MISSILE AGENCY MULLS RECRUITING PUSH.

The Pentagon agency in charge of missile defense is considering a national marketing and recruiting push to boost its talent base of engineers, managers, analysts and scientists.

The Missile Defense Agency, a separate unit of the Defense Dept. that manages the U.S. ballistic missile defense program, is waiting to hear from firms that can develop and manage the recruitment drive – including communications planning, PR, event planning, and print/multimedia materials development.

The MDA – which has operations in Washington, D.C.; Huntsville, Ala.; Colorado Springs, and Anchorage, Ala. – has issued a “sources sought” notice to find qualified marketing firms. It has dropped a requirement that employees have security clearance to work on the effort.

With the threat of missile and nuclear technology from so-called rogue states like North Korea and Iran, the issue of missile defense, a popular Pentagon project during the Cold War, has heated up again with President Bush linking it to homeland defense in 2002.

The U.S. is currently considering its first missile defense deployment abroad in Poland. Adam Vulgamore ([email protected]) is contract specialist.

BUSH TAPS B-M’S CHIN.

President Bush plans to nominate Curtis Chin, Burson-Marsteller’s global business and client development managing director, as U.S. director of the Asian Development Bank. He will hold the rank of Ambassador.

Chin has worked in B-M’s Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Washington and New York offices, and assumed his current post in May. He was B-M’s first U.S. based managing director in its Asia-Pacific practice.

Earlier in the Bush Administration, Chin served as special assistant to the Secretary of Commerce and had a spot on the State Dept.’s Advisory Committee on Cultural Diplomacy.

LDPR DEFENDS SCOTLAND.

Laura Davidson reports that her New York-based travel PR firm has defended the account of VisitScotland, the tourist board of Scotland.

Laura Davidson Public Relations beat back a challenge from Fleishman-Hillard, Edelman and M. Silver Assocs. for the three-year contract that bills $360K.

Davidson told O’Dwyer’s the new contract kicks in Oct. 1. She reports to Fiona Stewart, PR manager for VisitScotland in Edinburgh.

CSV SINGS FOR NAPSTER.

Napster has brought in Citigate Sard Verbinnen to handle the potential sale of the legendary music sharing service.

Chris Gorog, Napster’s CEO, says the company has hired UBS Investment Bank to explore “strategic alternatives” for the company. That could lead to an alliance or outright sale.

He claims Napster is in a “strong position” to aggressively build its more than 500K subscriber base. Those subscribers are expected to generate $100M-plus in fiscal `07 revenues.

Napster lost $9.8M for the first quarter ended June. That is down from $19.5M for the year earlier.

The Los Angeles based company, founded in `99, gained acclaim for its popular illegal music download service that was shut down after a messy court fight with the record industry.

CSV is working with Napster’s IR firm, The Blueshirt Group, which helped relaunch Napster as a pay service in 2003.

Richard Funess, president of Ruder Finn, said his firm does corporate work for Napster.

H&K BOOSTS ITS OLYMPIC PORTFOLIO.

Hill & Knowlton has been tapped to counsel Chicago’s bid committee for the 2016 Olympics.

The WPP Group firm, which won a review earlier this year to guide PR for the 2008 Games in Beijing, has also counseled successful bids for London (2012) and Athens (2004), in addition to working with the International Olympic Committee.

H&K is also currently handling the Pyongchang, South Korea, bid for the 2014 Winter Games. Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco are finalists from the U.S. The winning bid for the 2016 games is expected to be announced in 2009.

EVANS IS NO. 1 AT STRATEGYONE.

Laurence Evans has joined Daniel J. Edelman’s StrategyOne unit as president, replacing Jennifer Scott, who exited earlier this year after a three-year stint.

He has left the senior VP post at Penn Schoen & Berland Assocs., the firm of Burson-Marsteller CEO and Hillary Clinton pollster Mark Penn.

Evans has compiled research for Hewlett-Packard, Nokia, Shell, Pitney Bowes and Alcoa. He will be based in New York and report to Neal Flieger, GM of Edelman’s public affairs practice.

Prior to PS&B, Evans was at Caltex, a ChevronTexaco unit.

WHITMAN REPS VZ ENERGY GIANT.

The firm of former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Whitman is repping Hovensa LLC., the joint venture oil refining operation owned by Amerada Hess and Petroleos de Venezuela.

Whitman Strategy Group is handling emissions issues for the Virgin Islands refinery, which was once the world’s largest.

PDSV, the national oil company of Venezuela, under Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, has been seeking to take over control of joint ventures made with U.S. companies such as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.

Hovensa is the former Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corp., which exported its first oil from St. Croix in `66.
The Venezuelans gained a 50 percent stake in the venture in `98. The majority of Hovensa’s crude oil comes from Venezuela, the world’s No. 5 oil producer.

The WSG team includes senior VP Jane Kenny, who was EPA regional administrator responsible for New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and VI, and senior VP Ellen McGinnis, who was Whitman’s chief of staff at EPA and chief of policy when Whitman was Governor of New Jersey.

KREMER ENLISTS AT VENABLE.

Doug Kremer has joined Venable, the D.C. legal/government affairs shop, as chief marketing officer. He succeeds James Noonan, who held that post on an interim basis since last year.

Kremer’s claim to fame was helping to develop the “Be All That You Can Be” advertising campaign for the U.S. Army.

That campaign from former ad shop N W Ayer ran for more than 20 years. 53-year-old Kremer served in the Army from `75 to `79, rising to the rank of First Lieutenant.

Kremer, after leaving Young & Rubicam, held key financial posts. He served as global head of marketing strategy & communications at J.P. Morgan Investment Management, and handled its joint venture with American Century Investments. He also worked at Citibank and CIGNA.

Venable opened its first California office (Los Angeles) in July, and is expanding its presence in the New York City marketplace.

EAT MORE RAISINS, SAYS F-H.

Fleishman-Hillard is promoting the ad campaign for the California Raisin Marketing Board that officially kicks off next month.

The effort is to remind consumers—especially women—about how raisins fit into their busy lifestyles. There are Zen-like images that carry messages of health and empowerment (one spot says, “Before you embark on your journey, choose your snack wisely.)

The ads will run in magazines such as Oprah, Everyday with Rachael Ray, Food and Wine and Cooking Light.

F-H’s Sacramento office handles the account. MeringCarson, also in California’s capital city, created the ads.

LAVIN DRIVES ALLEN’S JEWISH TIES.

A. Lavin Communications is driving PR for the Forward, the Jewish weekly newspaper, that broke the story that Virginia Senator George Allen may have Jewish roots.

The Eve Kessler-written piece (Aug. 25) referenced Allen’s use of the derogatory term “Macaca” (a French-Tunisian word for monkey used to slur a dark-skinned person) to describe an Indian-American cameraman and frequent mentions of Nazi persecution.

Allen’s mother, the former Etty Lumbroso, grew up in Tunis, and her father was imprisoned by the Germans during the occupation of Tunisia. The Forward reported that Lumbroso is an “august Sephardic Jewish” name.

Allen, a Presbyterian, was asked by a TV reporter about his heritage during the Sept. 18 debate with James Webb. He told Peggy Fox that his mother was French-Italian with a little Spanish blood and raised as a Christian as far as he knew. Fox said her question was prompted by the Forward article.

The Washington Post, reported on Sept. 20, that Allen’s mother told him about her Jewish upbringing during a fundraising trip to California in late August.

She kept that info from her son because she did not want him to be the victim of any prejudice.

Andy Lavin told O’Dwyer’s that his firm arranged interviews with the Post, Associated Press and ABC World News Tonight.

“The story keeps getting worse and as usual, the reaction is worse than the truth,” said Lavin. “As a result, what might have been a two-day story, is now the political feature of the week,” said Lavin.

COLORADO STATE EYES PR AUDIT.

The Colorado State University system is conducting an agency review for a firm to audit its PR and media relations apparatus and aid with the installation of a new communications director.

The system, composed of CSU–Fort Collins and CSU–Pueblo, graduates more than 5,000 students each year. The research-intensive universities garnered $250M in funding for projects last year. As part of the PR audit, the institutions want to chart a course for raising their profile within the Denver area, the state and nationally.

The possibility of a long-term, ongoing PR contract is also floated in a request for proposals issued this month. Proposals are due Oct. 10. Linda Meserve ([email protected]) is purchasing agent for the RFP.

SUGERMAN IS SENTENCED.

Steve Sugerman, the Fleishman-Hillard executive who pleaded guilty to overbilling Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power of more than $120K has been sentenced to three years of probation.

The former aide to ex-Mayor Richard Riordan must also perform 250 hours of community service.

The other former F-H convicted executives Doug Dowie, who headed its L.A. office, and his deputy John Stodder eye an Oct. 2 court date at which they will make their case for a new trial. They were found guilty of bilking the city of more than $300K.

NYTCO TAPS ‘FUTURIST.’

The New York Times Co. has brought in veteran journalist and futurist consultant Michael Rogers to advise the company's research and development unit.

NYTCO praised Rogers’ insights into the confluence of digital technology, consumer behavior and journalism. His official title at the company is "futurist-in-residence."

Rogers ran his own consulting shop called Practical Futurist since 2004. He was previously with the Washington Post Co.’s new media division for nine years, and served as editor and general manager of newsweek.com. Earlier, he was a writer for Rolling Stone and co-founded Outside magazine in 1977.

THOMPSON TO PEN COLUMN FOR CW.

Lou Thompson, who stepped down as head of the National Investor Relations Institute after more than 20 years in July, has signed on as a columnist for Compliance Week.

The newsletter, which covers corporate governance and compliance, claims a readership of 40K financial and legal executives.

Thompson is a former press aide to President Gerald Ford and is currently in his second term as a member of the New York Stock Exchange's Individual Investor Advisory Committee. He is also a partner with Denver-based business consulting shop Genesis and managing director for Kalorama Partners, a Washington, D.C., advisory firm founded by former SEC chair Harvey Pitt, who is also a CW columnist.

Thompson's column for CW will cover "best practices" for company executives.

INSURANCE CO. REPORTS ELECTION NEWS.

A.M. Best Co., a 100-year-old N.J.-based insurance rating and information company, has launched an election portal on its website noting the outcome of November’s mid-term elections could shape the course of insurance regulation for years to come.

The company has kicked off electionnews.ambest.com to dispense information about candidates in races of most interest to the insurance industry. It notes that five states have insurance issues on the upcoming ballot, six states will elect insurance commissioners, and 31 states will elect governors that appoint such commissioners.

GORE SAYS ‘YAHOO’ TO YAHOO DEAL.

Former Vice President Al Gore has hooked up his Current TV cable venture with Internet powerhouse Yahoo. The Yahoo Current Network airs user generated video clips of news, sports, travel and cars. The clips will carry a 15- or 30-second ad.

The Gore/Yahoo connection raised some eyebrows because he is an advisor to Google, a top rival to Yahoo.

Yahoo CEO Terry Semel sent shutters through Wall Street with news that the company suffered a slip in ad revenues.

Debuts ‘Marketplaces’

In other news, Yahoo has established a “Marketplaces” unit that combines online classified jobs, real estate, travel, auctions, and dating ads under Knight-Ridder veteran Hilary Schneider. She had handled the online division at K-R. Schneider, 45, also served on the boards of CareerBuilder, ShopLocal and Classified Ventures.

Prior to joining KR, Schneider was CEO of Red Herring Communications and president of Times Mirror Interactive, a collection of more than 30 websites. She also worked at the Baltimore Sun and former investment banker Drexel Burnham Lambert.

PARIS GIVES UP SUN-TIMES CEO POST.

Gordon Paris is exiting the CEO slot at the Sun-Times Media Group by yearend as the former Hollinger International shifts its headquarters from New York to Chicago. The company credited Paris for heading the "investigation into the alleged massive looting by former chairman Conrad Black. He will remain a director and continue to tackle "substantial tax-related matters."

S-TMG chairman Raymond Seitz will head a search committee looking for a new CEO. The company also retained the services of Spencer Stuart.

The S-TMG publishes the Chicago Sun-Times and about 100 daily and community papers around Chicago.

BRIEFS __________________

Fame Media Group, Toronto, has tapped Kerrie Lee Brown, former editor-in-chief of Oxygen magazine, as VP of publishing and communications. Fame is the media arm of the World Natural Sports Organization.

Cat Fancy magazine said it has revamped its website, CatChannel.com with an eye on the social networking craze. The site includes articles on selecting and living with a cat, rewards programs, ring tones, video clips sharing, and personal pages for cats.

Metro Washington HomeImprovement magazine, which debuted in August, has launched a website for homeowners in the metropolitan D.C. area. The site is www.MetroDCHomeImprovement.com.

Mixed news for the media. Forty-five percent of high school students think the First Amendment “as a whole goes too far,” according to a survey conducted by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. That compares to 35 percent two years ago.

Twenty-nine percent of teachers say the press has “too much freedom.” That’s down from 38 percent in ’04.

Placement Tip _________________

Corp! Magazine, which claims to be Michigan’s largest magazine covering business, is looking for customer service stories. “Whether it’s a supermarket cashier, bank teller, automotive technician, hair stylist, pharmacist or any other person who provides excellent customer service, Corp! wants to find them,” the eight-year-old magazine said in a call for content.

It wants a brief description and contact info for the sender at [email protected].

(Media news continued on next page)

REPORTER: 98% OF IRAQ ‘OFF LIMITS.’

Ninety-eight percent of Iraq and most of Baghdad is "off-limits" to western journalists, said Dexter Filkins, who covered the war for the New York Times.

He described the climate in Iraq as "anarchy" and believes the country is already embroiled in a civil war, according to a report in Editor & Publisher.

Things have gotten so bad the NYT can't even cover car bombings anymore. That's because a western journalist on the scene of a bombing would be attacked by an angry mob, according to Filkins, who has begun a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University.

Filkins said the Times is forced to rely on 70 Iraqi nationals to hit the streets and do reporting. Those Iraqis are paid well, but don't tell anybody where they work. "Most of the Iraqis who work for us don't even tell their families that they work for us," said Filkins. "It's terribly, terribly dangerous to them."

The Times is burning through money like jet fuel to keep its Baghdad bureau running, he said. The paper employs "45 full-time Kalashnikov-toting security guards to patrol its two blast-wall-enclosed houses." There are machine gun nests on the roofs. The Times also has three armored cars and "pays a hefty premium each month to insure the five Times reporters working there," reported David Hirschman, E&P's online editor.

Filkins also said the U.S. military is out-of-touch with daily Iraqi life. Soldiers are mostly confined to their bases, and don't interact with the locals. Everyone is kind of groping in the dark, concluded Filkins.

TRIBUNE DEFENDS LAT INVESTMENT.

Tribune Co. CEO Dennis FitzSimons says his Chicago-based company has doubled the budget for editorial coverage at the Los Angeles Times from what it received during the “golden age” of the newspaper under publisher Otis Chandler.

He made that point in a four-page letter to the so-called “Civic Alliance,” a group of L.A. community leaders that would like to see Tribune Co. sell the paper to local investors.

Tribune Co. has poured $250M into the LAT since its 2000 acquisition. That outlay was "designed to further improve the quality of the newspaper, enhance revenue growth needed to finance great journalism and improve efficiency through upgraded technology," wrote FitzSimons.

The Tribune CEO reminds CA that the Times was in turmoil when it was acquired from the Chandler family. "The newsroom was in an uproar over a breach of journalistic ethics related to publication of a special advertising section," wrote FitzSimons, referring to a promotional effort with the Staples Arena. There was gloom and doom over the cutbacks initiated by then-Times Mirror CEO Mark Willes, a General Mills marketing maven.

FitzSimons notes the issue of "local versus corporate ownership has received much attention in recent months. Neither is inherently better, but one only needs to look east to Dallas, New York or Washington to realize that outstanding, locally-controlled newspapers are not insulated from the competitive realities of today's media marketplace."

FitzSimons informs CA that the Times’ current revenues are "actually below where they were at the time of our acquisition." And as the Tribune's "largest business unit," the LAT "will participate appropriately in the company-wide cost control program."

FitzSimons concludes: the Times "is, and under Tribune ownership will continue to be, a truly great newspaper."

Briefs __________________

New York-based Prism Business Media has acquired aviation industry newsletter publisher and conference producer SpeedNews.

SN, based in Los Angeles, publishes SpeedNews and SpeedNews Defense Biweekly, along with the e-mail newsletters Aircraft Insider and SpeedNews This Week. It also produces four conferences each year.

Under terms of the deal, founder Gilbert Speed will serve as a consultant to Prism, chairing the conferences and overseeing newsletter content.

Playboy Enterprises has split its operations into two units - media and licensing. Bob Myers, a veteran of Westwood One, CNBC and NBC Interactive, has joined the company to head the media division. He will split his time between L.A. and New York. Alex Vaickus continues as president of the licensing unit.

Most recently, Myers was executive VP of digital media, data and video for Westwood One. He was previously COO of CNBC.com, senior VP of primetime programming at CNBC and GM of CNBC enterprises.

Christie Hefner, CEO of PE, said the company was pleased to find an exec with experience in TV and online, especially to foster its "digital growth prospects." She noted licensing has become the company's fastest-growing and highest-margin profit unit.

United Business Media has sold a portfolio of consumer and enthusiast media titles from its U.S.-based CMP Technology unit to The Wicks Group of Companies for $47M. The sale includes titles like Guitar Player, Bass Player, Pro Sound News and Systems Contractor News.

UBM said the magazines generated revenues of $41.3M for the year ended December 2005. The company said it continues to develop its CMP Technology business as a "pure play" media company focused on B2B technology buyers and sellers across print, events and online media.

Yoga Journal said it would add an extra issue starting in January 2007, boosting its frequency from seven to eight issues per year. Its rate base will increase to 350K. The San Francisco title, which was recently acquired by Active Interest Media, claims its yogajournal.com portal is the web's most highly trafficked site in the yoga space. Other AIM titles include Vegetarian Times, Better Nutrition, and Southwest Art.

New York Times readers were hit on Sept. 19th with a 24-page supplement heaping praise on none other than the NYT itself.

The NYT, which never stinted when it came to covering the troubles of its competitors such as the New York Daily News and New York Post, is now under negative coverage not only by them but Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and New York magazine.

Among the points of criticism are financial mismanagement that has caused the stock to drop from the $50’s to the low $20; “unfair” stock voting setup that favors the Sulzberger family, and concentration of power over both the editorial and business sides in the hands of one person—Arthur Sulzberger Jr.—a departure from NYT tradition.

New York circulation has dipped to 260,000, less than half the circulation of the News and Post.

Significantly, the campaign, which has the theme, “These Times Demand the Times,” was announced by Alyse Myers, SVP and chief marketing officer, as opposed to Catherine Mathis, VP of corporate communications. A PR problem is being answered by an ad campaign.

TV spots are set for the “Today Show,” “Good Morning America” and other programs, and there will also be 60-second radio spots.

The release by Myers makes the claim that the NYT is the only paper that can give readers “all the news, analysis and opinion about everything that is important to your life...” This is an outlandish claim that is belied by the facts.

We can think of quite a few things that the NYT doesn’t cover or covers wrongly. In the ad/PR industry we cover, we’re perplexed why the NYT won’t touch the financial somersaults of Omnicom when both the Wall Street Journal and New York Post have. It won’t cover the $12 billion debt of the five ad/PR conglomerates, either. It refuses to cover PR as an industry. It once printed rankings of PR firms but stopped years ago.

Among larger topics, the NYT admits to having been too easy on the Bush Administration during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. The Jayson Blair scandal and resulting editorial upheaval in 2003 did not do its reputation any good. This is a time for humility at the NYT, not braggadocio.

Earlier this year the NYT published a 16-page monograph entitled, “Preserving Our Readers’ Trust.” Nineteen news staffers probed what might be wrong with the NYT.

One conclusion was: “The NYT makes it harder than any other major American newspaper for readers to reach a responsible human being.”

Steps were to be taken including opening “dialog boxes” which would allow readers to contact someone in the newsroom without revealing the e-mail address of any specific newsperson.

The monograph admitted “failure” to cover the issue of gay marriage in an even-handed way, which has no doubt alienated members of religious groups.

Says the monograph: “The public editor found that the overall tone of our coverage of gay marriage... ‘approaches cheerleading.’ By consistently framing the issue as a civil rights matter—gays fighting for the right to be treated like everyone else—we failed to convey how disturbing the issue is in many corners of American social, cultural and religious life.”

The paper’s PR dept., headed by Mathis, is about as weak as any corporate PR dept. we’ve run into. When the Prudential Equity Group in 2005 criticized the NYT and its Boston Globe for leaving out, respectively, 20 and 27 days in calculating “average circulation” (citing bad weather, holiday, etc.), Mathis and her staff refused to return a call about this. The average paper leaves out two days, said Pru. Also ignored was a call about the lack of coverage of Omnicom (whose stock remains 15 points below its 1999 high); the “Class A” and “Class B” stock setup of the NYT, and the lack of coverage of the near sinking of the USS Liberty in 1967 when it was stationed near the coast of Israel. Books with radically different viewpoints have been written about this incident but the NYT avoids it.

With the Hewlett-Packard spying scandal escalating (surveillance of seven board members and nine reporters, including possible infiltration of newsrooms by bogus clerical/cleaner workers), members of the 2003 PRSA board recalled a proposal that a private detective be hired to find the source of “leaks” from the board to this NL. Some directors were aghast that certain information was appearing in the press.

However, no action was taken. A legal action was started Nov. 16, 2004 to obtain the identity of an e-mailer signing him or herself “Catherine Hater” (meaning COO Catherine Bolton) for the purpose of launching a defamation lawsuit. The e-mailer’s identity was given to PRSA’s law firm after the e-mailer unsuccessfully argued in court against release of his/her name. The court decision was described at length in the June 9, 2005 New York Law Journal. PRSA’s legal bills were said to be upwards of $60,000. PRSA’s legal expenses are in the 2005 IRS 990 form which has yet to be filed...one of the first to go in the HP scandal is Kevin Hunsaker, director of ethics, who was deeply involved in the spy planning...

When the 2006 nominating committee headed by Del Galloway failed to come up with a candidate for Western district director, 1978 president Frank Wylie offered to do the job. But someone was found — Prof. Dennis Gaschen of California State Univ. Wylie told us the Central Michigan chapter proposal to give the Assembly more powers should have been put on the PRSA website last April when it was received by h.q. “Why keep it a secret?” he asked. He is disappointed that PRSA has stopped printing the members’ directory, saying, “I loved the Blue Book.” The online directory is “a poor substitute,” he said, calling the printed directory “one of the great benefits of membership” that made it easy for him to contact other members.

--Jack O'Dwyer