N.J. REVIEWS TOURISM ACCOUNT.

New Jersey is reviewing its multimillion-dollar tourism communications account currently handled by Whippany, N.J.-based Brushfire.

The state says the three-part RFP – web design, PR and advertising – could result in three separate contracts or go to a single agency.

Budget for the three categories is $6M for the first year, broken down as $2M for web work, $3.75M for advertising and $250K for PR.

Brushfire, which won its ad and PR pact in 2005, is under contract through June 2008.

An optional pre-bid conference is set for Nov. 7 with the RFP deadline as Dec. 7. The RFP can be downloaded at http://www.nj.gov/treasury/purchase/bid/summary/08x39757.shtml.

KRAFT’S CAROTHERS TO FD DITTUS.

Paul Carothers, who spent 14 years at Kraft Foods as VP-global PA, has joined FD Dittus to head its food, health and nutrition practice.

At Kraft, he handled global issues management, government relations, and corporate social responsibility programs. He also held the VP-international corporate affairs post.

Carothers spearheaded the food giant’s approach to the obesity issue, and worked with the World Health Organization on health and wellness matters.

He played a key role in Kraft’s partnership with the Rainforest Alliance, a program that led to the marketing of sustainable coffee products in the U.S. and Europe, and another program to tackle child labor issues in western Africa’s chocolate sector.

Prior to Kraft, Carothers served as government relations head for the American Plastics Council and legislative director for former Senator John Breaux (D-La.).

MEEHAN JOINS LEVICK.

Sara Brown Meehan, a veteran of Ketchum, GCI Group and Hill & Knowlton, has joined Levick Strategic Communications in its corporate, finance and PA practice group.

She has handled high-profile campaigns for Starbucks, Ford Motor and FedEx. Meehan also has strong environmental credentials earned while communications director for the “Save the Bay” advocacy group in San Francisco. She also worked at the Rainforest Action Network, coordinating media and ad strategies.

Meehan was involved in RANs effort to target Citigroup, Home Depot and Boise Cascade for development of sustainable investment/logging programs.

APCO PICKS UP ‘BORAT’ ACCOUNT.

APCO Worldwide is hammering out final details in an agreement to provide global PR for energy rich Kazakhstan, the former Soviet Union state that was featured in the movie “Borat.”

The D.C.-based independent PA/government relations firm has received a payment of $487,777 to cover work done here through the end of the year for the government of strongman Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has led Kazakhstan since independence 15 years ago. He visited President Bush last September.

Elizabeth Jones, former U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan, is a member of APCO’s international advisory board.

She was the State Dept.’s senior advisor for Caspian Sea energy diplomacy.
Kazakhstan is embroiled in a fight with western oil companies over the development of a field in the Caspian.

The Independent (Oct. 15) called the field “the most important oil discovery in three decades” and one that could put Kazakhstan into the “big league of oil producers.”

Nazarbayev has stepped up ties with “axis of evil” member Iran, holding a joint press conference with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Oct. 15 at which they promised to boost trade to the annual $10B mark.

APCO reports to Erlan Idrissov, Kazakhstan’s Ambassador in D.C.

PRS ASSEMBLY REJECTS ‘REGIONS.’

A second attempt by PR Society leaders to compress the ten districts into five new “regions” was defeated by the Assembly Oct. 20 in Philadelphia after an hour of debate.

The bylaw change won 51% of the 283 votes but a two-thirds majority was needed. The change had been tabled twice last year.

Many delegates cheered and applauded when the vote went on the screens. Opponents argued that the districts would lose power if the new regions were formalized and why make such a change when re-writing the entire bylaws is planned.

Proponents said good leadership talent was being passed over simply because of geography and the districts would still have representatives on the nominating committee.

They also argued that district directors don’t really “represent” their districts but the entire membership.

(continued on page 7)

BSP LOOKS FOR PR FIRM.

Brand Sense Partners, the Los Angeles-based marketing firm that helps clients maximize the value of their brands by tapping underutilized assets, is looking for a PR firm to bolster its profile.

The firm is a venture of Brian France, NASCAR chairman, and Robert Hollander, who was VP-marketing for the Atlanta Committee for the `96 Olympic Games.

BSP says it spots “inorganic growth opportunities” such as strategic partnerships, licensing deals, new distribution channels and joint ventures for clients. It has worked with Dodge, Hamilton Beach, Halle Berry, Chuck Norris, STP, Kingsford and Britney Spears.

BSP wants a firm with an extensive background in consumer products and corporate PR.

Ashley Vandell ([email protected] or 310/867-7245) has details. BSP wants RFP submissions by Oct. 29. Work begins Jan. 2.

‘PARADISE COAST’ TAPS BCF FOR PR ACCT.

The southwestern Gulf Coast region of Florida has awarded its $120K PR account to Virginia Beach firm BCF after a review.

Collier County, which uses the slogan “Paradise Coast,” issued an RFP in July for a firm to support the Naples, Marco Island, Everglades Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The one-year contract carries two option years. Eight firms submitted proposals after dozens like GolinHarris, Hill & Knowlton, M. Silver & Associates and Lou Hammond Associates showed an interest in the RFP.

Tourism has a $1.1 billion impact on the area, which competes with Palm Beach, Clearwater/St. Petersburg and the Caribbean for visitors. About 1.4M people toured the area in 2006.

KEKST GUIDES U.S. ENERGY SYS.

U.S. Energy Systems, a struggling “clean and green” energy company, is relying on Kekst and Company for media relations as it faces delisting and other financial woes.

The New York-based company, which has thermal energy, gas and electricity projects in the U.S. and U.K., was delisted from the Nasdaq stock market last week in a move that company officials said was “disappointing.”
Kekst partner Adam Weiner is handling the account in New York.

U.S. Energy failed to file two 10-Q quarterly reports earlier this year by Nasdaq deadlines. The company had until Oct. 15 to file its first quarter report “due to circumstances beyond our control,” according to CEO Joseph Reynolds in a statement distributed by Kekst.

Reynolds took over earlier this month after the June axing of the company’s CEO and an executive VP amid its struggles.

Tucker Bounds, who was a regional press secretary for Presidential hopeful John McCain, has taken the VP-PA slot at the American Insurance Assn., which is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

He exited the campaign following the recent shake-up of the Arizona Republican's staff.

WPP STOCK SINKS.

WPP Group’s stock registered its biggest decline in nearly five years on Oct. 19 as the company’s 4.9 percent rise in third-quarter revenues failed to meet analysts’ expectations.

CEO Martin Sorrell believes `08 (Presidential elections, Beijing Olympics) will turn out to be better than `07, but he expressed some concern about `09.

“We also continue to believe that a more important concern should be the impact that any new U.S. administration will have on 2009 - when they have seen the government’s books and will be tempted to dispense any politically unpleasant medicine to the electorate, early in the potential eight year political cycle.”

Sorrell noted that though “new rapidly-growing parts of the world are no longer as dependent on the U.S. for growth, as they used to be, it is still true that when the U.S. sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold.”

The WPP boss maintains a sharp eye for acquisitions, seeing a “good quality pipeline of additional small-sized acquisitions.” He considers WPP an “attractive destination, particularly for first-generation managements.”

BEA SHOPS FOR DEAL WITH SV.

BEA Systems, which received an unsolicited $6.7B takeover offer from Larry Ellison’s Oracle, relies on Sard Verbinnen to get a better deal.

The company is “worth substantially more to Oracle, to others and, importantly, to our shareholders than the price [$17 a share] indicated,” according to a letter from William Klein, VP at BEA.

A logical suitor for the software maker, Germany’s SAP, announced that it would not get into a bidding war for the company because their “lines overlap,” according to a report in the San Jose Mercury News.

Hewlett Packard and IBM have been mentioned as suitors. Analysts say BEA is worth at least $21 a share.

Sard Verbinnen’s Matt Benson and Paul Kranhold handle the account.

SAY IT AIN’T SO, JOE.

Goodman Media organized Joe Torre's news conference Oct. 19 at the Hilton Rye Town in which he ripped the New York Yankees' contract offer an “insult.”

The former New York Yankees skipper rejected a one-year $5M contract, and felt the potential $3M in bonus money in the event the team reached the World Series was insulting and belittling to his managerial record of the team.

The 67-year-old Torre does not believe the Yankees bargained in good faith with their leader of a dozen years, a span that included four world championships.

Tom Goodman's firm works for Torre's "Joe's Safe At Home Foundation," which supports educational programs to stem domestic violence.

His firm was contacted late in the afternoon on Oct. 18 and asked to put together last week’s media event in suburban New York.

ESPN covered the conference live and scores of reporters attended.

VILLAGE VOICE EXECS SPRUNG FROM JAIL.

Village Voice Media executive editor Michael Lacey and CEO Jim Larkin were released from a Phoenix jail at 4 a.m. Oct. 19 after being charged with a misdemeanor for a Phoenix New Times cover story that revealed information about a grand jury probe.

The story, "Grand Jury Targets New Times and Its Readers" told how county prosecutors issued subpoenas, demanding that the paper turn over info on notes, confidential sources and personal data about people visiting the paper's website. The men were released on $500 bond.

Lacey, upon release, called the arrest payback for hard-hitting coverage of local law enforcement officials. "We're being arrested for raising hell," he told reporters. It's sort of a tradition journalism has."

Lacey believes officials wanted to make examples of Larkin and himself. "The problem is that it takes me being arrested for you guys to show up," according to a report on PNT's website.

He urged reporters to write about the subpoenas that aimed to find the "identity, the browsing habits, the buying habits, what shopping carts people have filled, what sites people have visited on the web before they came to us, and what sites they visited after they left us."

The story, he stressed, is not "about me getting out of jail at four in the morning."

MORGAN STANLEY QUITS NYT.

Morgan Stanley has dumped its 7.2 percent stake in New York Times Co., apparently ending its effort to pressure the Sulzberger family into revamping the ownership structure of the media combine.

Hassan Elmasry, head of the Morgan Stanley Investment Management fund, led the drive to undo the media company's dual-class stock structure.

The Class B shares owned by the Sulzbergers give them voting power to elect 70 percent of the company's directors.

The money manager also criticized the strategy of CEO "Pinch" Sulzberger and opposed the outlay for the new headquarters building. His efforts were largely unsuccessful.

NYTC stock trades in the $18.50 range. It peaked in `02 at $53.

SCRIPPS SPLITS IN TWO.

E.W. Scripps has decided to split its company into two, a move to sharpen the strategic focus of the Cincinnati-based media entity.

The move divides the faster growing cable TV and shopping websites from the newspaper and TV station group.

Scripps Networks Interactive will house Fine Living TV Network, DIY Network, HGTV, Great American Country offerings and services like Shopzilla and uSwitch.

When newly minted, SNI will have $1.4B in annual revenues and 2,100 staffers.

E.W. Scripps Co. will own papers in 17 markets (Denver's Rocky Mountain News, Memphis' Commercial Appeal), 10 TV stations, Scripps Howard News Service and United Media syndication operation. It will be born with $1.1B revenues and 7,100 workers.

Current CEO Kenneth Lowe will head SNI, while COO Richard Boehne will lead the newspaper/TV station operation. The split will take place in the second quarter of `08.

DISCOVERY EXPLAINS WAYS OF WORLD.

Discovery Communications is paying $250M to acquire HowStuffWorks.com, a site that attracts 11M unique visitors a month.

HSW has digital rights to more than 30K books, 800K images and 180K maps to explain the world. Its content will be paired with Discovery's video library of more than 100K hours of programming.

DC CEO David Zaslav called the deal a "strategic bull's-eye for Discovery, the leader in knowledge and curiosity on TV."

HSW provides Discovery a "solid platform for strengthening our digital businesses, leveraging our video assets to create new experiences for users, advertisers and our distribution partners, and taking those opportunities around the globe," said Zaslav in a statement.

STEIGER HEADS INVESTIGATIVE J-TEAM.

Paul Steiger, who stepped down as Wall Street Journal managing editor in May, is heading Pro Publica, a group that promises to do investigative reporting.

The non-profit will offer its reports to news outlets, according to the Oct. 15 New York Times.

Pro Publica is backed by Herbert and Marion Sandler, former CEOs of Golden West Financial Corp., a mortgage lender that was sold to Wachovia for $2.6B.

The Sandlers are worth more than $2.4B. They have dedicated $10M a-year for Pro Publica when it launches in `08.

Steiger is president and editor-in-chief of Pro Publica. He is joined by Richard Tofel, who was assistant managing editor of the WSJ.

Todd Cunningham, assistant managing editor for the LA Business Journal, has been named national editor of The Hollywood Reporter: Premier Edition, a new edition for New York and East Coast markets set for a Nov. 2 launch. Cunningham is based in Los Angeles and reports to Elizabeth Guider, editor of The Hollywood Reporter.

Prior to joining the Journal in December 2005, he wasmanaging editor of Hispanic Business Magazine and spent seven years at Variety, where he worked on the launch of its Gotham Edition as managing editor. He was news, entertainment and sports editor for 13 years at the Long Beach Press Telegram and earlier held posts at Time Life, NBC and the Christian Science Monitor.

AOL CEO Randy Falco is slicing another 2,000 staffers as the "turnaround" saga of the Time Warner unit plods on.

The latest cutbacks follow the 5,000 jobs taken out last fall. There are 8,000 AOL people left.

(Media news continued on next page)

GINSBERG EXPANDS ROLE AT NEWS CORP.

Gary Ginsberg, executive VP-IR & corporate communications at News Corp., has added global marketing duties at Rupert Murdoch's media combine.

The move comes as News Corp. has launched Fox Business News and is poised to complete the acquisition of Dow Jones & Co., parent of the Wall Street Journal.

Ginsberg reports to Murdoch, COO Peter Chernin and CFO David DeVoe.

Before joining News Corp. in `99, Ginsberg worked as managing director at Clark & Weinstock, senior editor of John Kennedy's George and assistant counsel to President Bill Clinton.

The 45-year-old Ginsberg, a top aide to Murdoch, also joins the $62B giant's office of the chairman.

That group includes Murdoch, Chernin, DeVoe and general counsel Lou Jacobs, deputy CFO John Nallen and Fox News Channel, Fox Television Stations and Twentieth Television chief Roger Ailes.

PODHORETZ BACK ATOP COMMENTARY.

John Podhoretz is joining the conservative journal Commentary next month to follow in the footsteps of his father Norman, who served as top editor there for 35 years. He will initially take the editorial director slot, responsible for its online efforts. In Jan. `09, Podhoretz will ascend to the editor slot.

The 46-year-old editor, columnist, writer and frequent TV commentator has filed copy for the Weekly Standard, which he co-founded; New York Post and Insight. He was a speechwriter for President Reagan.

Neal Kozodoy, current editor of Commentary, will become a consultant once succeeded by Podhoretz.

People __________________________

Colleen Robar has assumed the director of corporate communications slot at Crain Communications. She takes on internal/external marketing, branding and PR duties.

The 44-year-old Robar had been running her own firm in Detroit, counseling Ford Motor, Ambassador Bridge, JWT and Oberweis Dairy and Ice Cream.

Earlier, she was VP at Mullen, doing work for the General Motors’ Women's Marketing Initiative and Detroit lead on the automaker's advance technology group.

Robar spent the `90s at Crain, starting as promotion manager at Detroit Monthly, marketing director at Crain's Detroit Business and group marketing director at Automotive News.

Conde Nast has upped Susan Portnoy to the executive director-PR post, and named Zoe Farrell PR director in its media group.

Portnoy joined CN's media group in '06, and has consulted for Cosmopolitan, Popular Science, Oscar by Oscar de la Renta and Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize. Farrell is the one-time VP-publicity in Dan Klores Communications' entertainment group. She repped Coach, We tv and Mac Cosmetics.

Sarah Lacy, a reporter for BusinessWeek who has been writing a book on Web 2.0, has been named technology columnist for BusinessWeek.com. She will contribute two monthly columns on technology and culture called "Valley Girl." Lacy was formerly a tech reporter at the San Jose/Silicon Valley Business Journal.

Christy Tanner, VP of Marketing for TV Guide Online, has been named editor-in-chief. She continues in the marketing post. Earlier, Tanner was a reporter, editor and bureau supervisor for the Associated Press.

Liz Claman, an anchor for CNBC, has joined new rival Fox Business as a daytime anchor. Claman covers the afternoon weekday business block from 2:00-5:00 p.m. with David Asman.

At CNBC since 1998, she anchored “Morning Call” and “Cover to Cover.” Prior to that, she anchored “Wake Up Call,” “Market Watch” and “Today’s Business.” She was previously an anchor and reporter for WHDH-TV (NBC) in Boston and contributing correspondent for NBC's syndicated daytime program “RealLife.”

Alex Balk, co-editor of Gawker.com, to RadarOnline as executive editor. He oversees and edits all editorial aspects of the site reporting to editor-in-chief Maer Roshan.

Briefs ________________________

APG Media of Orange, Calif., has launched two new "shelter" magazines: Lofts and Lodges. APG publishes Romantic Homes, Victorian Homes and Cottages & Bungalows.

Lofts covers urban lifestyle through the prism of efficient and ecologically-minded living. Lodges is resource for luxury outdoors enthusiasts, featuring lodge and chalet living from high-end travel locales, architecture and interior decor and lifestyle topics.

Jacqueline deMontravel, editorial director of APG Media's lifestyle group is also editor of Romantic Homes. She previously edited Country magazine and has held editor positions at Conde Nast's Self and GQ, and was a contributor to Hearst's Harper's Bazaar.

Jennifer Myers, who comes from the U.K.'s niche and custom publishing sector, is editor of Lodges.

The U.S. Postal Service will honor five journalists next spring who risked their lives covering war and civil strife in the 20th century as part of the National Press Club's 100th anniversary next year.

Among the honorees to appear on stamps are Martha Gellhorn, who was married to Ernest Hemmingway and covered the Spanish Civil War, World War II and the Vietnam War; John Hersey, who wrote Hiroshima; George Polk, a CBS radio correspondent who covered WWII; Ruben Salazar, a Mexican-American reporter for the Los Angeles Times and KMEX-TV who was killed covering a Vietnam War protest, and Eric Sevareid, a New York Herald Tribune writer and CBS broadcaster who covered WWII. All are deceased.

The PR Society leaders are so aware of the severe shortage of leaders that 50 of them including eight past presidents have now come forward and signed a petition seeking new ways of developing leaders.

There’s only one problem with this. It reminds us of “Groundhog Day” starring Bill Murray. He keeps living the same day, over and over.

Efforts to cast a wider net for leaders have been going on since the mid-1990s. In 1999, the first Strategic Planning committee urged that APR be dropped as a requirement for national office. The 1999 board opposed it and instead made the SP an appendage of itself.

In 2004, after two years of complaints about alleged irregularities on the nominating committee, 2004 president Del Galloway named Dave Rickey to head a Task Force on Leadership and Governance. It was to study the entire governance structure and complete its work by the end of 2005. What actually happened? Nothing.

This is the same Dave Rickey who is again asking for suggestions for governance reform and for a re-writing of the entire bylaws of PRS. This will probably result in a huge bill from Venable, the new law firm of PRS. It keeps telling the members that they are governed by New York State laws and not their own. Who knows what these New York State laws are? Venable.

There is a crisis in leadership when only one of the 17 board members in 2008 will be from a corporation. Chair Rhoda Weiss, without announcing it, named Ray Crockett of Coca-Cola to the 2007 board as a “senior counselor.” PRS leaders are like a volunteer fire department that won’t acknowledge its former “village” has grown into a city and volunteers can no longer do the job. Fires are breaking out all over the city but the volunteers are too busy with their jobs and private lives to get to them in time. They just refuse to acknowledge reality. This situation is getting to be very dangerous for all the citizens.

Volunteer leaders can no longer play much of a role in the affairs of PRS. What’s needed is a paid fire dept. at 33 Maiden lane – at least 10-15 veteran PR pros with experience and judgment.

Fires are constantly breaking out that the non-PR staff at h.q. can’t handle. There isn’t one PR veteran among the staff of 55 (although about ten staff posts are vacant currently to burnish the books).

A defensive, protective association mentality rules at 33 Maiden lane. Legal doubletalk abounds and the financials are about as clear as Mississippi mud.

Fires break out constantly but staff is unable to handle them and leaders (who have driven New Yorkers from the board) mostly have neither the time nor expertise to handle them.

Among these “fires” is the current advice in the influential Princeton Review for those seeking PR careers to obtain a broad liberal arts education. The Review quotes PR veterans who say that is the best route to a PR job. There’s also this dig in the Review: “Advertising is lying about products while PR is lying about the company.” About half of the college bound consult the Review. Another “fire” was the recent crack by Gene Weingarten in the Washington Post that PR people are “pathetic dillweeds.” It was made after he tried to obtain info from contacts listed on press releases.

Frank Rich’s book-long attack on PR (“The Greatest Story Ever Sold”) was no bouquet of flowers for PR, either. He blames the war in Iraq on PR techniques used by the Bush Administration. He characterizes PR as lacking in substance and being press-averse, and basically sales promotion and marketing. There are nine current books about PR with “spin” in their titles. PR has about disappeared from corporations, replaced by “corporate communications.”

Such criticism needs to be addressed by a SWAT team of professionals at h.q. PRS leadership is still taking orders from Pat Jackson, 1980 president who said h.q. should be dominated by association people. About a half dozen PR veterans were canned. EVP Rea Smith was transferred to the Foundation and made to work in another office. She was not allowed to set foot in h.q. This anti-New York bias is now choking the Society itself. But the “regionalists” who dominate PRS are not yet ready to give up the ghost.

The 2007 Assembly, except for about an hour and a half of debating about the “regions” bylaw change and PRS helping chapters with their websites (withdrawn after “parliamentarian” Beth Caseman of Venable said the resolution did not satisfy New York law), consisted of leader presentations. The worst was Jeff Julin’s 35-minute rundown of more than 300 suggestions for the new Strategic Plan that were obtained at lunch. He held the mike from 4:25 to 5 p.m., showing nearly 50 slides with such well-worn suggestions as “Increase speed of staff response,” “update speakers’ bureau,” “more senior programs,” “honest, truthful editorial content in Tactics,” “stop nickel-and-diming members for everything,” and “make learning affordable for all.” This was pure audience control, blocking discussion of such topics as removing the APR requirement for the board, chapter-only memberships, having a blog on the PRS website, true cost of staff time for the conference, again publishing the printed directory, etc... Venable keeps saying that New York State laws must be obeyed but PRS could easily shift its charter to Delaware (COO Bill Murray pointed out that his former employer, the Motion Picture Assn., is chartered in that state. Delaware allows legislative bodies like the Assembly to meet and pass laws via teleconferences.) Delaware will enroll a group “over the phone in five minutes for $89” with paperwork to follow, the Secretary of State’s office told us. The New York State charter can be cancelled via the web for $60 as long as all taxes are paid... Another low for the Assembly was blocking the press this year from attending the Assembly lunch on the ground that it was a “working lunch.” Reporters had never before been barred from this lunch.

--Jack O'Dwyer