LA. GUARD PLANS IMAGE PUSH

An effort to assess the Louisiana National Guard’s image and overhaul its public affairs operations is back in the RFP stage after being cancelled earlier this year.

The federal government has issued a new RFP with a deadline of Dec. 20 and a strong focus on online communications after pulling the plug on a similar effort in September.

The Louisiana Guard includes 10,000 soldiers and airmen, just under 1,000 technicians, and more than 700 state employees.

A key goal of the planned communications effort is to bolster its recruiting because of “difficulty rooted in our nation’s Global War on Terror,” according to the RFP.

The Guard sees a revamped website with a cornerstone public affairs element as the key link and primary source of information for the public and Guard employees.

Initial stages of the work focus on identifying public perception and problems affecting recruiting and communications goals, but extend to “increasing public confidence” and buffing its public image.

The RFP can be accessed at the Army’s procurement portal at https://acquisition.army.mil/asfi/.

DOKE TO KOMEN FOUNDATION

Tim Doke, the veteran counselor who joined Abernathy MacGregor in Dallas earlier this year, is now chief marketing officer for Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, a group that raises money to fight breast cancer.

He is in charge of development, PR, marketing, branding and public policy. The foundation has raised more than $1B over the past 20 years to bankroll research, promote early detection, provide treatment and offer support.

Doke is a PR alumnus of Dell, American Airlines, Freescale Semiconductor, Brinker International, Alaska Airlines and Hill & Knowlton.

He says the move to Komen is a “meaningful career shift” since both his mother and aunt were afflicted with breast cancer.

New Balance, the $1.5B athletic products company, is looking for a New York-based company to handle national PR. The Boston-based firm uses hometown Regan Communications for regional outreach, and Dan Klores Assocs. for brand and product placement.

Select Resources International's Dan Orsborn (310/453-9200) is running the search.

RP GUIDES DEPT. STORE IN NEB. SHOOTING

Reputation Partners is doing crisis communications for the department store chain Von Maur, which was the backdrop for the Omaha, Neb., mall shooting which left nine dead on Dec. 5.

Charlotte Walker, a VP for the Chicago-based PR firm, told O’Dwyer’s that Von Maur has been a client prior to the shooting last week.

The CEO of the privately held Davenport, Iowa-based chain, which has 22 stores across nine states, flew to Omaha on the day of the shooting and a statement released via Chicago-based RP said Von Maur is “saddened” by the tragedy.

A 19-year-old gunman walked into the WestWood Mall in Omaha and began shooting in the Von Maur store there on Dec. 5, according to reports, before he turned the gun on himself. Eight people have died and five are reported wounded.

Von Maur, via RP, said it set up a team to assist victims’ families, made grief counselors available to staffers and is setting up a memorial fund.

VP Megan Hakes and Eileen Boyce, a senior associate at RP, are handling media inquiries related to the shooting.

HAMP TRADES IN GM FOR PEPSICO

Julie Hamp, who led communications for General Motors Europe in a 26-year career, is moving from Switzerland to Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo to head its worldwide communications team as a senior VP.

Hamp, 48, had been with GM in various roles since 1981, when she joined the Buick PR team. She held VP posts at Cadillac, Saturn and GM’s North American Car Group. At PepsiCo, she reports to CEO Indra Nooyi and covers communications for the company’s three divisions—International, America Beverages (Gatorade, Tropicana) and America Foods (Fito-Lay, Quaker) units. The No. 2 beverage marketer realigned its operations into those three units—two covering the U.S. and the other for the rest of the world—in November.

PepsiCo revenues for `06 were $35 billion.

BoA’s MILLER CHECKS IN AT GA

Joe Miller, senior VP-media relations at Bank of America, has joined Gavin Anderson as a director in the Omnicom unit’s New York office.

He had served as senior counselor to CEO Ken Lewis on media positioning, crisis and various strategic initiatives.

Miller spent ten years at RF/Binder Partners and its sister Ruder Finn unit.

ESA SLAMS H&K; FIRM SAYS ‘TOUGH LUCK’

The Entertainment Software Assn. has slammed Hill & Knowlton as “unprofessional and unethical” for releasing a survey Dec. 5 showing that 60 percent of U.S. consumers support federal government regulation of the sale of “violent or mature” video games.

ESA, which opposes federal regulation, but favors the ratings system, says H&K’s research was conducted specifically for a pitch that the PR firm made to the D.C.-based trade group.

Dan Hewitt, ESA’s director of media relations, emailed a statement to O’Dwyer’s that says the “research was done this summer and only performed in an effort by H&K to win our business.”

The “decision to release these findings was both unprofessional and unethical and its timing is questionable.”

Joe Paluska, director of H&K’s worldwide technology group, has “enormous respect” for the ESA, but “we paid for the survey and own the data and published it,” Paluska said in an email.

“We had always planned to conduct and publish a gaming survey in the fourth quarter and those plans were accelerated when the ESA invited us to meet with them earlier this year,” he added.

The ESA faults H&K for not releasing data that shows the $7.4B video game industry in a more positive light.

That includes findings such as more than two-thirds of 18-34 year olds currently play video games, and more than half of families think video games are a positive way to spend time together.

Paluska says H&K’s survey “illustrates some of the cultural shifts facing a rapidly growing industry.” Surveys, he adds, “are intended to inform, provide insight and stir debate.”

D’AMATO DELIVERS LOBBYING JUICE

Former New York Senator Al D’Amato is handling a New Jersey cable company that wants to lay a cable under the Hudson River to deliver electricity to Con Edison’s grid in Manhattan.

Linden-based CCH Holdings plans to build an 8.5 mile cable to connect Public Service Enterprise Group’s plant in Ridgefield to Con Ed’s facility on West 49th St. The electricity will be sold to the New York Power Authority.

D’Amato’s firm, Park Strategies, is seeking required federal approval for the project. He is working the business with son, Christopher.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has written to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in support of the CCH project, as well as one from another company called Hudson Transmission Partners. He has made diversifying the source and lowering the price of energy a key priority.

The city faces a 2010 deadline to replace juice supplied by a 30-year-old Queens power plant that is being shuttered.

That Astoria facility is the third biggest polluter in NYC, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

5W REPS TARGETED TELEVANGELIST

5W Public Relations works for Benny Hinn Ministries, one of six megachurches under financial scrutiny by Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, according to Ronn Torossian, CEO of the New York-based PR firm.

Grassley worries that the televangelists have raised millions of dollars from followers with little accounting oversight.

The Iowa senator wants to be certain that “donations are being used for the tax-exempt purposes of the organizations.”

The Senator’s letter to Paster Benedictus Hinn of Grapevine, Tex. asks for the audited financial statements of the World Healing Center Church and BHM.
He wants records of compensation paid to Hinn and a list of expenses including “love offerings” earmarked for visiting ministers, musicians and guests.

The Church maintains that its financial house is in order. “At this time the Church’s Board of Directors and legal counsel is determining the best course of action to best cooperate with the committee’s inquiry,” said Torossian via email.

“We regard this as an important matter and will not respond until further information becomes available. World Healing Center Church complies with the laws that govern church and non-profit organizations and will continue to do so,” concluded the 5W chief.

GC LANDS $1.1M HONDURAS IMAGE WORK

A Global Communicators-led consortium has picked up a $1.1M campaign to bolster the image of Honduras in the U.S.

The Washington, D.C.-based firm beat teams that included Hill & Knowlton, Ogilvy & Mather, DDB Needham, Burson-Marsteller and San Jose Network for the 10-month program.

CEO Jim Harff told O’Dwyer’s the image effort will target investment sectors such as travel and tourism, agribusiness, light manufacturing and services for the Fundacion para la Inversion y Desarrollo de Exportaciones.

Harff’s international expertise includes work for Kosovo, Albania, Switzerland, Bolivia and Jordan.

The GC team includes advertising agency August, Lang & Husak and Global Partners Consulting.

The World Bank is bankrolling FIDE’s promotional campaign.

MS&L UPS TSOKANOS

Manning, Selvage & Lee has upped Jim Tsokanos to president/North America effective Jan. 1.

That post had been vacant since the exit of Larry Kamer to Fleishman-Hillard. CEO Mark Hass had been filling in for Kamer.

Tsokanos will keep the MS&L/New York managing director post that he has held since `05.

He is credited with landing key accounts such as Heineken and Heidrick & Struggles for the Big Apple office, and overseeing the launch of the Publicis Groupe unit’s insights and measurement program.

Prior to joining MS&L in `99, Tsokanos worked at Ketchum and Cohn & Wolfe.

MURDOCH GETS CLEAN SLATE AT DJ

Dow Jones CEO Rich Zannino and Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz have resigned their posts effective with the closing of the $5B acquisition by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Zannino, 49, joined DJ as chief financial officer in `01, and assumed the helm two years ago. Crovitz, 49, who has a 25-year career at the company, will write a column for the WSJ.

Les Hinton, 63, a top News Corp executive, will succeed Zannino. He is executive chairman of News International, an entity that includes the U.K. papers the Times of London, Sunday Times, Sun and News of the World.

Robert Thompson, 46, editor of the London Times, is expected to take Crovitz’s post.

Dow Jones also has announced that Joe Stern, executive VP, general counsel and corporate secretary, will remain with the company during a transition period ended March 31.

Dow Jones shareholders are scheduled to vote on the merger on Dec. 13.

BeliefNet acquired

News Corp. has acquired Beliefnet, which bills itself as the “world’s largest spiritual website.”

Beliefnet will become part of NC’s Fox Digital Media.

FDM president Dan Fawcett praised Beliefnet’s “commitment to quality, editorial strength and unbiased approach to faith and spirituality.”

News Corp.’s “faith-based businesses” include HarperCollins’ Zondervan and HarperOne brands and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment’s religious programming initiative.

Beliefnet offers a range of devotional tools, sacred text searches, articles, photo galleries and interviews with politicians, celebrities and spiritual leaders.

It attracts more than three million unique visitors a month. Its daily email newsletter is sent to more than 11M people.

NBCU CUTS OXYGEN

NBC Universal is cutting 25 percent of the more than 260 staffers at Oxygen Media, which it bought for $925M in October.

The cuts are across the board, according to J.B. Perrette, who is leading the integration of OM into NBCU.

Some staffers will be offered jobs within NBCU, while others are promised “enhanced severance packages and outplacement services.”

A.P. REVAMPS

The Associated Press has launched a restructuring program called “AP2.0” to organize around four regional hubs and offer more multimedia sports, business and entertainment packages.

The move to four hubs is designed to farm out editing duties from New York headquarters to reduce gridlock.

NYC staffers will concentrate their attention on the top stories of the day.

The 161-year-old news cooperative, which has 243 bureaus in 97 countries, is moving toward an all-digital platform dubbed “Digital Cooperative.”

DOCTOROFF BECOMES BLOOMBERG’S NO. 2

New York City deputy mayor Daniel Doctoroff is joining Bloomberg LP in February as president of the financial media/information services combine. Bloomberg chairman Peter Grauer will relinquish the presidency.

Doctoroff handled economic development for the past six years and is happy to “remain part of the Bloomberg family.”

NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg is founder of the media company that has more than 10,000 employees.

He told reporters that he recently thought about selling the company, but decided against it.

TNR RETRACTS IRAQ REPORTS

The New Republic said it can’t stand by stories it published by “Baghdad Diarist” Pvt. Thomas Beauchamp that came under scrutiny after conservative media questioned the authenticity of the dispatches.

TNR editor Franklin Foer said the magazine should never have put Beauchamp in the situation of reporting as a young soldier in a war zone.

“When I last spoke with Beauchamp in early November, he continued to stand by his stories,” the editor wrote in a lengthy piece published by TNR last week. “Unfortunately, the standards of this magazine require more than that. And, in light of the evidence available to us, after months of intensive re-reporting, we cannot be confident that the events in his pieces occurred in exactly the manner that he described them. Without that essential confidence, we cannot stand by these stories.”

The Weekly Standard and conservative blogs challenged TNR on “Baghdad Diarist” reports of cruel and inhumane acts by U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Beauchamp defended the work, which was initially published under a pseudonym, but neither he nor TNR could completely verify his claims.

Foer’s in-depth explanation of the flap also highlighted contradictions in public statements by the military, including criticism of its “thin” investigation of the Beauchamp-TNR work, the military’s stifling and alleged coaching of Beauchamp’s later contact with the magazine, apparent leaks by military PA to conservative blogs, and sloppy journalism covering the scandal.

GAWKER EDITORS QUIT

Choire Sicha, managing editor, and editors Emily Gould and Joshua Stein have quit Gawker.com.

Nick Denton, publisher of Gawker Media, told the New York Times that Sicha’s departure with his protégés is a “complete pain.” Their exits provide an opportunity to “accelerate the transformation of the Gawker from cute blog to fully-fledged news site,” according to Denton.

Sicha left in `04 for the New York Observer, but returned this year.

(Media news continued on next page)

CNNMONEY UPS VIDEO

CNNMoney.com will air about 40 original videos a day shot from the field by producers and reporters to attract more viewers and ad dollars.

Crain’s New York Business reports that CNNMoney.com’s star is on the rise as the printed media properties of Time Warner falter.

The souped up site will better compete with business portals and TV stations such as Fox Business News and CNBC.

Crain’s reports that CNNMoney is playing catch up with Forbes.com and Business.com, sites that have hiked their video offerings.

CNN.Money.com is part of Time Inc.’s Fortune/Money Group.

BELO TAPS PAPERS TEAM

Bob Dechard, CEO of A.H. Belo, will assume the helm of the newspaper spin-off company that will house flagship paper, Dallas Morning News.

He will double as chairman of Belo, which will consist of the Dallas-based company’s TV stations.

Jim Moroney is to serve as executive VP of the newspaper group, which will include the Providence Journal and Press-Enterprise (Riverside, Calif.). He has been publisher of the News since `01.

Skip Cass will be another executive VP of A.H. Belo Corp. He will be responsible for the Internet, business development and technology.

Briefs ______________________

Al Gore’s Current TV/online network has affiliated with U.K.’s Guardian media outlet and Salon.com to have journalists from the media entities produce video blogs for Current. Guardian writers Dave Hill, John Harris, Seth Freedman and Anna Pickard, along with Salon correspondents Alex Koppelman, Tracy Clark-Flory, Rebecca Traister and Farhad Manjoo are slated to take part.

Current will publish a vlog each day for TV from the two outlets, along with a web-based version.

Salon editor-in-chief, Joan Walsh, said: “We love Current’s commitment to two things: to reach a younger audience, and to put the tools of content creation in the hands of that audience," said Walsh.

The Walt Disney Internet Group has acquired iParenting Media, an online network of professional and user-generated content which caters to families, young parents and parents-to-be in English and Spanish. iParenting’s content and services will be integrated into Disney’s network of family targeted sites. Disney said the acquisition builds on Wondertime.com and FamilyFun.com. It launched DisneyFamily.com earlier this year.

New York-based Doubledown Media, which publishes Dealmaker, Trader and The Cigar Report magazines, has developed a magazine for professional athletes with ex-baseball star-turned-financial-columnist Lenny Dykstra.

Called The Players Club, the title aims to help athletes make “well-informed” financial and lifestyle choices. Dykstra is a columnist for theStreet.com and won a World Series as a centerfielder for the New York Mets in 1986. Initial circulation is pegged at 20K, with copies going to pro athletes, agents, franchise executives, and financial advisors within baseball, soccer, tennis, golf, and Nascar.

Yahoo! will launch TechTicker, a video site dedicated to financial news in January. The channel will feature up to 20 original segments per day. Henry Blodget, the former Wall Street analyst who is now at Silicon Alley Insider, and Sarah Lacy, BusinessWeek columnist, have signed on at the venture according to TechCrunch.

People ___________________________

Ron Stodghill, has exited the Sunday business section of the New York Times to serve as editorial director for magazines published by the Charlotte Observer.

He has written for BusinessWeek, Time and Essence, and also was editor-in-chief of Savoy.

O’REILLY HIT ON CHRISTMAS ‘War’

Alexia Kelley, executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, appeared on the “O’Reilly Factor” on Dec. 4 to comment on Bill O’Reilly’s annual “War on Christmas” spiel.

The Fox News talk show host expresses outrage each December about department stores greeters using the term “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas,” and crèches banned from public property.

O’Reilly sees a concerted effort by those pushing a “secular progressive agenda” to drive religion out of the public square.

Kelley went on the show to talk about the need of a ceasefire in the Christmas culture wars. Her group contends the real assault on Christmas comes from “excessive consumerism.”

CACG ran “An Open Letter to Christmas ‘Culture Warriors’” ad in the Dec. 4 New York Post and Washington Times—papers read by O’Reilly fans—to bemoan Christmas being “reduced to a corporate-sponsored holiday that idolizes commerce and materialism.”

Though gift-giving is a meaningful tradition, “perspective is lost when relentless advertising and maxed-out credit cards define the holidays.”

CACG’s ad reads: “To focus on how department stores greet customers at a time when American soldiers are dying in Iraq and 37 million of our neighbors live in poverty is a distraction from the profound moral challenges we face in confronting the real threats to human dignity in our world.”

The ad also ran in National Catholic Reporter this week.

Kelley’s group wants to work with O’Reilly and others to launch a “new campaign of civility and conscience that restores our focus on the common good during this holy season.”

CACG believes “strident attacks or shouting matches on television” are not ways to get that job done.

Inordinate secrecy is being blamed for the "junk mortgage" scandal that threatens to topple the economy.

Goldman Sachs is being accused of "shorting" junk mortgages while at the same time selling more than $6 billion to others.

Allan Sloan's definitive article in the 10/16 Fortune, in which he picked the "worst" of all the deals to analyze (the GSAMP Trust 2006-S3 of Goldman) tells how he was stonewalled by GS. Such phrases as "Goldman wouldn't say," "wasn't forthcoming" and "the firm declined to elaborate" litter the article. A GS filing has 1,000 pages of individual loans but they're by "code number and zip code" with no names or addresses, said Sloan.

The New York Times on 12/6 ran into the same brick wall. It could only quote "a person not authorized to speak" who described a meeting where GS hedged its position on the junk mortgages. A GS "spokesman" was indirectly quoted as saying GS was not betting against the mortgage securities it underwrote in 2007.

Fortune columnist Bill Gross, founder of the $111 billion Pimco fund, railed on 12/10 against "a secret banking system built on derivatives and untouched by regulation." He blamed the mess on "marketing" which allowed "rancid milk" to masquerade as "skim milk." Home buyers who financed 99% of a home loan at 5-6% interest were expected to pay 9-10% after a couple of years, an obvious poor bet.

An Allstate VNR urges car renters to get insurance at the counter for "peace of mind." We just rented a Hertz car and were told that the insurance for one day was $24.95. We did not take it because we had Googled this subject, finding that such insurance is not only expensive but does not cover the other car should one be involved in an accident. Google sources said, "You're probably already covered by your own insurance, credit card, or company policy"…Delta Air Lines routinely fibs to users of its New York/D.C. shuttle. If there's only a few passengers for one of its hourly flights, one of the counter people mumble something like, TMT (too much traffic) or some other excuse and not the real reason: TFP (too few people). Flights are simply cancelled at the last minute and "ganged up" with the next flight. This happened to us the week of the Thanksgiving holiday...there's lots of turnover in PR jobs. StevensGouldPincus, consultants, surveyed 150 firms and found a 19% turnover rate in firms under $3M and a 24% rate in firms over $25M. After client turnover, staff turnover is the next biggest impediment to growth, said partner Rick Gould, who urges firms to cut this high rate…an example of turnover is provided by PR Society board posts. Gerry Corbett, who left Hitachi last month, is the 13th director to change employment in the past several years. Cheryl Procter-Rogers quit HBO; Mike Cherenson sold his firm to Success Comms.; Rosanna Fiske left her firm to teach; Kathy Hubbell is looking for a teaching job; Del Galloway to Corp. for Public Broadcasting; Cathryn Harris's job eliminated at W. Va. American Water; Dave Rickey to Alfa Corp.; Reed Byrum to own firm; Art Stevens from Publicis to own firm; Judy Phair to Graduate Mgmt. Admission Council; Steve Lubetkin to own firm, and Mary Barber to Alaska Community Foundation.

PR Society leaders instructing FEMA staffers on how to hold a press conference (page 7) is a case of the pot romancing the kettle. Both are chronic stonewallers. The last press conference of PRS was in 1993 when president Hal Warner hosted reporters from 8 to 9 a.m. in Orlando. Manning, Selvage & Lee, Warner's employer, then set up a perpetual yearly fund of $5,000 to finance a PRS ethics conference for PR pros and the press. Only one took place-the 1994 session that was videotaped. Patrick Jackson, 1980 PRS president, told Morley Safer of "60 Minutes" that Jackson's policy with the press was "duck 'em and screw 'em." Safer replied that happened to be his attitude towards PR. PRS "ethics" conferences now bar the press. PRS has withheld transcripts of the last three Assemblies and the 300 suggestions for the Strategic Plan obtained at the 2007 Assembly. We told FEMA that reporters said FEMA head David Paulison did not hold open press conferences (like President Bush), but FEMA said he talked to reporters all the time. But no transcripts were available. Nor was a transcript available of the "fake" press conference. A request by us for an interview with Paulison has gone nowhere. PA head John Philbin was unfairly sacrificed for being unable to stop a hasty "press conference" called to praise FEMA's quick response to the California wildfires. FEMA told us it will provide transcripts of Paulison and the press "when practicable."

Karen Hughes, who spoke to the PRS conference in Philadelphia Oct. 22 while still in a PA post for the U.S. Government (which she resigned a few days after the conference), said that people who come to the U.S. go away with much higher opinions of the country than they had. She said such travel was being encouraged. But Newsweek columnist Fareed Zakaria wrote 11/26 that stiff security regs have choked off tourism. Travel from the U.K. is down 11% from 2001 (in spite of the strong pound) while British travel to India rose 102%, to New Zealand 106% and to Turkey 82%. Japanese travel to the U.S. dipped from 5 million in 2000 to 3.6 million last year. Global tourism is "booming," but not to the U.S., says Zakaria. Getting a visa to the U.S. can take months, he says…PRS/New York's board is demanding that the APR rule for national office be dropped. But what's needed is to get this proposal on the Society website and in Tactics. There's no chance of this happening without a full-scale revolt against the Far West and Southern-based clique that has control of the PRS web, publications and exchequer.

The corporate charter must be switched to Delaware before $100K or so is spent re-writing a charter under New York laws that block electronic meetings of members of a group or their delegates.

--Jack O'Dwyer