U.S. MULLS ABSENTEE BALLOT PSA DRIVE.

The Federal Voting Assistance Program, which covers the potential six million absentee voters in the U.S. and worldwide, has put out a feeler to develop and manage a large-scale public service campaign ahead of the 2008 elections.

The Army’s contracting center has issued a “sources sought synopsis” on behalf of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to determine the interest in capabilities of organizing a PSA, online marketing and PR effort for the FVAP.

The Defense chief serves as director of the FVAP.

The government wants to hear from agencies with PSA experience and digital savvy, well-versed in PR and media relations and with experience working for government and non-profit entities.

The FVAP has been looking into a system that registers absentee voters electronically to request a ballot.

Gayna Malcolm (703-695-2564; [email protected]) is taking questions.

FORD FINDS FARLEY.

Ford Motor has recruited Toyota’s Jim Farley for the group VP-marketing & communications post.

He had been responsible for marketing/sales and customer relations for the Japanese carmaker’s Lexus luxury brand.

Farley’s job is to “lead Ford’s drive to connect even more closely with customers through integrated marketing, advertising, digital communications, brand development product planning, research, product communications and PR,” according to the company’s statement.

Ford’s global communications and PR team reports to Farley, who joins the company mid-November.

Farley reports to CEO Alan Mulally, who joined the car company from Boeing last year.

FM RETAINS $800K BUCKEYE TRAVEL ACCT.

Fahlgren Mortine has retained command of the $800K Ohio Division of Tourism and Travel account, fending off Landau PR.

The Columbus-based incumbent also does Ohio tourism advertising.

That account is under review with a decision slated for early next month.

FM’s PR victory means the shop can seamlessly tout some of the Buckeye State’s roster of harvest events such as the “Circleville Pumpkin Show” (Oct. 17-20) and “Apple Butter Stirrin’ Festival” (Oct. 19-21).

Visitors spent $33B in Ohio last year. The state counts 560K travel-related jobs.

CIRCLE LINE TROLLS RFP FOR PR.

Circle Line, the well-known sightseeing and music cruise company in New York City, is reviewing its PR account with an RFP process to boost its brand in a “changing environment.” Greenwich, Conn.-based Danika Communications currently handles the work.

Circle Line boats have cruised New York waters since World War II. The company split into two parts in the early 1980s – Circle Line 42nd Street, which operates the sightseeing and music cruises around Manhattan and has issued the RFP, and Circle Line-Downtown, which recently lost a re-bid for the $350M contract to ferry passengers to Liberty Island and Ellis Island for the next 10 years.

Andreas Sappok, VP and GM of CL’s sightseeing cruises unit, said the company plans to award a one or two-year contract from the RFP, which calls for media relations, communications services, and developing creative ways of promoting the CL brand in a “changing environment” with “various challenges and opportunities.”

CL suffered a two-year decline after Sept. 11 but stabilized after consolidating its operations.

Sappok is overseeing the RFP. She can be reached at 212/630-8106 or [email protected].

VIRGIN CALLS ABERNATHY MACGREGOR.

Abernathy MacGregor handled the IPO of Richard Branson’s Virgin Mobile, the virtual wireless company that went public on Oct. 11.

The shares closed at $15.75 a share, up a modest five percent from the offering price. The Wall Street Journal reported that the “much anticipated stock offering” didn’t dazzle in its debut.  VM currently trades at $15.10.

VM is a venture of Branson’s Virgin Group and Sprint Nextel. The company aims its prepaid cellphone cards at the youth market.

PRS KEEPS FINANCIALS FROM DELEGATES.

PR Society delegates who expressed disappointment that no financials were in the delegates' binder have now been told that no financial information will be revealed to them until the morning of the Assembly Oct. 20.

Treasurer Tony D'Angelo of United Technologies said in a posting Sept. 23 in the delegates' e-group, after queried about the lack of financials, that the "plan is to distribute hard copies in Philadelphia."

The board is to review the financials at its meeting Oct. 18 in Philadelphia.

(continued on page 7)

RUBENSTEIN PITCHES NYC AD PUSH.

Howard Rubenstein’s shop is promoting news of New York City’s first-ever global marketing campaign to attract more tourists to the Big Apple.

The $30M print, TV, online and outdoor ad effort was unleashed Oct. 10 in ten countries and in key U.S. cities.

The “This is New York City” tagline is used to play up the “diversity of experiences” here. The ads feature iconic images from each of NYC boroughs including Times Square, Coney Island, Yankee Stadium, Staten Island Ferry and the Unisphere.

NYC & Co. chairman Jonathan Tisch said one of the purposes of the campaign is to counter the negative image of the U.S. held by foreigners.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg has set a goal to attract 50M tourists to NYC by `15, up from the 43.8M who visited in `06.

The ad campaign runs in U.K., Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Brazil. Boston, Philadelphia, Miami and San Antonio are also on the schedule.

The New York office of Britain’s Bartle Bogle Hegarty shop created the ads.

KNOT TIES UP SCARDINO.

Janet Scardino, who was executive VP-media at Reuters, has moved to The Knot, the No. 1 site in the weddings category, as president and chief marketing officer, a new position.

She is charged with developing new content for The Knot and its associated sites such as TheNest.com (family features) and PartySpot (celebration planning). The Knot’s roster includes magazines, books and e-commerce aimed at the couples market.

Scardino called The Knot the “new media model for the 21st Century.” Her role is to expand its scope beyond the “white dress.”

At Reuters, Scardino headed consumer media services in the Americas and Europe. She was responsible for ad-supported websites, mobile, outdoor and Internet delivered TV properties.

Scardino also worked at AOL as senior VP-international marketing. Her responsibilities included brand and acquisition marketing in 16 countries.

She held spots at Walt Disney (managing director of the Disney Channel in Milan, Italy) and MTV Networks (VP-international marketing).

NIGERIA TO RETAIN WATTS.

Watts Consulting Group is negotiating a long-term contract to promote the new face of Nigeria in the aftermath of the April presidential election that put Umaru Yar’Adua into power.

WCG is the firm of former Congressman J.C. Watts, the former University of Oklahoma Sooners football star who rose to the No. 4 leadership position in the Republican party.

WCG envisions a full menu of government relations work plus outreach to business, social and civic organizations on behalf of the Nigerians.

That planned outreach follows a Human Rights Watch report released Oct. 9 that portrays Nigeria as a nation “mired in corruption.”

SC WORKS CONTROVERSIAL DEAL.

Stanton Crenshaw is helping Bain Capital Partners counter Congressional critics upset with its $2.2B deal to acquire 3Com Corp. BCP’s partnership with China’s Huawei Technologies Co. is the key irritant.

Republican Congressmen Duncan Hunter and Peter Hoekstra have been most vocal in speaking up against the deal.

They fear China could gain access to 3Com’s telecommunications technology that is used by the Pentagon. Hunter is a Presidential rival to Mitt Romney, founder of the private equity fund.

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, they expressed “alarm” over the deal because of Huawei’s close ties to the Government of the People’s Republic.

BCP, on Oct. 3, agreed to submit the deal for approval of the Treasury Dept.’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.

Huawei is headed by a former Chinese military officer. The Washington Times reported that the company supplied Saddam Hussein’s government gear in violation of United Nations sanctions, and provided the Taliban equipment before the American-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions (Republican) said the 3Com deal is worse than the proposed agreement to turn over control of U.S. ports to Dubai.

Porter Novelli does PR for 3Com.

SV TAKES AIM AT BUD.

Sard Verbinnen & Co. is playing media matchmaker to the blockbuster marriage combining the U.S. operations of No. 2 brewer Miller Brewing and No. 3 Coors to take a run at No. 1 Anheuser-Busch.

The deal would create a $6.6B MillerCoors entity headed by Leo Kiely, CEO of MolsonCoors. Tom Long, CEO of Miller, will be president and chief commercial officer of the new company.

The deal, if approved by regulators early next year, is expected to generate $500M in annual cost synergies.

Miller Coors will hold about 31 percent of the U.S. beer market, while AB controls half.

SV’s Carrie Bloom, Jim Barron and Drew Brown are working the deal.

JENNINGS EXITS W.H. FOR PERITUS PR.

Scott Jennings, a special assistant to President Bush and deputy to Karl Rove, has left the White House to direct strategic development for Louisville, Ky., PR firm Peritus PR.

Jennings was a direct advisor to the president and deputy for personnel and political affairs to Senior Advisor Rove.

Peritus, formerly The Commonwealth Group, is a nine-year-old PA and PR shop that works in the corporate, consumer and healthcare sectors, among others. The firm has worked with DCI Group, Ford, Caremark Rx and the Univ. of Louisville.

Jennings joined the White House in early 2005 as a political affairs liaison for 11 southern states after managing the Bush/Cheney campaign in New Mexico in 2004. He also worked on Sen. Mitch McConnell’s 2002 re-election and Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s 2003 campaign.

BBC EXPECTED TO SWING AX.

The BBC is preparing to cut nearly 2,000 positions, or at least 12 percent of its 23,000-person workforce, according to the Financial Times.

The Beeb has to lop off six percent of its $3 billion-plus annual budget over the next five years.

The FT reported that BBC's factual programming, which produces shows like "Planet Earth" and "Panorama," is expected to be hardest hit by the pruning.

The BBC cut more than 3,700 positions in 2005.

SIMMONS SUCCEEDS BLANKLEY.

Deborah Simmons is the new editor of the editorial page of the Washington Times.

She takes over for Tony Blankley, who defected to Edelman last month. Simmons was Blankley's deputy.

She joined the Times in `85. Simmons has been a copy editor, metro editor and features editor, which includes the paper's Civil War page.

She began her newspaper upon high school graduation at the Washington Evening Star. Simmons has appeared on "Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect," "America's Black Forum," "The O'Reilly Factor," Washington Journal," and NPR.

PR FIRM BIDS FOR SCRIPPS PAPER.

DW Turner, a strategic communications and crisis firm in Albuquerque, has placed a bid to buy the Albuquerque Tribune from E.W. Scripps Co.

The Cincinnati-based media company announced plans to close the 85-year-old evening paper on Aug. 28 if it could not find a buyer within two months.

The AT has a joint operating agreement with the larger Albuquerque Journal.

Tom Carroll, DW Turner president, told the Associated Press that the Tribune would operate independently of the PR firm that is headed by Doug Turner, who has counseled Wal-Mart, Philip Morris, Pfizer and Westinghouse.

NBCU PAYS $925M FOR OXYGEN.

General Electric's NBC Universal unit is paying $925M for Oxygen Media, the cable network aimed at women in 74M households.

The deal increases NBCU's "foothold in the advertiser-coveted young, upscale, female demographic," according to Jeff Zucker, CEO of NBCU.

He added that seven-year-old Oxygen complements NBCU's existing cable channels and plays to its strength of running networks.

Oxygen, which Zucker called the "crown jewel" of independent cable networks, was founded by current CEO Geraldine Laybourne, Oprah Winfrey and TV producers Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner and Caryn Mandabach.

It is to be folded into NBCU's cable entertainment unit which includes Bravo, USA Network, MSNBC and SCI Fi. The unit generates 50 percent of the company's profits.

Laybourne has agreed to stay on at Oxygen at least through the rest of the year. The acquisition is expected to close next month.

CARLY IS BACK.

Carly Fiorina, who was ousted from the helm of Hewlett-Packard, is a contributor to Fox Business News, the News Corp. offering that debuted Oct. 15.

Kevin Magee, executive VP at FBN, called Fiorina "one of the foremost business leaders of our time."

She was forced out in '05 at H-P for her role in pushing for the Compaq Computer acquisition.

Fiorina made her case for that deal in a memoir, "Tough Choices."

DUFFY MOVES TO NPR.

Brian Duffy, a former editor of U.S. News & World Report has joined National Public Radio as managing editor.

He departed USN&WR during the spring after a six-year stint. Earlier, Duffy wrote for the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.

At NPR, Duffy will direct daily news reporting and lead the network's investigative efforts.

RITTER TAKES BeE WOMAN POST.

Elizabeth Ritter, who was managing editor of Worth, is now editor-in-chief of BeE Woman, the Dallas-based mag of personal finance, careers, lifestyles and politics.

She succeeds Ana Maria Castronovo, who resigned after four years.

Ritter served as managing editor of Time4Media/Time Inc.'s SHOT Business and was assistant editor of Outdoor Life.

BeE Woman is published by Femme Publications and has a rate base of 120K.

OBSERVER TOUTS PR’S GLAMOUR.

PR has overtaken advertising as the "industry of choice for those seeking a route to glamour," according to the Oct. 8 New York Observer.

That's a historical twist, according to the salmon-colored weekly.

PR used to be a place where the "leading practitioners were invisible, a good PR agent never let himself usurp his client's fame."

The paper contrasts AMC's "Mad Men" series about advertising's glory days of the early `60s with MTV's "The Hills" reality show that features Bolthouse Productions, a special events outfit.

While Mad Men shows how "the era of advertising's larger-than-life men era is over," MTV's "Heidi Montag looks pretty behind the desk of an Los Angeles publicity agency whose founder, Brent Bolthouse is perfectly content to let the camera linger on his carefully slicked black hair."

The Observer believes a "whole generation of teenagers is indoctrinated in the joys of clipboard-holding."

Newsweek has revamped Newsweek.com to include streamlined navigation, a weekly video message to readers about the week's stories from editor Jon Meacham, and 14 new blogs.

(Media news continued on next page)

START LOW ON EDITORIAL TOTEM POLE.

Here's a good trick to try out when pitching the press: instead of sending story ideas to the top dog of a magazine or its newsroom, find the publication's masthead, look at its roster of editorial staff, and start sending items to the people listed on the very bottom of the list.

Senior and managing editors are usually too busy to sift through the PR slush pile, said a group of consumer and personal finance media experts at a September 27 Publicity Club of New York luncheon panel.

On the other hand, beat reporters and associate editors are more likely to rely on PR pitches for news items, items they can then re-spin to their bosses and turn into a story.

"I really do count on emails you send me telling me what's going on," said Mary McGeever, Consumer Unit producer at WCBS-TV. "When you come up with a different angle it means that I can go to my boss with a different angle. I look like a superstar and you get your story on the air."

Ellen Stark, assistant managing editor of Money magazine, said it's important that PR pros distinguish the concept of pitching an idea to the press, as opposed to pitching a product or person.

Ideas are the stuff news is made of. PR pros should appropriate their pitches by embodying their clients as part of a bigger picture.

"There's a big difference," Stark said. "It's the difference between saying 'John Smith would like you to speak with him about this issue,' versus saying 'John Smith has a new idea on this or that issue.'"

The panel offered another tip: don't give the media 'empty' experts. Mary Beth Franklin, senior editor of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, said supplying experts for soundbytes like an analyst or a financial planner is par for the course, but said it should be someone who not only has something valuable to say, but who can put the press in touch with an actual client so they can see the results for themselves.

"I have wonderful relationships with PR people who know what I want," Franklin said. "If you know what we want and you deliver, we're golden."

Meghann Marco, associate editor for The Consumerist, warned against the tricky business of sending surveys to the press that laud a client's achievements,

The Consumerist, a blog that gets more than 6 million unique visitors a month, specializes in putting the spotlight on consumer complaints, a practice that Marco said makes many companies "afraid of us."

Newsrooms can see through the veil of slippery surveys compiled solely for the purpose of making a company look good, and Marco noted that it isn't a good idea to send any of this “data” to the press unless it's from a legitimate third party.

"We'll do surveys, but if you give us a survey and it's put together by your company, we'll probably make fun of you," she said.

Franklin agreed. "I probably get 10-12 surveys a week, with a lot of them giving me completely opposite results."

And of course, PR pros should remember to work the pitch into an original concept that can be shaped by a newsroom.

"I need to somehow find a hook, something new. Do a little research, and come up with a different angle," said McGeever.

"I know it's tough. I know it feels sometimes like everything's been done. But at the end of the day, that's what it's got to be."

The panel was moderated by PCNY President Peter Himler.

WSJ’S HERRICK TO B-M.

Thaddeus Herrick, a reporter with 25 years of newspaper experience, has been tapped as general manager of Burson-Marsteller's Houston office. He reports to southwest regional chairman Mike Lake.

Herrick covered real estate and the energy business during the last seven years for the Wall Street Journal. Those stories including ones about ExxonMobil, Dow Chemical and OPEC.

Prior to the WSJ, Herrick was San Antonio bureau chief for the Houston Chronicle, chief political writer for Rocky Mountain News and Mexico City bureau chief for Scripps Howard.

BusinessWeek has reworked its editorial and design, the result of an 18-month process that was unveiled with the Oct. 22 issue. Among the changes are an expansion of "The Business Week" news digest, a new section called "Links," which aggragates outside content, and the newly created "In Depth" feature section. "Feedback" from readers has become a weekly feature and Maria Bartiromo's "Face Time" column will also be weekly.

People ________________________

Time Warner Cable has tapped Ellen East for the executive VP-corporate communications slot. She will take over for Lynn Yaeger when she retires at the end of the year.

East held the VP-corporate comms. spot at Cox Communications in Atlanta. She is a former reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

AT TWC, East also will oversee the cable entity's regional PA activities. She will report to TWC CEO Glenn Britt.

Meredith McGinn was promoted to assistant news director for WNYW/Fox 5 in New York. She takes over for Jim Driscoll, who was named news director for sister station My9/WWOR-TV.

Jefferson Morley, a 15-year Washington Post vet, has been named editorial director of the Center for Independent Media, a start-up expected to have an online news site up in late 2007.

David Bennahum, president and CEO of CIM, said the center conducted a thorough and intensive search before deciding on Morley. Bennahum said Morley is “ideally suited to help lead the way to the 21st century newsroom.”

This is our last editorial before the once-a-year meeting of the Assembly (Oct. 20) of the PR Society, the body that is supposed to represent the interests of the members.

We don't think it does. It represents the interests of the leaders and h.q. staff.
We would like this to be a serious meeting instead of a delirious meeting.

It will be delirious if the 250 chapter delegates let themselves be hornswoggled into discussing the "Strategic Plan" for an hour and a half (with monitors patrolling the aisles to make sure they don't discuss anything else).

The current SP is a cloud of soaring aspirations and goals with about as much substance as a real cloud.

It can easily be shown that it has failed in its main goals so why craft another one? The reason is that the attention of the delegates will be shifted to the future and away from the painful truths of the present. Another such dodge this year is the threat to re-write the entire bylaws. Delegates will have to worry about that one, too. We recall the adage: "The future is the playground of fools."

The Strategic Plan was more meaningful when it was created in 1999 as a "check and balance" against rule by the board. It was meant to gather the opinions of a broad spectrum of members.

The 1999 SP demanded that APR be removed as a qualification for national office or the Assembly or membership on the nominating committee. APR was to be removed "across-the-board" from the bylaws. What happened was that the board removed the SP of independence. The 1999 board rejected the APR advice in no uncertain terms and said it would fight any such changes in the bylaws.

The board now dominates the SP. The SP is no longer a "check and balance" on the board and neither is the Ethics Board, which refuses to make any criticisms of the national board; the audit committee, which rubber stamps the audit by Sobel & Co.; the College of Fellows, which is silent; the ex-presidents, also silent, and the Gold Anvil winners, even more silent. All these possible "checks and balances" are no match for the board and its arsenal of lawyers, accountants and association executives. The Assembly is the last possible "check and balance" but its overwhelming objection to the Central Michigan proposal last year that would have made the Assembly the chief policy-making body of the Society shows the board is in almost complete control of it.

But back to the 2005-2007 SP.

For openers, it says that PRS is a "member-driven organization" when it emphatically is not. Members are typically kept in the dark about any big decisions like killing the directory, the code, and signing a 13-year lease downtown. There is no PRS blog for members and they're barred from seeing what their "elected" delegates say in a private e-mail group. As it turns out (page 7), very little is being said in this e-group. Most of the participants are leaders.

A chief goal of the SP was making PRS "the profession's leading voice on important industry, societal and global issues." We haven't seen a single speech all year from either CEO Rhoda Weiss or COO Bill Murray, both of whom have ducked all but three of the 15 biggest chapters. How can leaders have a voice when they're in hiding?!

Another big goal was to "identify the PRS Foundation as the leader in research and education that advances the profession."

This is preposterous because the Institute for PR, which broke away from PRS in 1989 over the APR issue, had revenues of $845,485 in 2006 vs. the Foundation's $259,840 in 2006. IPR is three times as big as the Foundation and we don't see the latter catching up. Actually, it should never have been created. It's a waste of time and money. PRS should have accepted an independent foundation back in 1989. Its outsized ego blocked this.

Another unrealized SP goal was to "create a leadership institute to train and develop promising mid-careerists to service the Society…"

What a laugh! On the Oct. 9 delegate teleconference, S.E. district chair Blake Lewis bemoaned the failure of even one acceptable candidate to show up for a district board position. One had to be recruited by petition. "No organization should have to go through that," he complained. Obviously this SP initiative failed.

Another goal, equally laughable, was "increase the number of accredited members through a targeted marketing plan." New PRS APRs have been at an all-time low for three years running-130 yearly or 391 in total. Stick a fork in this program.

Yet another main objective was "gain recognition" for PRS leaders such as Gold Anvil winners. Where are Debra Miller, 2006 Gold winner, and all the other Gold winners? Are there any speeches or leadership activities coming from them? No. What have they got to say about the secret e-mail group of the delegates, the false financials that understate conference payroll costs, the lack of a blog on the PRS website, etc.? Nothing. Equally silent are the past presidents, who self-mockingly call themselves "The Dead Presidents Society" because of their lack of leadership.

We could go on and on about the unrelenting bloviating that marks the SP. It is loaded with positive words like "strategy," "critical," "vision," "ethical," "strengths," etc. How many zeros make one? If the delegates spend one minute on creating a new string of superlatives for PRS, they will show how politicized they have become.

If they want to win a lot of brownie points with the national leadership, that is the way to do it. But the Assembly is the one day in the year when PRS volunteers and staff must operate in the open.

The Assembly is too big to be hidden. Its actions will be duly recorded for all to see.

--Jack O'Dwyer