GEORGIA ISSUES TOURISM, DEV. RFP.

Georgia has issued an RFP for its economic development/tourism PR account. The Peach State, which has worked with Manning Selvage & Lee in the past, is seeking proposals through June 15.

The work supports the state’s Dept. of Economic Development with strategic communications and crisis planning, news bureau, media training and overall PR to “strengthen the Georgia Brand.”

The state wants a firm with experience in tourism, business recruiting, and cultivating the music and film industries. Avon Thompson ([email protected]) is contracting officer for the PR RFP.

Copies can be downloaded from the state’s procurement website, ssl.doas.state.ga.us/PRSapp.

QORVIS GETS MOORE PA HELP.

Qorvis Communications has added W. John Moore, a former senior VP at Hawthorn Group, as managing director in its public affairs practice.

Moore has worked in the energy and legal practices, dealing with coalition management, regulatory affairs and Supreme Court litigation. He spent 15 years at the National Journal as correspondent, senior editor and columnist and served as associate editor of Legal Times.

Michael Petruzzello, Qorvis’ managing partner, said Moore’s background in strategic communications and journalism was exactly what his shop was looking for.

VONAGE DIALS FOR HELP.

Vonage, the troubled Internet phone company (2.4M subscribers) is looking to hire a VP-corporate communications.

The person will oversee 10 staffers plus outside agencies. The position reports to Vonage’s CEO. The company is based in Holmdel, N.J., which is 50 miles south of New York City.

Arnold Huberman Assocs. is handling the search. Details are at 212/545-9033 and [email protected].

Dena Merriam, vice chairman of Ruder Finn, was honored by Women's eNews as one of its "21 Leaders for the 21st Century, for founding the Global Peace Initiative of Women.

As vice chair of the Millennium World Peace Summit, Merriam brought 2,000 prominent religious and spiritual leaders to the United Nations General Assembly in `00, and another 500 religious, business and political leaders to Geneva in `02 on behalf of GPI.

Merriam was honored at a May 22 gala dinner at New York's Tavern on the Green.

DDB KEEPS MAJESTIC’S PR AFLOAT.

DDB Public Relations handled media for Majestic America Line, owner of the Empress of the North paddle-wheeler that ran aground off the coast of Alaska on May 14.

More than 200 passengers were safely evacuated from the stricken vessel and transported to Juneau, where hotel accommodations were made.

David Giersdorf, president of MA, issued a statement to say that his company is “working closely with the Coast Guard to undertake a full investigation and assess the condition of the vessel.” The U.S. Coast Guard cutter, Liberty, attended to the Empress.

The Empress was on the second day of a seven-day cruise. The vessel started taking water about 15 miles southwest of Alaska’s capital.

The ship is the only overnight paddle vessel that cruises to Alaska. The boat also plies the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon.

OGILVY PROTECTS U.S SEAPORTS.

Ogilvy PR Worldwide is repping Ports America, parent of the U.S. seaport that played the front and center role in the `06 political uproar over Arab control of key U.S. east coast shipping ports.

American International Group’s global investment group purchased P&O Ports North America from DP World of Dubai to settle the dicey matter. P&O was renamed Ports America. The insurance giant last month expanded its shipping holdings with the purchase of AMPORTS from Associated British Ports.

The WPP unit serves as PA’s Washington rep on trade, finance and security issues.

EDELMAN REPLACES KETCHUM.

Edelman is replacing Ketchum as agency of record for Metavante, provider of banking and payment technologies to more than 8,600 financial services group, Chip Swearngan, Metavante’s VP-IR and corporate communications, told O’Dwyer’s.

Swearngan has just completed a review of five shops. That process was triggered by the planned spin-off of Metavante from corporate parent, Marshall & Ilsley Corp. Swearngan felt Metavante’s impending independence made it an ideal time to take a fresh look at PR.

Milwaukee-based M&I has $56B in assets under management. It is the parent of Marshall & Ilsley Bank, Wisconsin’s No. 1 bank with nearly 200 offices in the “Badger State.” M&I also has outlets in Florida, Arizona, Oklahoma, Minnesota and Nevada.

Swearngan said Edelman begins work next month.

B-M PUTS SHELL ON THE ROAD.

Burson-Marsteller is working with Shell Oil president John Hofmeister as he travels the country to give Big Oil's picture of the nation's energy situation as U.S. gas prices ($3.03 a gallon national average) now top the highs posted in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Hofmeister visited a Sheraton Hotel in Richmond early this month to meet with a group of people that were selected by B-M.

He also traveled to Oklahoma City, Milwaukee, Montgomery, Denver, Charlotte, Louisville, Nashville, and Indianapolis so far this year.

Shell has posted Hofmeister's "How the U.S. Can Ensure Energy Supply for the Future" speech on its website.

Hofmeister tells audiences about Shell's commitment to education via its "energizeyourfuture.com" curriculum that the oil giant developed for middle and high schools.

Royal Dutch Shell earned $7B during the first-quarter, up a billion from the `06 period.

NATHAN NAMED TO UNITEDHEALTH PR POST.

Don Nathan, a partner at Robinson Lerer & Montgomery, has left the firm after 16 years for the SVP/chief communications officer post at health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group.

Nathan had been serving as interim head of corporate communications since the end of 2006 for Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealth, which posted revenues for 2006 topping $70 billion.

Nathan was previously press secretary and speechwriter for then-Rep. Olympia Snowe, now Maine's U.S. senator, and earlier did issue work for Republican senate candidates.

SLOANE HANDLES COLD STONE DEAL.

Sloane & Co. engineered the merger of Cold Stone Creamery, the "ultimate ice cream experience company" with 1,400 independently owned franchise stores, and Kahala Corp., a top franchiser of quick-service restaurants.

The deal announced May 11 creates Kahala Cold Stone, a $1.1B annual revenues entity with 4,600 outlets in 15 countries.

Slone managing directors Anton Nicholas and Darren Brandt headed the PR team that included VP Amanda Cheslock and senior associate Alexander Gordon.

Nicholas told O'Dwyer's his firm was "brought in by Cold Stone to rep both parties and it continues to advise the combined company."

Coldstone CEO Doug Ducey is in charge of the merged company that is based in Scottsdale, Ariz. Kevin Blackwell, CEO of Kahala, is now overall chief strategist.

Kahala's brands include Blimpie (sub sandwiches), Great Steak & Potato Co., Johnnies NY Pizzeria, Taco Time, Surf City Squeeze, Ranch 1, Samurai Sam's Teriyaki Grill and V's Barbershop, five outlets to expand to 30 by the end of the year to offer a "uniquely masculine barbershop experience."

‘BRIDGE TO NOWHERE’ GETS PR BOOST.

Alaska may spend $500K for a PR campaign to build support for construction of the Knik Arm Bridge, according to various media reports in the "Last Frontier State."

Henry Springer, executive director of the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority, believes a firm is needed to overcome hurdles facing the project.

Those obstacles include required approvals from the National Highway Administration and Nation Marine Fisheries Services, an entity concerned with the shrinking number of beluga whales in Cook Inlet, plus some public interest groups.

Springer says the Knik Arm project has been criticized but "not attacked." Anchorage's Northwest Strategies and Marketing Solutions are the firms that have responded to the RFP that calls for surveys, speakers bureau and media relations.

The $600M Knik Arm Bridge will connect Anchorage with the 230 people two miles away in Port MacKenzie, a deepwater port that used to serve Alaska's mining industry, but has been largely abandoned.

The Knik Arm Bridge was famously ridiculed in the Senate during `05 as one of Alaska's "Bridges to Nowhere."

The other "pork barrel project" was the "Gravina Bridge" connecting Ketchikan's 8,000 residents with the 50 souls on Gravina Island. That proposed span would eliminate the need to take a seven-minute ferry ride to "Ketchikan International Airport" that is located on the island.

IOWA ISSUES COLLEGE RFP.

Iowa has issued an RFP to pitch the benefits of attending its three state universities in Iowa City, Ames, and Cedar Falls.

The PR firm is to increase awareness of the schools among families of middle and high school parents and outline the "best ways to prepare for success in higher education," according to the document.

Another goal: pitch the media and taxpayers about the "importance of public investment" in the system.

The three schools have a combined enrollment of 67,700. The PR campaign also will promote Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School (Vinton) and Iowa School for the Deaf (Council Bluffs).

Deadline for bids is May 28. Final presentations are set for the week of June 11. Works begins July 1. There are two one-year renewable options. The budget has not been set. Gary Steinke, executive director of the Board of Regents, has information at 515/281-3934.

ANDERSON, BELLENCHIA TO TORRENZANO.

Rick Anderson, senior VP and partner in the corporate and business communications group at Fleishman-Hillard, New York, has joined The Torrenzano Group as managing director.

Also managing director at Torrenzano is Al Bellenchia, who joined early this year from F-H where he headed the financial communications practice for four years. He also led F-H’s New York Corporate and Financial Communications Group.

OMEGA WINS SUIT VS. SPAM ACCUSER.

Omega World Travel, Fairfax, Va., following a jury trial, was awarded $2.5 million in damages in its defamation suit against Mark Mumma of Oklahoma City, Okla.

Mumma had accused Omega, one of the five biggest travel agencies in the U.S. with 1,200 employees and 200+ offices, of sending him "spam."

Omega sued after he continued to make the charge despite requests not to do so.

The Jan. 5 Time magazine, the inaugural issue under its new format and Friday publication date, described Mumma's charges in a full-page article headlined, "A Spammer's Revenge."

Following a protest by Omega, Time pulled the story from its website and in its Feb. 5 issue issued its "regrets" for "not making it clear that ‘spammer' is merely an allegation by Mumma and that the company's 11 e-mails to him had complied with federal anti-spam laws."

Author of the article was Reynolds Holding, who covers legal topics for Time. Omega called the article "stunningly irresponsible."

The jury gave $500,000 in compensatory damages and $2 million in punitive damages to Omega, its website Cruise.com, and company founder Gloria Bohan.

John Lawless, staff lawyer of Omega, said he expects Mumma to file a motion for a reduction in damages, a motion for new trial, and one to set aside the verdict.

The website "Direct" of Penton Media said the legal action has reportedly left Mumma in tens of thousands of debt and that "Omega will not likely see even a fraction of the money" (awarded by the jury).

Mumma had originally threatened to sue Omega unless it paid him $6,250. When Omega refused, postings on Mumma's anti-spam websites, including sueaspammer.com, accused Omega of spamming.

An Oklahoma appeals court last month upheld a lower court's ruling disallowing Mumma's suit against El Chico Mexican Café for three e-mails Mumma allegedly got from it.

DISCOVERY CLOSES STORES.

Discovery Communications is closing its 103 stores by the end of the year to concentrate on its e-commerce and t-commerce (TV sales) operations. The move reduces DC's overhead 25 percent or 1,000 people.

DiscoveryStore.com attracted more than 12M unique visitors in '06, plus DC moved product through partnerships with Amazon.com and eBay.

Sales this year are up nearly 150 percent, the company reports, driven in part by its Planet Earth DVD, the best-selling title in DC's history.

CEO David Zaslav called the company owned and operated brink and mortar storefronts "cost-intensive and complicated."

The company will continue its ties to Toys "R" Us, which markets the "Animal Planet" line, and Hudson Group, which runs DC Airport Stores in the U.S. and Canada.

DC's cable programming reaches 1.5B billion viewers in 170 countries.

AOL ACQUIRES ANOTHER SCREEN.

Time Warner's AOL unit has acquired Boston's Third Screen Media, which specializes in delivering ads to mobile phones. TSM will run as an independent unit in AOL's Advertising.com operation.

Tom Burgess, founder & CEO of TSM, says hooking up with AOL will give clients a "comprehensive suite of interactive advertising solutions."

The U.S. mobile ad market was projected at $420M at yearend 2006. It is expected to be near $5B by 2011.

FORBES SUSPENDS AMERICAN HERITAGE.

Forbes Inc. has suspended publication of American Heritage, which has a circulation of 350K.

Richard Snow, editor, says AH has been hurt by the overall decline of the general interest magazine category.

Forbes purchased AH, which was launched in '54, eleven years ago. The magazine of U.S. history began with a no-ad policy. It began accepting ads in '82.

During its heyday, AH had more than 400 employees working on a thriving direct mail and publishing business. AH now has four staffers.

Forbes' decision to put AH on ice was announced the same day the U.S. officials reported that high school seniors tested very poorly on basic facts about American history.

AH retains its AmericanHeritage.com website.

ROBERTS RAPS IRAQ WAR COVERAGE.

John Roberts, the former CBS anchor-in-waiting now CNN staffer, told Broadcasting & Cable that TV has its hands tied when it comes to reporting in Iraq.

While the ongoing chaos in Iraq restricts the movement of journalists, Roberts said Americans could not stomach the pictures of death and destruction even if reporters had access to those scenes.

If news programs aired the footage of what is really happening in Iraq, they would either have no one watching because people couldn't stand to see the pictures or the newscasts "would get so many letters of complaint that some organization would come down on us to stop," said Roberts, who was once tipped to succeed Dan Rather, and co-hosts "American Morning" on CNN.

As a newshound, Roberts says he is happy at CNN. He told B&C that despite the "perceived power and glory" of network TV, they are "not putting that much on the air." CNN, he added, offers a "tremendous opportunity to roam the news universe."

DARLIN BECOMES NYT'S BIZ TECH EDITOR.

Damon Darlin, who joined the New York Times two years ago to write its "Your Money" feature for the Saturday paper, has been named technology editor of the "Business Day" section of the paper.

Prior to the NYT, Darlin was senior editor at Business 2.0, a Time Inc. unit, and managing editor at U.S. News & World Report, where he handled its popular "news you can use" section. He also wrote for Forbes and the Wall Street Journal.

Darlin will work closely with David Gallagher, deputy tech editor.

(Media news continued on next page)

PRIMEDIA SELLS ENTHUSIAST MAGS.

Primedia is selling its stable of 70 enthusiast magazines to Source Interlink Cos. in a $1.2B cash deal.

The collection of titles includes Motor Trend, Surfer, Snowboarder, Soap Opera Weekly, Hot Rod and Lowrider.

Primedia's enthusiast media group also owns 90 websites, runs 65 events and markets 400 branded products. The EM group generated $525M in fiscal `06 revenues.

Steve Parr, president of Primedia's EM unit, will continue to lead the operation under SI chairman Michael Duckworth.

SI is a leading provider of merchandising and fulfillment services for home entertainment products. It serves more than 11K retailers in North America.

The Primedia deal is expected to close during the summer.

SI is owned by California billionaire Ron Burkle. He made an unsuccessful bid for Knight-Ridder and is willing to purchase the Los Angeles Times in the event that going-private Tribune puts that trophy property on the auction block.

THOMSON UNLOADS ED BUSINESS.

Thomson Co., which is merging with Reuters in an $18B deal, has agreed to sell its Thomson Learning unit to private equity firms Apax Partners and Omers Capital Partners.

The $7.5 billion price will offset a chunk of the Reuters bill.

The Thomson businesses include brands such as Gale, Wadsworth, Delmar Learning, Brooks/Cole and South-Western.

The Stamford, Conn.-based company announced its intention last October to withdraw from the higher education market.

The deal is expected to close during the third-quarter of this year.

GOLDBERG EXITS MERC FOR PD.

Susan Goldberg is exiting the San Jose Mercury News for the editor slot at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland. She is taking over for the retiring Doug Clifton.

Carole Hutton moves up to the executive editor position in San Jose. She was VP-community newspapers for the California Newspaper Partnership, which puts out the Merc.

Goldberg begins in Cleveland on May 29.

BELL DIES AT 75.

Bill Bell, a New York Daily News reporter and columnist for 25 years, died of cancer on May 13. He was 75.

He retired from the News with a "farewell column" on April 8. DN publisher Mort Zuckerman called Bell the "embodiment of DN journalism," one who "captivated the spirit of a real city newspaper."

Bell wrote a religion column for the paper under the byline Charles W. Bell.

CRAWDADDY IS BACK ON THE WEB.

Wolfgang’s Vault plans an online revival of Crawdaddy!, a weekly rock magazine started in 1966 by Paul Williams that is considered the first U.S. magazine of rock criticism.

Williams will serve as the advisory editor for the online counterpart, which the publisher says will remain “true to the integrity of the original publication... committed to writing and reporting that will offer a literate, existential look at music as the centerpiece of cultural analysis; as an art form that reflects our society.”

New issues will be published weekly on Wednesdays at www.crawdaddy.com.

Features include a music news blog, profiles, features and interviews with artists from the ‘60s to the present, along with social commentary.

Jocelyn Hoppa is editor-in-chief.

Crawdaddy was named after the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, England, where the Rolling Stones made their debut.

5W PR is handling the launch.

VIRGIN PEDDLES MOBILE MUSIC PUB.

Virgin Mobile USA has created an interactive mobile music magazine called Headliner to dish news, charts, concert dates and features to its 4.6 million customers.

The venture is also a platform to build on Virgin’s 14.8M ringtones sold last year.

The downloadable application is subject to subscription charge of $2.95/month. A 14-day trial is being offered. Virgin claims to be the nation’s leading wireless youth network.

CooperKatz is helping Virgin spread the word on Headliner.

PENNINGTON LAUNCHES MAG.

Ty Pennington, the host of ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” who last week made headlines for a DUI bust, is launching a decorating and remodeling magazine.

The title, Ty Pennington At Home, is published by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. and hit newstands on May 15th.

Hachette plans to follow the first issue with quarterly distribution next year.

PENNWELL ACQUIRES LEDs MAG.

B2B media company PennWell Corp., has acquired LEDs Magazine, a digital publication and website covering the technology and applications of light emitting diodes (LEDs).

Tim Whitaker, who founded the magazine in 2004, joins PennWell as publisher/editorial director. He remains based in Bristol, U.K, and reports to Christine Shaw, senior vice president of PennWell's Optoelectronics Group based in Nashua, New Hampshire.

PennWell president and CEO Robert Biolchini said that the LEDs market will grow from $4B in 2006 to more than $9B by 2011.

The sale of bylined articles from PR Quarterly over the objections of some of the authors (page 7) raises the thorny issue of copyright.

O’Dwyer legal columnist Gavin McElroy of Frankfurt Kurniut Klein & Selz says, “The author of an article owns the copyright unless the author was an employee of the publisher.” Only the owner of the copyright can use or give permission to a third party to use or publish the article, he adds.

“Distributing an article over the internet would normally be a clear violation of the copyright laws and subject the publisher/distributor to damages including return of profits and potentially statutory damages and legal fees,” he said. The O’Dwyer Co. has long been told to obtain a signed release from any bylined authors.

Author Linda Morton has staked a claim to profits made thus far by PRQ in the sale of her works via the Internet. Some of the other PRQ authors are also objecting to this practice.

They will have to form a committee to ask Elaine Newman, widow of PRQ founder Howard Hudson, who now operates PRQ, to reveal the profits that have been made and either to stop the sale of the articles or share the income.

Obtaining any sort of deal is going to be difficult. Legal action costs tens of thousands and many of the authors are impecunious professors writing under the lash of “publish or perish.” Some well-heeled PR pros have told us they don’t mind PRQ making money. PRQ ($65 yearly), once had several thousand subscribers but the USPS statement in its 50th anniversary winter 2005 issue showed circulation of 840. It had one ad. PRQ ad directors told us they pitched the big PR firms for years without result. PRQ is yet another casualty of discrimination against most PR publications except one by the major PR firms. Another factor in PR publishing is that for many PR pros the “PR trade press” is the monthly Tactics and quarterly Strategist of PRSA. The 22,000 circulation of each is nearly four times that of any other PR publication.

The classic copyright case in PR is the sale of hundreds of thousands of copies of authors’ works without their permission by PRSA over a 19-year period ending in 1994. PRSA sold packets of copied articles at up to $55 each with a gross profit of about $200K in the last few years. Volume was about 3,800 packets a year. Twelve authors hired a lawyer and asked PRSA for a share of the income. PRSA said it owed them nothing since its library had the right to send out one copy of an article as long as it was retrieved. The O’Dwyer Co. purchased 11 loan packets that contained 52 O’Dwyer articles totaling 90 pages.

Second most copied publication was PRQ. Some of the same packets were sold to different parties at the same time. The dispute raged three years and cost PRSA about $70K in legal bills. The 1996 board apologized to the authors and said the matter was closed. The 1995 Assembly told the board to investigate and report to it on this but the Assembly’s request was ignored.

More than 1,000 journalists have been killed in war zones or assassinated in the past 10 years (5/9 NL). The more popular device used against reporters is lawsuits aimed at bankrupting them. The Committee to Protect Journalists says that in one country alone (Brazil), criminal and civil defamation lawsuits against the media “have numbered in the thousands over the past five years.” Aboubakr Jamai of Morocco this year was sued right out of his country and into the U.S. where he now lives in Boston. Jamai, publisher of the weekly Le Journal Hebdomadaire, and a reporter were personally hit with fines totaling $354,000. Jamai told CPJ he faced confiscation of his wages and property. A Moroccan court ruled they defamed Claude Moniquet, head of the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center, Brussels, when they questioned the independence of the Center’s report on the disputed Western Sahara.

This NL and publisher Jack O’Dwyer were hit with a $20 million defamation and copyright violation lawsuit by TJFR and its owner, Dean Rotbart, in 1994 after we covered a speech by Rotbart at the 1993 PRSA annual conference. He correctly said that the press is often influenced by news tips and ads but we pointed out that under the PRSA code such influence is not supposed to take place. He said he was not advising PR people to engage in such activities. A principal charge was that Jack O’Dwyer inaccurately covered the speech. PRSA, which videotaped it with two cameras for later sale, had perpetual, unlimited copyright to the speech but wouldn’t release it to O’Dwyer or print the speech itself (which would have let readers decide if the speech was inaccurately covered). Judge Thomas Martin of Federal Court threw out all the charges and called Jack O’Dwyer “a good reporter.” Legal costs for O’Dwyer were $80K+.

The CPJ feels that physical, legal and economic attacks on journalists are increasing in many parts of the world. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof told the Overseas Press Club April 26 that he was hit with three subpoenas last year, a first for him, and that he expects more reporters to wind up in jail. We have asked representatives of the CPJ and OPC if they know of any PR groups in the world showing any interest in the plight of journalists, who are on the receiving end of much organizational news and promotions. So far we’ve drawn a blank.

The CPJ website (cpj.org) is a chilling recitation of tyrannies that either own the press outright (North Korea, Libya, Burma, Turkmenistan, Eritrea, Cuba) or tightly control it (Uzbekistan, Belarus, Equatorial Guinea). Assassinations, destruction of offices, jailings and lawsuits are common. Institutions in “civilized” countries don’t resort to such blatant behavior. But they can exert press control by refusal to deal with media deemed to be “unfair” and by economic reprisals of one sort or another.

--Jack O'Dwyer