NFPA ISSUES $600K FIRE ED CAMPAIGN.

The National Fire Protection Assn. has issued an RFP designed to educate more than two million people in Mississippi about fire safety behavior.

The Magnolia State has the highest fire death rate in the nation due to a combination of high poverty and smoking. Many poor Mississippians are fire risks because they use stoves and portable space heaters to heat their homes. Mississippi also ranks among the top 15 states in smoking, the No. 1 cause of fire deaths.

The NFPA wants a campaign that focuses on four topics: smoke alarm installation/maintenance, cooking, heating and smoking. The PR firm will coordinate its education efforts with the state’s 541 fire departments.

The budget is set at $600K for one-year. Proposals are due March 30 and the work is to begin on May 1.

Lorraine Carli, VP-Communications at NFPA, is answering questions. She is at 617/984-7275 or [email protected].

KRUPNICK TO H&S.

The well-traveled Elizabeth Krupnick has joined headhunter Heidrick & Struggles International as senior VP & chief marketing officer. She had been running her own firm, TKO Communications Consulting, since `04.

Krupnick, 57, established TKO after exiting MasterCard International as senior VP-global communications.

Earlier she held key PR posts at BCom3 Group – the Leo Burnett entity – New York Life (senior VP-corporate communications), Dewe Rogerson (president), Prudential Life (chief communications officer) and Aetna Life & Casualty (senior VP-corporate affairs).

IPG MAKES MONEY.

Interpublic reported $69 million in fourth-quarter `06 net income compared to a $23M year earlier loss as CEO Michael Roth works toward an `08 turnaround.

He downplayed a 1.3 percent dip in full-year revenues to $6.2B by playing up a 1.0 percent uptick in "organic growth."

That organic growth, according to Roth, was spearheaded by IPG's PR units (Weber Shandwick, MWW Group, GolinHarris) and the digital/direct mktg. units.
Roth said a key goal for `07 is to become "fully Sarbanes-Oxley compliant" by Dec. 31.

IPG posted an overall $32M full-year loss, down from a $272M `05 deficit. Roth labeled `06 a "solid year" as the company put a "strong foundation for the future in place." The CEO added that "there still remains much work to be done."

MANY INDEPENDENTS GROW 20%+.

Independent PR firms reporting figures for the O'Dwyer ranking had a banner year in 2006 with 20 of the 50 largest showing jumps of more than 20%.

Five of the top 15 had gains of 20%+ topped by the 52% gain of Integrated Corporate Relations of Westport, Conn., financial specialist, to $17.5 million.

Qorvis Communications, D.C., was up 31% to $23.9M; Alan Taylor Communications, New York, was up 35% to $18M (second biggest growth in the top ten) and Schwartz Communications, Waltham, Mass., up 22% to $26.6M. 5W PR, for the third year in a row, led the entire list with a gain of 85% to $9.3M in fees and rising to No. 21 in the rankings.

Biggest gain in dollar terms was registered by Edelman, rising 23.9% to $324.4M. About $8M of the $62.6M gain was due to six months of fees of A&R Partners, which was acquired last year.

Other big gainers in the top 50 were Healthstar, New York, healthcare specialist, rising 65% to $6.6M; Coyne PR, Parsippany, N.J., generalist, rising 53% to $7.6M, and Cerrell Assocs., L.A., public affairs and environmental specialist, rising 38% to $5.6M.

New to the rankings are generalist Regan Communications, Boston, No. 12 with $15M in fees, and financial specialist Lippert/Heilshorn Assocs., New York, No. 16 with $10.3M in fees.

Conglomerate PR Firms Absent

PR firms of the five ad/PR conglomerates did not report fee/employee totals for the fifth straight year.

Omnicom said its PR firms (Ketchum, Fleishman-Hillard, Porter Novelli, etc.) bill $1.2 billion and had a 10% growth in 2006. This includes gains from acquisitions. OMC spent $311M on acquisitions last year. It has $432M in earn-out obligations through 2010.

WPP said PR fees without acquisitions grew 5.9% in 2006 and with acquisitions were up 12.4%. It said "particularly strong" results were posted by Ogilvy PR Worldwide, Hill & Knowlton, Burson-Marsteller, Cohn & Wolfe, Finsbury and Buchanan. PR fees of WPP are 10.1% of revenues of $11.4B or $1.15B.

Interpublic, which had a 1.3% drop in overall revenues to $6.2B for 2006, does not break out PR but said organic growth in PR was "spearheaded by Weber Shandwick, MWW Group and Golin Harris."

Edelman Sees Expansion of ‘PR’

Richard Edelman, president/CEO of Edelman, said "PR" is being expanded to include tasks formerly performed by ad agencies. PR is coming up with marketing ideas that can be carried out by traditional PR as well as

(Continued on page 6)

EPA EYES WIDMEYER FOR CRISIS PACT.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s radiation unit has moved to award a crisis PR contract to Widmeyer Communications without a competitive review.

The EPA’s Radiation Protection Division said Widmeyer is uniquely qualified to support the federal agency as it implements a multi-faceted crisis communication program for use in case of a radiological emergency.

The firm has previously conducted focus groups with EPA emergency responders and communicators to develop responses in the event of such a disaster.
The latest effort would include a background assessment, development of a discussion guide with an online capability, and recruitment of officials for interviews, among other tasks.

WC handled a disaster PR assignment last year for the Washington, D.C., area.

BARAN SETS UP ‘GREEN SHOP.’

Josh Baran, who handled PR for Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” book/movie about the threat from global warming, has established RenewComm to provide “communications for the green industrial revolution.”

The former Edelman executive VP and Microsoft director of communications will counsel clients in the areas of renewable resources, green tech, clean energy, conservation, design and sustainable development.

He has counseled the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Amnesty International and Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

New York-based Baran is joined by Peter Kelley in Washington. He helped build the press shop at the National Environmental Trust and represented that group at the Kyoto, Japan, global warming treaty talks. Kelley also handled PR for American Rivers, League of Conservation Voters and Environment 2004.

RenewComm’s west coast operation is headed by Julie Buckner, former press secretary to California Sen. Barbara Boxer, who now heads the Senate’s environmental committee.

C&W SAYS ‘YAHOO!.’

Clark & Weinstock has signed on as D.C. rep for Yahoo!, taking on such “hot button” issues as `Net neutrality, child protection and data security/privacy.

Vin Weber, the former Minnesota Congressman who opened C&W’s Washington office more than a dozen years ago, heads the 11-member Yahoo! team.

That squad includes the former legislative affairs aides to Presidents Bush II (Dirksen Lehman) and Clinton (Lisa Kountoupes), general counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee (Jonathan Schwantes), aide to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (Ed Kutler) and chief of staff to Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan (Niles Godes).

C&W joins sister Omnicom company Fleishman-Hillard on Yahoo!’s roster. The Internet company also relies on Outcast PR, which is part of Next 15 Communications Group.

NEW ORLEANS POLICE SEEK PR HELP.

The embattled New Orleans Police Department is looking for outside PR counsel to better communicate with the public and press amid national scrutiny of its operations.

Put under enormous pressure through and after Hurricane Katrina, the NOPD has recently taken criticism for alleged racial profiling in arresting illegal immigrants and has sparred in public with the city’s district attorney’s office.

The assignment is to include development of a strategy for public communications, coordination of media coverage and events, development of educational materials and briefing materials, and recommendations for the superintendent of police, Warren Riley, for more effective events involving NO police.

An RFP issued by the department calls for proposals by March 22. An evaluation committee of administrative personnel and the chief of the department’s Public Integrity Bureau will recommend finalists to Riley.

The move comes as the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau turned to Weber Shandwick last month to bolster business and leisure travel to the city.

PS AIDS HUGE TXU BUYOUT DEAL.

Public Strategies is bolstering PR for the record $43.8 billion buyout of Texas power company TXU, which is trying to make the transition from public to private company and go green in the process.

Equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. is the lead investor in the largest leveraged buyout in history with equity firm Texas Pacific Group and Goldman Sachs & Co. playing key roles.

The buyout is expected to face regulatory, political and environmental concerns and the parties involved immediately moved to head off any immediate fallout. The news release announcing the buyout said the deal has been endorsed by Environmental Defense and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The companies also said TXU will implement an energy demand program with a $400M investment in conservation over the next five years, in addition to appointing former Secretary of State James Baker as chairman of an advisory group on climate change, among other moves.

PS managing director Adam Levine, who was formerly VP of corporate communications for GS, is handling press inquiries for the deal.

GLASHOW RETURNS TO F-H.

Jason Glashow has returned to Fleishman-Hillard, taking the Boston general manager slot. He succeeds Ben Kincannon, who is now in charge of the Omnicom unit’s North American litigation practice.

Glashow is rejoining F-H from Microsoft, where he handled PR for the software giant’s U.S. public sector. He managed press relations and executive communications there. Earlier, he worked at ML Strategies, the government affairs unit of Boston’s Mintz Levin, and Weber Group in Cambridge.

Glashow served in F-H’s Boston and Austin offices from `97 to `99.

BBC JOINS YOUTUBE.

The British Broadcasting Corp. has signed a content deal with YouTube to show its news and other programming on the Google-owned website.

Mark Thompson, director general of BBC, sees the link as a way to engage new audiences both in the U.K. and abroad.

The partners will sell advertising on the YouTube channels, but ads on the news site will only be available to viewers outside the U.K.

The Wall Street Journal reported that private sector competitors of the publicly-funded BBC have been upset with its foray into the commercial realm.

SHIVE UPPED AT BELO.

Dunia Shive, president of media operations at Dallas-based Belo Corp., has been promoted to president/COO of the $1.7B media combine. Bob Decherd remains chairman/CEO. He held the presidency post since `94.

Shive, 46, will spend her time managing digital operations at the company, which includes its flagship Dallas Morning News.

Shive joined Belo as its controller in `93. Prior to that she was assistant controller at Tyler Corp. and audit manager at Ernst & Young, where she worked on the Belo account.

Decherd, 55, has been Belo's CEO since `87.

PERETZ SELLS TNR STAKE.

Martin Peretz, editor-in-chief of The New Republic, has sold his 25 percent ownership stake to CanWest Global Communications.

The move following CanWest's buyout of financiers Roger Hertog and Michael Steinhardt gives the Canadian media combine 100 percent control of the now biweekly political and cultural magazine.

Peretz, 68, remains editor-in-chief. He is confident the mag will flourish with a cash infusion by its new owner. The maiden issue of TNR under Canadian control debuts March 19 under editor Franklin Foer.

LONDON TIMES PRO TO NYT.

Stephen Farrell, Middle East correspondent for the Times of London is joining the New York Times later this year.

He will remain in Baghdad for the NYT, replacing John Burns who leaves this summer to head the paper's London bureau. The New York paper also will replace Sabrina Tavernise in Baghdad. She is moving to take over the NYT's Istanbul office.

UNIVISON PICKS UVA.

Joe Uva, who was head of Omnicom's OMD Worldwide media buying operation, has been named president of Spanish language broadcaster Univision.

Prior to OMD, Uva worked at Turner Entertainment Group, a stint that included president of sales/marketing.

Univision is in the process of being acquired by investment groups including Texas Pacific Corp., Providence Equity Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners. That nearly $14B deal is expected to close this month.

BLUM IS LATEST EX VV EDITOR.

David Blum has been axed as editor-in-chief of the Village Voice after a six-month stint. He was terminated following a staff meeting on the lack of diversity at the New York-based weekly.

Blum is succeeded by Tony Ortega, editor of the New Times Broward-Palm Beach.

PR director Maggie Shnayerson said though the meeting served as the "catalyst" for Blum’s exit, there had been differences between him and management.

The VV editorial carousel began when long-time editor Don Forst resigned in Dec. `05.

He was followed by Doug Simmons, who left after a reporter fabricated parts of an article and Erik Wemple, the Washington City Paper editor who left the VV after two weeks.

Bill Jensen, a Boston Phoenix veteran who handles new media for Village Voice Media, took over for Blum on a temporary basis.

Deborah Kolben, who was city editor of the New York Sun, has joined the VV as managing editor.

She was education reporter at the Sun before being upped to editor. Kolben also was a reporter for the New York Daily News and The Brooklyn Papers.

The VV announcement also notes that Kolben has written for the Jerusalem Report, The Guardian and Financial Times.

The Voice has a 250K weekly circulation and 1.5M readership.

MSNBC UNVEILS FIRSTPERSON.

MSNBC.com has introduced FirstPerson to allow people to post news-related photos and videos to related news stories.

Editors review the submissions and post the best in special galleries. People can vote on their favorites. The idea is to provide increased depth and content to stories, and get people more involved with the site.

Jennifer Sizemore, editor-in-chief of MSNBC.com, notes that her site launched its first "citizen journalist" project in `96 when it posted delegate diaries from the Democratic and Republican conventions for an "insider look at politics from the floor."

She considers FP a move that embraces the "Internet's unique ability to open up the conversation to many voices and make journalism a more participatory experience."
Viewer content may also wind up on NBC News and MSNBC-TV programs. Sizemore is looking for both serious and light-hearted content.

MICROSOFT’S MARUZZI TO CONDENET INT’L.

Stefano Maruzzi has been named president of CondeNet International, a new position in charge of its nearly 60 sites in a dozen countries. Sarah Chubb handles U.S. operations.

Maruzzi was director of strategy and content-international for Microsoft's MSN site, and country manager for MSN Italy. He also was editor of PCWeek’s Italian editon. CondeNast’s collection of magazine includes Vanity Fair, Vogue, Glamour, Tatler, Gourmet and House & Garden. Maruzzi is based in Milan.

(Media news continued on next page)

SEATTLE’S BEST TAPS DEVRIES.

Seattle’s Best Coffee, a retail and wholesale unit of Starbucks Corp. which has 129 stores in North America, has tapped DeVries PR after a three-agency pitch.

Lisa Pierson, managing director of DeVries' home and lifestyle division, said her firm will handle media relations and "brand awareness support" for regional markets in the early stages of the account work. She said an SBC marketing exec had worked with DeVries in her days at Procter & Gamble.

SBC markets coffee via three primary channels - cafes in locations like Borders book stores, retail presence in grocery and drug stores, and food service accounts like Alaska Airlines and McDonald's, mainly in the western U.S. Its first location in New York opened last year.

SBC worked with agencies in the past but did not have an AOR.

Starbucks acquired 30-year-old SBC in a $72M deal in 2003 when its previous owner, AFC Enterprises, faced an accounting scandal. Edelman is Starbucks' main PR firm.

GREENWOOD TEAMS WITH MARKGRAF.

Cynthia Greenwood and Sue Markgraf have combined their 50 years of PR experience and names to create GreenMark PR, which will concentrate on environmental issues.

The partners believe a five-year shared stint at the Chicago Botanic Garden will attract clients who want to promote green spaces, places and issues.

Greenwood has worked as an independent media placement strategist, handling assignments from Burson-Marsteller, Edelman, Hill & Knowlton, Ketchum and American Library Assn. She placed clients like Procter & Gamble, Reddi-Wip, Quaker Oats, Everready and Culligan.

Markgraf is a veteran of Fleishman-Hillard and one-time communications director for Dairy Management of "Got Milk?" fame. She is a co-founder of Chicago Parks & Gardens, a group dedicated to making Chicago a "green" tourism destination.

Markgraf had been running her own firm before teaming with Greenwood.

WEBER SHANDWICK SCORES PR COUP.

The Rochester Coalition, a group funded by the Mayo Clinic, has scored a victory as the Federal Railroad Administration nixed a $2.3B loan guarantee to the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad Corp. to build a third rail line to bring coal out of Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, the nation’s richest reserve.

The RC, retained Weber Shandwick last year, to object to the high-speed mile-long coal trains that would rumble by only blocks away from the clinic.

DM&E argued the 280 miles of new track and upgrade of another 600 miles-which would have represented the nation's largest rail project in decades--was necessary to break the logjam at the Basin. Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe currently run coal trains out of there.

NEW ACCOUNTS _________________________

New York

Dukas PR, New York/Atlantic Street Capital Management, PE fund focused on middle market cos.; Eisner LLP, CPA and advisory firm, and Zecco Holdings, company behind financial portal Zecco.com.

Porter, Levay & Rose, New York/The Amacore Group, discount healthcare services, for IR and financial communications.

Porter Novelli, New York/British Airways, for corporate and consumer PR in North America, following a review. The firm already handled the U.K. and Trinidad and Tobogo for the airline.

East

Greenough Communications, Boston/TrueAdvantage, sales technology, as AOR, and IGEL Technology, network and IT hardware solutions, for PR.

Lois Paul & Partners, Woburn, Mass./Curl, Internet application platform; Konica Minolta Business Solutions USA; OpenConnect; RenewData, electronic evidence services for law firms and corporations; Troux, enterprise architecture platform, and ZoomInfo, business information search engine.

Racepoint Group, Waltham, Mass./Neighborhood America, social networking platform, as AOR for PR.

Consortium for Risk and Crisis Communication, Washington, D.C./Health Research Inc., New York state-affiliated non-profit, for faith-based communication audience research, along with risk and crisis comm. training. CRCC is made up of Widmeyer Communications and the Center for Risk Comm.

Trevelino/Keller Communications Group, Atlanta/
Omnilink Systems, human status tracking, as AOR as the company looks to build a presence in law enforcement, healthcare and real estate sectors.

South

Sullivan-St. Clair Marketing/PR, Mobile, Ala./
Cousins Subs, quick-service sub restaurants, as AOR for franchise development PR following a review. The chain counts 158 stores in the Midwest and western United States.

Midwest

Holt Communications, Elkhart, Ind./Daimon’s Kids, nonprofit sports org. for kids, and Elkhart Express, professional basketball team based in Michigan. EE, is owned by Daimon’s Kids founder Daimon Beathea.

Southwest/Mountain West

Richards/Carlberg, Houston/RiceTec, rice producer and marketer, as AOR for its consumer business division. The work includes advertising and PR.

GroundFloor Media, Denver/Market Force Information, customer experience information; Shop’n Chek, mystery shopping; Electric Rain, software, and Whirled Peas Catering, for PR.

West

Sterling Communications, San Francisco/Euphonix, digital audio mixing systems and controllers, as AOR for all PR efforts.

Mayo Communications, Los Angeles/Southern California Gas Co., for a media campaign; M. Gray Music Academy, for a March 19 fund raiser, and the Iranian American Parents Assn., for a March 11 event.

The table on page 7 shows the continued growth of the independent PR counseling business.

We talked to owners, executives and staffers at dozens of these firms in the past few weeks and we’re impressed not only with the growth of their businesses but with their good spirits. They’re happy and expressive, just like PR people are supposed to be.

Their growth rate surpasses that of the conglomerate-owned PR firms. The growth rate of WPP’s PR firms is 6% and for PR firms owned by Omnicom, somewhat under 10%.

WPP reports that PR income grew an additional 6% because of acquisitions. OMC, which spends heavily on acquisitions, does not say how much of the 10% is from that. Interpublic, No. 3, does not break out PR and neither do Publicis and Havas.

We almost never talk to anyone from firms owned by the conglomerates. A couple will respond if called but never initiate contact. Many now won’t release account lists nor make any announcements.

This blanket of silence is harmful not only to them but to the PR counseling industry. We don’t see it changing any time soon. Ad industry culture is not to lift a finger without the permission of the client. PR culture is to see PR as a bridge between client and public, with duties towards both.

Some academics seem puzzled by the silence of PRSA national board members, chapter presidents, district leaders, ethics board members at the national and chapter levels, section leaders, etc., despite criticism of PRSA’s financial reporting by three accounting professors; lack of democracy (only APRs can run for national office); refusal to supply transcripts of Assemblies; lack of a staff CPA; failure to report nearly $2 million on staff time on the annual conference; refusal to defer dues income; removal of $2.5M in administrative costs from 13 categories of spending; refusal of new COO Bill Murray to disclose his salary, and the collapse of the APR program (PRSA added 123 APRs in 2006 after adding 116 in 2005).

The answer is that anyone in “leadership” is co-opted by an elaborate system of favors and punishments that PRSA national has at its command. Veteran members know this system well.

“Carrots” include new business and job tips that pour into h.q. and that are not posted on the PRSA website where they belong. “Favorites” get them. The way to get off this “favored” list is to oppose national in any way or help the press about PRSA.

Counselors as well as corporate members and PR professors want these tips.

Also desired by chapter and district leaders are the scores of national committee chair appointments that are given out each year; national conference speaking assignments, of which there are more than 100 (with publicity and reduced fees for the speakers); appointment to key committees such as Silver Anvil judging that help improve resumes; appointment as speakers at the dozens of seminars and webinars that PRSA stages throughout the year, some carrying hefty fees (James Lukaszewski made $60,000 in one year by conducting such sessions), and approval of travel, meal and hotel budgets by national staff and leadership. Ex-presidents, who get free conference passes for life ($1,000 yearly) and free national membership for life, don’t complain.

Any employee of a PR firm who challenges national risks exclusion of the firm and its principals from the PRSA “goody bag.” Any chapter member who does this risks ostracism by chapter officers and members.

The system of rewards/punishments extends to the PR media. Media that carry PRSA editorials word-for-word are rewarded with exclusives, invites to speak at PRSA events, and ads. PRSA, like Omnicom, is a subject that is off-limits to the New York Times ad column. Leaders of the PR Student Society of America are barred from speaking to the PR trade press. Students know this would about kill any chances of PRSA hooking them up with jobs. The students abjectly accept PRSA dominance of their website, learning only too early how to sacrifice principles for $$.

The result of this system is that chapter and district leaders are hog-tied and tongue-tied when it comes to national. The Ethics Board headed by Linda Cohen has said that under no circumstances will it criticize the national board. Only silence comes from the 110 chapters, all of which have ethics boards. Members of the current national PRSA board have promised never to speak in public or to the press about PRSA matters. This no doubt was a key condition for their nominations.

PRSA is thoroughly corrupt, led for too many years by solo practitioners or those who worked at one-person corporate PR offices. The last head of a major PR firm to lead PRSA was John Beardsley of Padilla Speer Beardsley in 1995. Members have been robbed of their printed directory, a caper condemned by nine of ten rank-and-file members that we talk to. This was the biggest heist in the history of PRSA and some members have vowed to overturn it. A close second is the robbery of New Yorkers of the use of h.q. by the move downtown. PRSA turned its back on its richest source of new members, cutting off its nose to spite its face.

The impact of this corruption on the PR industry is that PRSA is not available to provide an example of how good PR can be when blasts in the media take place such as an article in the NYT or ridicule from the Dilbert comic strip. It would be nice to point to PRSA as a model of good press relations; as a provider of timely and accurate financial reports; that treats all members as equals; that has an active ethics process that condemns PR abuses, and has a president (or chair) that holds press conferences and answers all questions.

Instead, PRSA is the embodiment of many of the evils that the press complains about.

--Jack O'Dwyer