WS UNVEILS PRESIDENTIAL COINS.

Weber Shandwick is working with the U.S. Mint on its multimillion-dollar rollout of presidential one-dollar coins.

A spokesman for the federal agency said Weber Shandwick was brought in specifically for this project, which has a campaign budget of $5M. Fleishman-Hillard handled the Mint’s issue of $1 Sacagawea coins in 2000.

Federal officials offered a first glimpse of the coins on Nov. 12 at a Smithsonian Institution ceremony.

The coins, similar in look to the gold Sacagawea dollars, are being produced under the Presidential Coin Act of 2005 requiring the Mint to commemorate past presidents in the order in which they served. As a result, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison are the first series to be offered to the public, starting in early 2007. Four are scheduled for each year up to Richard Nixon in 2016.

The Mint hopes to build on the popularity of its state quarters, which began production in 2000. Hill & Knowlton worked on that effort.

“Our research indicates that, like the 50 state quarters coins, the presidential $1 coins will be popular with millions of Americans,” said U.S. Mint Director Edmund Moy.

The face of each coin will feature an image of a former president and the years of his term. The reverse shows the Statue of Liberty.

KAYAK.COM ISSUES RFP FOR PR.

Travel search engine Kayak.com has issued an RFP for a PR firm in the U.S. to help guide its growth and drive traffic to the portal.

Kellie Pelletier, VP of communications for Kayak.com, told O’Dwyer’s that the company, created by co-founders of ‘Net travel giants Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia, is looking for an agency with consumer and online travel experience that is well-versed in the tech market.

Its current agency, Thornton PR, is a boutique firm in Chicago headed by former Orbitz corporate communications director Karen Thornton.

The company is offering an $8,000/month retainer and plans to select a firm to begin work on January 2. Proposals are due on December 4. Pelletier ([email protected]) is point of contact.

Kayak.com is based in Norwalk, Conn., and sees itself as a poster child of Web 2.0 companies. It searches other sites to find the best deals on airlines, hotels and car rentals. Its revenue is derived from advertising and clicks to its airline and hotel travel partners.

RICHARDS RETAINS RUBENSTEIN.

Embattled comic Michael Richards, who played Kramer on “Seinfeld,” has hired Howard Rubenstein to handle fallout stemming from his racist tirade unleashed during a performance at West Hollywood’s “Laugh Factory.” The episode was caught on video by a member of the audience and posted on the `Net.

Rubenstein told the Associated Press that Richards has “apologized profusely” for his remarks and is aware of the “tremendous wound that he’s inflicted on the American public, and on the African-American community.”

Rubenstein was hired because of his “deep contacts in the black community,” according to the AP. He had Richards reach out to Rev. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, a pair that Rubenstein says he has known for many years. Jackson recommends psychiatric help and racial sensitivity courses for the actor.

The New York PR counselor believes it would be tragic if the Richards’ outburst exacerbates racial tensions. He notes that it has always been his effort to “improve African-American and Jewish ethnic relations.”

Rubenstein confirmed a report that Richards blurted out anti-Semitic remarks during a performance in the spring, but that he was only role-playing.

Noting that Richards is Jewish, Rubenstein said that the comic does not have “any anti-Semitic feelings whatsoever.”

BRUNSWICK GUIDES FREEPORT.

Brunswick Group is handling Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold's audacious $26B bid for its bigger competitor Phelps Dodge.

The deal will create the world's No. 1 copper company, and is a bet that demand for that metal remains high. Copper prices bolstered by strong demand from China hit an all-time high in May. Prices are down 20 percent since then.

Freeport CEO Richard Adkerson will assume the top spot in the combined company. PD CEO Steven Whisler will retire. He said the deal provides PD shareholders a significant premium for their shares and the opportunity to participate in the growth of a more geographically diverse entity.

APCO Worldwide has formed a strategic alliance with AMO, the PA and financial PR combine that includes Abernathy MacGregor Group (U.S.), Maitland (U.K. and Italy), Hering Schuppener (Germany) and Euro RSCG C&O (France), to offer integrated services in transactions, crisis and capital market activities.

CALIF. DANGLES $400K TRAFFIC PR PACT.

California has put a $400K PR contract out for bid to support its revamp of a heavily traveled route between Orange and Riverside Counties.

The state wants a firm to support a three-year public awareness push for the Route 74 corridor, a picturesque route from Palm Springs to San Juan Capistrono which is expected to see a fourfold traffic increase over the next 25 years.

Much of the scenic route is often called the "Palms to Pines Highway" and various points have been featured in films and car commercials.

As the state works to improve maneuverability and other safety aspects of the route, it wants a PR firm to educate the public and government about alternate routes and the value of the project, and to allay inevitable concerns as they arise.

The contract is expected to include government and media relations, as well as an overall public outreach campaign.

Questions are due to Donnie Alexander ([email protected]) by Nov. 30 with proposals due by Dec. 22.

LIVINGSTON HELPS MWH WITH FEMA.

Livingston Group is working with MWH Global, a Colorado-based engineering firm, to hammer out contract issues with the Federal Emergency Management Agency related to New Orleans clean-up work in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

MWH has been operating in New Orleans since `79, and was half way through a $650M 10-year contract with the city's Sewerage and Water Board when Katrina hit.

The company, which had its office flooded, began working with the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers, in support of FEMA, to manage and do post-Katrina quality control work for debris removal. MWH turned to local subcontractors to help in that effort.

Former Speaker-designate of the House Bob Livingston, a former New Orleans Congressman, is handling MWH's dispute with FEMA. He is joined by Allen Martin (Livingston's former chief of staff), Rick Legendre (ex-political director for the Congressman) and James Pruitt (former VP-government relations for Texaco).

VIDEO GAME PR VET MOVES TO CAPCOM.

Chris Kramer, a senior PR exec for Sony's computer game development unit, has moved to rival Capcom Entertainment as senior director of corporate communications and community.

Kramer began his career in the early 1990s with Capcom, which is based in Sunnyvale, Calif., in the U.S. but is headquartered in Japan. Its franchises include "Street Fighter" and "Resident Evil." He is charged with overseeing corporate communications, product PR, customer service and community outreach -- online and off, the company noted.

Capcom last week said it has been tapped to publish, localize and distribute the blockbuster "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" game for release in Japan, a task it handled for the game's two previous installments. The company has also signed on to produce a second feature film based on the Street Fighter franchise.

Kramer was recently senior director of corporate communications for Sony Online Entertainment and earlier held posts with 3dfx Interactive and Konami.

He previously was editor in chief of Voodoo Magazine and the games channel of DailyRadar.com.

Fleishman-Hillard works for Capcom.

MERRIAM WANTS TALKS WITH SYRIA.

Dena Merriam, Ruder Finn vice chairman, visited Syria earlier this month as founder of the Global Peace Initiative in an effort to foster a dialog with the U.S. and the junior member of the Bush Administration's "axis of evil." Her group of six political activists also visited Lebanon.

Merriam believes the U.S. is wrong to isolate Syria, which she believes could be a useful partner in hammering out a solution to the Iraq mess.

America's political cold shoulder toward Syria only pushes it closer to Iran, Merriam told the Journal News.

She noted that Syrians and Iranians are strange bedfellows. Syria is a secular state, while Iran is a theocratic one. The Syrians are Arabs, while the Iranians are not.

Merriam's group met with Syria's VP and Muslim and Christian leaders. All supported a peace agreement in the region.

She told the paper that Beirut is rife with political tension in the aftermath of Hezbollah's summer war with Israel. Merriam advocates dialog with Hezbollah because problems don't "get solved by military responses."

She wants to return to the region with a bigger group.

GLASER TAKES VP POST AT MWW.

Garrett Glaser, former CNBC reporter and a veteran communicator, has joined MWW Group as a VP in its corporate communications unit. He had been a senior consultant for Strategy-XXI Group in New York.

Earlier, Glaser was VP of media relations for IT product company EMC Communications on the West Coast. He reported for CNBC from 1997-05 and served as the network's retail and apparel specialist. Other TV stints included covering the entertainment industry for "Entertainment Tonight" and reporting on the business of pop culture for WABC-TV in New York and KNBC-TV in Los Angeles.

Glaser was previously active in the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Assn., where he served on its board and co-founded the group's electronic media task force in 1993.

Wal-Mart, “the once-venerated king of American retailing, has in the past year become Wal-Mart the pitiless helpless giant reduced by a collection of third-rate retail powers,” wrote Jim Cramer in New York Magazine. He recommends that Wal-Mart forget about issuing press releases and “acknowledge that the wheels have fallen off the Bentonville Bus.” Wal-Mart, which uses Edelman for PR, has just reported its lowest November sales figures in ten years despite an upbeat performance by competitors.

POST VETS IN MEDIA VENTURE.

Washington Post political editor John Harris and national political reporter Jim VendeHei have left the company to join a multimedia start-up sponsored by Allbritton Communications.

The web-based venture is to provide one-stop shopping for political news.

It will combine the resources of the Allbritton's Capitol Leader, ABC affiliate WJLA and cable operation NewsChannel 8.

Robert Allbritton calls the venture the "future of political journalism." The multimedia platform promises to be more conversational and interactive than traditional media. It will take the "audience behind the scenes of how news happens and how it gets reported," according to Allbritton's release.

CJR MARKS 45 YEARS.

The Columbia Journalism Review is celebrating its 45th anniversary by publishing a 64-page account of an oral history of reporting from Iraq as part of its 98-page November/December issue.

The history, which is called “Into the Abyss” and is featured on CJR’s website, includes reporting from the likes of the New York Times’ Dexter Filkins. He recalls how he and two reporters were attacked by a crowd of 500 Iraqis at the scene of a roadside bombing.

Filkins wrote that the crowd blamed his group for the bombing. "It's like before the Americans got here we didn't have these things and you're American, so we're angy with you," Filkins wrote.

CJR also published a photo of a dead U.S. Army captain lying in a pool of his own blood on the kitchen floor of a house in Fallujah. He had been shot by insurgents. The photo did not run in any domestic mainstream publication except in a few stories about self-censorship, according to CJR.

NYFWA HOSTS ‘FOLLIES.’

Nearly 1,000 people gathered Nov. 16 at the Marriott Marquis in New York for the annual Financial Follies hosted by the New York Financial Writers Association.

Known as the "biggest night out" for the financial communications sector, the dinner was accompanied by its trademark satirical musical revue.

Founded in 1938, the NYFWA represents writers for newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, wire services and online.

Revenue for the black-tie event supports the Association's activities throughout the year, including its scholarship program, which has awarded $150,000 to aspiring journalism students in the past five years.

After being hit with a flurry of criticism, News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch pulled the plug on the O.J. Simpson book/TV project “If I Did It.”

“I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project,” Murdoch said in a statement. “We are sorry for any pain this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown-Simpson.”

BOYD IS DEAD AT 56.

Gerald Boyd, who was one of the most powerful black journalists in America, died Nov. 23 from lung cancer. He was 56.

The career of the former managing editor of the New York Times came to an abrupt halt when he was forced to resign in `03 with Howell Raines, executive editor, in the aftermath of the Jayson Blair scandal.

Bill Keller, current executive editor of the NYT, said Boyd exited the paper "under sad circumstances, but despite all of that he left behind a great reservoir of respect and affection."

Boyd began his career in `73 at his hometown's St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He switched to the P-D's Washington, D.C., bureau in `78, and moved to the NYT's political team in `83.

Max Frankel, who hired Boyd, compared his rise up the editing ranks to that of Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson, the first black player in Major League Baseball.

Boyd became ME of the Times in `01.

TRIBUNE PAYS TRIBUTE TO GOLIN.

The Chicago Tribune ran an extensive Nov. 24 feature on GolinHarris chairman Al Golin to celebrate his co-founding of the Windy City firm that is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Golin told the paper that happily the days of lies in PR are gone. He dismisses the talk of the "good old days of PR."

Those days weren't really that hot, according to Golin, who says today's companies have a good idea of what PR can and cannot do. "PR can't make something out of nothing," he told the Trib.

Golin worries about the future of PR, and fears that the growth of technology will usher in a period of "faceless relationships." He thinks "too many people use the technology as a crutch, instead of sitting down to discuss something. You have to balance some of this high-tech with high-touch."

Golin's crisis management strategy in today's transparent environment: "come out fast and come out saying the truth. Nine times out of 10 today, it's not going to blow over."

Everyone, according to Golin, can see through a phony.

Briefs __________________

Chicago Home magazine, a spin-off of Chicago magazine, said it will increase its publication frequency to bi-monthly starting this spring, citing reader and advertiser demand. Additionally, the magazine named Kristin Zimmer Shea as its advertising director.

Al Jazeera English debuted a feature report by former Marine Corps veteran Josh Rushing on Nov. 27. The piece called “Spin: The Art of Selling War,” is running for a week. It focuses on how the U.S. Government sold the public on the invasion of Iraq. Rushing was spokesperson for former U.S. General Tommy Franks, and starred in the documentary “Control Room.”

(Media news continued on next page)

ENTERTAINMENT PR MULLS DIGITAL MEDIA.

The entertainment sector is finding PR success through digital media, according to a Los Angles panel hosted by the Entertainment Publicists Professional Society.

“Even though we just started using them, blogs are very effective to get the word out about our shows,” said Zabrina Horton, BET network corporate communications director. "And MySpace is powerful, too. We have a reality show called ‘Cheated’ and they all have their own MySpace [pages], which are very visual. You see how many visitors there are, it’s quick and to the point and all part of our strategy online.”

Movie studios are also embracing the ‘Net to build a buzz, but are cautious and wary about the “Wild West” atmosphere of the blogosphere.

“The issue for me with the Internet, having been trained in journalism is, there are no facts and you can say whatever you want and apologize later,” said Michael Moses, executive VP, publicity, Universal Studios.

“There is no accountability, and therefore, when you’re dealing with traditional media, they actually run frightened from the online bloggers by saying we have to get this out now, otherwise were screwed,” he said. “It has changed the landscape; nothing is the same. How do you deal with them? You don’t, there is no blueprint.”

Moses oversees a department of 40 people and about 18 Universal films a year. "We work with unit publicists and people like Tony [Angellotti, president of PR agency The Agellotti Co.] to get our films to market to get consumers to like them.”

Unit publicists, which guide all PR for films from the beginning to end of production, are learning, for better or worse, that Internet media are a part of the picture now.

"The problem is the fear factor sets in, and a reporter has to explain to his editor how he got scooped,” said Michael Klastorin, a unit publicist. “It forces us to go out many weeks in advance with press releases.”

Murray Weissman, of Murray Weissman & Assocs., said: “Bloggers handle you most of the time.” Weissman was a PR executive at KABC-TV, ABC and CBS before starting his own firm. “There used to be a fine line between online media and traditional media, and we think that line is now gone. Those blogs and responders are quoted in the media all of the time. There is no longer a trickle down type of campaign. We have to do grassroots campaigns. It's scary, and we find ourselves playing defense a lot more than offense, but that’s the way it is.”

Moss of Universal said studios have little control over the digital commentariat, but noted they still reign supreme over the product.

“The only thing we can control anymore is content,” said Moses. “You have to be vigilant about what you’re putting out and when you’re putting it out in your films. Once one person gets it, the world gets it, and there is no such thing as international or domestic publicity, so you have to think globally all of the time.”

But digital media like blogs are also being embraced for positive outreach by entertainment entities.

Laura Whitcomb, VP of marketing for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, noted the Academy recently launched a blog as a dialog with its 14,000 members and to discuss its archive of 500 hours of TV shows now available on Google.

But old media still maintains some interest.

Horton of BET and Moses both said their companies have stuck with radio as a medium to get out a PR message.

“We are big believers in radio promotion – society is so fragmented and that it is one of the last captive audiences,” said Moses. “We are big believers in call-to-action in radio. We try to get DJ's to adopt what you're trying to sell, because the listener has a real intimate relationship with who they turn to every day (on the radio). We are big advocates of using radio.”

Briefs ___________________

Argus Media has launched Argus Russian Fuel Oil, a Russian-language daily publication on concluded deals in the fuel oil market and comments on the market situation in Russia.

GateHouse Media has agreed on terms to acquire the Messenger Post Newspapers from Canandaigua Messenger. The deal includes the Daily Messenger, a daily paper serving Canandaigua in the Finger Lakes Region of northwest New York, and ten weekly newspapers serving the suburbs of Rochester with a combined paid and free circulation of approximately 100K.

Pace Communications’ custom publishing unit has developed Winterthur Magazine, a quarterly lifestyle magazine based on the du Pont family estate. Editorial content includes feature articles on upcoming exhibitions, collection acquisitions and behind-the-scenes features on the Winterthur Museum & Country Estate’s curatorial and conservation activities. It will also feature products created by licensees such as Hickory Chair, Chelsea House and Mottahedeh.

The magazine will be distributed to 45K households in 2007 and will be tailored to a distinctive demographic of members and visitors to the gardens.

Polls _________________

A majority of adults said that a woman will be elected president by the year 2016. In two years, the percentage of adults who think a woman will be elected president in 2008 has nearly doubled – from 8% in 2004 to 15% in 2006.

Source: Lifetime TV/Redbook, Nov. 10-13; 1,000 adults.

Forty-three percent of visitors to Conde Nast’s Brides.com think the media-hyped Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes wedding is a publicity stunt. Fifty percent said they were interested in the event.

Source: Conde Nast, Brides.com.

The departure of Lou Capozzi, 59, as chairman of Publicis Groupe’s PR (11/15 NL), is part of a pattern of heads of major PR organizations leaving (or losing) their jobs. Who knows which?

Capozzi is to be the president of ICCO (850 PR firms in 29 associations) starting in June, but he won’t have the prestige of being the full-time head of a major PR firm. He’s now a solo practitioner.

Similarly, Cheryl Procter-Rogers, 2006 president of PRSA and corporate affairs director of HBO, left her job in July to go back to her own firm. On the same note, Roger Bolton, 55, SVP of Aetna and president of the Arthur W. Page Society for 2006-07, announced in April he was quitting his job as of Dec. 31.

The most notable example of the departure of a leader of PR groups at an early age is Dave Drobis, who quit the Ketchum unit of Omnicom in 2004 at 62. Drobis headed not only Page but ICCO and was founding chair of the Council of PR Firms. All this experience went up the chimney. Drobis was one of the few people in PR providing lengthy written texts on current PR issues.

Is heading a major PR association the kiss of death to one’s job? Did Procter-Rogers voluntarily quit HBO after a nine-year career? In her speeches to PRSA chapters earlier this year, she spent half the time talking about HBO and how lucky she was to be with it. She provided no texts and ordered reporters not to record her. Is Capozzi walking out of ad agency-owned MSL voluntarily after a 38-year career in PR that included stints at Aetna and Ayer PR? We know ad agencies worship youth and that anyone over 50 is considered old.

Bolton is quitting Page with no job in sight nor any replacement for him as yet. Drobis retired to Florida.

A point we would make with Capozzi, Procter-Rogers and Bolton is that none of their employers (Publicis, HBO, Aetna) could care less about pulling the employment rug out from under these people. Without their jobs, they would not have been picked to head these groups. Drobis told us he quit on his own. The effect is the same: leadership loss.

The shortage of PR leaders was evident at the PRSA conference in Salt Lake City Nov. 11-14.

The conference, chaired by Keith Burton of Golin Harris, advertised “Fireside Chats” with Richard Edelman and Harold Burson.

A full-page description of these chats with “PR Legends” was in the brochure that was used to attract registrants at the early-bird rate of $1,025. The problem is that there were no “Fireside Chats” with either Edelman or Burson. Gail Becker of Edelman/L.A. and John La Sage of B-M/Chicago substituted for Edelman and Burson, who had excuses of one sort or another.

Our impulse is to be forgiving of Edelman and Burson because they are about the only two leaders in PR willing to make public speeches. They are being over-worked. Burson just produced a lengthy PR overview in which he called on PRSA to do some “PR for PR” (10/11 NL). Edelman talked at length to the students on Saturday, Nov. 11 about the new media, supplying his text to the press. Burson, who is 85, should not have been invited in the first place. This is a case of “bait and switch.” Instead of lesser executives of these two PR firms, conference chair Burton should have enlisted two CEOs from the other giant PR firms.

The conference in Salt Lake City had excellent speeches by broadcaster Tavis Smiley, Newsweek’s Jon Meacham, who discussed the election, and Andrew Heyward, former head of CBS News, who discussed the new media. But Burton and the PRSA staff could learn a lot from NIRI about how to relate to exhibitors.

PRSA traditionally has slighted the exhibitors, causing them to form the PR Services Council in the early 1990s that sought ways to get more attendees into the exhibit hall. But COO Ray Gaulke abolished the exhibit hall altogether for five years and the Council dissolved.

PRSA, mindful of the need to integrate the exhibitors into the conference, this year staged an opening night cocktail party in the exhibit hall. But there was inadequate bar service and lines formed of 40 and more attendees. Instead of standing in line, they were supposed to be talking with exhibitors. Then, the crowd was moved to an adjoining ballroom for food and entertainment. That’s not what NIRI does. First of all, there is never a wait for a drink. Glasses of champagne are given to attendees as they approach the exhibit hall. The night is spent in the exhibit hall with meals cooked to order by chefs. NIRI knows how to treat exhibitors. That’s why its conference nets $1.5M and NIRI has $5M in cash.

We estimate the PRSA conference loses at least $1 million because of the cost of staff time. This is low-balled in the PRSA audit as around $100K when it’s upwards of $2M. A test of the power of Burton and PR itself is whether he can extract this figure from the PRSA staff. Another test is whether he can get us the audiotape of the a.m. session of the Assembly which we missed because of a flight delay.

Tavis Smiley said there’s too much spin in PR these days but a bigger problem is lack of power. Golin Harris has lent its prestigious name to PRSA and what has PRSA done with it? GH is now identified with the stonewalling and misleading financial reports of PRSA. Neither the board nor staff, unless pressured, will allow release of the tape nor the true staff costs of the conference. Stubbornness and rigidity such as this caused Gary McCormick of Scripps and Ron Owens of Kaiser Permanente to quit the board this year. They don’t want their corporate names mixed up in it. The only director left on the board with a major job at a blue chip is Gerry Corbett of Hitachi. Debra Miller was given the Gold Anvil of PRSA, but some members thought this was too early in her career for such an award whose past recipients included John Graham and Al Golin. Also, Miller heads the search for a new president/COO of PRSA and successful completion of this task should take place before any awards are handed out.

--Jack O'Dwyer