H&K DELIVERS GAZPROM PITCH.

Hill & Knowlton, PBN Company and Burson-Marsteller CEO Mark Penn’s polling firm are expected to launch a $10M+ image campaign to improve the reputation of Gazprom, Russia’s natural gas monopoly.

Gazprom’s hard-nosed politics have damaged its status as a reliable supplier of energy to the West. The company cut off Ukraine in early `05 following a price dispute. That move provoked a rebuke from Vice President Dick Cheney about Russia using energy as a political weapon. Gazprom, last month, threatened to turn off the spigot on Belarus and Georgia.

News of Gazprom’s PR program was first reported in Russia’s Kommersant, and picked up by the Financial Times.

Gazprom also has fortified its PR effort with the hiring of Philip Dewhurst, who was PR director for British Nuclear Fuels. He started Jan. 2.

QUINN & CO SAILS WITH KAYAK.COM.

Quinn & Co. has defeated four competitors for travel search engine Kayak.com’s six-figure PR account.

The Connecticut-based company issued an RFP in November and received about 20 responses, according to Kellie Pelletier, VP of comms., who narrowed that field to Quinn, M. Silver Assocs., Edelman/Atlanta, Manning Selvage & Lee/San Francisco, and The Castle Group.

Kayak had previously worked with Thornton PR, a boutique firm in Chicago headed by former Orbitz corporate communications director Kendra Thornton.

Pelletier noted Kayak’s PR budget jumped from just under $100K/year to $400K between the RFP and presentations, challenging the agencies to come up with bolder ideas on the spot.

DYCK COMES IN FROM THE COLD.

The Central Intelligence Agency’s PA director Jennifer Dyck is the latest VP at APCO Worldwide.

She reports to Robert Schooling, MD of the independent firm’s D.C. headquarters office.

At the CIA, Dyck handled media and strategic communications and served as a liaison to the publishing and film industries. She also launched the CIA’s first corporate branding effort.

Dyck worked on the Bush-Cheney `04 campaign as deputy comms. director, and was assistant press secretary in the Bush White House. Earlier, she was press secretary for Republican Porter Goss, who served briefly as CIA head, and aide to ex-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, when he performed communications duties for the Ways and Means Committee.

PUBLICIS FOLDS ROWLAND.

Rowland Communications, which was founded in 1961, has been folded into an U.S. entity called Publicis Consultants/PR by its French parent.

Ann Moravick, former CEO of Rowland, is now chief of the new set-up that combines her New York office with Publicis USA staffers in Dallas and Seattle.

Eric Giuily, CEO of Publicis Consultants Worldwide, says the new structure will “better deliver on the promise of brand advocacy and PR within a holistic setting.”

The PC/PR office has healthcare, wellness and b2b clients.

Dallas, under Sheri Smith, boasts of lifestyle and women marketing prowess, while Seattle, under Steve Bryant, is noted for its food and nutrition clients.

MEAD TAKES TOP POST AT AETNA.

Robert Mead, a partner for Brunswick Group in New York, has been named senior VP of communications and strategic marketing for health insurance giant Aetna.

Mead takes over for Roger Bolton, who retired from Aetna in December and now heads the Arthur W. Page Society and counsels for APCO Worldwide.

Mead was formerly president and CEO of Gavin Anderson & Co. and earlier headed Sawyer Miller Consulting.

At Aetna, he takes the reins on a newly combined group encompassing communications, strategic marketing and corporate public involvement organizations.

He also sits on the company’s executive committee.

SORRY STATE OF PR EDUCATION.

By Bill Huey

PR pros without an advanced degree don't have a chance to teach at a university. In fact, they don't want anybody who hasn't got a "terminal degree," (E.G. doctorate) and isn't toally committed to publishing silly little articles in journals nobody reads.

That's the message buried deep within the pages of The Report of the Commission on Public Relations Education, published recently by PRSA and ironically titled, "The Professional Bond."

The report is dense in its language, circular in its reasoning, and otherwordly in it recommendations, particularly with respect to the types of learning PR students should achieve and the types of teachers who should impart it.

As in the 1999 commission report, the idea full-

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SITRICK DEFENDS POM.

POM Wonderful, the marketer of a trendy pomegranate juice, has hired Sitrick & Co. in the aftermath of a boycott drive launched by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

PETA accuses POM of funding grisly testing of laboratory mice and rabbits. It has enlisted long-time anti-fur activist Pamela Anderson to promote its cause. The actress has a “PAM vs. POM” letter on her website, encouraging people to switch to pomegranate juices marketed without animal testing by Old Orchard and Frutzzo. She also links to PETA’s pomhorrible.com site.

Seth Faison of S&C promises that POM won’t buckle under the PETA onslaught. He admits that POM funds animal research with the noble intent of finding a breakthrough in the treatment of heart disease and cancer in humans. POM, Faison told Malibu Times, is focused on “science and public health, not political correctness.”

The MT piece was about a hip restaurant, John’s Garden, dropping POM Wonderful from its menu because of the PETA boycott.

POM says its juice is packed with potential health benefits that reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and help people cope with aging.

RF PUSHED TO LEGALIZE ONLINE GAMBLING.

Ruder Finn ended its representation of British gambling site BETonSports in July, the month in which its CEO David Carruthers was arrested by U.S. authorities in Dallas/Fort Worth airport, Ann Glauber, RF executive VP, told O’Dwyer’s. He was on a layover while traveling from London to Costa Rica.

Glauber said RF was hired to deal with “public issues,” not to encourage people to wager. The focus was on making Internet gambling “legal, regulated and taxable,” she said.

Glauber described Carruthers as the “conscience” of the industry, an advocate for the highest standards and complete transparency in online gaming.

Carruthers was indicted by a St. Louis grand jury for violating federal laws banning the use of phone lines to place bets across state lines. BoS ironed out a permanent injunction with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri to cease trade in the U.S.

RF had a nine-month contract with BoS that ran through July 7. It called for a $20K retainer during the first three months, and $15K a month for the remainder.

FINN CONNECTS WITH AVAYA.

James Finn, senior VP and chief marketing and communications officer at database software company Ingres Corp., has joined telecom provider Avaya as VP of corporate communications.

Avaya, which has more than $5B in revenues, was spun off from Lucent Technologies in 2000.

Finn’s technology experience dates back to IBM, where he started his career and later was VP of comms. for IBM Americas prior to Ingres. Before that, he was VP of worldwide corporate comms. at Oracle Corp. through its acquisition of PeopleSoft and held posts at Chase Manhattan and GM after his first stint at IBM.

GEPHARDT LINKS WITH FD.

Dick Gephardt, former Congressional Majority Leader and Presidential candidate, is now a consultant to Financial Dynamics and a member of its international advisory board.

Declan Kelly, CEO of FD-U.S., lauds the ex-Missouri Congressman as an “esteemed business and political thinker.”

He told O’Dwyer’s that Gephardt will take an “active role” in the growth of the firm, especially in the roles of labor relations and public affairs. It is not a “titular” appointment, he added.

FD began outreach to Gephardt during the summer. Kelly said Ed Reilly, the founder and former CEO of Westhill Partners who runs FD’s business consulting unit, has a “deep friendship” with Gephardt. Reilly served as Gephardt’s pollster during his presidential bid.

FD also has a Gephardt tie via Eric Smith, who was Gephardt’s press secretary. Smith is a former FD staffer who remains a “friend” of the firm, explained Kelly.
The FD connection to Gephardt is via Gephardt & Assocs., which defines itself as a “strategic business consulting, public policy development and capital acquisition and labor relations assistance to companies” shop.

BKSH GETS GREECE.

Greece has given BKSH & Assocs. a six-month contract for strategic advice and intelligence gathering, according to the agreement inked by Charlie Black, chairman of the Burson-Marsteller lobbying wing.

The firm’s work also includes executive branch monitoring and House and Senate advocacy. Greece was in the news this month following a terror attack on the U.S. Embassy in Athens.

Greece’s foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis met with U.S. Ambassador Charles Ries on Jan. 17 in a “confidence-building meeting.” A spokesperson for the foreign ministry said the attack will not damage relations between the U.S. and Greece, and pledged joint action against terror.

BKSH also represents Cyprus, trying to iron out economic/trade issues with the Turkey-controlled section of the island.

JSH&A CELEBRATES 100 YEARS OF KISSES.

JSH&A PR, which is in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., is handling the year-long celebration of Hershey’s Kisses brand’s 100th anniversary.

The campaign is based on a “Kiss Someone” theme that includes new advertising (“Whatever you want to say, say with a kiss. Kiss Someone), a “With Love and Kisses” stamp from the U.S. Postal Service and a July 7 birthday bash slated for the candymaker’s hometown of Hershey, Pa.

The USPS tie-in includes a contest, offering $10K to the person who can guess how many Kisses it takes to fill a priority mail flat rate box.

There is a Hersheyskisses.com site that enables surfers to send personalized e-cards to loved ones, and a full national tour is slated for the company’s two Kissmobiles.

MOORE SWINGS AX AT TIME INC.

Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore cut nearly 300 jobs across the board at the magazine's titles including Time, Sports Illustrated, People and Entertainment Weekly, in her latest effort to transform the Time Warner unit to a more "multiplatform" operation.

Moore's memo reminded staffers the publisher faces a "time of transition." The 289 job cuts include172 editorial staffers.

John Huey, in a memo to staffers, said the "layoffs are not about individual performance," but about the need to create a more flexible content creation team.

He vowed to avoid "sacrificing the integrity of our journalism." Huey stressed that Time Inc. is not "getting out of the print business."

The editor-in-chief urged support for departing colleagues in the "most grateful, respectful and sensitive ways that we can."

CLIFTON EXITS PD.

Douglas Clifton, editor of Cleveland's Plain Dealer, is stepping down June 1 after an eight-year run.

He stressed that the departure has nothing to do with the nearly 65 people who were cut from the paper's payroll or the recent hiring of Terrance Egger as publisher. Clifton, 63, said he wants to start a new chapter in his life. Egger said he will search within and outside the PD for a success for Clifton.

Clifton served as an artillery office in Vietnam, and began his journalism career at the Miami Herald.

He also served as news editor at Knight Ridder's D.C. office and managing director at the Charlotte Observer.

WAPO TEAMS WITH ONION.

The Washington Post will print and sell ads for the satirical newspaper The Onion when the freebie paper hits the streets of the Capital City in April.

The self-defined "America's Finest News Source" will then be in ten cities with a circulation of nearly 600K.

REGAN BOOKS TO SHUT.

HarperCollins is closing its embattled ReganBooks imprint in March following the uproar of the now aborted plans to publish O.J. Simpson's "If I Did It" book about how he would have gone about killing his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson.

HC also has put the kibosh on "7: The Mickey Mantle Novel," a salacious look at the life of the former New York Yankee, by Peter Golenbock.

The RB shutdown means the loss of 10 jobs. The 100 books that would have carried the RB imprint will be published under other HC brands.

Judith Regan, the RB editor who was dropped a month ago, said she was "blessed" to work with such authors as Robert Bork, the one-time Supreme Court nominee, and former Gen. Tommy Franks, who had headed the U.S. Central Command.

RB also put out books by Jenna Jameson ("How to Make Love like a Porn Star"), and Jose Canseco ("Juiced"). HC is owned by News Corp.

CALLAHAN TO INC.

Tim Callahan, who was business development director for the Wall Street Journal, has moved to Inc. He assumes the marketing director post, and will iron out various partnership deals.

At the WSJ, Callahan worked closely to develop multi-platform packages with Dow Jones Online and Dow Jones Integrated Solutions. Earlier, he worked at Time and Newsweek.

Callahan reports to Jayson Goldberg, publishing director at Inc. and Fast Company, both are Mansueto Ventures properties.

AOL MAKES ONLINE MOVE IN EUROPE.

Time Warner's AOL unit wants to acquire Stockholm-based TradeDoubler, the online sales and marketing company, in a deal worth $900M.

Electa, which controls 10 percent of TradeDouble stock, has rejected the bid. It wants AOL to raise the ante.

The acquisition bid is designed to boost AOL's European marketing efforts. TradeDoubler will bolster AOL's Advertising.com unit that it acquired in `04. That operation boasts the largest display advertising network in the U.S. and has a position in eight European markets.

Brunswick Group is advising AOL on the TradeDoubler deal.

CJR: TRIB SHOULD GET OUT OF PAPERS BIZ.

The Tribune Co., which has put itself on the auction block, needs to get out of the newspaper business, according to an editorial in the Jan./Feb. Columbia Journalism Review.

CJR faults the Tribune for "harvesting the assets" of properties such as "Newsday and others that have been picked near clean."

The Chicago-based company, of late, is demanding more cutbacks at the Los Angeles Times.

CJR believes "public ownership of newspapers no longer makes the kind of sense it made when the industry was rapidly shedding labor costs thanks to new technology, and when the money that stockholders poured in was invested partly in editorial."

CJR says the Tribune has great resources but those resources aren't doing much public good. It will take its chances with the "gaggle of billionaires" who are lining up to buy newspaper companies like Tribune.

They may understand that "dailies are not mere pieces of an economic puzzle but great living institutions rooted in the lives of their cities," says CJR.

Phillips International, the firm of newsletter maven Tom Phillips, has sold its financial newsletters to Avista Capital Partners, a private equity firm. The deal is expected to close by the end of the month.

The Phillips Investment Resources unit boasts of a collection of more than 20 subscription-based advisory services, according to a report in The Newsletter on Newsletters. Those NLs include Louis Navellier's Blue Chip Growth and Richard Bland's Profitable Investing.

(Media news continued on next page)

VNU RECASTS AS NIELSEN.

VNU, which was taken over by private equity investors in August, is recasting itself as The Nielsen Co. to take advantage of "one of the great names in the information services industry, said David Calhoun, CEO, in a statement.

The branding campaign will be rolled out throughout the year. Nielsen, said Calhoun, has stood for the "highest standards of integrity and quality" for more than 75 years. The new moniker also reflects an emphasis on "marketing and media information services," at the company that publishes AdWeek, Hollywood Reporter and Billboard.

Calhoun, who became CEO after the $10B buyout, is in the midst of a restructuring campaign that will result in the loss of 4,000 jobs and the sale of the company's European business magazine operation.

Placement Tips ____________________________

The Hollywood Reporter has unveiled the "Net Effect," an analysis feature on digital media to run on Mondays and include data from sister VNU company Nielsen.

The initial feature looked at Nielsen research on devices, brands and products that generated buzz online ahead of the closely watched Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month.

Andrew Wallenstein, digital media editor, oversees the new feature.

MusicPlusTV.com, a two-year-old music video site, is inviting PR firms and publicists for recording artists to pitch acts and submit media for review. Information is on its website. Bryan Kim ([email protected]) is director of PR.

People ___________________________

Clearing Quarterly & Directory, part of Traders Magazine and Securities Industry News, has named Gregory Bresiger as editor-in-chief, a new post.

Bresiger has covered the brokerage and money management industries as editor of On Wall Street, and as a senior writer for Financial Planning Magazine and Financial Services Week. Earlier, he wrote for daily papers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

CQ&D, owned by Source Media, claims a readership of 48K as the only publication focused exclusively on clearing, execution and related technology.

Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, has been named a special correspondent for Islands magazine, a 25-year-old title covering island travel. Ferguson signed on to pen a column called "The Royal Touch" about her experiences and sustainable and environmentally friendly travel.

Briefs ____________________________

Thrillist.com, a lifestyle e-newsletter targeting men, launched a third edition, focused on Los Angeles, on Jan. 16. The site, which zeroes in on the 21-34 demographic, already produces a national edition and one covering New York.

The site claims 40K readers and said it has seen a "huge spike" in growth since FHM said it would stop publishing. CarryOn Communication handles PR.

BP’s BROWNE BUSTED BY WSJ.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board brutalized outgoing BP chief John Browne on Jan. 16 for spending too much time on PR rather than the petroleum business.

The “Beyond PR at BP” piece noted the pressures on mangers in the executive suites of Big Oil, “one of the most vilified industries among politicians and the press, many of whom would have you believe that running these companies involves little more than deciding how badly to ‘gouge’ gasoline consumers after hurricanes.”

The Journal believes Browne is “paying the price” for the `05 refinery explosion in Texas that left 15 dead and `06 oil spills at its Prudhoe Bay, Ala., operation.

The editors feel Browne didn’t help himself by “trying to persuade the world that British Petroleum wasn’t in the oil biz.” They note that BP launched its $200M “Beyond Petroleum” effort in 2000 to reshape its image by shifting the emphasis from oil and gas to “more politically correct fuels.” The energy giant also allocated $8B over the next decade to boost alternative fuels.

At the same time, BP embarked on a campaign to cut costs at its refineries. Those cutbacks may have been responsible for the explosion. BP denies that point.

The Journal contrasts BP’s “soft image” with that of hard-nosed ExxonMobil, “which has been demonized even more than other oil majors for refusing to toe the environmentalist line on climate change.”

The Journal notes that BP has every right to reduce expenses, and it's impossible to say whether BP shifted too much money from maintenance to PR.

EMMIS TARGETED BY BIG SHARHOLDER.

Martin Capital Management, owner of an eight percent stake of Emmis Communications’ Class A stock, will ask shareholders at the Feb. 13 annual meeting to drop its dual-stock ownership structure.

The Class B stock, according to MCM, puts control of the company in the hands of CEO Jeff Smulyan.

His Class B holdings give Smulyan 66.7 percent of the overall voting power at the Indianapolis-based radio company.

The Class B set-up becomes “contentious when it provides the irrevocable means for the perpetual entrenchment of a manager whose record may not otherwise warrant such a privileged 'untouchable' status,” according to MCM’s resolution.

The Class B shares allow Smulyan an opportunity to "disregard the interests of the majority owners who are essentially powerless to oppose."

MCM believes the "one share/one vote standard of American democracy has been suspended for far too long at Emmis." The board of directors takes no position on the MCM proposal, noting that the resolution is "moot" since Smulyan opposes it.

Smulyan forged a plan to take the company private last year, but that scenario fell though.

Atlanta counselor Bill Huey has done PR education and the PR field a service with his analysis of the academic bureaucratic logjam that is crippling PR education (pages 1 and 7).

The ones suffering are the students who are paying large sums and only experience a thin slice of what the PR industry is actually about. Many are still teenagers and easily separated from their $$.

The academic world’s obsession with Ph.D.’s springs from the fact that “research” colleges get more in grants than “teaching” colleges.

But, as Huey has pointed out, PR is “defined through its practice,” like other fields such as architecture. The ever-shifting sands of PR are hard to capture between the covers of a book. Students suffer because they are learning from teachers who have spent little, if any time actually working in the PR vineyards. Experienced pros are unwanted.

Members of the PR Student Society of America get some practical knowledge and much needed mentoring from local PR pros. But PRSSA, with 9,000 members in 280 chapters, only reaches a sliver of the one million+ undergrads studying PR, communications, journalism, marketing, advertising, etc. The Dept. of Labor reports 11 million 16 to 24-year olds were enrolled in 3,800 four and two-year colleges as of October 2005. There are no PRSSA chapters in 3,520 colleges. An attempt to open PRSA to students in all colleges was blocked in 2002 by a petition signed by 50 PR profs and PRSA leaders including 21 past presidents. About 2,200 PRSSA members graduate in any one year, a tiny fraction of the communications majors absorbed by business each year.

Our answer to this woeful shortage of practical PR knowledge in colleges is the web. The websites of the four PR trade publications including odwyerpr.com, prweek.com, prnewsonline.com and bulldogreporter.com could be made available on a blanket basis to all 3,800 colleges for both professors and students. Cost for any one college could be as low as $100 or $200. If influential PR professors and PR leaders got behind this idea it would be implemented. We have studied a half dozen college PR texts, including three that were recently published, and find almost no mention of the PR trades, which are far closer to what’s going on in PR than what’s being taught in colleges.

The dominant political group in PRSA currently is the Educators Academy. In the 1960s and 1970s it was New York corporate and counselor members and in the 1980's the Counselors Academy. But educators have dominated since then and one indication is educators took all the big awards at the recent national conference (Debra Miller of Clark Atlanta Univ.; Carol Hackley, Univ. of Pacific; Melvin Sharpe, Ball State; Dean Kruckeberg, Univ. of Northern Iowa, and Bruce Berger, Univ. of Alabama). Educator national board members are Rhoda Weiss, UCLA; Dennis Gaschen, Cal. State Fullerton, and Vincent Hazleton, Radford Univ. They should earn their awards and board seats by helping to spread knowledge of PR to students at 3,800 colleges and not just 280. Another task they should take up is halting the elitist, anti-democracy, anti-press, and anti-communications policies of PRSA that hurt the image of PR. Also, nothing is done by PRSA about the poor image of PR in the press. Members who foot the $5 million h.q. staff payroll deserve better.

The arrival of new PRSA president/COO Bill Murray is in stark contrast with the arrival in 1993 of COO Ray Gaulke. Gaulke was introduced to press and members at a cocktail party thrown by his former employer, Burson-Marsteller (he headed the Marsteller wing in the 1970s). He worked the room with ease and set up lunches with reporters. His salary was announced as $150,000 yearly in a two-year contract capped by a $25,000 signing bonus, $12,000 in pension, four weeks vacation and a bonus deal linked to increases in revenues and membership...Murray’s appointment was announced Dec. 27 (middle of the holiday break) and the cocktail party introducing him is at 5:30 p.m. Friday Jan. 26 at PRSA’s h.q. downtown. Reporters haven’t been invited. No details yet as to salary, length of contract, etc. PR mgr. Cedric Bess has told members and reporters Murray will not be available for interviews until he “settles in.”

Advertising Age Jan. 8 named Omnicom CEO John Wren “Agency Executive of the Year,” saying, “First, there’s the stock, which soared over the $100 mark.” This was enough to make us gag since OMC was $107 in 1999 and that was when there were 17 million more shares outstanding. It’s hard to believe Ad Age is that unknowledgeable about OMC’s stock. The full page upbeat article ignores OMC’s costly four-year legal battle over alleged false financial reporting in 2001-2002, its $3 billion debt and anything financial. Wren, in his fourth interview in 4.5 years, obviously does not allow financial questions. The silence of the New York Times on OMC is deafening...news item: Time Inc. cuts 289 staffers including 172 from editorial. Such cuts have got to hurt editorial output. The merest research into Omega World Travel (1/17NL) would have blocked Time mag from blasting OWT as a “spammer” bent on “revenge.” Since 2000, Time’s ad pages are off 23% to 2,311 while Fortune is down 54% to 2,875 and Sports Illustrated is off 30% to 2,032...both Time and Newsweek have been surviving on healthScare ads and stories. Newsweek Jan. 15 reached a new low with a cover story on “Menopause” and more pages on “Manopause.” The 70-page issue had 22 pages of health stories (frightening images of bugs and cells magnified thousands of times, grisly pictures of internal organs, etc.) and 21 pages of health ads. Such issues bring in $$ but also alienate readers who get fed up with reading about diseases and pills to cure them. Only 2% of those aged 12-24 read the newsweeklies.

--Jack O'Dwyer