COLOMBIA REPLACES WS WITH B-M.

The Government of Colombia, a key U.S. ally in South America, has given its $300K a-year account to Burson-Marsteller.

The WPP Group unit takes charge of Colombia’s effort to iron out a free trade agreement with the U.S. and the “Plan Colombia” operation, which covers U.S. military aid and counternarcotics training.

Rob Tappan, president of B-M’s Washington region operations and chairman of its U.S. issues and advocacy practice, signed the contract with Colombian officials.

The work includes message development, creation of briefing materials and arranging meetings for Colombia’s Ambassador to the U.S.

Weber Shandwick had been Colombia’s longtime PR firm.

Jim Meszaros, who worked on the account at WS, told O’Dwyer’s the firm wrapped up its business in January with the expiration of its contract.

COUGHLIN GETS KEY AT&T POST.

Cathy Coughlin, president of AT&T’s Midwest unit, has been named senior executive VP-advertising and corporate relations at that telecom giant. She succeeds Karen Jennings, who retires June 3.

Coughlin has led the job to win local government approvals for AT&T’s U-Verse, the high-speed network that competes with cable companies.

Jennings reports to AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre, who also steps down next month. Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s COO, is taking over for Whitacre.

AT&T is wrapping up its massive rebranding programming as it changes the name of its Cingular wireless stores to AT&T.

AT&T also is set to kick off marketing of Apple’s iPhone cell phones in June. Apple has tapped Cingular as the exclusive wireless service provider for iPhone.

HEALTH PRO CATLETT JOINS GH.

Dave Catlett has joined GolinHarris in New York as executive VP in its healthcare group.

He had been president of Euro RSCG Life’s PR operation that is part of France’s Havas.

Earlier this month, Noonan Russo regained its independence, splitting from Euro RSCG Life to become Russo Partners.

Catlett made his mark in the health arena as chief of Ketchum’s medical group, counseling Searle, Abbott and Ciba-Geigy.

He reports to Jennifer Cohan, managing director of the Interpublic unit’s Big Apple office.

DISSIDENT SHAREHOLDER SCORES AT IPG.

Ken Steiner, owner of 2,000 Interpublic shares, gained an impressive victory at the company’s May 23 annual meeting as 43 percent of shareholders backed his resolution to give holders of 10 percent of its stock the right to call a special shareholder meeting.

The resolution was designed to give shareholders the ability to move quickly in the event of a major acquisition or restructuring. Currently, a 51 percent vote is required to call a special meeting.

Steiner sponsored the resolution because IPG’s `06 corporate governance was “not impeccable.”

IPG CEO Michael Roth, in his showdown with Steiner, admitted the company IPG faced “difficult times” in the past, but is now positioned to achieve its `08 turnaround goals regarding organic growth and double-digit margins. IPG lost $514M from `00 to `04. Roth joined IPG as chairman on July 13, ‘04. He became CEO on Jan 19, ‘05.

Steiner said things at IPG may be looking up, but the company’s overall performance over the past years has been “pretty pathetic.” He asked why longtime directors—Phil Samper, former Eastman Kodak vice chairman; Reg Brack, ex-Time Inc CEO; Frank Borelli, former Marsh & McLennan CFO; and Jill Considine, chairman of The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., a quartet with at least ten years of board service—still have jobs.

Steiner railed against excessive compensation and “golden parachutes” that reward failure rather than performance.

After the meeting, Steiner said he was impressed with the support that his resolution achieved, calling it a “great vote.”

He had hoped that IPG shares would be currently trading in the $15 range. Its stock is at $11.62 compared to a $9.27 close after the May 25, ’06 session.

FORTUNE LAUDS TYLENOL PR.

The May 28 Fortune magazine, in a full-page feature, said Johnson & Johnson CEO James Burke's response to the Tylenol murders in 1982 "remains the gold standard in crisis control."

Burke could have tried to "ride out the storm or simply reacted to the regional problem," but he instead "went on the offensive, launching both a recall of 31 million bottles of Tylenol capsules and a massive PR campaign to inform the public," says the article by Jia Lynn Yant with "additional reporting" by Eugenia Levenson.

(continued on page 7)

WPP PICKS UP SORRELL’S LEGAL TAB.

WPP Group has agreed to pay $1.6M for CEO Martin Sorrell’s legal bill resulting from his libel suit lodged against two former Italian staffers whom he charged were the brains behind a smear campaign.

Richard Oldworth, CEO of WPP's Buchanan Communications, told this website the decision to pay the legal tab was made by the ad/PR combine's audit committee. Sorrell did not participate in that decision process.

In an e-mail, Oldworth said the audit panel and WPP's chief counsel carefully monitored litigation costs throughout the trial. “These costs were authorized by the board as an integral part of broader legal actions, some of which are ongoing, to protect the commercial interests of the Group,” wrote Oldworth.

He stressed that the libelous blog that knocked the business ethics and practices of Sorrell was “deliberately circulated to WPP employees, clients and competitors under the pretext of genuine WPP communications.”

Oldworth said a BBC report that WPP was to pay $4.9M for Sorrell’s suit is incorrect. The amount is not $4.9M, but $1.6M net of settlement monies, according to the Buchanan chief.

BBC business editor Robert Peston said “most observers had predicted the firm would split the bill” with its chief.

Sorrell referred this NL to Oldworth for comment.

H&K DOES SAUDI-GE PLASTICS DEAL.

Hill & Knowlton is working with Saudi Basic Industries as the Riyadh government-controlled company moves to buy GE Plastics for $11.6 billion.

H&K is speaking for the company out of Houston, where its U.S. operations are based. VP Bronwyn Wallace handles the account.

Known by the acronym SABIC, the 31-year-old company is owned by the Saudi government (70 percent) and private Gulf-area investors. It is aligned with ExxonMobil and Shell and counts 200 employees in the U.S., a figure that will expand to nearly 30,000 with the addition of the GE unit.

GE tapped SABIC after an auction. CEO Jeffrey Immelt, who headed the GE Plastics unit earlier in his career, said the price and the Saudi company’s growth and innovation tipped the scales in its favor.

The deal is expected to close by the third quarter.

OSTERBERG STARTS OWN SHOP.

Gayle Osterberg is exiting the VP-corporate communications slot at the Motion Picture Assn. of America to start her own Washington, D.C.-based PA shop.

The former aide to Republican Senator Don Nickles was hired two years ago by MPAA CEO Dan Glickman, the former Democratic Congressman who served in the Clinton White House.

The MPAA will be a charter client of Osterberg's.

Glickman revamped the trade group's government affairs shop on May 21 with the addition of Daphna Peled, a key aide to Bryon Dorgan (D-ND). Peled joins next month as VP/senior counsel for federal affairs and policy.

REGAN GUIDES 'BUDDY'S COMEBACK.'

Regan Communications’ George Regan is handling the “triumphant” return of convicted racketeer Vincent “Buddy” Cianci, the former Mayor of Providence, who begins a life in the PR arena when he emerges from federal prison on May 30.

The colorful Cianci, who was a frequent guest on Don Imus' now-spiked radio program, will assume PR and marketing duties at Boston’s Fifteen Beacon hotel, Regan's client.

He will have an office on the ground floor of the 60-room boutique down the street from the Capitol. The Fifteen’s restaurant, The Federalist, is a favorite hangout for politicos.

Upon release from Fort Dix, Cianci is to wear an ankle bracket and will be under federal supervision until July 28. He will not be living at the Beacon, but at a halfway house. Regan said some “junkyards are nicer” than Cianci's future digs.

Reagan told the Boston Herald that Cianci, who was sentenced to five years in prison, made a mistake and has paid his debt to society. Cianci is neither a murderer nor pedophile, pointed out the well-connected PR man. The Herald’s headline: “Slammer to glamour: 'Buddy' Cianci collars swanky Hub hotel job.”

Regan praised Cianci's effort to re-develop downtown Providence. He called 66-year-old Cianci a “superb marketer” and someone who is good in advertising and PR.

At the Beacon, Regan expects Cianci to be “front and center.”

PODESTA GETS TOBACCO WORK.

Podesta Group, the well-connected Democratic firm, is repping the interests of Miami-based Dosal Tobacco Corp. regarding the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

That measure re-introduced Feb. 15 by Sens. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John Cornyn (R-Tex) with Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Cal.) and Tom Davis (R-Va.), gives the Food and Drug Administration authority to ban smoking ads aimed at children. It also mandates that tobacco companies remove hazardous materials from cigarettes.

The bill restricts the ability to declare a cigarette as “reduced-risk” without FDA approval.

DTC was born in Havana in 1860. The Government of Fidel Castro seized its plant in 1962, the year DTC relocated to Miami.

Its first “made in USA” brand appeared in the early 80s, and DTC's “305s,” named after Miami's zip code, were launched in 2001.

Tony Podesta heads the lobbying team that includes the firm's healthcare practice director, Sharon Cohen. She was VP-government relations at the Biotechnology Industry Organization prior to joining PG.

Others staffers on the account: John Scofield (ex-communications director for the House Appropriations Committee), Andrew Kauders (former aide to Jersey Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez) and Ann Marie Polak (scheduler to former Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey).

CUTS CONTINUE AT L.A. TIMES.

The Los Angeles Times has launched a “voluntary and involuntary employee separation program” that will result in the loss of 57 staffers, according to Jim O’Shea, editor of the Tribune Co. unit.

Some “highly talented people” are being cut during this “time of wrenching change at our paper and our industry,” he informed employees via a memo.

His goal is to convert the staff into a vibrant multi-media organization that breaks news on the web and explains and analyzes it in the paper.

Of never-ending reports about the death of newspapers, O’Shea doesn’t buy it. “We face a dim future only if we refuse to change and do something about it.”

The road to the future is marked by “creativity, flexibility, innovation, great storytelling and smart editing,” wrote O’Shea.

S.F. CHRON TRIMS 25% OF STAFF.

The San Francisco Chronicle, a Hearst property, is slicing 100 members of its 400-strong news staff in a bid to save $8M a year. The cuts will be completed by the end of the summer.

The paper, situated near Silicon Valley, has been especially hurt by the growth of free digital news.

A member of the Chron's legal team in November testified that the paper was losing $1M a-week.

MSNBC LEADS CABLE IRAQ COVERAGE.

MSNBC and CNN are devoting more time to the Iraq war than Fox News Channel, according to an analysis by the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

PEJ studied cable news coverage from Dec. 31, ’06 to March 31, ’07, determining that MSNBC covered Iraq for nearly one-third of that time (31 percent). At the other end of that spectrum, Fox News Channel devoted less than half the time of MSNBC (15 percent) to the war. CNN held the middle ground at 25 percent.

MSNBC consistently places third in ratings behind leader Fox and No. 2 CNN. PEJ pointed out that MSNBC’s move to focus more on politics and policy shows in its analysis as the network’s four top stories took up more than half of its program. At Fox and CNN, it took about 10 stories to fill that time.

Further breaking down the cable Iraq war coverage, PEJ noted that CNN covered events on the ground in Iraq more than MSNBC or Fox, dedicating seven percent of its coverage to that area. The policy debate surrounding the war drew the most interest from the cable networks with MSNBC logging 26 percent; CNN, 14%, and FNC, 10%.

PEJ noted FNC coverage of Anna Nicole Smith logged in at 9.6%, on the heels of its 10.1% coverage of the Iraq policy debate.

PEJ is aligned with the Pew Research center, a nonpartisan “fact tank.”

Village Voice Media has sold the East Bay Express to its editor Stephen Buel and a group of eight investors. Buel, who has edited the 60K circ alternative weekly for the past five years, promises a better mix of short and long pieces, plus a return of calendar listings.

MEDIA PORTALS ALIGN WITH FACEBOOK.

Washingtonpost.com and Forbes.com have both developed platforms to extend their reach to the Facebook social networking platform.

Forbes has unveiled a stock application that allows Facebook users to track company stocks and access related financial information and news from Forbes.com, based on ticker symbol.

Washingtonpost.com and parent Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive have produced two political applications – “The Compass” and Slate’s “Political Futures” – for availability to Facebook users.

The Compass has users answer questions to determine where their political views fall, while PF is a virtual wager application for the 2008 presidential race.
Facebook counts an estimated 24 million users and is working to expand its audience beyond a foothold in the college market.

IL STARTS PRINT MAG.

International Living, a group of monthly subscription newsletters and websites for people living abroad, has launched a monthly magazine.

Publisher Kathleen Peddicord said the company is working to better complement the monthly title with its daily email newsletters and website.

The newsletter’s top features continue in the magazine format, including its annual Quality of Life Index, which identifies the best country in the world in which to live, and the Global Retirement Index of the best countries for retirees (France and Panama were the recent winners, respectively).

FRISBY FLIES TO PHILLY NEWS PUB POST.

Mark Frisby has been named publisher of the Philadelphia Daily News, a year after the paper and sister pub, Philadelphia Inquirer, were sold by McClatchy to local owners fronted by ad/PR man Brian Tierney.

He had been executive VP-operations at Philadelphia Media Holdings, the parent company of the papers, and publisher of the Courier-Post.

Tierney, in a “Dear Colleagues” memo, said Frisby’s job is to “accelerate the turnaround.”

He said the fate of the PDN is no longer in doubt, and that it is “turning the tide on circulation trends.”

BLOOMBERG COVERS MIDEAST BIZ.

Bloomberg has launched a half-hour English-language program covering business in the Middle East.

“Middle East Money Focus” is hosted by Dareen Abughaida and includes local reports and insight from Bloomberg bureaus in the region, including Dubai, Cairo, Istanbul, Bahrain, Kuwait City and Riyadh. The program airs through Europe, Africa and the Middle East on Sundays, and is available worldwide under one of its subscription packages.

Bloomberg, which said the new show is the first TV news program to cover business in the region, noted it will include interviews exploring trends in banking, real estate, enterprise activities, consumer reports, travel and tourism, arts/culture, and the expanding retail industry.

(Media news continued on next page)

MCGUIRK OUT BEFORE START IN BOSTON.

Bernard McGuirk, who was Don Imus’ longtime sidekick, is not going to return to the airwaves as anticipated in Boston.

WRKO had hoped to give McGuirk a co-host slot last week on “Finneran’s Forum,” the show of former Massachusetts Speaker of the House Tom Finneran. That politico resigned his seat in ’04, pleading guilty to obstruction of justice charges.

McGuirk was to audition for a permanent slot but WRKO changed its plan following protests from a group of black community leaders.

It was McGuirk who first called the Rutgers University women's basketball team "hos." That insult ultimately led to Imus' downfall.

WRKO is owned by Entercom Communications Corp., which is repped by Boston's Regan Comms.

George Regan told the Associated Press that McGuirk may appear on WRKO sometime in the future.

‘TWO-YEAR-OLD’ COULD WIN IMUS CASE.

Martin Garbus, the Davis and Gilbert lawyer, representing Don Imus told the May 24 New York Times that his “two-year-old” could win the fired shock jock’s case against CBS.

The First Amendment attorney is offended by Imus’ “nappy-headed hos” remark, but he said the words were within the terms of Imus’ contract with CBS and did not violate FCC regulations.

Garbus, 72, said his two-year-old reference was to his grandson. He praised Imus as an “extraordinarily bright” radio presence who actually read the books that he featured on his program.

Imus claims he was unjustly dropped from his five-year $40M contract.

PHILLIPS OUT AT NBC.

NBC News is cutting “Dateline NBC” anchor Stone Phillips when his contract expires at the end of the next month. Co-anchor Ann Curry will continue on the show with a rotating group of co-hosts.

Phillips, according to a NBC statement, said he enjoyed a wonderful 15 years at the program. He sees a “bright future” for the news division.

NBC, which is part of General Electric, has Dateline running on Saturday when the new season begins this fall. The show once ran five times a week.

GANNETT TO SELL CHRONICLE-TRIB.

Gannett plans to sell the Chronicle-Tribune (Marion, Ind.) within the next month, according to Gary Suisman, who heads the chain's Interstate Newspaper Group.

He told the paper's 75 employees that there are prospective buyers eager to purchase the paper that has been owned by Gannett since `71.

Gannett has been selling papers of late. Earlier this month, it sold the Norwich Bulletin (Conn.), Rockford Register Star (Ill.), Observer-Dispatch (Utica, N.Y.) and Herald-Dispatch (Huntington, W. Va.) to GateHouse Media for $410M.

People ______________________

Elizabeth Turner, managing editor of Natural Health magazine, has been named editor-in-chief of Active Interest Media’s Vegetarian Times.

Turner takes over for Mary Margaret Chappell, who is relocating to France but will remain with the magazine as food editor.

Turner was previously international managing editor for Weider Publications, ME for Shape Cooks.

Biomonthly business magazine Success has named five new editors to its print and online staff.

James Johnson, technology and small business editor for Black Enterprise Magazine, has joined as business editor focused on the small business sector. Added as contributing editors are Pam Baker, an author and freelancer focused on technology; Anita Campbell, editor of Small Business Trends, an online publication, to focus on small business, and Michelle Tsai, a former Dow Jones reporter. Adam Stone, a staff and freelance reporter for Newsday and the N.Y. Daily News, has signed on as a contributing writer.

Lauren Fine, analyst who covered Omnicom, has left Merrill Lynch after 19 years. She also covered the newspaper industry. Fine was noted for her enthusiasm for the advertising and PR conglomerate. Karl Choi is her replacement at ML.

Stephen Howe, SVP of advertising for The Financial Times, has been named president of the Financial Times in the Americas, effective June 1. He is in charge of driving ad revenues and managing the FT brand's performance and growth in the US. He was formerly VP of advertising for the Wall Street Journal.

Howe replaces Robin Johnson, recently named CEO of Financial Times Search, an Internet portal in development.

Briefs ___________________________

Paul David Pope, son of The National Enquirer founder Gene Pope, is producing a website with memorabilia from the family’s colorful past and updates on its current legal tussles, which include family infighting and lawsuits centered on the $200M Pope trust.

AARP The Magazine said it is drawing nearly 31.5M U.S. readers per issue, according to the 2007 MRI Spring Study of the magazine’s readership. That is up 107 percent from 15.2M in the fall of 2000. The publication is comparing itself to “American Idol,” YouTube, iPods, and “The Oprah Winfrey Show” based on the scope of its reach.

PennWell Corporation has acquired Utility Products magazine from TKM Communications Inc., based in Birmingham, Ala. The monthly B2B title covers power, telecomms. and cable TV product markets.

Burson-Marsteller CEO Mark Penn is portrayed in a Burson-Marsteller sweater as a supporter of "Hillary Inc." on the cover of last week's The Nation. Subtitle is "The Corporate Ties That Bind."

Fortune’s praise of Johnson & Johnson’s recall of Tylenol capsules in 1982 (after seven deaths via Tylenols) puts a spotlight on this tragedy (page 1).

No one from J&J is quoted in the article because the company has refused to discuss the murders with anyone for many years. And with good reason.

Modern PR breaks down into two categories: J&J/Tylenol and the rest of it. One need only study what happened in this incident to know plenty about how PR works and how media work (or don’t).

For openers, J&J should not have been selling anything in easily opened and doctored capsules. CEO James Burke’s career at J&J was heavily identified with the success of Tylenol. The capsules were popular because people felt they were easier to swallow and worked faster than tablets. Burke feared J&J would stop using capsules but others wouldn’t, causing a drop in Tylenol’s market share.

There was no “immediate” (Effective PR textbook) or “instant” (“The Insider”) recall of Tylenol capsules. J&J first confined the recall to two small lots after two deaths took place on Wednesday, Sept. 29, 1982. Both J&J and the FDA told people on Thursday not to take any more Tylenol capsules until a probe was conducted.

The actual recall (of the few, if any, Tylenol products left on shelves), was made Oct. 6, seven days after Burke learned of the initial murders. Mary Kellerman, 12, and Adam Janus, 27, had died from poisoned Tylenols on the morning of Sept. 29.

Who has ever seen a picture of Kellerman or Janus or his brother Stanley, 25, or Stanley’s wife, Theresa, 19, or any of the other four victims? We haven’t and we’ve been collecting material on this story for 25 years. When J&J finally agreed to a settlement in May of 1991, none of their names were even mentioned in a Chicago Tribune story. We never saw a picture of Diane Elsroth, 23, of Peeksville, N.Y., who died Feb. 7, 1986 of a poisoned Tylenol capsule. Neither Newsweek nor Time ran her picture although Newsweek had a large picture of Burke.

Media attention has been focused on possible harm to Tylenol’s market share. A “man” in Oroville, Calif., almost died of a Tylenol poisoning on 10/5/82 but his name never hit print.

Burke himself chaired the committee on “tamper-resistant” packaging that rushed this knowingly flawed system back to market on Nov. 11.

The seals on Elsroth’s bottle and another spiked bottle found nearby appeared not to have been broken. But the FBI, using “sophisticated” tests, found on Feb. 27 that the seals had been broken. This was thought to exonerate J&J. But if it took the FBI three weeks to learn this, what chance did the average consumer have of noticing tampering?

J&J did not win a PRSA Silver Anvil in 1983 for its Tylenol recall.

J&J entered the recall in the “Emergency PR” category and lost to Hygrade Food Products which was praised for its creativity in handling alleged contamination of hot dogs. J&J had refused to give the Anvil judges a PR budget and it had not called a press conference to answer questions in public (it had lots of enemies because of what the Wall Street Journal called its “knuckle-buster lawsuits” vs. competitors).

Only the judges had the power to award Anvils. The Anvil committee decided, on its own, to give J&J something but it should have been called “Special Award.” While J&J ducked a public grilling on the murders, it had three open “teleconferences” in November when it was unveiling its “tamper-resistant” packaging. J&J (made up of more than 160 different companies) later donated millions in ads and grants to PRSA. Burke, with J&J nearly 30 years, had “never” appeared on TV and “rarely” in print (The Practice of PR). J&J “would not give us the time of day” up until Tylenol, ABC-TV business reporter Karen Ryan said in 1983. Camera crews would show up at J&J h.q. only to be told the meeting was cancelled, she said.

The Overseas Press Club battles for press rights in dictatorships such as Cuba, Eritrea and Uzbekistan (5/23 NL) but it should also turn its attention to authoritarian giants in the U.S. like Omnicom that have shunned the press for many years and gotten away with it. The journalist’s life has “never been harder,” Bill Moyers told a media group 5/15/05. Institutions fight back fiercely when subjected to “critical scrutiny,” he said...OPC’s membership fell from 3,326 in 1966 to 600 at present as foreign bureaus closed and media hired nationals...the five big ad agencies, J&J, PRSA and numerous other institutions have super-tight policies in dealing with the press that approach the policies of undemocratic foreign dictatorships...reporters are deemed to be “enemies” because they don’t share the enthusiasm an organization has for itself. They’re not supposed to. As Abraham Lincoln said in 1837 (as quoted in the 5/28 New Yorker), the only acceptable form of public discourse is “reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason.” He said that while “passion has helped us, it can do so no more. It will in the future be our enemy”...Mary Beth West, Maryville, Tenn., counselor, spent an hour May 24 on a teleconference pleading with PRSA chapter reps to create advocacy chairs and to think up issues for PRSA’s advocacy program. She told them to stick to generalities when discussing a crisis and avoid naming companies or individuals (who might be PRSA members). Best is to check with national before saying anything, she said...we can suggest a couple of issues. One is support the right of the press to cover institutions and particularly PRSA. It should be unethical to duck a reporter’s call. Organizations can be urged to accept the dispassionate and even critical viewpoint that reporters provide and to practice “cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason” in dealing with them. No. 2 is that PR pros should work or at least be available 24/7, the hours that media work.

--Jack O'Dwyer