COLOMBIA YANKS B-M ACCOUNT

The Government of Colombia has terminated its $300K a-year contract with Burson-Marsteller because it is angry with B-M CEO Mark Penn’s statement that said it was wrong to meet his client’s Ambassador.

B-M had been working for approval of a Free Trade Agreement and continuation of the Plan Colombia effort to eradicate narcotics. It provided PR and communications consulting services.

Labor leaders, ardent foes on new FTAs, expressed outrage that Hillary Clinton’s then-chief strategist would meet the Colombians. Clinton won the Ohio primary based on opposition to new FTAs. She is pressing that case in the battlefield state of Pennsylvania.

Penn, in response to union protests, issued a statement to say that it was an “error in judgment” to meet with Colombia’s top official in the U.S.

Colombia took umbrage, calling Penn’s statement a “lack of respect to Colombians” and “unacceptable.”

The South American country hired B-M in March, `07 based on its “track record in the field of public relations.” Colombia remains committed to highlighting its “dramatic improvements” in its “economy, social and security indicators” and will continue to press for a FTA.

Penn resigned as Hillary Clinton's chief strategist on April 6. "After the events of the last few days, Mark Penn has asked to give up his role as chief strategist of the Clinton campaign," said Clinton's campaign manager Maggie Williams.

GLOVER PARK BACKS GORE CLIMATE PUSH

The Glover Park Group is providing PR support to the Alliance for Climate Protection, the Al Gore-backed group which is breaking a $300M marketing campaign this week.

Interpublic’s Martin Agency has developed ads for the campaign with the Alliance featuring unlikely political pairings like Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich, and Pat Robertson and Al Sharpton.

Gore is funneling profits from his hit climate change documentary, his $750K cash award for the Nobel Peace Prize, and additional personal funds into the campaign.

Brian Hardwick, director of comms. for the Alliance, said that Glover Park’s Washington, D.C., office is working with the group. Jason Miner, VP at Glover Park, heads the account. He is a former research director for the Democratic National Committee and was a senior member of the Kerry/Edwards rapid response team in 2004. The campaign is budgeted at $100M a year for three years.

DEFENSE DEPT. TAPS HASTINGS

The Defense Department has brought in Robert Hastings, VP of corporate communications for defense contractor BAE Systems, to take on a senior public affairs role.

The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs post, the top PA position at the Pentagon, has been unfilled since last fall.

Hastings, who put in 20 years with the Army as a PAO and aviator, headed communications for the U.S. operations of BAE, which is based in the U.K. and posts annual sales of more than $14 billion. He previously directed communications for Marconi North America before Marconi Electronic Systems’ merger with British Aerospace to form BAE.

Hastings joined the Defense Dept. on March 10. His job title is principle deputy, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. Neither his hiring nor Smith’s departure were announced.

‘America Supports You’ Pitches Sought

Meanwhile, the Defense Dept. has issued an RFP to review its six-figure “America Supports You” PR account. Washington, D.C.-based Susan Davis International is the incumbent firm. Its latest pact was worth $499K.

The ASY program is the subject of a Pentagon investigation over its use of funds and its PR ties to the independent military-run newspaper Stars and Stripes. The account was not triggered by that probe however, as SDI’s contract has come up for renewal.

To judge interested firms, the RFP calls for the development of a mock internal communications plan on a $300K budget to convey the American public’s support of the U.S. military and military families to members of the armed forces. A link to the RFP (deadline: April 17) is at odwyerpr.com.

PR NEWSWIRE PROFITS A RECORD $98M

“PR Newswire delivered another excellent performance, generating profits of close to $100M,” it was announced by U.K.-based parent UBM.

Underlying revenue rose 6.9% to 141M pounds while adjusted operating profit rose 15.4% to 49.1M pounds. The pound’s value is calculated at about $2.

Overall operating margin continued to improve, rising from 32.3% to 34.8%.

PRN contributed almost one-third of UBM’s profits of 168.6M pounds, it was noted.

In second place was CMP Information with adjusted operating profit of 47.6M pounds on revenues of 192.2M pounds.

(Continued on page 7)

TAIWAN TAPS TORRICELLI

Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S. has given a $15K a-month contract to Rosemont Assocs., which is the firm of former New Jersey Senator Bob Torricelli.

Rosemont is to “maintain and establish” contact with Congressmen and staffs, encourage favorable legislation to Taiwan and invite Members to visit the island.

The contract runs through the end of the year. Rosemont, according to the agreement, must “promptly notify” TECRO in the event it decides to work for any entity of the People’s Republic of China.

Taiwan held an election earlier this month, a tally that elected a president who has pledged to improve ties with the Mainland.

President Ma Ying-jeou takes office May 20, ending eight years of rule by a pro-independence group.

‘OPENSKIES’ FOR SLOANE

British Airways has handed PR duties for its OpenSkies premium transatlantic airline to New York-based Sloane & Co.

The venture was made possible March 31 as the Open Skies Treaty between the U.S. and Europe went into effect. That agreement allows European carriers to fly to the U.S. from any city on the Continent. They had been restricted to providing service from their home country.

BA will use Sloane to kick off service from Paris to New York this summer. Other European flights will follow. Sloane, John Hartz, senior VP, and Tracey Sawicki, VP, handle the OpenSkies account.

MAKOVSKY HEADS SOUTH

Makovsky & Co., New York’s 12th biggest independent PR firm, is moving to 16 E. 34th St. in July.

The 83-year-old building is between Fifth and Madison Avenues, a short stroll to the Empire State Building.

Ken Makovsky will pay $47 per sq. ft. for 18,500 office sq. ft., which is the entire 15th floor of the building. That rent is a savings from the $75/sq. ft charge it would have cost M&C to renew its current lease at 575 Lexington (51 St.), according to Crain’s New York Business.

M&C posted a robust 32 percent growth in `07 net fees to $9.2M, according to the O’Dwyer rankings of independent PR firms.

GOODE GETS NORTHWESTERN LIFE POST

Kimberley Goode has shifted to Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance as VP-communications.

She had been handling external/internal communications at $10B automotive parts supplier Visteon Corp. Goode will relocate from Ann Arbor to Milwaukee for the new post.

In her more than 20 years of corporate PR experience, Goode has held key posts at Kellogg Co. (VP-worldwide communications), Prudential Financial (VP-global communications) and American Express (director-communications).

Northwestern has been in business for more than 150 years. It has $1T of life insurance in force.

PE FIRMS TAKE IMAGE ‘HIT’

More than 70 percent of merger & acquisition advisers would be “more reluctant’ to advise a company to sell to a private equity firm, according to a survey conducted by Brunswick Group.

The financial PR firm believes the credit squeeze and termination of high-profile deals like Clear Channel Communications have hurt the reputation of PE firms.

Those surveyed expect corporate buyers to fill the void left by PE firms, and hold Microsoft’s hostile bid for Yahoo as an example.

PE firms, according to Steve Lipin, senior partner at Brunswick, “have some work to do both inside the board room and with banking and legal advisers when attempting to convince public companies to sell.”

More than half (52 percent) of the 30 M&A advisers polled by Brunswick believe the takeover market will rebound by mid-year.

On the downside, 41 percent believe the country is moving into a recession, and say it will take five years before the level of M&A activity to hit the level that it reached in `07.

MARKS EXITS NIKE FOR EBAY

Alan Marks, director of global media relations for Nike, is slated to take the senior VP of corporate communications slot at eBay on April 28.

Marks joined Nike in 2005 after seven years in corporate communications at Gap Inc. He started out in PR with 12 years at Avon after working in journalism.

At San Jose, Calif.-based eBay, he heads business and consumer media relations, employee communications and executive positioning, among other tasks, as a member of the company’s executive staff.

JACKED LOOKS FOR PR FIRM

Jacked.com, which says it has developed the first “webtop” for broadcast media, is circulating an RFP for PR work.

Its “SportsTop” browser-based virtual desktop allows sports fans to customize data through a dashboard of dynamic content widgets, according to the RFP.

The Santa Monica-based company is looking for a firm versed in online media, sports marketing, technology and advertising.

PR will be aimed at business-to-business and consumer media. Budget is $10K a-month. The PR firm is to be selected by May 1.

Nicole Heyl, director of marketing, is handling the search. She is at 323/302-4460.

HAWKINS TRADES BURSON FOR PAINE

Steve Hawkins, managing director and senior VP for Burson-Marsteller in Los Angeles, has left for a managing partner role at PainePR.

Hawkins heads Paine’s national corporate communications practice, handling clients like Procter & Gamble, Sony and American Suzuki.

Prior to B-M, he was a SVP at Hill & Knowlton, PR director for Amgen and started his career as a journalist at U.S. News and World Report and BusinessWeek.

Irvine, Calif.-based PainePR is owned by Canada-based Cossette Communication Group.

NEWSWEEK SLICES 111 STAFFERS

Newsweek, which is owned by Washington Post Co., has accepted the buyout offers of 111 reporters and business execs.

Key staffers such as David Gates, David Ansen and Cathleen McGuigan are among those who will be exited, according to radaronline, which broke the story.

Nearly 150 people were offered the severance package that offered two years of current pay as a departing bonus plus healthcare coverage until the age of 65.

There is concern that much of the magazine’s “institutional memory” will be lost in the mass exodus.

Political writers Jonathan Alter and Howard Fineman were among those offered the package, but they refused to take it.

The Washington Post also has had cutbacks. Don Graham, CEO of WashPost Co., tells investors that the company wants to be known more as an educational vs. media combine. The company owns Kaplan, the test-giving and training operation.

FOX NEWS SLATED FOR RE-HAB

The Fox News Channel, which became the “cultural artifact of the Bush era,” will need to remodel itself when the new president takes office, according to Time.

CNN beat Fox in the prime time ratings race for viewers from 24 to 54 during the first-quarter of `08. That was the first time CNN topped Fox since `01.

Fox, according to James Poniewozik, rose with Bush. It was played in the White House and “reflected the same surety and flag-label-pin confidence in its tone and star-spangled look. It was not just a hit; it was the network of the moment.”

Poniewozik believes a McCain presidency would be the trickiest for Fox. McCain criticized former Defense Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and is the GOP “darling” of the liberal media.

Fox hasn’t yet figured out how to handle Obama, but a Clinton “restoration” would be welcomed with open arms by Rupert Murdoch’s network.

POPMATTERS PUBLISHES ON KINDLE

Entertainment and pop culture site PopMatters.com has teamed with Tribune Media Services to distribute a magazine on Amazon’s Kindle digital reading device.

The Kindle edition of the publication includes features, columns, reviews, interviews, and blog content and is available for $1.49/month. A two-week trial is currently being offered.

Tribune’s TMS unit distributes the magazine, but Tribune has no editorial role in the venture.

WSJ GOES ON SALE IN LONDON

The U.S. edition of the Wall Street Journal will go on sale in London on April 16, which means the print edition will be on newsstands there five hours before it hits New York newsstands.

The paper will sell for about $5 a copy and compete with Pearson’s Financial Times and the regional edition of Wall Street Journal Europe.

WSJE is celebrating its 25th year and has a circulation of 220K. News Corp. bought the Journal in December.

KUSHNER LOOKS AT NEWSDAY

New York Observer owner Jared Kushner may enter the Newsday auction conducted by Sam Zell’s Tribune Company.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., Mort Zuckerman’s New York Daily News and Long Island cable operator Cablevision Systems are in the hunt for the suburban New York daily.

Kushner is principal in Kushner Cos., a real estate operation founded by his father, Charles. Newsday is expected to fetch at least $400M. That price will determine whether Tribune will be forced to sell other properties, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Tribune Co. has reported “accelerating declines” in newspaper revenues this year, and plans “dispositions of certain assets or businesses” to keep ahead of debt obligations.

CBS REDUCES RANKS

CBS News is cutting about one percent of its 1,200-member work force to deal with a tough advertising environment and an inability to attract younger viewers who are bombarded with news on the Internet. The cuts are made at mostly at the network’s 29 local news operations, and were not mandated by headquarters.

WBZ (Boston) took the biggest hit as 20 people were cut. WBBM (Chicago) let 17 go, while KPIX (San Francisco) pared 14.

High profile on-air staffers in New York (WCBS) Andrew Kirtzman and Scott Weinberger were dropped by that flagship station.

NYT REPORTER RELEASED IN ZIMBABWE

Barry Bearak, the New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winner, who was jailed April 3 in Zimbabwe for violating its draconian journalism laws was released on bail April 7. Johannesburg-based Bearak was covering the hotly contested election that apparently was won by opponents of long-time ruler Robert Mugabe.

Police arrested Bearak and a British journalist in a sweep of political opponents to Mugabe. NYT executive editor Bill Keller said the paper would do everything it could to get Bearak out of jail.

Bearak, who suffered injuries from a fall in his concrete cell, was released on bail to a medical clinic.

Three judges have turned down requests to hear Bearak's case, but another court date is set for April 9.

Zimbabwe requires foreign journalists to get a license. It grants only a handful of foreigner requests for licenses. Few were okayed to cover the election.

Bearak had initially requested that the NYT withhold his byline as a security precaution. He then changed his mind as other western reporters had bylines published. The Committee to Protect Journalists had called for the immediate release of Bearak. CPJ executive director Joel Simon said it is "imperative that all journalists, foreign and domestic, be allowed to freely cover the important political situation unfolding in Zimbabwe."

Simon called Zimbabwe practice of turning down the vast majority of journalism license requests a "backdoor form of censorship."

(Media news continued on next page)

SITRICK SIGNS FURLONG

Tom Furlong, former deputy national editor of the Los Angeles Times, has joined crisis shop Sitrick & Co.

After more than 30 years of reporting/editing, Furlong retired from LAT last month. He covered the banking, real estate, gambling and white collar crime beats. Furlong served as deputy national editor for a decade and spent the last two years supervising national political coverage.

Furlong is the third LAT journalist to join Mike Sitrick’s firm during the past year. The others are Glenn Bunting, former senior deputy business editor, and James Bates, ex-deputy business editor for entertainment.

Furlong also worked as a crime reporter for City News Bureau, sports reporter for Evanston Review and business writer for Chicago Daily News and Sun-Times.

MARTHA ACQUIRES EMERIL

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has acquired chef Emeril Lagasse’s media and merchandising in a deal pegged at $50M, but could reach $70M if performance benchmarks are met by `12.

The deal includes Lagasse’s TV shows, website and licensed food and kitchen products. Lagasse retains his restaurant business, which includes 11 units in New Orleans, Las Vegas, Orlando, Atlanta, Miami and Gulfport (Miss.).

Susan Lyne, CEO of MSLO, says the company looks forward to applying its expertise in “managing multiplatform lifestyle brands to further build and develop the high-quality Emeril franchise.”

Lagasse has hosted more than 150 TV shows on the Food Network and is food correspondent for ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

He will host “Emeril Green” set to debut this summer on Discovery Communications’ “Planet Green” eco-lifestyle network.

PEOPLE & BRIEFS _____________________________

Michelle Preli, VP of editorial programming at NBC’s iVillage.com, has been named editor-in-chief of Conde Nast’s Brides.com.

She was previously general manager of BudgetTravel.com and earlier spent 10 years at MSNBC.com, where she was part of the launch team and oversaw the websites of the “Today” show, “Nightly News with Brian Williams,” “Dateline NBC,” and “Meet the Press.”

Jennifer Carroll was promoted to vice president of digital content for Gannett Digital.

She helps design products that “take advantage of the value of Gannett’s vast content,” according to the company. Kate Marymont replaces Carroll with the new title of VP/information center content in Gannett’s U.S. community publishing division.

Marymont was executive editor and vice president/information center at the News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla.

Jennifer Cisney, a 10-year veteran of Kodak and writer for the company’s two blogs, has been named Kodak’s first “chief blogger.” She is charged with boosting the company’s social media presence and serves as the company’s “eyes and ears online, listening to customer feedback and sharing ideas and tips related to Kodak’s products and services.”

Jeffrey Hayzlett, VP/chief business development officer for Kodak, said just over ten percent of Fortune 500 companies have public blogs, and noted Kodak is among the first to name a female chief blogger. The company sponsors “A Thousand Words,” a blog of employees’ personal stories, and “A Thousand Nerds,” about Kodak technology.

Cisney also blogs for the Rochester, N.Y., Democrat & Chronicle’s Insider.

Lisa Delaney, former executive editor of Health and senior editor of Cooking Light and Prevention, has been named editor-in-chief of Spry, a health magazine slated to launch in September.

Franklin, Tenn.-based Publishing Group of America, owned by Bain Capital Partners and Shamrock Partners, is billing the Spry launch as the “largest health magazine launch in history.” It will be distributed through newspapers PGA says the title will focus on Baby Boomers living active lives who also consider the health of their parents and children.

PGA publishes the newspaper supplements Relish and Texas Profile.

David Kaplan, former chief investigative correspondent at U.S. News & World Report, has been named director of the Center for Public Integrity’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Kaplan, who stepped down from USN&WR last June and penned its “Bad Guys” blog, has been an ICIJ member for more than eight years.

XM Satellite Radio plans wall-to-wall coverage of Pope Benedict XVI’s first visit to the U.S., which is slated for April 15-20. The “Papal U.S. Visit `08” channel will air in a partnership with EWTN Global Catholic Network and provide news and commentary as the Pontiff says masses at Nationals Park (D.C.), Yankee Stadium and St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Eternal World Television Network reaches 140M TV households in 27 countries. XM has nine million subscribers.

YAHOO PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON WOMEN

Yahoo! Shine has been launched to provide women all the news that is relevant to their daily lives.

YS will focus on the nine categories of fashion & beauty, food, healthy living, work and money, love and relationships, parenting, at home, entertainment & culture and astrology.

Yahoo has developed relationships with Conde Nast, Time Inc., Rodale and Hearst to provide content from their magazines such as Glamour, Self and Good Housekeeping. Brandon Holley, editor-in-chief of YS, also promises to create original content for the site.

The record $98M profits of PR Newswire (page one) coupled with the $400M+ that Business Wire's Lorry Lokey has been able to give to charities are signs of PR's mechanization and automation - both bad trends.

PRN and Lokey ("what I earn is far out of proportion to what I'm worth") were lucky to be there at a time when the financiers who took over a large part of the PR business automated it to the best of their ability in order to maximize profits. They had done this to the ad business with great success, creating gargantuan media buying units that could drive down media prices.

PR profits could be greatly increased, they reasoned, if the human part of PR could be slashed.

Clients had to be convinced that the best and cheapest route to disclosure was PRN and BW, (which cost a measly $680 and $650) rather than building relationships with individual reporters and/or answering their questions. (The Lokey quote above came from the Feb. 22, 2007 Chronicle of Philanthropy).

The great bulk of releases sent out over these wires tell one side of a story and need questions answered if they are to pass the test of journalism.

Our experience in getting questions answered from companies using the wires and the wire services themselves is bad. We refer to Omnicom, WPP, Interpublic, Publicis and Havas, publicly-held companies that own at least 25 large PR firms and hundreds of others.

Their electronic PR releases are an impenetrable electronic fence. Our first financial questions to OMC about ten years ago were met with contempt and ridicule: "You're going to cover Omnicom...you're going to take us on!?" said its CFO. In other words, we were a mere grease spot to the giant conglomerate and writing about it would be doing battle with it.

The over-reliance on these wires has had a negative effect on journalism, cutting down on human interaction.

Many firms using them just want to avoid any complaints from the SEC or stockholders and are not interested in being grilled by the press.

But a new day is dawning in electronic press release distribution. PRN and BW are being left "in the dust" by new services such as Vocus, our readers tell us. The PR Web unit of Vocus goes to tens of thousands of media including blogs and disclosure media (the AP) and can be customized to go to more disclosure media and financial outlets. Instead of $680 or $650 a release, Vocus only charges $80. The new Vocus "Small Business Edition" costs around $3,000 annually (vs. $5,000 and up for its more extensive "Enterprise" and "Professional Editions") and includes 12 releases at no extra cost. Vocus went public in 2005 and had 2007 sales of $58 million.

As if to illustrate our point, both BW and PRN refuse to answer our questions although both are parts of public companies. We called Lokey months ago about his gift-giving but he didn't return the call. Oddly, he told the University of Oregon Quarterly that he "loves journalism." It's no wonder he doesn't call us back. He doesn't want to explain how he left his wife, Eva, out of the story of BW. She co-founded the company in 1961 with him and worked for it 29 years. She was chair of the board when they were divorced in 1990 and continued to own 50% of the company. We would like to know if she is alive or not and whether she continued to own 50% of BW. We would like to ask PRN how many employees lost their PRN jobs by deciding not to move to Albuquerque. PRN employs more than 700 in the U.S. and we wonder if the total was 100+. Editorial staffers in 11 offices were shifted to that city, Cleveland and Washington, D.C.

OMC CEO John Wren does not want to discuss why OMC stock is only $45 currently when it was $53.50 in 1999 and he has taken at least $50M in pay from the company since then. Also, if OMC is such a great stock, why did he sell $16M of it in February. Companies such as PRN and BW do things that might embarrass them or which they don't want to discuss and when reporters raise such issues, they are condemned and shunned on charges of being "too negative."

The Lokey profile had some revealing quotes about the way business works and we hope both PR profs and students will take note of them.

According to Lokey, PRN "brass" told him in 1986 either to sell out to PRN or "you will be run over." Said Lokey: "They were really trying to kill us."

PRN (and BW) had bought out numerous local wires over the years and we'd guess PRN said the same thing to such companies. These threats capture the ferocious nature of business competition that PR students should know about. Mostly students are taught that PR people are like "social workers" and arbitrators of community disputes. More likely they will be thrown into fierce competitive battles.

The pathetic nature of the 2008 board of PR Society (page 7) was shown when it allowed the five-member executive committee to meet by itself all morning on Jan. 25 while the other 12 directors sat on their hands. The board then allowed ten PRS staffers to sit in on the afternoon board meeting (no doubt to keep directors in line and/or distract them with numerous inconsequential reports). The directors were "required" to sign documents of silence about PRS matters (even to their own district members). They then spent all day Jan. 26 being lectured to by an "expert" in board behavior instead of, for instance, creating a "PR for PR" program or planning 60th anniversary celebration events... ambiguous Section 621 of New York law shows why PRS must shift its charter to Delaware.

The section says board and executive committee minutes must be kept at the h.q. of a group but members can only see them if they file a lawsuit.

NYS law, which is heavily in favor of boards rather than the members of groups, also blocks electronic meetings of members.

--Jack O'Dwyer