OGILVY GETS $9M PANDEMIC ACCOUNT.

Ogilvy PR Worldwide’s Washington, D.C., office has been tapped by the Dept. of Health and Human Services for a three-year contract worth up to $9M to support a public affairs response to a pandemic influenza in the U.S.

Linda Weinberg, senior VP and co-group director of Ogilvy’s D.C. social marketing unit, heads the account.

Ogilvy will support HHS’ Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs to develop PR efforts educating Americans about steps to protect themselves during and after a pandemic.

That includes public health and emergency preparedness research, crisis preparation, “coalition building,” media relations and other work.

SALEM BURNISHES IMAGE.

Salem will issue an RFP by April 1 to promote the image of Oregon’s capital city.

The city council approved that proposal of Mayor Janet Taylor on Feb. 5, according to the Statesman Journal.

One element of the program is to highlight the quality and future availability of the water supply for the city with 150K people.

Salem’s water was rated “Best of the West” at the Pacific Northwest Section of the American Water Works Assn. `06 conference.

That rating was based on appearance, odor, taste and aftertaste. Salem’s Public Works may bottle water for use as a promotional item.

The “Cherry City” also is in year 10 of a 15-year project to double its water capacity.

Water is a big issue in the western U.S. and Salem’s abundant supply is a lure to high-tech and other manufacturers.

KLINE TO OXY PETE.

Richard Kline, who was regional president at Fleishman-Hillard, has left the Omnicom unit for the VP-communications & PA slot at Occidental Petroleum. He replaces Larry Meriage, who is retiring.

Kline had served as chief spokesperson for F-H during the Doug Dowie bilking ordeal.

He told O’Dwyer’s that he planned to retire from F-H, but Oxy Pete made him an offer that he couldn’t refuse.

Kline joined F-H nearly a decade ago. He co-founded Berkhemer & Kline, which he sold to GolinHarris. Kline was president of Shandwick USA before joining F-H in `97.

HALLIBURTON HIRES PATTON BOGGS.

Halliburton has hired Patton Boggs and its Qorvis Communications affiliate as the energy services company is a focus of House Oversight and Government Reform chairman Rep. Henry Waxman, who has kicked off hearings on waste and fraud in Iraq reconstruction.

Waxman grilled former Ambassador Paul Bremer last week. The Congressman believes more than $12B in reconstruction money has not been accounted for.

The Los Angeles Democrat said his committee “owes it to the American people” to find out where the missing cash went.

The Army announced during those hearings that it is withholding $19.6M from Halliburton for a contract breach.

BUONOCORE TO REPLACE MARTIN AT ITT.

Angela Buonocore, VP of corporate communications for The Pepsi Bottling Group, has been named by ITT Corp. to succeed the retiring Tom Martin as VP of corporate relations.

She joined Pepsi in 1994 and most recently headed its PR and internal communications apparatus.

Previously, she was with IBM for 11 years and earlier held advertising, PR and marketing posts in a five-year career at GE.

Martin announced his retirement last July to pursue teaching and writing. He stepped down as ITT wrapped up its “engineered for life” re-branding effort.

Martin joined the company in 1996 after nearly two decades with FedEx, culminating as VP of corporate communications.

BBJ RANKS 35 BOSTON PR FIRMS BY STAFF.

The Boston Business Journal Feb. 1 reported staff counts at 35 local firms including four PR operations owned by ad conglomerates which usually do not allow their PR firms to take part in such surveys.

The four provided staff counts on a form that was distributed by the BBJ. Revenues were not requested. BBJ only reported on agencies that filled out the forms.

Based solely on staff counts, the biggest firm was Schwartz Communications, with 141 staffers including 132 who work on "PR."

No. 2 is Regan Communications, all of whose 71 staffers are employed in PR.

Regan, growing from 37 employees and one office in 2000, now has branches in Jupiter, Fla.; Hartford; Providence, and Cape Cod.

Client include the Boston Celtics, New Balance,

(Continued on page 7)

DOWIE GOES HOLLYWOOD.

Former Fleishman-Hillard Los Angeles chief Doug Dowie, who eyes a 42-month jail term for bilking that city, is working on a script, “Conflict of Interest,” that is “loosely based on the case.” It “has a lot more about the PR biz,” Dowie told O’Dwyer’s.

He also is putting final touches on a screenplay about the brass-knuckled world of L.A. politics. He provided this website with a draft of “Anonymous Sources,” which deals with L.A. buzzing about speculation that its Mayor may be linked to the death of a beautiful young fundraiser who was found dead in the trunk of her car.

The hero of the tale is the Mayor’s PR advisor—an ex-Marine and former newspaper man like Dowie—and his damage control operation.

Noted Hollywood producer Jonathan Sanger, “The Producers” and “The Elephant Man,” has optioned Dowie’s screenplay.

The former F-H exec, who maintains his innocence and plans to appeal his conviction, has been working with Sarah Black on re-writes.

She is a former senior VP at Tom Cruise’s production company.

Dowie sees “Conflict of Interest” as a project that could be the basis of a series on HBO or Showtime. His goal: “I hope to do for L.A. City Hall what the Sopranos did for New Jersey.” 

CN TO GUIDE S.C. VOTER OUTREACH.

South Carolina has tapped Columbia-based Chernoff Newman for a statewide voter education effort aimed to reach a “higher level of service” for voters in the key presidential nominating state.

Trone, Integrated Marketing Solutions, The Bounce Agency, and Tom Sawyer Co. also expressed an interest in the account, which covers public relations, events, collateral and some advertising work.

ASA1931, a Mt. Pleasant, S.C., ad agency, had previously worked with the state on voter education efforts, including its overall “Every Vote Matters. Every Vote Counts” campaign which will be replaced with CN’s concept.

First-year budget is $497K for the new pact, which could stretch to 2011 with a cap of $2.5M.

RENO TO OGILVY.

Tom Reno, who joined Text 100 in August as president/North America and chief of its global corporate communications practice, has moved to Ogilvy PR Worldwide as head of its New York corporate practice group.

He was in charge of Hill & Knowlton’s New York flagship office prior to shifting to Text. He had joined H&K in `04 from GCI Group, where he served as president of its NYC operation.

Earlier, Reno headed Makovsky & Co.’s IR group, served as managing director at Citigate Communications, worked as director at Torrance Group/AFGL International, held a VP post at Marcus Grubard Communications and headed corporate communications at Huberman, Margaretten & Straus.

ROWLAND DIES AT 81.

Herbert L. Rowland, founder of one of the dominant independent PR firms from the 1970s and 1980s until he sold it to Saatchi & Saatchi in 1985, died Feb. 8 in his home in Brentwood, Calif. He was 81.

The cause was complications from multiple myeloma, said his wife Patricia.

Rowland earned a B.S. from City College of New York in 1948 and an M.A. from Columbia University in English in 1951. He was a reporter for the New York Times from 1949-50 and later with Where magazine and TV Week magazine.

He joined Roger Brown, New York PR firm, in 1954, which later became Brown & Rowland. The Rowland Co. was established in 1961.

S&S purchased the company for $10 million cash and a payout based on a multiple of ten times the after-tax profits during the next five years through Dec. 31, 1989. Pre-tax profits were $2.17M in 1984 or 21% of Rowland's gross of $10.5M.

Gray and Co., Washington, D.C., had also made attempts to buy the firm, which was noted for its blue chip clients such as Procter & Gamble, IBM, DuPont, Canon, Johnson & Johnson, Nestle, Sandoz, Toyota, Eastman Kodak, Corning & 3M.

Robert Marston, who formed Robert Marston and Assocs. after working for many years at the Rowland firm, said Rowland developed the "highly successful PR strategy of showing clients how they could promote their products by targeting a single market or cluster of markets that collectively reached their prime audience."

Rowland labeled it, "Target Marketing." Clients focused on U.S. markets that "met their exacting demographic criteria," said Marston.

Rowland Co. senior managers made an attempt in 1995 to buy the firm back from what had become Cordiant. However, they were rebuffed.

Rowland was folded into an U.S. entity called Publicis Consultants|PR by its French parent last month.

TOP OFFICIALS SHOULD PAY FOR ‘TERROR.’

Boston counselor George Regan, interviewed on MSNBC and CNBC about the Cartoon Network ads in public places that set off a temporary panic in Boston this month, said that the responsibility for the campaign rested with officials of Turner Broadcasting and its parent, Time Warner.

Turner and Interference Inc., its New York marketing agency, have agreed to pay $2M to federal, state and local agencies to cover costs of the disruption.

Regan, interviewed Feb. 1 for the “On the Money” show hosted by Lisa Daniels of NBC News, Boston, said officials of Time Warner, the largest communications company in the world, and its subsidiary, Turner Broadcasting, should take the blame.

Interviewed by Norah O’Donnell on MSNBC Feb. 1, Regan said, “This communications company has a lot to do. And they should probably start by firing many people at the top command.”

The people who are really responsible, he said, are “some suits at Turner and Time Warner.”

WORLDCOM HAS 24/7 CRISIS TEAM.

Worldcom PR Group, the largest network of independent PR firms, has set up a “Global Rapid Response Team” to respond quickly to PR crises that may develop anywhere in the world.

Prospective clients can reach coordinator Tom Donoghue 24/7 via 403/815-0079. Individual Worldcom members are reachable via 800/955-9675 or through the group's website, worldcomgroup.com.

Tom Donoghue is chairman for Worldcom's crisis team.

Worldcom chairman Jim Holt said, “The team is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, ready to pull together from any point on the map at a moment's notice, senior communications counsel and strategists to address challenges and threats facing clients during a crisis or controversy.”

Clients need “executives on the ground in a hurry” when a crisis of some sort erupts and the Rapid Response Team can have “seasoned communications professionals on the job immediately who know the country, the language and the culture,” he said.

Members of Worldcom, established in 1988, have 100 offices in 133 cities on six continents.

They are required to attend regional and worldwide meetings twice a year so that they can develop personal relationships with each other.

“Organizations with global interests must bridge cultural gaps, speak local languages, understand the intricacies of local social, political and economic forces and adapt to local conditions,” said Donoghue, chairman of the Crisis Communications and Issues Practice Group.

He heads Donoghue & Assocs., Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Holt is a principal of Holt, Mulroy & Germann Public Affairs, Bridgewater, N.J.

PACZKOWSKI TO WSJ SITE.

John Paczkowski, who has blogged at the “Good Morning Silicon Valley” site since '99, is joining a new Wall Street Journal tech site next month.

GMSV is an offshoot of the San Jose Mercury News and pokes fun at the “tech industry and the personalities that drive it,” according to Paczkowski's farewell blog.

John Murrell is now in charge of GMSV.

Paczkowski will pen a daily news report at the allthingsd.com. That site is an extension of the WSJ's "D: All Things Digital" conference that is hosted by Walt Mossberg, who writes the paper's "Personal Technology" column, and Kara Swisher, who reports on tech developments from San Francisco.

The conference last year featured Bill Gates, former Microsoft CEO; Al Gore, ex-Vice President and Current TV chairman; Howard Stringer, CEO at Sony, and Bob Iger, CEO at Walt Disney Co.

Viacom has retained UBS Investment Bank to shop for a buyer of its "Famous Music" publishing operation that has more than 125,000 titles under copyright.

That music includes songs by Busta Rymes and Eminem and soundtracks from movies such as "Forrest Gump," and "The Godfather." FM was founded in 1928.

SLOANE WORKS PRIMEDIA DEAL.

Sloane & Co. is handling Primedia's auction of its "enthusiast media" group of more than 70 magazines and 90 websites.

Those titles generated more than $500 million in `06 revenues, and include Motor Trend, Hot Rod, Snowboarder, Stereophile and Surfer.

Primedia completed in January the $170M sale of its outdoors group to InterMedia Partners.

Chairman Dean Nelson said that impressive price tag encouraged him to put the enthusiast unit on the auction block. "The board believes the market environment is extremely favorable for the sale of the enthusiast media segment," said Nelson in a statement.

Primedia, which is 60 percent owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is exploring a spin-off of its Consumer Source Inc., which is the No. 1 publisher of free auto, apartment and real estate consumer guides.

Elliot Sloane and Joshua Hochberg handle the Primedia account.

EDITOR NAMED COLO. GOV'S PR HEAD.

Evan Dreyer, who was city editor for the Denver Post, is now communications director for Colorado's new governor Bill Ritter.

Ritter’s journalism claim to fame is covering two of the grisliest stories of recent times.

Those were the Heaven's Gate cult mass suicide story while projects editor at the North County Times in San Diego, and the Columbine High School student slayings for the Post.

He stuck with the Columbine story for a year following the slaughter.

Dryer joined the Post in `98 as night editor.

GARDNER HEADS DIGITAL FOR JC.

Carl Gardner, executive VP of TV, radio and digital interactive media for Journal Broadcast Group, Milwaukee, has been named to the new post of VP of digital media for parent company Journal Communications.

JC publishes the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 75 community newspapers, and operates 36 radio stations in 12 states.

The company said it wants Gardner to play a key role as it looks to distribute content across multiple platforms in a changing media environment. He joined JBG in 1991 serving as GM of two radio stations in Milwaukee – WTMJ-AM and WKTI-FM. He was later named president of the radio division.

About.com has tapped the rising popularity of web video with the addition of 500 new videos to its site. The portal, owned by The New York Times Co., said the move responds to users who want new ways to interact and advertisers that want more creative ways to reach them.

About sites report 32M monthly visitors (Nielsen/NetRatings). Info: at video.about.com.adio for the company.

(Media news continued on next page)

KOPPEL RAPS CONSULTANT-DRIVEN NEWS.

Ted Koppel rapped consultant-driven newscasts during a speech in Florida last week for putting an emphasis on entertainment rather than hard news.

The former ABC News “Nightline” anchor talked about intensive pressure to appeal to the 18-to-35 year age bracket, a group considered golden by marketers.

Broadcasters are careful, said Koppel, to dish out programs they think the targeted demographic group wants to see vs. news based on sound journalism principles.

The newsroom as “profit center” is not something that appeals to Koppel who reminisced about the days when news producers had a freer rein to broadcast news that was good, bad or otherwise.

Koppel spoke at the National Association of Home Builders Show in Orlando on Feb. 7.

He predicted a long occupation of Iraq because of the U.S. dependence on the region's oil.

If the U.S. brought its troops home, oil is the one element that could destabilize the region, he said. That's why U.S. generals refer to Iraq as the “Long War,” a struggle that could go on for generations, said the newsman.

Koppel is managing editor of The Discovery Channel and a contributing columnist at the New York Times. He does commentaries for National Public Radio

GUILDS IN LABOR STANDOFF.

The New York Newspaper Guild of New York is criticizing the Writers Guild of America East for making “offensive demands” amid contract negotiations between the two entities.

Staff of the Writers Guild of America East were on hand at the Writers Guild Awards gala in New York on Feb. 11 to urge union members to support staffers’ efforts to negotiate a “fair” contract with the Newspaper Guild.

WGAE employees are repped by the Newspaper Guild, which has been negotiating with WGAE management since October for a contract. "We reluctantly are forced to go public over the WGAE's more offensive demands of its own employees, including denying them fair rights to arbitration and just cause for termination," said N.Y. Newspaper Guild President Barry Lipton.

Lipton said the WGAE has rejected fair wage proposals, and insists on the unilateral right to subcontract positions currently held by staff.

The Newspaper Guild said it has two unfair labor practice charges pending against the WGAE with the National Labor Relations Board.

The WGAE represents writers and other creative professionals in news and entertainment.

MAG: VEGAS IS FAT CITY.

Men’s Health magazine has provided PR fodder for U.S. cities with its ranking of the fattest and fittest locales.

Las Vegas has earned the distinction of fattest city in America as it climbs from the No. 2 spot last year. San Antonio jumped 11 spots to land at No. 2, followed by Miami, Mesa, Ariz., and Los Angeles.On the fit site, Albuquerque, N.M., rose from No. 13 to the top slot in 2007, followed by Seattle, Colorado Springs, Minneapolis (up from 21 last year), and Tucson.

Milwaukee was declared the “most athletic city” and Memphis was said to watch the most TV. Cleveland was named the junk food capital of the U.S.

MH said it spent months pouring over data that make real people fit or fat, like how often people are exercising, how healthfully they eat, how much they use gym memberships, how much junk food they consume, and how much time they spend in traffic. It also talked to mayors and city parks departments about local exercise venues, programs designed to get citizens off their couches and moving, and civic leadership.

Las Vegas had more fast food restaurants than every city but Cleveland, and “extremely inactive” residents.

Briefs __________________

Washington, D.C., PR firm Issue Dynamics is managing a new website steeping in social networking that aims to provide commentary on energy issues.

The Smarter Energy Policy Forum, www.smarterenergypolicy.com, includes contributions from various viewpoints on energy issues including consumer groups, industry reps, and pundits. Visitors can also contribute.

Hollywood Today, an entertainment industry newsmagazine, has developed a free syndicated newswire called Hollywood Hotwire.

The service includes short articles, blurbs and other news from HT interviews.

HT has also unveiled a new section on the impact of politics on the entertainment biz.

iFOS Publishing, Robbinsville, N.J., has launched an online interactive magazine for the parents of teenagers, ages 12 to 19 called ParentingTeensOnline. The publisher wants to fill “the information gap” on teen issues by offering solutions for parents to common problems with teens.

iFOS said an advisory board of professionals, as well as adjunct advisory boards made up of parents and teenagers, vet each article for the site to be sure it’s “cutting-edge, relevant, and on target.

MAG TARGETS TEEN PHONES.

Seventeen magazine has partnered with Verizon Wireless to produce content from the magazine for wireless customers.

Verizon has also struck a similar deal with Hearst’s CosmoGirl!

Dubbed Seventeen Mobile, the service is heavily interactive with polls, Q&As and quizzes, and recommends movies to see, books to read and activities to participate in.

Said Ann Shoket, editor-in-chief of Seventeen: "[Teens] take their phones with them everywhere and Seventeen will be there with them, providing everything they want to know about trends, offering expert advice and asking for their opinions, too."

PR pros from 20 groups gave advice to the State Dept. Jan. 10 on how to promote democracy and improve the image of the U.S. abroad (page 7).

The biggest PR group represented was PRSA, which claims 30,000 members including students.

Representing PRSA were Rhoda Weiss, chair and CEO, and Bill Murray, president and COO.

We have a problem with PRSA giving advice on promoting democracy in the Middle East and elsewhere (and especially while on hallowed government ground such as the State Dept. and Eisenhower Executive Office Bldg.) because PRSA leaders have shown such disregard for democratic principles.

Leaders have blocked most of PRSA’s members from running for national office since 1973. Current leaders, including Weiss (a director five years) show no interest in changing this.

Violated is PRSA’s promise to the FTC in 1977 to stop anti-competitive practices (after 30 years of a “code” with anti-competitive articles).

A move to democratize PRSA last year, headed by Mark Holoweiko of Central Michigan, was “Swift-boated” by leaders who falsely said it would be too costly (the 290-member Assembly becoming the “board” and requiring insurance on all members) and was unneeded because the Assembly already had the power to tell the board what to do (which it doesn’t). Worse yet, the well-researched proposal, patterned after the American Bar and American Medical Assns. and made in April, was withheld from the membership until November. There was no debate on the PRSA website (except in private “e-groups” barred to most members) nor in its publications as there would have been were PRSA a democracy. The State Dept. and EEOB are symbols of the democratic way of life that the U.S. is currently spending heavily on in terms of life and money to spread abroad. Those who don’t follow such principles don’t belong there.

The death of Herb Rowland (page 2) recalls the era before most of the big PR firms sold out to ad conglomerates. Rowland, like all the other heads of the independents in the 1970s and 1980s, formed personal relationships with reporters. We were often a guest at his house in Westhampton Beach, swimming in his pool, playing tennis with him and enjoying his hospitality. We also visited the homes or had close relationships with the heads of every firm ranked among the “Top 15” in 1983. Ed Stanton of Manning, Selvage & Lee, Bob Wood of Carl Byoir, David Drobis and Paul Alvarez of Ketchum, etc., were “people” first and employees of their firms second. The current practice of the heads of conglomerate-owned firms is either to completely avoid reporters or be as formal as possible in dealing with them.

This attitude percolates down to staffers who behave the same way.

Rowland fought the idea of selling out for many years, telling us he did business with the clients of many ad agencies and did not want to lose such accounts. Saatchi & Saatchi convinced him he would be a “free-standing,” independent as part of a “holding company.” This did not pan out since some Rowland executives sought to buy the firm back in 1995 (Wall Street Journal 6/8/95) but were rebuffed by the then owner, Cordiant. To complete this story of the false “independence” promise, the Rowland name itself was dropped last month when it was folded into Publicis Consultants.

One reason Rowland sold out was that it had dropped from the Top Ten, thus cutting over-the-transom new business leads. It had been No. 6 in 1981 with $7.3M in fees but by 1984 was No. 12 with $10.3M.

What had started was a mad-cap race by the ad conglomerates to push their owned PR firms up the ladder by combining various PR units in the U.S. and abroad to achieve boxcar figures. The ad agencies had found that a high ranking was the best source of new ad business and figured this would also hold true in PR. Rowland and others were forced into mergers to keep up with this game. The big ad agencies, dissatisfied with the way the O’Dwyer Co. monitored growth (top pages of corporate income tax returns, CPA statements, W-3s, etc.), decided their PR firms would rank themselves via the Council of PR Firms, founded in 1998. PR firm revenues, freed from being substantiated (and also now including ad commissions), soared from the tens of millions to the hundreds of millions. Reported revenues of Porter Novelli, as orchestrated by Omnicom, soared from $45.8M in 1995 to $214M in 1999.

Another example is Brodeur (page one story) which sold out to Omnicom in 1993 and reported $9M in fees in 1995. It then became part of PN for four years and emerged with $70M in fees and 700 employees in 1999. As of 2007 it has about 50 employees in Boston vs. 252 claimed in 2000. Faced with fines and jail terms under Sarbanes-Oxley for reporting false figures, the conglomerates in 2003 stopped their hundreds of ad/PR units from reporting any fee or employee totals.

Howard Rubenstein, profiled in 12 pages of the New Yorker as a “gentle fixer,” is the head of New York’s most influential PR firm and also a “nice” person (page 7). He treats everyone, reporters included, more or less the same. His birthday parties that draw 3,000 to Tavern on the Green are examples of his broad appeal and generosity. Other examples of PR pros who proved that social skills are good for business are Bob Gray, a confidante of President Reagan whose connections in D.C. won him the cover of Time magazine, and Ben Sonnenberg of New York, legendary party-giver in the 1950s and 1960s...our admonition to members of groups to keep close tabs on the spending of the groups (Publicity Club of N.Y. and Overseas Press Club were victims of major embezzlements) was underscored by the fact that the pastor of our own church, St. Michael’s in Greenwich, has been ousted from his job after it was found that about $500,000 in funds are unaccounted for. It turns out he had a $202,000 powerboat and drove expensive cars.

--Jack O'Dwyer