CALIF. ISSUES RFP FOR NUTRITION PUSH.

California has moved to scuttle its $28M “5 a Day” campaign after federal guidelines were revamped last year calling for low-income people to eat more than five servings of healthful foods a day.

As a result, the California Nutrition Network for Healthy, Active Families, the state entity which oversees that social marketing effort, has issued an RFP for a firm to develop a new campaign, including media work, advertising and PR. The budget is a whopping $36M, or $1M for each month of the term, which is expected to stretch from April 2007 through early 2010.

Hill & Knowlton teamed with Runyon Saltzman & Einhorn to win last review for the “5 a Day” campaign in 2004, a four-year contract worth $28M that “has become outdated and must be replaced,” according to the state’s Dept. of Health Services.

The state-backed campaign, administered through the California Dept. of Health Services, is aimed to support a larger multi-tiered social marketing effort urging the 10.1M Golden State residents eligible for food stamps to lead healthy lives through eating right and exercise.

The winning bidder will give a new face to the campaign and create a “master brand” to kick off in April 2007.

Firms must have a California office that has been in service for three years with annual billings of at least $7M to pitch. The RFP was released last week and a pre-proposal teleconference has been set for Dec. 19. A letter of intent to pitch is due Jan. 25.

Carmen Heredia ([email protected]) is point of contact.

EDELMAN WINS ENERGY SHOOT-OUT.

Edelman’s Sacramento office has defeated an initial field of 17 firms for a multimillion-dollar public education effort to boost solar energy among California residents and homebuilders.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger earmarked $4.5M for public education over four years as part of a larger $2.8B, 11-year incentive program under the California Public Utilities Commission. Residential and commercial customers receive incentives of $2.50 per watt of solar power and can qualify for additional federal tax credits under that program.

Edelman edged finalists Ogilvy PR Worldwide, Katz & Associates and Astone Marketing after a final round of presentations. Thirteen other firms pitched.
The RFP was issued in August and called for a two-year contract with two options at $1.5M per year.

GCI GETS GEORGIA TECH ACCOUNT.

GCI Group has won a five-firm shootout to develop and guide Georgia Tech’s first major effort with an outside PR firm.

GCI bested Edelman, Ketchum, Weber Shandwick and Fleishman-Hillard for the account, which carries a one-year term and year-long option.

GT, formally known as the Georgia Institute of Technology, was looking for an established firm to develop a strategy for its PR and marketing communications, nationally and locally, to increase awareness and enhance the “prestige” of the school.

An RFP issued in late August said 55 percent of the work would involve media relations, with the remainder going to planning, partnership development and PR materials. The school also said it could seek advice from its PR firm on advertising buys, although such work was not a requirement for the RFP.

BRYANT HEADS GLOBAL COMMS. FOR BoNY.

Jeep Bryant, former SVP and director of corporate communications at PNC Financial Services Group, has been promoted to executive VP and global head of communications for The Bank of New York.

Bryant, who joined BNY in 2003 as a managing director, guides the company’s external PR and internal comms. for its 23,000 employees.

Bryant’s career has spanned major financial institutions. Prior to PNC, he held various corporate communications posts including SVP/director of corporate communications at First Union Corp. in Charlotte, N.C., as the company that would become Wachovia Corp. pursued more than 40 acquisitions to expand its reach.

Bryant is active in the Arthur W. Page Society and PR Seminar, and serves on the advisory council for the College of Charleston’s Dept. of Communications.

NEW CEO OF NIRI REVAMPS STAFF.

Staff of the National Investor Relations Institute, Vienna, Va., has undergone a major re-vamping in the wake of the appointment of Nancy Humphries as president and CEO to succeed Lou Thompson, who was at NIRI 24 years.

Humphries was at BellSouth Corp. for 30 years, becoming VP-IR and a corporate officier.

Eight of the current 16 NIRI staffers, including Humphries, are recent appointments. Among those leaving is Beth Carty, senior VP of member services, membership and chapter development.

Those duties put her in touch with many members

(Continued on page 7)

SPONSORS FOR GOLDEN GATE.

Sponsorship Strategies of Novato, Calif., has won a review to develop a corporate sponsorship plan for the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

The firm was chosen on the recommendation of the Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation District’s government affairs and public information committee following an RFP. The District received four other proposals from Belenson Associates (San Francisco); Kimbrell & Co. (Sausalito); The Active Network (Huntington Beach) and The Superlative Group (Cleveland, Ohio).

The District issued an RFP in late August for a sponsorship program for the fabled bridge after developing a plan for its long-term financial stability which called for finding revenue from “non-traditional sources.” The District faces a deficit approaching $90M, much of that caused from post 9/11 security measures.

The RFP stressed that any sponsorship will have to preserve its “dignity and safety” and enhance the Golden Gate “brand and its image as an internationally recognized icon of historical engineering and architectural significance.”

The District’s PA staff is stressing that it will not pursue a naming rights deal for the bridge, but would likely install signs in visitor areas reflecting any corporate partnership deals that are worked out.

F-H FOCUSES ON BABY BOOMERS.

Fleishman-Hillard has established a Baby Boomer operation, FH Boom, to help its drug, financial, consumer products and technology clients sharpen their focus on that burgeoning market.

The Omnicom unit has hired Carol Orsborn, author of “BOOM: Marketing to the Ultimate Power Consumer—the Baby Boomer Woman,” to co-chair FH Boom with Eileen Marcus, the firm’s consumer lead.

Orsborn was senior partner at Imago Creative, a partner of JWT Mature Market Group, and ran her own consulting shop in San Francisco.

FH Boom has a blog at theboomerblog.com.

GAVIN ANDERSON FRONTS NASDAQ BID.

Gavin Anderson & Co. is managing media for Nasdaq Stock Market and its $5.2B offer to purchase the remaining 71 percent stake in the London Stock Market that it does not own.
The deal is designed to beef up Nasdaq’s trans-Atlantic capability in the aftermath of the New York Stock Exchange’s $15B tie-up with Paris-based Euronext.

Nasdaq made a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Nov. 27, disclosing that it has arranged a $5.1B line of credit from Bank of America and Dresdner Kleinwort to finance the bulk of the deal.

LSM chairman Chris Gibson-Smith has rejected Nasdaq’s offer as on the cheap side, pointing out that it represents a two percent premium over LSM’s trading price. He has nixed a request to meet with NASDAQ officials.

The LSM, which uses Finsbury for PR, notes that it is time to move on since NASDAQ has declared its Nov. 20 offer as “final.”

ABBOTT TEAMS WITH MAGIC JOHNSON.

Abbott Laboratories is bankrolling the $60M “I Stand with Magic” anti-AIDS campaign that is fronted by basketball legend Magic Johnson.

The ex-Los Angeles Laker announced in `91 that he was infected with AIDS. Johnson officially kicked off the campaign on Dec. 1, World AIDS Day. He plans to visit at least 10 cities a year to educate people about the AIDS scourge and encourage testing for the virus.

Johnson is keen about getting that message to black Americans. Blacks comprise 15 percent of the U.S. population, but account for 50 percent of new cases.

The istandwithmagic.com site allows people to post their picture if they stand with the basketball great. More than 880 people have done so.

USA Today (Dec. 1) mentioned the “Magic Paradox.” The 47-year-old Johnson “looks so healthy some may question whether AIDS is the menace it was made out to be.” Johnson attributes his health to a multi-drug cocktail that he takes each day, and the conditioning from playing in the NBA.

Abbott markets the AIDS drug Kaletra.

GUAM SEEKS E-MARKETING PARTNER.

The Guam Visitors Bureau has posted an e-marketing RFP on its website that calls for a PR firm to help forge a “unified brand image” for the U.S. territory that lies in the North Pacific three quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines.

The island, which has a population of about 200,000, draws more than one million vacationers a year. Key markets are Japan, China, Australia, Korea, Philippines, Taiwan and the U.S.

Gerald Perez, general manager of the GVB, believes an Internet campaign is the “most cost effective method of publicizing Guam’s story and appeal to an international audience.” He wants proposals by Dec. 15. Info is available at visitguam.org.

KWITTKEN GOES TO COURT FOR FIRESTAR.

Kwittken & Co. is handling litigation PR for Boxborough, Mass.-based FireStar Software, which has filed a patent infringement case against Red Hat, according to Aaron Kwittken.

FireStar alleges that Red Hat infringed on its patent to link software with databases. Kwittken calls the case significant because of Red Hat’s role as the “patron saint” of the open source software movement.

K&C, which was founded in `05, expects to chalk up $2.7M in fees this year. The firm’s 18 staffers have settled into 4,500 sq. ft. on Lexington Ave. near Grand Central.

Kwittken wants to open a London office during the next 18 months because he says that is where the action is.

The firm has three U.K. clients, and has just signed up $500K SilverJet account. The carrier flies a single 767 “business class luxury” jet from London (Luton Airport—32 miles from the U.K. capital) to New York (Newark).

Kwittken snagged that work from Freud Communications, which is part of Publicis Groupe.

CORALLO DENIES NYT TAKEOVER BID.

Crisis pro Mark Corallo is repping Hank Greenberg, the 81-year-old former American International Group CEO, and denying reports that he is “buying hundreds of thousands” shares of the New York Times Co. in a bid to dilute Sulzberger family-control of the company.

The New York Post ran that item on Nov. 29 which helped drive the price of NYTC shares up nine percent to $24.76. The Post backpedaled Nov. 30, reporting that Greenberg isn't mounting a hostile takeover "by any stretch of the imagination."

Corallo says Greenberg owns less than 100,000 shares of the more than 143M NYTC shares outstanding. The Alexandria-based counselor adds that Greenberg has no intention of bulking up his NYTC holdings.

The financier has expressed an interest in buying a newspaper, and is among those considering a bid for Tribune Co., which is reviewing its strategic options.

Corallo is the former Justice Dept. PA officer, who worked for Karl Rove during the Valerie Plame-CIA outing story and former Hewlett-Packard director Tom Perkins through the pretexting mess.

HEARST BUYS TEXAS PAPER CHAIN.

Hearst Corp., publisher of the San Antonio Express-News, is buying 18 local papers ringing the city.

The collection includes Bulverde Community News, Leon Valley Recorder and Hill Country View.

The chain, which is housed in Prime Time Inc., was launched by Lowry Mays, founder of Clear Channel Communications. CCC is in the midst of being purchased by a Mays-family fronted group.

PTI president Bill Johnson believes the deal is a "great strategic move for both companies." He plans to stay on as a consultant for six months.

HENNEBERGER JOINS HUFFINGTON.

Melinda Henneberger is joining The Huffington Post in January as political editor. She will be based in Washington.

Arianna Huffington says Henneberger is in charge of building a team to cover Congress and the '08 Presidential sweepstakes.

Henneberger wrote political columns for Newsweek and spent a decade writing for the New York Times. She also reported for the Dallas Morning News and Newsday.

For the past two years, Henneberger has been traveling the country, interviewing women for her upcoming book, If They Only Listened to US: What Women Voters Want Politicians to Hear. THP gets three million unique visitors and 60M page views a month. Ken Sunshine Consultants promotes the site.

PCMag.com has launched “Click to Call,” a service on its website that links product reviews to customer service representatives of a product’s company. In a deal with eStara, the website connects users by telephone with the click of a button. PCMag.com said it is the first web publisher to use the technology within its product review pages to deliver leads to national advertisers.

RUPERT’S LAST LAUGH.

ABC Entertainment paid Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.'s publishing unit a $1M "kill fee" because Barbara Walters decided not to interview O.J. Simpson about his now-killed book, "If I Did It," according to a Newsweek web report.

Newsweek reports that Walters took ten days to "think things over" about the interview before ultimately deciding against the meeting. She then told the audience of "The View" that she turned down a chance to sit down with Simpson.

That led ReganBooks to announce that the book about how Simpson would have gone about killing his wife, Nicole, and Ron Goldman was going to be a two-day "sweeps" bonanza for its News Corp. sister company, Fox Network.

ReganBooks felt that it was "strung along unfairly" by Walters, and ABC decided to pay the kill fee to avoid "embarrassing press leaks about the dealings or to maintain cordial relations with the feisty Regan.”

News Corp. and ABC have signed non-disclosure agreements about the negotiations. Murdoch, last month, killed the Simpson book and Fox program.

IRAQ MONITORS MEDIA.

Iraq’s Interior Ministry said it has set up a media monitoring unit in an effort to crack down on stories it sees as erroneous.

The Associated Press has drawn the Ministry’s ire with a recent story about six Sunni Muslims who were reportedly burned alive during a November attack on a mosque in Baghdad. The AP stands by the story but the Ministry has questioned its sources and said the news organization paid for information, a charge the AP denies.

A spokesman for the Ministry told the AP that it has a large PR staff and should be contact to “get real, true news.”

HAWKINS LAUNCHES POLITICAL SITE.

St. Augustine-based counselor John Hawkins has launched "The Forgotten Street," a political and cultural website dedicated to promoting traditional American values. He told O’Dwyer's the site wants to "bring Americans together again around a common sense, non-partisan agenda."

Hawkins blames the establishment elite for selling out core American beliefs. "They are more focused on K Street, Arab Street, Champ-Elysees than they are on Main Street," he said in a release.

Hawkins says his own education was slanted by liberal and anti-war rhetoric, but he flourished when exposed to the conservative philosophy of Ronald Reagan. He is fed up with the inability of both Democrats and Republicans to "formulate a cohesive national agenda when our country is at war with Islamo-fascists."

TFS pushes a 10-point "Main Street Manifesto" to right what it feels is wrong with America. Some highlights include support for the "war on terror," immigration control, balanced budget, and "Star Wars."

(Media news continued on next page)

LAUNCHING A SUCCESSFUL MEDIA TOUR.

The PR industry is slowly realizing that marketing should take a back seat to forging good relations with media and the public, said a panel of news and publicity experts at popular New York nightclub The Cutting Room.

"We're heading into a time where we're going toward traditional PR, which I think is a good thing," said Joan Schaffer, an independent television and radio publicist.

The panel, hosted by the Entertainment Publicists Professional Society and sponsored by Live Star Television, was gathered to discuss the do's and don'ts of running a successful media tour.

As a publicist who specializes in booking satellite news media tours, Schaffer said PR can improve its image and its bottom line by easing up on the sales pitch and instead doing "something for your community."

"The bottom line is that neutrality isn't working for PR," she said. "You can't go out and sell salad dressing and expect people to get behind it. You have to have a cause that's going to help make communities a better place."

Transparency and ethics play an increasing role in the media tour business, especially lately, with the FCC's recent probe into televised networks and their use of VNRs during news segments. This has changed how networks use outside media sources and consequently, what publicists must do to ensure their client gets air time.

"Right now, it's extremely difficult to pitch anything with a blatant product pitch," Schaffer said. "Stations are not keen with these tours that have corporate sponsors. They're running scared because of the FCC. Unless I am completely blindsided, I am going to be completely honest with you – whose is it and why is it on there? I think that's fair."

For example, the healthcare industry's foray into the world of media tours, as made apparent by Montel Williams' popular tour for PhRMA's Partnership for Prescription Assistance, has signaled a success for the industry, but is also in many ways seen as an ethical minefield for news producers.

Celebrities are ‘bonus’

Robert Melstein, senior writer for CNN's "Headline News Showbiz Tonight," said segment producers have to draw guidelines and handle each case with the utmost scrutiny to ensure the news doesn't become a breeding ground for product plugs.

"We don't like the idea of having a spokesperson from PhRMA on our show," he said. "And we probably won't take them, unless, for example, the spokesperson actually has that disease."

So who makes a suitable slot for a media tour? Scott Knowlton, producer for "Your Morning" on CN8, said a good segment involves a guest who possesses the dual advantages of being a "good talker and a good personality." News items usually take precedence over entertainment, but if the guest is a celebrity, it's usually seen as a bonus for the network.

The panel was unanimous in citing a few rules to go by when getting your media tour ready for a segment: First, don't tell producers what they can or can't talk about, and don't ask for a list of questions that will be asked.

"We hit on a lot of stuff because that's what we find our viewers like," Melstein said. "We'll tell you that we're going to talk about A, B or C, but we're not going to send you the questions ahead of time and it's extremely important that they know that. If a celebrity is pushing a movie or whatever, fine, we will ask a question or two, but they need to have something else to talk about. That's the number one thing for booking a live media tour."

Second, make sure your guest is ready to go at the pre-determined time-slot. A late appearance is not only unprofessional, but in the world of TV news, it can cost you the slot.

"We do pre-tapes. We have a very limited time-frame and I can count on one hand the amount of time-slots I have for them," Schaffer said.

Third, give producers more than a sliver of time to work with guests.

"I know you want to book them for a lot of time on different shows - but we need more than four or five minutes," Melstein said.

When submitting a B-Roll or a VNR, Melstein said his company's policy is typically a standard in the rest of the industry at this point: The B-roll should always be credited to it creators.

Schaffer said this has been the practice at "pretty much every place I've ever worked for," and Sharon Johnson, entertainment producer for CBS Newspath, said her company's policy is also similar: video from a source other than CBS will always be credited to that source and sound bytes aren't used at all, she said, "unless it says something so shocking that we have to use that clip."

The panel also advised not to mix sound bytes with the B-Roll as the results are confusing and can result in a rejection from the network.

"In news, the ideal source is the original source," Schaffer said.

People ___________________

Tom Watson, national affairs editor for Newsweek, is now managing editor of the weekly’s website. It is part of Newsweek editor Jon Meacham’s plan to better integrate print and web news.

Carl Sullivan, news editor for newsweek.com, has also been named a senior writer for the magazine. He retains web duties. Sullivan led Hurricane Katrina reporting.

Ripplewood Holdings has named Mary Berner as president and CEO of The Reader’s Digest Assn. following the completion of its acquisition.

Berner, 47, spent the past six years as president and CEO of Fairchild Publications, where she re-launched Details magazine and launched the upscale parenting magazine Cookie. Earlier, she was publisher for Glamour and TV Guide.

The bloodbath at NIRI h.q. (page one), in which 11 of the 18 staffers from a 2005 list are gone and eight new staffers have arrived, puts NIRI and the entire practice of IR in a much needed spotlight.

The 24-year reign of CEO Lou Thompson ended earlier this year and not on a good note. It’s no testimony to the quality of his staff that 11 of them are quickly dismissed or leave. Membership, in spite of the record stock market, has fallen from 5,400 to 4,300. But there are 13,000 companies on the NYSE, NASDAQ and Amex plus many thousands of others in the “pink sheets.” The great bulk of public companies avoid NIRI and even IR. NIRI’s dues of $475 plus upwards of $100 for chapter dues are one barrier to growth.

“IR” has gotten a bad name among financial researchers who denounce it as “marketing.” NIRI’s own definition includes the term “marketing.”

NIRI was an outgrowth in 1970 of the IR Assn., a group of 25 company financial specialists. Its charter specified control by corporate rather than agency people (PRSA was seen as dominated by agencies).

NIRI at first embraced financial PR pros, many from PRSA. An early president was Pete Roalman of Harshe-Rotman & Druck, a major PR firm. But in the later ’70s, the market fell, commissions were slashed, and analysts were trimmed.

Many joined NIRI, which morphed into an activity focused on Wall Street and SEC compliance. Most of those with press or PR backgrounds left. NIRI became like a highly specialized life form whose very specialization threatens its existence.

“NIRI is made up of Wall Street, numbers-oriented people but stocks are being driven by headlines today,” said one financial PR specialist. “They’ve lost touch with reality.” Another said, “The internet, blogs, etc., are one big publicity machine and IR people can’t deal with it.” A third said “IR staffs are minuscule, mostly one or two people and they’re up to their ears in SEC minutiae, deadlines, SarBox, etc. They’re under tight control by the CFO.” Said another: “NIRI created a separate industry called IR and its practitioners don’t want to dirty their hands by dealing with the press.”

That’s what he said. We, the press, are “dirty,” and the financial world, which gave us Enron, Worldcom, etc., is “clean.”

The narrow “numbers” focus of IR is hurting the industry, Thompson himself admitted in 2002. He quoted Prof. Baruch Lev of the Stern Business School as saying “about 80% of the average S&P company’s market value is due to non-financial or intangible assets not in financial statements.”

Thompson agreed that IR and PR are in “separate silos” in many companies and the IR person may not be allowed to talk to the media. He said NIRI planned a “Center for Integrated Communication” to bridge IR & PR but we don’t know what happened to it.

NIRI staff and board are not taking calls.

We’re glad the 24-year reign of Thompson is over. He was too dominant in NIRI for too long. No one on the board including the chair was allowed to deal with us. Lou made the key speeches on behalf of NIRI.

His policy of hiring only women (except for his son Eric) was discriminatory. There are now four males on the staff. NIRI’s press-avoidance policies include blocking press access to its website.

Being the “corporate conscience” is not one of an IR person’s jobs. IR’s focus is on investors (meaning mostly giant institutions rather than individuals). While PRSA leaders say emphasizing ethics, values, morals, etc., is the main duty of PR people to their employers and Harold Burson says “the spirit of the ombudsman should pervade the job,” there is no such imperative at NIRI. Its code even lacks the word, “public” although the definition of a profession is an activity that puts the welfare of the public first. We can see a PR pro telling a CEO that his or her high pay is bad for the company’s rep or that back-dating options is wrong, but such advice would be outside the realm of an IR person.

Financial researcher Gayle Essary, whose obit is on page 7, had a number of run-ins with NIRI. He did not want to be identified with IR or the brokerage-house “research” done for the “sell side.” He despised the term “IR” because he felt IR people were working in behalf of their clients and employers and not in behalf of investors. The independent analysts’ industry, which Essary founded, works only for investors and “never” for public companies, staffers at Essary’s Investrend told us.

PR pros should be familiar with the First Research Consortium of independent analysts.

The restrictive, disciplined, serious, even fearful nature of much of PR/IR these days is evident in the lack of any holiday parties by the three major PR groups in New York–PRSA/NY, Publicity Club and IABC/NY.

In this “Season of Good Cheer,” all they will have in December is their regular meetings. IABC announced a party but too few responded and it was cancelled. Last year more than 100 members celebrated at Annie Moore’s in midtown. In the 1970s, PRSA/NY’s holiday party was an extravaganza in the Starlite Roof of the Waldorf-Astoria with more than 400 enjoying lunch, entertainment and a “goodie bag” stuffed with a dozen or more items. As late as five years ago, New York groups combined on a holiday party at a disco that attracted hundreds. Most of the money for these events came from corporations and the big PR firms. Meanwhile, the New York Post reports that other industries are throwing big parties for themselves. What made this sea change? It could be that companies regard PR as less important than they once did. Some corporate PR staffs are fractions of what they were so there are fewer people to attend. Another reason is the current tight-lipped nature of corporate and agency PR.

Companies don’t want their PR people fraternizing with PR people from other firms.

--Jack O'Dwyer