Caltrans’ staffers, and organizing special events.

The RFP calls for mandatory participation in at least four events such as the California State Fair, Los Angeles County Fair, Mid-State Fair, San Diego County Fair and Alameda County Fair.

Caltrans is looking to hire a firm that has managed at least five statewide campaigns in the Golden State with budgets of not less than $3M.

Proposals are due Aug. 30. Oral interviews have been tentatively set for the week of Sept. 11. The contract is expected to be awarded Nov. 13. Work begins Dec. 15.

Liz Salinas is the contract analyst. She is at 916/227-6835 or [email protected].

RENO TRADES H&K FOR TEXT 100.

Tom Reno is the latest executive to exit Hill & Knowlton as the former general manager of its flagship New York office takes the president/North America post at Text 100. He also is in charge of Text 100’s global corporate communications practice.

Reno joined H&K in March `04 from GCI Group, where he served as president of its New York office.

Previously, Reno headed Makovsky & Co.’s IR group, served as managing director at Citigate Communications/New York, and headed corporate communications at Huberman, Margaretten & Straus.

Judi Mackey, who headed H&K’s corporate and financial group, shifted to Lazard as senior VP/director of communications in July.

Paul Oestreicher, H&K’s healthcare chief, also departed last month. He now heads Zeno Group’s health practice.

WEISKOPF MOVES TO WELLS FARGO.

David Weiskopf has been named VP-communications of Wells Fargo’s consumer credit group in San Francisco. He previously worked as VP-corporate communications at Chiron. Weiskopf also held posts at Ketchum (senior VP) and Weber Shandwick (VP).

WPP ACQUIRES PSI.

WPP Group has Public Strategies Inc., the well-connected public affairs firm that was founded by Jack Martin, the executive assistant to former Texas Senator and VP nominee Lloyd Bentsen, in 1988.

Mark McKinnon, President Bush’s chief media advisor for the `00 and `04 campaigns is vice chairman of PSI, which also counts ex-Texas Governor Ann Richards as an advisor.

WPP Group CEO Martin Sorrell was attracted to PSI because it deals with clients at the highest levels. Martin’s “Fifth Seat” philosophy was developed because he saw CEOs and their boards turning to lawyers, accountants, investment bankers and management consultants for advice. He positions PSI as the fifth seat at the management table.

Martin said in a statement he had many buyout offers during the past years. He accepted WPP’s bid because it “allows our firm to maintain its independence, provides clients with additional resources and employees with extensive professional opportunities.”

PSI has advised Bridgestone/Firestone, Dell, Diebold Election Systems and Perot Systems. It has 175 staffers in 15 U.S. cities and offices in Mexico City and London.

New York’s AdMedia Partners counseled PSI on the deal.

JUDGE TOSSES DOWIE’S SUIT.

A U.S. District Court threw out former Fleishman-Hillard executive Doug Dowie’s “wrongful termination” suit. Judge Margaret Morrow determined that “no reasonable jury” would conclude that F-H didn’t have good cause to terminate the former head of its Los Angeles office.

Dowie, who was convicted of bilking taxpayers out of $300K, claims that he was sacrificed as a scapegoat by his former employer. He believes he was bounced by the Omnicom unit to cover up illegal campaign donations to Los Angeles officials.

SIMONETTI TAKES GMAC REINS.

Toni Simonetti, previously executive director of media relations, financial communications and public policy communications for General Motors, as well as VP of communications for GMAC, is now the chief communications officer for the $300 billion financial services company.

Simonetti had been transitioning into her new role since January. She will be based in New York where she has worked for more than a decade with business, financial, trade, international and general media.

The 49-year-old native of Detroit will serve as VP of global communications, reporting to GMAC CEO Eric Feldstein.

NIEROB IS IN GIBSON’S CORNER—AGAIN.

Alan Nierob, Mel Gibson’s long-time publicist, is front and center in the aftermath of the actor’s drunken driving arrest and anti-Semitic outburst.

The Rogers and Cowan veteran told the Associated Press that Gibson has entered an “ongoing program of recovery,” and is fighting for his life.

Gibson’s initial public apology for his remarks did not build much sympathy for the actor. Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League called the apology “unremorseful and insufficient” and fails to go to the “essence of his bigotry and his anti-Semitism.”

Gibson’s tirade “finally reveals his true self and shows that his protestations during the debate over his film The Passion of the Christ that he is such a tolerant, loving person were a sham,” according to Foxman.

The actor apologized again on Aug. 1, asking for forgiveness of Jews and for a one-on-one meeting with Jewish leaders.

Foxman was happy that Gibson finally owned up to what he said. He agreed to meet with the actor once he finished rehab to “help him get rid of his other addiction, which is prejudice.”

Walt Disney Co. is the first to drop the ax on Gibson for his actions. Its ABC TV unit has pulled out of a Holocaust miniseries that it was developing with Gibson’s production company, Ikon Productions.

ABC unit may go ahead with the project with a different producer. The problem, according to a report in TV Guide, is that Icon wants to pursue the story called “Flory: Survival in the Valley of Death.”

The four-hour drama is about Flory Van Beek, a Dutch Jew who was hidden from the Nazis by a gentile family.

“It is a great story and it should be told independent of Mel Gibson’s views,” Quinn Taylor, head of ABC’s movies and miniseries unit, told TVG.

Jaffe/Braunstein Films, which had been working with Icon, may continue with the project.

DCI GROUP TIED TO ANTI-GORE SPOOF.

A YouTube.com animated video spoofing former Vice President Al Gore’s global warming movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” has been tied to Republican PR firm, DCI Group.

The video called “Al Gore’s Penguin Army” was created by “Toutsmith,” who identifies himself in a YouTube profile as a 29-year-old Beverly Hills resident.

The Wall Street Journal sent an e-mail to Toutsmith, but he would not tell the paper why he made the video that has been viewed by nearly 60,000 viewers.

The Journal traced Toutsmith’s Yahoo account to a computer registered to DCI. Matt Triaca, a spokesperson at the firm, told the Journal the firm does not discuss client work.

DCI represents ExxonMobil, a leader in the effort to discredit global warming front. The energy giant denies that it had any role in the anti-Gore video.

The firm runs TCSDaily.com, an online journal of its Tech Central Station operation. The conservative site says it stands for free markets and open societies. It is sponsored by ExxonMobil, General Motors, American Beverage Assn., Merck, McDonalds, Freddie Mac and PhRMA.

F-H REPS CAYMAN ISLANDS.

Fleishman-Hillard has a $520K job to represent the Cayman Islands in connection with the U.S. probe into offshore financial institutions, according to a contract dated March 14, 06. (The Cayman Islands selected F-H for “public/media relations, government relations and lobbying services” in January following an RFP process, Eli Neusner, VP at the firm told O’Dwyer’s.)

The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs issued a report on Aug. 1 called “Offshore Abuses: The Enablers, The Tools & Offshore Secrecy” about the use of overseas havens, such as the Cayman Islands and the Isle of Man, to dodge U.S. taxes.

The report estimates that corporations and wealthy Americans illegally avoid payment of $40B to $70B each year through the use of “offshore tax schemes.” It noted that “offshore tax haven jurisdictions are a ‘black box’ to hide assets, and transactions from the Internal Revenue Service, other U.S. regulators and law enforcement.” The Senate hearings began in `01, and more are planned.

The new Cayman Islands’ offshore financial account is based in F-H’s London office. The work is supported by F-H offices in Washington, New York and Brussels.

Julie Harris, director of F-H/London is in charge. Her counterpart at the Cayman Islands’ Portfolio of Finance & Economics is Ted Bravakis, director of its PR unit.

BKSH LAUNCHES ‘VALUES’ DRIVE.

Burson-Marsteller’s BKSH & Assocs. is representing the non-profit and non-religious Values First group on federal initiatives regarding “character education.”

VF was founded in `93 by the Peter N. G. Schwartz Foundation to promote “basic universal values” in public and private elementary schools.

It believes the infusion of values (responsibility, honesty, hard work, fairness and concern for others) into the nation’s schools will cultivate better leaders for tomorrow.

BKSH chairman Charlie Black, former advisor to Presidents Reagan and Bush I, leads the lobbying team that includes Rich Meade (ex-chief of staff for the House Budget Committee), Kristin Calabrese (ex-aide to Rep. James Walsh) and Jeffrey Weiss (a veteran of B-M and Weber Shandwick).

LEVINE OPENS 5W ISRAEL.

Charley Levine, who had headed Ruder Finn Israel since `97, is opening 5W Public Relations’ first overseas shop in the Tel Aviv area.

The Texas native, who left RF earlier this year, moved to Israel nearly three decades ago. He sold his CLC firm to RF after a 16-year run.

Levine has counseled General Electric, Bank of America, Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Gore, Israel Aircraft Industries and Pfizer.

5W CEO Ronn Torossian said his decision to open in Israel “when the company faces external attack emphasizes my belief in the tremendous potential represented by Israel.”

Levine’s title is managing director of both 5W Israel and international operations. New York-based 5W, which billed $5M in `05, will add a London office next month.

ZIFF DAVIS PUT ON AUCTION BLOCK.

Ziff Davis has hired Evercore Partners and Lehman Brothers to explore strategic options including the sale or partial sale of the company that owns PC Magazine and CIO Insight among other properties.

ZD has been stepping up its online presence as evidenced by a 49 percent rise in Internet revenues for the second-quarter and a six percent drop in print revenues (ZD shut Sync and Extreme Tech magazines.)

CEO Robert Callahan said the company hired financial advisors due to the “heightened interest in our heritage and emerging businesses.” ZD has been using its “print brands” to “spawn new and creative line extensions.”

The company posted a three percent decline in first-half revenues to $85M. Its operating loss widened to $5.5M from $3.1M.

TIME WARNER DECIDES TO GIVE AOL AWAY.

Time Warner has decided to give AOL service away in a bid to generate ad revenues for the faltering online business. The company will slash 5,000 jobs at AOL. That is a quarter of its payroll.

The service will be free to anybody with a broadband Internet connection. Those offerings include e-mail, instant messaging, local phone number with unlimited calls and various safety features.

AOL will continue to charge $25.90 a month for dial-up customers.

The AOL Network receives more than 100M unique visitors a month. AOL CEO Jonathan Miller sees the opportunity to deepen relationships with that base.

While AOL’s subscriber base has taken a hit, the unit’s ad revenues were up 40 percent in the second-quarter to $450M, according to Time Warner.

TIME OUT NEW YORK GOES BROADBAND.

Time Out New York, the “where-to-go, what-to-do weekly,” has unveiled a broadband video channel. The channel features 200 short video clips that consist of information about museums, concerts, bars, restaurants and other attractions. The clips are hosted by staffers.

The sponsored videos feature a 15-second ad.

The magazine in November launched a video on demand service on Time Warner Cable in New York.

CNN UNVEILS CITIZEN JOURNO SITE.

CNN is rolling out CNN Exchange, a website that allows users to upload their pictures and stories of breaking news.

Staffers will vet all incoming material. Approved material will be distributed on CNN platforms such as CNN Headline News and CNN Radio.

The nation’s broadcasters are committing $300M in airtime space for PSAs to promote the need of parents to control what their children watch on the tube. Former Motion Picture Assn. of America leader Jack Valenti is coordinating the effort designed to head off governmental regulation.

NATOLI EXITS PHILLY PAPERS.

Joe Natoli, publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, is returning to Florida to take the CFO post at the University of Miami.

He had headed the former Knight Ridder papers since `04. Previously, he spent more than two decades at the Miami Herald, another KR property.

Brian Tierney, the former ad/PR man who led a buyout group that purchased the Philadelphia papers from McClatchy Co., will now oversee the editorial units of the papers.

Tierney has promised not to interfere in coverage.

There is no immediate plan to name a successor to Natoli.

NEW YORK OBSERVER IS SOLD—FINALLY.

The New York Observer has been acquired by 25-year-old Jared Kushner, the son of an imprisoned New Jersey real estate developer, for $10M.

Arthur Carter, NYO publisher, will retain a minority stake in the political weekly. He had been trying to sell the paper to a group headed by Robert DeNiro.
Kushner promises not to interfere in the editorial content of the paper.

Editor Peter Kaplan says Kushner plans to step up marketing and expand its online offerings.

He told the New York Times that Kushner’s “25-ness is a huge asset” because he is not “weighed down by the debris of conventional wisdom.” Kaplan says Kushner “exists in the world that is about to be.”

Charles Kushner was sentenced last year to two years in prison for tax evasion, witness tampering and illegal campaign donations.

The NYO is losing about $2M a year.

MARIE CLAIRE SLAPS SIMPSON.

Marie Claire is giving expanded space for its August letters section to accommodate the avalanche of complaints that it received over July cover girl Ashlee Simpson who talked about the joys of natural beauty. It turns out that Simpson got a nose job.

MC editor Joanna Coles, who took over for Lesley Jane Seymour, agrees with the readers. The August number is her first issue.

Coles, a former correspondent for The Times of London and The Guardian, promises a more serious magazine. She believes MC lost it way under intense pressure to compete with celebrity mags.

NEW SARASOTA MAG NAMES EDITOR.

Sarasota Homes & Lifestyles, which debuts in November, has named Candice Mutschler editor. She is the former editor of LWR Life and managing editor of Gulf Coast Living.

The new magazine from Palm Beach Media Group is aimed at “house-proud readers.” Each issue is to cover “real homes and real people showcasing their personal styles.”

PBMG is also launching home and lifestyle magazines in Palm Beach and Boca Raton.

(Media news continued on next page)

CBS NEWS SLATES ‘FREE SPEECH’ SLOT.

CBS News plans to run a regular feature called “Free Speech” when Katie Couric becomes anchor of the evening news in September.

The segment will showcase people from a “wide and diverse group” talking about the issues of the day.

It is designed to foster a robust but civil debate, which is in sharp contrast to the “shouting match” fare that is a hallmark of some political shows on cable TV.

Those FS voices initially will be selected by members of the CBS News staff, but may eventually include people that were pitched by PR firms, according to Rome Hartman, executive producer of the “Evening News,” who was interviewed by Public Eye, the CBS News blog.

SUN-TIMES TAKES CENTER STAGE.

The Sun-Times Group has acquired CenterstageChicago.com, the online guide to the city’s clubs, restaurants, concert halls and theaters. Visitors to the site may also buy concert tickets or book hotel reservations.

Founded a decade ago, the site calls itself a guide “by Chicago for Chicago.” The information is compiled by a team of 40 freelancers and by people visiting the site.

Fred Lebolt, VP of new media at S-TG, said the move is part of the plan to “provide all the information residents want and need to live their lives.”

S-TG, publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times and community papers, is the former Hollinger International.

Kekst & Co. does its PR.

HEARST DROPS MAG SUB CARDS.

Hearst Corp. is dropping subscription cards from the September pages of House Beautiful, O At Home, Redbook and Weekend in a $2M deal cut with Philips Electronics.

The magazines will run a two-page Philips ad with the tagline “Simplicity is not having subscription cards fall out of your magazine.”

Subscription cards generate 12 percent of the magazine industry’s revenues, down from 20 percent a few years ago, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Internet has picked up that slack.

GOOGLE PAYS AP FOR NEWS.

Google has agreed to pay the Associated Press for selected content of its stories and photos. Terms were not disclosed. The AP material will be part of a new service that compliments Google News.

Agence France Presse has sued Google, charging that the use of its material on GN is a violation of copyright law. It wants $17.5M in damages.

Google maintains it is covered under the “fair use” protections of the law.

BRIEF ____________________

Playboy Enterprises is setting up an online poker site during the fourth-quarter.

The site will be run by Oceania Caribe Licensing, a Netherlands Antilles outfit that has licensed Playboy’s brand. The site will not accept bets from the U.S., where online gambling is illegal.

PLACEMENT TIPS ________________

Richard Levick, CEO of Levick Strategic Communications in Washington, D.C., says between 50% and 75% of all media interviews don’t result in the person who is being interviewed getting directly quoted.

“If the goal is to convey your personal credibility or expertise in your field or topic to a key audience and you haven’t been quoted, you may feel as though you’ve wasted your time,” he said.

Here are some of Levick’s points to remember when trying to get quoted in the press:

• Be brief. Whether you’re creating broadcast sound bites or printed statements, most quotes take only 5-10 seconds to say.

• Introduce conflict. A news story with an adversarial component will always trump one without any conflict. Think about how you can give the reporter enough conflict to get yourself quoted without gratuitously picking a fight.

• Start a relationship. Every interview with a reporter is an opportunity to become a trusted source for future stories, which means that if you don’t get quoted this time, there will most likely be a next time.

• Correct yourself. Reporters have a vested interest in your looking smart. Stumbles and fumbles with your words rarely appear in print, so if you make a mistake, don’t hesitate to back up and start over again. Your corrected comment is the one that will be quoted.

• Know the rules. In some circumstances, providing off-the-record and not-for-attribution background information can serve your interests in the press. But be sure to carefully distinguish between what the reporter can and cannot attribute to you.

There are basic, intermediate, and advanced best practices. Learn the basic ones first and then you can begin to prepare for post-graduate lessons on how to make the media bear dance to your tune.

PEOPLE ________________

Katherine Rizzuto, executive beauty editor at Vogue, has been named publisher of the resurrected in `07 Radar. She previously held that post at Hearst Corp.’s Marie Claire.

Richard Johnson, editor of the New York Post’s Page Six has had his drunken driving case adjourned to Oct. 12.

Declan Moore has been upped to international publisher of National Geographic. He had served as general manager. NG has a circulation of more than one million.

Colman Andrews, a co-founder of Saveur, is going to write for Gourmet. He’ll be writing about trends in the restaurant business. Andrews served as editor-in-chief at Saveur for a dozen years.

A full debate on the Israel/Lebanon war has accompanied the action on the ground.

This is the highest function of PR – open debate with principals in the debate subjected to questioning by appropriate experts.

We were able to follow five hours of the action and debate on TV while flying to San Francisco Aug. 1 to attend the annual conference of the Assn. for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Our new Delta aircraft gave each passenger access to a variety of live TV stations as well as movies.

This meeting brings together more than 1,400 professors of journalism, PR, communications, marketing, advertising and related subjects.

More than 100 scholarly papers were placed on tables for sale at 50 cents each and nearly 100 topics were discussed at panels and general sessions.

The Institute for PR celebrated its 50th anniversary at a reception during the conference.

Among those present at the conference were Frank Ovaitt, IPR president; Donald Wright, newly named senior PR scholar at Boston Univ. and an IPR trustee; Don Stacks, Univ. of Miami, IPR trustee and author of Primer on PR Research; Elizabeth Toth, Univ. of Maryland; Maria Russell, Syracuse Univ. and former national treasurer of PRSA; Dean Kruckeberg, Univ. of Northern Iowa, a leader in PRSA educational initiatives, and Kirk Hallahan, Colorado State Univ.

It did not take long to absorb the “messages” being put forward by the two major combatants in the Mid-East war.

Israel will continue fighting until it gets back its two captured soldiers and the threat of rockets from the Hezbollah has been removed. This was stated repeatedly by Israel’s highest leaders and past leaders.

The Lebanese and Syrian governments, as well as the Hezbollah, also put their leaders on to say they want a prisoner exchange and have no intention of backing down. They said that on five previous occasions Israel swapped prisoners with either Palestinians or Lebanon and that part of Israel’s motive is diminishing Lebanon as an economic competitor. Both sides were subjected to questioning by reporters for CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc.

While PR can win attention for a product, cause or event, it also has the follow-up duty of undergoing cross-examination. The National Communication Assn. (natcom.org) is devoted to encouraging and monitoring public debate by various participants...we were disappointed that the Aug. 4 leadership teleconference of PRSA barely touched on the most sweeping governance change ever proposed to the Society – the replacement of the board by the Assembly as the chief policy-maker of PRSA. The board would no longer be able to make substantive decisions (such as the move of h.q. to downtown New York or the cancellation of the printed members’ directory) without the approval of the Assembly. PRSA president Cheryl Procter-Rogers said the bylaw sought by the Central Michigan chapter violated the New York State charter of PRSA and that governance had already been studied by a committee last year. Director Dave Rickey then said that after looking at the governance of other groups, the committee decided that PRSA is being run on “democratic” principles and the current system is the “best way for members to be represented at the national level.” No objections were raised. In fact, there were only two minor questions at the a.m. teleconference. Public debate is not one of the strong suits of the PRSA leadership.

A major story last week was the departure of Procter-Rogers from her job at the HBO unit of Time-Warner after nine years. This is the third major company to leave the PRSA board this year, Gary McCormick of Scripps and Ron Owens of Kaiser Permanente having previously departed. Ten of the remaining directors are solo PR pros or in small PR firms...Procter-Rogers put out a statement praising HBO and saying it had helped her in her career. Parent TW has been cutting staff, including 5,000 at its AOL unit, but HBO said there have been no layoffs at HBO...another head of a major PR group, Roger Bolton, president of the Arthur W. Page Society, lost his job at Aetna earlier this year. Companies seem to be interested in their bottom lines and not whether a job shift will impact a major PR group and, inferentially, the PR industry itself. The question raised is, if PR is so valuable, why aren’t experienced PR employees such as Procter-Rogers and Bolton, who are also leaders in the PR industry, being retained?...PRSA’s tutorial teleconferences are “a little weak,” but the in-person workshops are “doing well,” the teleconference was told. Job listings are “stronger than ever and seem to be taking off,” it was also said...PRSA won’t say when it will release its 990 IRS return for 2005. Deadlines are either Aug. 15 or Nov. 15 (which would be after the Assembly Nov. 11)...since the number of new PRSA APRs is well below the rate produced with the new test (now three years old), the current emphasis is on marketing the test, the teleconference was told.

The Internet and blogs are creating a “new kind of culture” in which youths are no longer passive but are becoming “engaged” and “creative,” Stanford University law professor and keynoter Lawrence Lessig told the opening AEJMC session. He worries that copyright law could stifle creativity and asked for revisions that allow research and satire using graphics and video. He noted that Fox refused a request to use footage of its newscasts for another TV outlet that wanted to show bias in Fox’s reporting.

As an example of this, Stanford University professor Joel Beinin sued frontpagemag.com editor David Horowitz after Horowitz used the picture of Beinin on the cover of a booklet titled, “Campus Support for Terrorism.”

Rather than suing for libel, Beinin sued Horowitz for unauthorized use of his picture. Story was in the Aug. 4 San Francisco Chronicle.

--Jack O'Dwyer