PT TAKES GLOBAL WARMING GROUP.

Powell Tate|Weber Shandwick is working with the just-formed United States Climate Action Partnership private sector/environmental organization, a group that is advocating for controls on carbon dioxide emissions.

Lance Morgan, chief communications strategist at the Interpublic group unit, spearheads the effort.

The global warming group wants input on environmental legislation that is forged by the new Democratic Congress. USCAP members include General Electric, Dupont, Alcoa, Caterpillar, PG&E, Duke Energy, World Resources Institute, Environmental Defense, Pew Center of Global Climate Change and Natural Resources Defense Council.

PT|WS, meanwhile, has fortified its media relations and crisis capabilities with the addition of Nicole Wallace, who was communications director in the Bush White House, as executive VP. She was in charge of the President’s `04 re-election campaign.

Wallace continues as a political consultant for CBS News. She provided State of the Union Address commentary, and is a regular TV commentator.

LENOVO CONNECTS WITH WALKER.

Reid Walker, VP of communications for Honeywell’s specialty materials division, has left to head communications at PC maker Lenovo.

Walker takes the reins as VP/comms. at Lenovo, which acquired IBM’s personal computing division in May 2005. He is based in Raleigh, N.C., and reports to chief marketing officer Deepak Advani.

At Honeywell, he headed worldwide communications, media relations, employee communications and crisis management for the SM unit.

MANERI DIES AT 61.

K. Peter Maneri, who handled PR during Texaco's landmark discrimination suit in ’96, died of cancer Jan. 15. He was 61.

The energy giant had been sued by Jesse Jackson and civil rights groups after a tape emerged from a meeting at which Texaco executives called black people “jelly beans.” Texaco paid $176M to settle the suit, and promised to step up minority hiring and do more business with black-owned companies.

Maneri spent more than a decade at Texaco, both here and in the U.K. He left Texaco for Ogilvy PR Worldwide, where he served as managing director of its corporate practice. IBM was a client.

In `99, Maneri joined Computer Sciences Corp. as VP-corporate and marketing comms. He retired in `06.

DEZENHALL ENTERS PUBLISHING FRAY.

Dezenhall Resources, the “high stakes communications and marketplace defense firm,” is repping the Association of American Publishers.

AAP, which is headed by former Congresswoman Pat Schroeder, is eager to fend off proponents of the “free information movement,” according to a Jan. 25 report on Nature.com. The Washington Post covered the ruckus on Jan. 26.
Publishers of scholarly and technical books/journals fear that requiring their reports to be placed on “open-access journals and public databases” such as the National Institutes of Health’s PubMed Central would threaten their subscription models. Congress may pass such a bill this year.

Dezenhall reportedly recommended that AAP stick with “simple messages,” such as “public access equals government censorship.”

Barbara Meredith, VP at AAP, told Nature that it’s “common to hire a PR firm when you’re under siege.”

Meredith refused to talk to O’Dwyer’s about DR but released a statement. It says though “some commentators have expressed surprise that the publishing industry is making its case about an important issue that could affect the future of research and science, the group believes it’s important to be clear about serious unintended consequences of government mandated open access.”

Dezenhall told this NL he does not discuss client work.

PFIZER VISITS GLOVER PARK.

Pfizer, which has announced plans to slash 10,000 workers from its payroll, has hired Glover Park Group to lead its healthcare reform efforts.

Susan Brophy, who was deputy director for legislative affairs in the Clinton White House, is spearheading that drive. She joined GPG from Time Warner. Brophy was senior VP in TW’s global public policy office in D.C., and political advisor to CEO Dick Parsons.

GPG is the home of Howard Wolfson, chief spokesperson for Presidential candidate and New York Senator Hillary Clinton, and Joe Lockhart, President Clinton’s former press secretary.

Loretta Ucelli, Pfizer’s senior VP-worldwide communications, also served in the Clinton Administration as assistant to the President & director of communications.

Pfizer, which markets Viagra and Lipitor, expects to save $2B in its cost-cutting move. The $51B drug house is closing five manufacturing sites, including its Brooklyn plant. That facility is where cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart launched the company in 1849.

NO BID GSA CONTRACT ‘A MISTAKE.’

Lurita Alexis Doan, who was appointed last April 6 as the first woman administrator in the history of the General Services Administration, has admitted it was a "mistake" to give a $20,000 contract to the Public Affairs Group and two of its divisions, the Business Women's Network and Diversity Best Practices.

Edie Fraser, who was active in PRSA for many years, founding and serving as the first chair of its Public Affairs section in 1981, is president and CEO of the PA Group.

Fraser and 30 staffers serve more than 160 Fortune 500 companies, 20 government agencies and hundreds of women, diversity and communications organizations.

She is the founder and president of diversitybestpractices.com, in which more than 125 Fortune 500 companies and government agencies are participants.

The Washington Post on Jan. 19 did a lengthy feature on Doan cataloging a number of complaints that have been made about her administration and leading off the article with the no-bid contract given to the PA Group for a 24-page report promoting the GSA's use of minority and woman-owned businesses.

Doan Admits ‘Mistake’

Doan told the Post she made a "mistake" in offering the contract to the PA Group last July, two months after she was appointed, without taking other bids.

She said she was immediately told that this was the wrong procedure and the contract was canceled.

"No money changed hands, no contract changed hands," she told the Post.
Fraser told odwyerpr.com the same thing. "The contract was canceled within two weeks and we did no work on it."

The BWN provides a clearinghouse for women's business topics and a network in the U.S. and more than 100 countries.

Its website, BWNi.com, provides an array of information on women's business topics. BWN conducts an annual summit and Diversity Gala.

Fraser is the author of Risk to Riches: Women's Entrepreneurship in America. Fraser also works closely with LATINAStyle and Enterprising Women magazines. BWN reaches out to some 7,000 women's organizations. Fraser has published The Directory of Women's Assns., Women on Corporate Boards, Women and Technology and Women and Access to Capital.

JACKSON SPALDING LOVES BARI.

Bari Love, who once ran Ogilvy PR Worldwide’s Atlanta office, is now at Jackson Spalding, the No. 2 independent firm in that city. She counseled clients such as Burger King, Brand Atlanta, Stiefel Laboratories, Lipton and Carolinas Healthcare.

Bo Spalding says Love’s “tireless work ethic” is going to be a big plus for his firm’s client roster. That includes Chick-fil-A Bowl, Home Depot, Coca-Cola, Delta and Publix Supermarkets.

Love, a 20-year PR veteran, also was executive VP at Fletcher Martin Ewing and president of PRSA’s Georgia chapter.

WM TACKLES CREDIT CARD FEES.

The Merchant Payment Coalition issued a statement via Weber Merritt to applaud Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) who has kicked off hearings on the credit card industry and the fees that it imposes on consumers.

The new chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs put credit cards “on notice” at last week’s opening session called “Examining the Billing, Marketing, Disclosure Practices of the Credit Card Industry and Their Impact on Consumers.”

He is worried because the amount of credit card fees has “skyrocketed.” The MPC would appreciate Dodd look at the “interchange fee,” the biggest fee consumers have never heard of.” It claims that Visa and MasterCard generated more than $30B in such fees slapped on merchants in `06.

MPC includes groups like the Food Marketing Institute, National Council of Chain Restaurants, and the National Retail Federation.

Christy Moran heads the MPC account at WM. She is former communications chief at the National Football Players Assn. and a veteran of Weber Shandwick and Qorvis.

SITRICK REPS DUBAI HEAD.

Sitrick & Co. provides PR services to Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who became ruler of Dubai last year.

The Los Angeles-based firm’s PR contract is with Dubai’s law firm DLA Piper. Sitrick receives a minimum $60K annual fee, and bills the client from $165 to $695 an hour.

Dubai, one of the fastest growing economics in the world, announced Jan. 22 plans to invest $7.5B to establish free trade zones in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. It ran afoul of the U.S. Congress last year after an attempt to take over control of some U.S. ports.

Sitrick is an independent firm that is 76 percent-owned by the Michael and Nancy Sitrick Trust. An ESOP controls the remaining 24 percent.

McGRATH JOINS FD/CHICAGO.

Financial Dynamics has added Hill & Knowlton's Michael McGrath to its Chicago office. As senior VP, McGrath reports to Harlan Loeb, director of FD's litigation practice and fellow H&K alumnus.

McGrath, prior to H&K, was senior communications and policy advisor to the president of the American Bar Assn. He handled media relations, legislative outreach and speechwriting.

McGrath also was in charge of PR business development for the National Council of YMCA's Knowledge Management Group. He is slated to become PRSA/Chicago president in `08.

Jones Day, which has had a long relationship with the People's Republic of China, is now keeping an eye on Congress for the Chinese. The firm has a $180K pact to work for the Embassy's Congressional Liaison Office. JD will monitor and report on legislation that could affect U.S.-China ties.

TIME SENDS OMEGA ITS ‘REGRETS.’

Time magazine, which in its Jan. 5 issue called Omega World Travel a “spammer” in a headline, has issued its “regrets” for not “making it clear that ‘spammer’ is merely an allegation by [Mark] Mumma and that the company’s e-mails had complied with federal anti-spam laws.”

Time printed its “regrets” in its Feb. 5 issue published Jan. 26 in print and on its website.

The full-page Jan. 5 story was headlined, “A Spammer’s Revenge,” and had the subhead: “Don’t call a junk mailer that, or you could get sued. His right to free speech trumps your right to privacy.”

Author was Reynolds Holding, a lawyer who covers legal topics for Time.
Said Time: “Omega World Travel has challenged this article (see their attorneys’ letter below). Time regrets characterizing Omega and its subsidiary as ‘spammers’ without making it clear that ‘spammer’ is merely an allegation by Mumma and that the company’s e-mails had complied with federal anti-spam laws.”

OWT Charges Defamation

Time carried the response by OWT’s attorneys as follows:

“Time’s article titled A Spammer’s Revenge (Jan. 15) by Reynolds Holding, is stunningly irresponsible and defames our clients, Omega World Travel and its subsidiary, Cruise.com, who are falsely identified as ‘spammers’ in that article.
“The article is based on several allegations made over the past two years by Mark Mumma, a defendant in a defamation lawsuit filed by Omega against him and his company, Mummagraphics, Inc.

“Omega alleged that Mr. Mumma engaged in a smear campaign waged on his many websites to brand our clients ‘criminal spammers’ after Omega refused to pay Mr. Mumma $6,250 to avoid a lawsuit he threatened to file.”

The attorneys for OWT, James P. Hodges and Thomas P. Powell, further stated that OWT was identified in e-mails to Mumma and that charges against OWT by Mumma were dismissed by a federal court and by a federal court of appeals.

Said the attorneys: “Time’s article has damaged the sterling reputation of our clients, a reputation that was built over 35 years by Gloria and Daniel Bohan through their commitment to their customers and partners to provide the most professional travel-related services in their industry. Much of the information about this case was provided to Time before the article was written.

“Despite those facts, and the [court] decisions that vindicated our clients, they continue to be identified as spammers by Mr. Mumma, and Time has amplified that accusation through its considerable credibility and distribution. Nothing could be further from the truth—Omega and Cruise.com are not ‘spammers.’”

JPMORGAN UPGRADES SIRIUS.

Sirius Satellite Radio earned an upgrade on its stock by JPMorgan to "overweight" from "neutral" as investors look for a merger deal with archrival XM Radio.

The bank likes Sirius' growth prospects and feels a pact with XM may be hammered out by the end of the year.

Sirius, on Jan. 9, announced an $82M stock payment to its poster boy host, Howard Stern, as subscriber growth exceeded target goals set out in the shock jock's contract by more than two million.

The Stern pact, which went into effect in October `04, established an end of year '06 goal of 3.5M subscribers.

The New York-based company wrapped up the past year with 6.0M listeners.

BARTIROMO CITED IN CITIGROUP FLAP.

The Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 24 on its front page that Citigroup wealth management unit chief Todd Thomson was ousted last week in part because of expenses connected with CNBC’s anchor Maria Bartiromo.

The 45-year-old Thomson, who was considered CEO material, used more than $5M to sponsor a TV program on the Sundance Channel that was to feature Bartiromo and Robert Redford.

That show, sponsored by Citigroup's Smith Barney, was to have Bartiromo host a segment on the "financial aspects of environmental innovation in business," according to the WSJ.

Thomson did not clear the program with Citigroup CEO Charles Prince. He viewed the tie-in as a "creative way" for Citigroup to support "green" issues.

Prince, who is in a cost-cutting mode, had ordered Thomson not to spend any more money on Bartiromo.

That edict was issued, according to WSJ, after Thomson arranged in November for the anchor to speak at meetings of Citigroup clients in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Thomson flew to Asia with Citigroup execs, but returned on a private corporate jet with Bartiromo, reports the WSJ.

Kevin Goldman, spokesperson for CNBC, says Bartiromo asked for permission before flying with Thomson, and CNBC paid for her flight.

Bartiromo hosts CNBC's "Wall Street Journal Report with Maria Bartiromo." She will not do the Sundance program.

CNBC issued a statement that said Bartiromo had done nothing wrong.

MEREDITH ACQUIRES SOCIAL MEDIA FIRM.

Meredith Corp. has acquired New Media Strategies, an online market intelligence and word-of-mouth-marketing firm. Meredith played up NMS' social media marketing strategies and information on that sector in announcing the deal.

NMS will continue under that name in its base of Arlington, Va., where it staffs nearly 70. It will operate under Meredith's integrated marketing division.

Meredith publishes 26 subscription magazines like Family Circle and Fitness, and more than 200 special interest publications.

(Media news continued on next page)

Corporate Image Continues Low.

The Wall Street Journal’s eighth annual ranking of the best and worst corporate reputations, due out this week, will show that most members of the general public have a low regard for corporate America.

WSJ news editor and senior writer Ronald Alsop told a seminar on reputation management last week at New York University that while he could not reveal specific results of the survey, he could say that a trend of five years concerning corporate reputation has continued.

Seventy percent of respondents, in answer to the question, "How do you rate corporate America's reputation in general?" answered "not good" or "terrible."
He said consumers do not see companies living up to their word. The answer, he said, is for companies to be more "sincere."

Options, Salaries Said to be Causes

New drivers of the public's low opinion of companies, said Alsop, who is the author of The 18 Immutable Laws of Corporate Reputation, are stories about escalating CEO salaries and the backdating of options.

Other speakers on the program, moderated by John Doorley, director of the NYU M.S. program in public relations and corporate communications, were Helio Fred Garcia, NYU adjunct professor; Barri Rafferty, partner and director, Ketchum/New York; Dennis Garritan, associate professor, M.S. in Human Resource Mgmt. at NYU, and Bruce Baulch, senior director, information technology, NYU Medical Center.

CRS is New Focus of Companies

One big change from eight years ago, said Alsop, is that corporations are now focusing more on corporate citizenship and corporate social responsibility.

“The biggest challenge,” he said, “is communicating CSR without appearing to be insincere or self-serving.”

Virtually all of the respondents (97%) said companies should be responsible to all of their stakeholders including communities, employees, the environment, etc., and not just to their stockholders.

Nine of ten respondents say it's okay for companies to tell the public about their acts of good corporate citizenship.

Half of the respondents said they would be responsive to ads about such good acts while half said they would only be receptive to more low-key means such as mentions in the annual report or on the company website.

Companies Cause Own Problems

Garcia said companies in most instances "inflict their own wounds" and are slow to recognize faults. CEOs are surrounded by people who like to report good news, he said.

Above all, he continued, companies must not appear to be "indifferent" to the welfare of the public during a crisis.

The "timing and quality" of the response is important in a crisis situation, he said.
"Flailing and looking helpless" in a crisis does not do the corporate reputation any good, he said.

WERDEN: USE CAUTION WITH BLOGS.

Publicists have to be careful when dealing with bloggers because some of them play fast and lose with the facts, Bob Werden, co-founder of Entertainment Publicists Professional Society, told the group’s winter mixer held at the Los Angeles Times’ Chandler Auditorium.

A blogger could write that the world is flat and that nugget could remain forever on the Internet, he explained.

Jim Arnold, an independent publicist in Hollywood, feels the jury is still out on blogs, and that it will take years before leaders emerge in the blogosphere.

Technorati reports there are more than 61 million blogs and about 175,000 new ones created each day. Thirty-four percent of the group identify themselves as journalists.

Publish then Apologize

While Hollywood publicist Ron Carter criticized bloggers who publish then apologize, Lance Webster, of LW Communications, noted that the mainstream media also make mistakes. "Does TMZ.com get it wrong sometimes, yes, but so do TV newspaper critics, and we've had entertainment critics since the '20s and '30s."

Webster, who produces TPEC Guide, a media reference directory for entertainment publicists, said it is all about "who pays attention to the news they generate and which blog gets the breaking news."

The former EPPS secretary provided the following advice for pitching blogs: 1. Identify and monitor relevant blogs that cover your clients or industry; 2. Visit about 10 -15 and determine which ones appear to do a good job; 3. Check back when you find a good match and subscribe to them; 4. Don't call bloggers, email them they're always online, and 5. Mostly importantly, update them. Bloggers don't have the same limitation of a newspaper or magazine.

"People who trust TV critics and writers will trust their blogs, but it is a delicate dance," said Webster.

Amy Morganroth, a student from Loyola Marymount, won an O'Dwyer's Directory at the EPPS event.

BUSINESS 2.0 ‘HONORS’ WAL-MART.

Wal-Mart tops Business 2.0's list of the "dumbest moments in business" in `06 for its "attempt to put a smiley face on its tarnished image" by hiring "heavy duty PR firm Edelman, which set about using tactics derived from political races to reverse perceptions of the giant retailer."

The result: "candidate Wal-Mart becomes the most popular politician since Spiro Agnew."

B2.0 decided to "award" Wal-Mart five other spots on its list because the retailer suffered such a stunning series of PR gaffes.

Those included recruiting former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young, who then accused Jews, Koreans and Arabs for ripping off black communities; the messy ouster of marketing ace Julie Roehm, and the bogus blog from Edelman about camping in store parking lots and happy Wal-Mart workers.

This is a Brief History of PRSA for the benefit of its new president/COO Bill Murray. Our coverage dates back to 1962–45 years or three-quarters of PRSA’s 60-year history. We covered PRSA as ad columnist for the N.Y. Journal- American from 1962-66 and then in our own NL.

For its first 30 years, PRSA operated under an unethical code that barred members from pitching each other’s accounts or jobs and barred them from working on a contingency basis. Oddly, it was okay for them to pitch the accounts/jobs of non-members.

The Federal Trade Commission, in a mid-1970’s crackdown on window-dressing ethics codes, visited PRSA in 1976 and told it to amend its code. “Every time members of some group want to cut down on competition, they get together and call themselves a profession,” an FTC staffer told this NL. The Assembly refused, saying the counseling business would become “a jungle.” So the FTC in 1977 forced PRSA to sign a formal consent decree and publicize this to members nationwide.

Besides being unethical, the code only said members had to be “prepared” to reveal a client behind a release but not actually reveal it. Ethics chair Bob Frause, investigating a high profile case in 1999, said PRSA was “powerless” in the face of member recalcitrance and the code was “defunct.”A new code was adopted with no enforcement mechanism.

From 1976 to 1995 (19 years), PRSA distributed packets of articles clipped from sources such as Ad Age, New York Times, PR Quarterly, this NL and other PR trades plus whole chapters of textbooks. Volume grew so big (3,800 packets yearly in the early 1990s) that copies were made and sent with a request for their return. This “anthologizing” activity had a $65,000 gross profit in one year. A triple gate-fold flyer advertised nearly 1,000 types of packets ($55 for non-members, $17 for members). None of the authors was ever asked for permission. PRSA admitted the improper copying but wouldn’t pay them a nickel. The authors hired a lawyer but were told costs could reach $200K+ since PRSA was certain to counter-sue. What were the ethical sensibilities of leaders, members and staff that allowed decades of anti-trust behavior and theft of authors’ works?

Control of PRSA flipped in the 1970s from the big New York companies and PR firms to smaller chapters when the “Gang of Four” (Pat Jackson, Frank Wylie, Carl Hawver, Ken Smith) ousted the New Yorkers. This NL had revealed in 1969 that leaders of PRSA mostly came from private New York-based groups such as PR Seminar and the Wise Men. Jackson said that 2% of members (“the big names”) were controlling it. All four became PRSA presidents, Hawver in 1974, Smith, 1977, Wylie, 1978, and Jackson,1980. The presidency is much coveted because it not only looks good on a resume but includes a year of virtually unlimited expenses, free lifetime dues, and free lifetime passes to the annual conference (worth $1,000 yearly).

The “populist” board, packing the Assembly, allowed chapters to balloon from 60 in 1970 to 100+ in the 1980s, some with as few as ten members but the voting power of a chapter with 100. Solo PR pros now became presidents instead of VPs of big companies like Kerryn King of Texaco and Don McCammond of American Can and heads of major PR firms (George Hammond, Kal Druck). The populists chased New York PR pros from the staff when Betsy Kovacs took over as COO in 1980. Staff and officers adopted Jackson’s attitude to the press (“duck ‘em and screw ‘em”). They splurged on their favorite program, APR, disdained by New Yorkers. APR lost $2.7 million from1987-2001. In 2000, when 246 new APRs were created at a net cost of $441,467, the average subsidy per new APR was $1,794. After spending four years and $250,000 on a new test that debuted in 2003, PRSA found few takers either in itself or in other groups.

The smaller chapters and solo PR pros had their way with APR but not when they wanted to move h.q. out of New York. Seven cities argued for the move in the mid-1980s and the Assembly voted twice to do it. The staff threatened to quit en masse and the board over-ruled the Assembly and permanently canceled the spring Assembly.

The era of staff dominance of PRSA was illustrated by the move of h.q. downtown for 13 years, thus saving the jobs of staff while eliminating use of h.q. by New Yorkers (an element in PRSA feels New Yorkers should have no more use of h.q. than a chapter in, say, Des Moines). Staff and leaders canceled the printed members’ directory (without asking the members). This was so arduous a task that the directory started coming out in October and in 2000, staff just skipped that year’s edition. Killing the directory freed staffers (payroll: $5 million) to spend even more time on their true love, the annual conference, which attracts 4% of members and loses upwards of $2M.

What PRSA fears is a major medium doing a 60th anniversary story on it this year. Debra Miller, first African-American president in 1997, was slated to be kicked off the board because the board feared she would attract too much attention to PRSA in its 50th anniversary year.

When she won election as a write-in candidate, the board claimed PRSA was “chartered” in 1998 although its directories had said PRSA was “founded in 1947.” PRSA even sought a stamp saying “1947-1997.”

Murray, to show he has any power, must hire a CPA staffer. No individual CPA would allow the misleading financial reports that PRSA gets away with including failure to defer at least $2M in dues income; failure to fully report staff time on the annual conference, and the recent removal of $2.5M in administrative costs from 13 activities. CPA firms will sign off on almost anything as Arthur Andersen, etc., proved.

--Jack O'Dwyer