VOCUS RAISES MORE WALL ST. CASH.

Vocus, which went public in a $45M IPO in late 2005, has filed for a follow-on public offering of company and shareholder-controlled stock that could reap $22M for the company.

Vocus, a PR software and services company, is selling more than 1.2M shares, while shareholders, who stand to gain more than $33M in the offering, are offering up more than 1.8M shares. Total value of the offering is pegged at more than $59M.

Company executives, directors and “affiliated entities” controlled about 38 percent of outstanding stock as of the end of 2006.

That number could drop to between 23-25 percent after the latest offering.

The Lanham, Md.-based company said proceeds would be used for “general corporate purposes” like working capital and expenditures, but it didn’t commit to any specifics. Vocus said money could go also toward its growth strategy or acquisitions.

Revenues for 2006 were $40.3M, up from $28M in 2005. Its operating loss shrunk from $4.8M in `05 to $1.1M. Vocus bought PRWeb for $28M last year.
Vocus’ stock traded at $9 on going public in 2005 and now trades in the $19 range.

QG REPS BOSNIA’S SERBS FOR $1.3M.

Quinn Gillespie has a $1.3M contract to represent the Serbian section of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an outgrowth of the Balkan War known as “Republika Srpska.”

The firm of Jack Quinn (ex-counsel to President Clinton and chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore) and Ed Gillespie (ex-Republican National Committee chairman), reports to Milorad Dodik, PM of RS.

He made news Feb. 28 by expressing his government’s “deepest regret for the crimes committed against non-Serbs during the recent war in Bosnia.”

That came two days after the International Court of Justice cleared Serbia of genocide connected with the massacre of Bosnian Muslims, but criticized the country for failing to prevent the carnage.

Dodik’s statement “condemned all persons who took part in the crimes” including the Bosnian Serb forces that slaughtered 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica. City officials in Srebrenica are seeking separation from RS, a move opposed by Dodik.

QG is to oversee RS’ outreach to the U.S. Congress, Executive Branch, United Nations, European Union and High Court.

The firm’s $106K monthly retainer does not cover fees of up to $16.6K.

EDELMAN ACQUIRES KARYO.

Edelman has acquired a majority stake in Karyo Communications, a Vancouver shop that has 25 staffers.

Karyo Edelman will run under its current management of Patti Schom-Moffatt and Paul Welsh.

The deal provides the No. 1 independent firm a platform for its global sports practice in anticipation of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Charles Fremes heads Edelman Canada, which has offices in Toronto and Montreal.

SV COUNSELS NEW CENTURY IN CH. 11.

Sard Verbinnen & Co. is serving as outside PR counsel for New Century Financial Corp., a high-risk mortgage lender that filed for bankruptcy protection on April 2 and laid off 3,200 employees.

The Irvine, Calif.-based company, which is already facing securities and Justice Dept. investigations, filed for Chapter 11 in federal court in Delaware and is working to sell off its assets. The layoffs represent more than 50 percent of its total workforce.

The “sub-prime” or “non-prime” sector backs loans for consumers deemed too risky for many lenders. A housing market slump is squeezing interest rates up on the adjustable mortgages sub-prime lenders offer.

Sard Verbinnen execs in New York and San Francisco are working for New Century.

New Century backed $56.1 billion in loans in 2005.

WALTON TAKES VP POST AT MARSH.

Christine Walton, who has held PR posts with UBS and Merrill Lynch over the last nine years, has been named VP of PR for professional services company Marsh & McLennan Cos.

M&MC posts about $12 billion in annual revenues providing services like insurance, human resource consulting, and investment management.

Walton, who directs MMC’s global communications strategy, is based in New York and reports to senior VP and CMO James Speros working closely with the company’s media and public relations units.

Edie Fraser, founder and former CEO of Diversity Best Practices, has joined Diversified Search Ray & Berndtson, a major executive search firm based in Philadelphia, as co-chair of its diversity executive search practice, based in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office.

Fraser, who has been active in public affairs in Washington, D.C., for decades, is the founder of Business Woman's Network and Best Practices in Corporate Communications.

GREEN GROUPS PRESSURE GORE.

Apple Computer has told 70 environmental groups that support the Computer TakeBack Campaign that its directors will unanimously reject two shareholder proposals at the upcoming annual meeting regarding more aggressive recycling of computers and phasing out toxic chemicals used in the manufacturing process.

That puts former Vice President, global warming champion, Oscar winner and current Apple director Al Gore in a tight fix.

The groups, including Greenpeace, Consumers Union, Friends of the Earth, Physicians for Social Responsibility, National Environmental Trust and Institute for a Sustainable Future, sent a letter to Gore on March 21 asking him as a "global environmental leader to keep Steve Jobs [Apple CEO] and Apple from making a serious mistake."

Apple trails competitors such as Dell, which has set ambitious goals for eliminating toxic components from its machines and Hewlett Packard on the environmental front.

The groups want to work with Gore to implement “common sense solutions to toxic pollution that will also make Apple the undisputed leader of environmentally sound products in the electronics industry.”

They want Gore to support the shareholder resolutions as a “first step toward making an industry leader in greening its products and processes.”

The green groups report no new word from Gore. He did meet privately with Computer TakeBake reps last spring.

Greenpeace International, on April 3, ranked Apple last among 14 electronics makers on the environmental friendly front. “While Apple is famous for innovation, it would be a shame to see Apple become infamous for polluting the environment,” said GI.

Greenpeace has ruffled Apple's feathers with its "Green My Apple" website that aims to raise awareness of the Cupertino, Cal.-based company's poor environmental performance.

METER RETURNS TO LAS VEGAS.

Veronica Meter joined the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce as VP-government affairs on April 9. She took over for Christina Dugan, who is launching her own political consulting business.

Meter has headed PR for the U.S. Government Printing Office since `03.
She kept GPO's constituencies updated on efforts to position as a lean digital publishing and distribution organization.

GPO makes government documents available free to consumers online and via a partnership with 1,250 libraries in the Federal Depository Library Program.

Meter served as a Las Vegas TV executive prior to joining GPO.

She was executive producer at One TV, news producer at KLAS-TV, and producer/host at KLVX-TV. She also was news and public affairs director for Telemundo's Channel 39.

The Chamber represents 7,000 businesses that employ more than 200,000.
The GPO has not yet named a replacement for Meter.

MSNBC REBRANDS.

MSNBC.com has launched a marketing campaign to spotlight its full range of news and entertainment features.

The print ads carry the tagline, "A Fuller Spectrum of News," to inform consumers that the site is more than a spot news organization.

The push also will play up the site's alliances with NBC, Washington Post and its Newsweek magazine property.

SS+K is handling the $4M campaign for MSNBC.com, which is owned by NBC Universal and Microsoft.

GREENFIELD MOVES TO CBS.

Jeff Greenfield, political correspondent at CNN for the past nine years, is moving to CBS News. He starts contributing to Katie Couric's newscast and other programs on May 1.

Sean McManus, president of CBS News & Sports, said Greenfield's hire is part of the network's plan to add more "depth and expertise" as it gears up for the `08 Presidential sweepstakes.

Greenfield worked at ABC News for fourteen years before joining CNN, which is owned by Time Warner.

SEIGENTHALER EXITS NBC ANCHOR SLOT.

John Seigenthaler has left his slot as weekend anchor of "NBC Nightly News" after the General Electric unit failed to renew his contract due to budget cutbacks.

The 11-year NBC News vet held the weekend anchor spot for nine years. He reported from Nashville and Seattle prior to that. He announced his departure on April 1 after thanking NBC and listeners for their loyalty. NBC wants an anchor who will do other duties at either the network or at its MSNBC cable unit.

STATE DEPT. LAUDS IRAQI TV GUESTS.

The State Dept. issued a press release on March 27 to laud two Sunni and two Shia Iraqis who in the "act of courage and bravery allowed their faces to be broadcast" on its Independent Radio & Television Network in Diyala. Their message was one of "hope, peace, reconciliation and nonsectarianism."

The recently launched IR&TN is aimed at "terrorists who are operating in Diyala Province, literally miles from the location of the radio/TV station." Its market coverage includes hotspots such as Fallujah and Baghdad. There are 11M Iraqis living in the region.

The State Dept.'s "Global Outreach Team" is behind the IR&TN launch. The Go Team, according to the release, "helps ensure that public diplomacy (engaging, informing, and influencing key international audiences) is practiced in harmony with public affairs (outreach to Americans) and traditional diplomacy to advance U.S. interests and security and to provide the moral basis for U.S. leadership in the world."

The GO Team promises upcoming stories on Iraqi health/nutrition, national constitution and an "inside look" of the workings of the Diyala provincial council.

XM-SIRIUS RADIO MERGER SLAPPED.

The National Assn. of Broadcasters and Consumers Union plan to issue formal notices with the Federal Communication Commission over the next few weeks to oppose the proposed merger between the two satellite radio companies, XM and Sirius.

The opposition will claim the merger amounts to a "government bailout of two-money losing ventures that paid hundreds of dollars for big-name talent," according to the Washington Post.

NAB president David Rehr plans to use the FCC’s own analysis of satellite competition to argue against the deal. That FCC study found that the current "duopoly of XM and Sirius do not compete with radio, iPods or any other audio sources in the satellite radio market."

The merger partners contend that there is intense competition from a broad "audio entertainment" market in which many of the individual components did not exist when the FCC approved licensing of satellite radio a decade ago.

The FCC analysis, according to Rehr, is a "dramatic blow to XM/Sirius' presumption of a broader market and still more evidence that XM and Sirius compete ferociously against each other in the market for nationwide multichannel mobile audio services and no one else."

DISCOVERY LAUNCHES 'GREEN' CHANNEL.

Discovery Communications is rebranding its Discovery Home Channel in’ `08 as an environmental channel as part of its "PlanetGreen" program.

CEO David Zaslav says the channel will initially be available in 50M households here and there are plans to expand overseas.

DC plans to carry other environmental programs on its other channels to reinforce its position as the "green" network.

An initial project will be "Ten Ways to Save the Planet' which is penciled in for the second-half of next year. DC's Silver Spring, Md., headquarters is going carbon neutral to reflect the PlanetGreen push.

People __________________________

Dennis Rice, who handled publicity for Walt Disney Co. films and its Pixar Studios unit, has shifted to United Artists. He is in charge of worldwide marketing and publicity for UA, which is headed by Tom Cruise and his producer, Paula Wagner.
Rice, who was senior VP at Disney’s Buena Vista Pictures marketing unit, promoted the two “Pirates of the Caribbean” films and “The Chronicles of Narnia.”

The unrelated Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien are being dropped as CNN’s “American Morning” anchors because the show’s ratings have not kept up with programming in the other dayparts, according to CNN president Jonathan Klein.
John Roberts, who joined CNN from CBS last year, and Kiran Chetry, a former Fox News Channel veteran, are replacing the duo that had been together since ’05.
The O’Briens remain special correspondents.

(Media news continued on next page)

MAKING YOUR WAY INTO THE GOSSIP PAGES.

Gossip columnists have some advice for publicists looking to grab the ultimate celebrity scoop: get out more.

"I'm always asking people: where's the story?" said Patrick Huguenin, writer for the Daily News' Rush & Molloy column. "We get product pitches all the time, but if you tell me that you just saw someone get smacked at the Marquee Club, I'm listening."

Some of the biggest names in celebrity gossip met for a March 28 panel at the International Cinematographers Guild in New York City, hosted by the Entertainment Publicists Professional Society.

Jennifer Birn, society writer for OK! Magazine, said relationships between publicists and news staffs are often forged on favors. Publicists who will go out on a limb for the press are usually the first to see their ideas become stories.

"If you hear something from someone in the industry, or if you see something when you're out with your friends and you tell me about it, I won't forget it," Birn said. "Even if you don't have the greatest product, I'll work something in as a favor to you if you help me out."

Scandal Makes Good Gossip

So, what makes good gossip? Scandal, of course.

Celebrity sightings at a new nightclub are always important, but celebrities caught doing or saying something shocking is the stuff gossip news is made of. Where that celebrity registers on the A-list hierarchy is also important, as is the verifiability of the claim: Huguenin said all major gossip publications are "extensibly versed in defamation" and all items are legally vetted before going to press. Photos are also a plus for gossip: readers like pictures, and getting a snapshot of a sighting – or better yet, a celebrity doing something crazy – greatly increases the chances of a story going to print.

Unfortunately, there's often a large gap between what publicists see as a good news item (re: their clients' products), and what actually makes for "good news." David Caplan, deputy NY bureau chief for Star Magazine, advised publicists to be creative in this process and to tailor pitches to fit the larger picture. Pitching your client's clothing or beverage company to the gossip pages is fine if you have a photo of a celebrity wearing it or drinking it at a private party. Of course, there has to be a news hook to this item as well. Caplan suggested adding anything anecdotal, like an overheard conversation where the celebrity voiced his/her opinion about a fellow celebrity or a current event.

"You have to be cognizant of where the story is going," Caplan said. "Give it a hook. That's the nature of what we do and that's how we sell it. Not giving it that hook shows you're not giving us any effort."

In this vein, creating celebrity news might look easy. However, many publicists fail when getting their foot in the gossip pages primarily because they don't understand the proper protocol for how a scoop should be presented. Besides the need to tailor a product to a celebrity incident, understanding the pitching format is also essential.

Kenya Hunt, style & entertainment editor for Metro New York, said the key to good pitch delivery lies in the subject line of an email. Unclear subjects or rambling bodies of text make their way straight to the delete box.

"Keep it short and to-the-point," she said. "To me, it's all about subject lines."

Birn agreed, and offered this helpful equation for PR pros when writing subject lines: Person, event, date and time. "Keep it simple. Those are the things I look for in a story," she said.

"We get hit with emails all day," said Huguenin. "But we see an email that says 'Lindsay Lohan has herpes' and all of a sudden everyone responds."

Caplan may be an anomaly in the field, as he claimed he reads all his email.

He said, however, that he gets turned off when publicists get too "cutesy" or try to imitate gossip editorial lingo in their pitches. All four panelists said they prefer email pitches from publicists.

Finally, Caplan said the relationship between press and publicists is built on a foundation of trust – and all it takes is one instance to make or break this relationship.

"When you give me the same pitch that you gave to the person next to me, we know about it. I think that's cookie-cutter and it really reflects on the quality of where it's coming from," he said. "I've seen the exact quotes that PR people have given me run in other papers. It happens more than you think. All it takes is one incident like that to ruin a relationship – I know it may sound hard to believe, but we're all very gossipy."

Contacts: Jennifer Birn, society writer, OK! Magazine, [email protected]; David Caplan, dep. N.Y. bureau chief, Star Magazine,
[email protected]; Patrick Huguenin, writer, Daily News' Rush & Molloy phuguenin@edit.nydailynews.com; Kenya Hunt, style & entertainment editor, Metro New York, [email protected]

NEWSEUM LOOKS FOR SPONSORS.

The Newseum, which will open near Capitol Hill in October, has naming rights available to a gallery dedicated to radio and another one for the Internet. The minimum sponsorship level is set at $5M.

Cox Communications recently made a splash, spending $6M for the gallery on the First Amendment and the reopening ceremonies. General Electric's NBC News and News Corp. also have signed up as sponsors.

Jack Hurley, deputy director/senior VP-broadcasting at Newseum, told Broadcasting & Cable, that the Newseum will chart the history of journalism-"warts and all."

The Newseum was previously located in Arlington, Va.. It closed five years ago with the plan to move to D.C.

Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism is closer to getting a new student center thanks to a gift from Dan Edelman, who graduated there in '41. The school will honor the PR pioneer by naming the space outside the center's café the "Daniel J. Edelman Plaza."

The list of 48 independent PR firms on page two, 35 of them with gains of 20%+ in 2006, shows the independents are thriving.

The U.S. PR counseling industry, unlike ad agencies, did not sell out to the Big Five ad agencies—WPP, Omnicom, Interpublic, Publicis and Havas.

Many firms did sell but that era is over. The Five ran up long-term debt of $13.5 billion in their buying binge (biggest debt is the $4.82B at WPP) and don’t have the cash or stock they once had to overpay for acquisitions.

It’s no longer accurate to refer to the Five as “holding companies,” suggesting they are made up of financial executives in ivory towers aloof from the operations of their components.

Omnicom CEO John Wren and WPP CEO Martin Sorrell lead their empires in pitches against other agencies. Their media buying units buy for their entire systems, driving down media prices.

The Five found that while PR firms can pay the salaries of owners and staff, few can throw off 25% in profits yearly without stringent measures. PR pros prize their independence and don’t like every step being measured by an overseer from the parent.

News item on page 7: the Council of PR Firms “is re-evaluating” its advertising and doesn’t have a nickel to spend on any more ads in 2007. It may even cancel some remaining ads in PR Week/U.S.

The poor, poverty-stricken CPRF – it only has net assets of $592,501 and only had cash of $623,924 on Dec. 31, 2006! Its paid president, Kathy Cripps, only makes $285,000 a year or nearly one-third of dues income of $837,571. She supervises two other CPRF staffers. Cathy Bolton, former COO of PRSA, got the same amount for supervising 55 staffers and a $10M budget. CPRF is one of the richer PR groups with net assets equaling 61% of expenses of $962,834. Also, member PR firms of WPP and OMC do $2.2 billion in PR fees so it’s not as though the leading members of CPRF are poverty-stricken, either.

At the lower end of the scale are the Int’l Assn. of Business Communicators, with net assets at the end of 2006 of $500,516, equaling ten percent of revenues (it’s still recovering from the TalkingBusinessNow website disaster), and PRSA, whose net assets of $2.8M as of 12/31/06 were 23% of expenses (this includes abut $2M of unearned dues booked as cash). Other assets to expense ratios are NIRI, 90%; Arthur W. Page Society, 74%, and Institute for PR, 45%.

The ad/PR policy of CPRF is the same as that of its biggest donors, the five giant ad agencies. The Five have 15 PR firms in CPRF including 10 that pay the max dues of $40K. About 60% of the dues of $837K come from the 15. These units advertise almost exclusively in PR Week/U.S. and that is the policy of CPRF. The Five have limited relations with the press, never holding press conferences and never discussing their financial reports. They have blocked disclosure of revenues/staff of many hundreds of ad agencies and PR firms for five years. OMC’s Wren is infamous for being tight-lipped even with analysts, which is one reason OMC is only $103, still below its high of $107 on Dec. 17, 1999. Wren, who has given four powder-puff interviews in 4.5 years, is up to his ears in a four-year-old stockholder lawsuit charging OMC inflated its earnings in 2001 (Wall Street Journal 3/2/07). Sorrell is involved in a nasty personal/business lawsuit involving WPP’s operations in Italy (4/4 NL). The New York Post (and almost no other media) is covering this in detail. Interpublic (Weber Shandwick, Golin Harris, MWW, De Vries PR) is not too keen on getting press these days since it is still dealing with the repercussions from reporting $514M in non-existent earnings from 2000-04. But CEO Michael Roth has promised a “new level of transparency.” IPG at least holds its annual meeting in New York while OMC has fled out of town four years in a row (and this year to Denver on May 22). Attempts to dialogue with the two French-owned firms, Publicis (a large minority interest is owned by Dentsu) and Havas, have been unsuccessful. Publicis operates “Publicis Dialog” and OMC’s Code of Ethics promises “fair dealing” with anyone it comes into contact with.

At the bottom of this food chain is the executive committee of CPRF, comprised, according to the bylaws, of three reps from the Big Five and two “independents.” CPRF is not going to have an ad campaign that includes the New York Times ad column, Ad Age, AdWeek, and the entire PR trade (and not just PR Week) even though spreading ads around in a fair manner would bring more coverage of PR and relieve CPRF of the charges of favoritism and unfairness. PR firms are not going to join an organization that acts in an unfair manner. There is no PR campaign at all by CPRF in the sense of reaching out to the PR trade press and building relationships with PR editors.

We wonder why no one in the PR academic world will take up a study of the influence of the acquisition policies of the Big Five on the U.S. PR counseling industry when so much of this material is public record ... a chief issue before the PR industry today is the vote in favor of PR pros having to “lie occasionally” in order to save their jobs that was taken at a session for 350 PR pros hosted by PR Week/U.K. (3/21 NL). The O’Dwyer website conducted a poll on the same question for two weeks and the returns held steady at 65% saying an “occasional lie” was needed to save employment. It’s obvious many PR pros have been forced to provide less than the truth but the field cannot accept this attitude without harm. PR critics are going to seize these findings and run amok. Barbara Burns, president of PRSA/New York, has made a strong statement calling on PR groups to urge a change in behavior of PR people. PR pros can at least have a policy of saying “No comment” when they are in situations where clients and employers will not allow them to be truthful.

--Jack O'Dwyer