PUBLICIS ACQUIRES KEKST

France’s Publicis Groupe has acquired Kekst & Co., the powerful financial and crisis PR firm.

Gershon Kekst will remain CEO of K&C, which is to operate autonomously under PG’s special agencies and marketing services organization, a group that includes Manning Selvage & Lee.

PG CEO Maurice Levy praised Kekst for being “at the center of many of the most high-profile, complex business communications challenges over the past three and a half decades.” In his statement, Levy called Gershon Kekst his “good friend and trusted advisor.”

Kekst repaid the tribute to Levy by saying he has “enormous admiration for his unique success in making Publicis Groupe the global leader it is today.”

K&C has 70 staffers involved in areas such as mergers/acquisitions, bankruptcy/restructuring, litigation support, investor activism/proxy fights and crisis PR.

The firm has partnered with Publicis in the past. It worked on the French firm’s takeover of interactive agency, Digitas.

JETBLUE TAPS MWW FOR CRISIS WORK

JetBlue Airways, the Forest Hills, Queens-based discount carrier with a loyal following, has tapped MWW Group as its crisis communications firm after a review.

Jenny Dervin, media relations manager for JetBlue, declined to disclose how many agencies were included in the RFP, citing the airline's confidential strategic sourcing process.

Dervin said the "chemistry was perfect" with the Interpublic-owned, New Jersey-based MWW Group. "We respect their expertise, and they respect our sometimes unique take on media relations," she said, noting the airline's response to intense media scrutiny during a Valentine's Day 2007 ice storm, which included a YouTube apology and JetBlue CEO David Neeleman making the media rounds.

The storm, which left passengers stranded on grounded planes for hours, also led to what Dervin called "the industry's first meaningful Bill of Rights" from JetBlue and marked one of the airline's first major crises following a period of positive press that industry peers envied.

A key project goal for MWW is to media-train the airline's local leaders in the 53 destinations it serves, she said. Matt Rose, executive VP and head of MWW's corporate communications pratice, leads the account. Rose told O'Dwyer's the firm will handle crisis planning, issues management and training.

WPP FOLDS GCI INTO COHN & WOLFE

WPP is merging Cohn & Wolfe and GCI Group under the Cohn & Wolfe name and splitting the CEO and president roles among each firm’s top executive.

Donna Imperato, current CEO of C&W, takes that title to the combined firm, while GCI head Jeff Hunt serves as president.

“This is the right time to bring together two very complementary agencies,” said Howard Paster, executive VP of PR and PA for WPP. He said the firms have been “close partners for the past few years.”

Imperato, who had been chair of GCI, cited a changing “communication landscape” and the need for more resources to succeed in the current environment.

WPP pitches the merger as a combination of C&W’s “brand-building” heritage and “creative programming” with GCI’s digital and social media expertise.

C&W acquired European tech firm AxiCom in April.

WPP said combined C&W, based in New York, will also align with WPP units public affairs firm Quinn Gillespie, interactive firm Schematic, and GCI Health.

DUBNER TAKES HELM OF EDELMAN/N.Y.

Russell Dubner, who headed corporate and public affairs for Edelman in New York, is now head of that office and its more than 450 staffers.

He takes over for Matthew Harrington, who took the U.S. CEO slot from Pam Talbot, who retired on July 1. Talbot, who held the CEO slot for a dozen years, remains as a consultant.

Dubner has counseled key Edelman clients such as General Electric, Dannon, Motorola, Heinz and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

He joined Edelman in `92 as an account executive and did a two-year stint in London. He served as managing director in NYC since `03.

KIRCHOFFNER WOULD DROP APR RULE

Counselor Don Kirchoffner of Broomfield, Colo., running for the nomination for Western district director against counselor Marisa Vallbona of La Jolla, Calif., would drop the APR rule for national office that has been in effect since the 1970s.

While he encourages members to become APR, he told this website, "I do not think it should be a requirement for national or local office."

"Getting APR certification displays commendable initiative," he said. "I am proud of the fact that I went

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CALIFORNIA EYES CHINA WITH RFP

California’s non-profit corporation in charge of promoting tourism is reviewing proposals to hire its first PR firm for China.

The California Travel and Tourism Commission issued an RFP in April and is currently reviewing proposals, said media relations manager Kat Burnside.

The Xinhua news service reported this month that it took years of negotiations for the U.S. and Chinese governments to strike a memorandum of understanding in December 2007 to ease outbound tourist group travel from China to the United States. In California, tourism from China was up 44 percent in 2006 and the Golden State sees warmer relations sparking a continued increase in visitors from the People’s Republic.

The CTTC is looking for year-round trade and public relations representation in China, according to the RFP. Budget for 2008 (estimated to start in August) is capped at $500K and is set at $990K on an annual basis. Burnside said a selection and announcement will likely be made by late summer or early fall.

Edelman’s Sacramento office is on retainer to handle domestic PR work for CTTC at $190K/year.

WE WINS WASH. DAIRY ACCOUNT

Waggener Edstrom has won a six-figure PR assignment from the Washington Dairy Product Commission, following an RFP process.

The WDPC, which represents dairy farmers in the Evergreen State, previously worked with Seattle-based DeLaunay Marketing Communications.

The commission issued an RFP in January to find a firm to develop and run its “Dairy Trust Initiative,” a reputation management program to build trust among the public, dairy farmers and their products. The group also wants to boost the perception that dairy farm families contribute to the quality of community life in the state.

Washington is the No. 10 dairy producer in the U.S. and the dairy industry has a $1.7 billion impact on the state.

W&C WORKS U.S. SUGAR DEAL

Wragg & Casas PR is handling media for U.S. Sugar’s landmark deal to sell 187K acres of land (292 sq. miles) to Florida for $1.75B.

The transaction is Florida’s biggest land deal ever, and will go a long way in improving the health of the Everglades by restoring the natural water flow.

The New York Times reported the transaction’s “magnitude and location of the purchase left environmentalists and state officials giddy.”

U.S. Sugar will continue farming the site for six years and then turn over the land, two sugar refineries and 200 miles of railroad track to the South Florida Water Management District.

During the signing agreement, Gov. Charlie Crist said the deal is as “monumental as the creation of the nation’s first national park, Yellowstone.”

U.S. Sugar called the transaction a “bittersweet moment for a company that has been farming this land for more than four generations.”

It is proud to be part of an historical agreement to “restore much of the natural footprint of south Florida.”

CRC SET TO ‘SWIFT BOAT’ OBAMA

Creative Response Concepts plans to promote Regnery Publishing’s “The Case Against Barack Obama,” a work from conservative journalist David Freddoso.

As indicated by its subtitle—“The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media’s Favorite Candidate”—the book promises to take a critical look at the Illinois Senator’s record. It is due Aug. 4.

Freddoso, a veteran of National Review Online and the “Evans Novak Political Report,” is expected to probe Obama’s record as state senator in Springfield (Ill), political ties with the Chicago Democratic machine and his record in Washington.

Obama’s relationship with his ex-spiritual advisor Rev. Jeremiah Wright and former Weather Underground activist Bill Ayers will fill pages of Freddoso’s book.

CRC is headed by Greg Mueller, who was Pat Buchanan’s communications director.

It publicized Regnery’s “Unfit for Command,” the book that helped torpedo John Kerry’s Presidential run, and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the 527 group that claimed the Massachusetts Senator exaggerated his Vietnam service.

Regnery has recently published Newt Gingrich’s “Real Change,” Dinesh D’Souza’s “What’s So Bad About Christianity,” Laura Ingraham’s “Power to the People,” and Iain Murray’s “The Really Inconvenient Truths,” a knock on Al Gore.

OGILVY GUIDES CROP INSURERS

Ogilvy PR Worldwide is working with a Kansas-based trade group for crop insurance companies to reassure farmers amid massive flooding in the Midwest that insurers can meet the financial demand of the agricultural devastation.

The group, National Crop Insurance Services, a non-profit based in Overland Park, Kan., represents 60 companies with liability of about $50 billion. NCIS and Ogilvy are working to show strength, educate farmers about filing claims, and outline benefits available to flood ravaged farmers.

Lisa Ross, executive VP for Ogilvy’s Washington, D.C., office told O’Dwyer’s that the firm is serving as AOR for NCIS and has been working on a multimedia communications campaign to raise awareness among policymakers of the value of crop insurance in American agriculture.

PR EXECS SPEAK AT ‘GREEN’ CONFAB

Tom Mattia, senior VP-worldwide PA and communications at Coca-Cola, Lisa Witter, COO at Fenton Communications, and Andrew Fox, global communications senior manager at AMD, are lined up as speakers for “Green Communications `08: The Case Studies Conference” set for New York on July 15.

Carrier Corp., Porter Novelli, Hasbro, Exel, Hullin Metz, Met Life, Pitney Bowes, and Tyco Electronics are among those already registered for the conference.

The affair costs $195 and will be held at The Graduate Center/CUNY (365 Fifth Ave). Jamie Cunningham of the Business Development Institute has information at [email protected].

DOWNIE STEPS DOWN AT WAPO

Leonard Downie, executive editor at the Washington Post for the past 17 years, is stepping down Sept. 8.

The 66-year old Downie will become VP at large, a title held by predecessor Ben Bradlee.

Katharine Weymouth, publisher, plans to name a successor soon. She praised Downie for guiding the Post with a “steady and unerring hand.”

Downie joined the Post in `64 as a summer intern. He worked as metro staff reporter and editor from 1974 to 1979. As deputy metro editor, he supervised the paper’s Watergate coverage.

Downie became London correspondent in 1979 and went back to D.C. in 1982 for the national editor job.

BOSTON HERALD CUTS STAFF

The Boston Herald plans layoffs of up to 160 people over the summer and will outsource its printing to two outside plants, one owned by News Corp.’s Dow Jones & Co.

Herald president & publisher Patrick Purcell hopes to iron out severance settlements with affected workers over the next three months.

The Boston Globe, which is owned by the New York Times Co., had discussed a printing deal with the BH.

News Corp., a former parent of the BH, sold the paper to Purcell in 1994 to clear the way for the acquisition of Boston’s Fox TV affiliate.

OCR OUTSOURCES COPY EDITING

The Orange County Register, which is California’s fifth largest newspaper, is outsourcing some copy editing duties to India-based Mindworks Global Media.

The one-month trial also covers layout in a community paper owned by Orange County Register Communications.

John Fabris, deputy editor at the OCR, told the Associated Press the Mindworks deal is a “small-scale test” that will not affect its local reporting or decision-making.

He said no job cuts are envisioned. OCR Communications laid off 90 staffers in April.

POWERS TO VP/COMMS. FOR GLOBE

Robert Powers has been promoted to VP of communications and public affairs for The Boston Globe company, overseeing internal and external comms. and community relations for the New York Times Company-owned Boston Globe paper and Boston.com.

Powers, 52, reports to publisher Steven Ainsley and also oversees The Boston Globe Foundation and its Globe Santa toy drive.

He joined the Globe in 1981 and has held various sales, marketing and comms. posts.

LEWIS PENS DJ COLUMN

Al Lewis, a columnist and editor at the Denver Post, has joined Dow Jones Newswires to write a business column.

Neal Lipschutz, SVP and managing editor of DJN, praised Lewis’ knowledge of business and finance combined with a “personal and entertaining style.”

Lewis was business editor for the Post and earlier was a reporter for the rival Rocky Mountain News.

LEANEY MARKETS NEWSWEEK

Angela Leaney, senior VP/creative director for MTV Networks’ Nick Jr., Noggin and ParentsConnect units, has joined Newsweek magazine as chief marketing officer.

Newsweek CEO Tom Ascheim said Leaney will help the newsmagazine make its “voice clear and distinct in the changing media landscape that we face.”

Prior to eight years at MTVN, she was at AMV.BBDO advertising in London and a partner at Ogilvy & Mather in Los Angeles.

NEW FASHION MAG SEEKS PITCHES

Moda FG is a new quarterly fashion and art magazine out of Chicago that aims to put a Windy City “spin” on the national fashion scene.

The publication is seeking editorial material for future issues, including news on lifestyle companies, designers, fashion brands and local musicians.

“We don’t think that Chicagoans should cede magazine fashion leadership to New York,” said Angeliki Garris, editor-in-chief.

The fall issue, due in September, covers an international theme.

Controlled circulation includes a mailed subscription base, along with coffee shops, boutiques, doctors’ offices and other outlets in Chicago. Copies also go to New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

The June issue passed 100 pages in length.

Magdaline Garris ([email protected]) is accepting queries and releases.

FELKER DIES AT 82

Clay Felker, founding editor of New York magazine, died today in his Manhattan home. He was 82 and suffered from throat and mouth cancer.

Felker founded New York in 1964 as a Sunday supplement to the New York Herald Tribune.

He re-introduced New York in 1968 after the newspaper closed.

Tom Wolfe, Jimmy Breslin, Gloria Steinem, Ken Auletta, Mimi Sheraton and Nicholas Pileggi are among the noted writers published by Felker, who left New York in `77 after Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. acquired the publication.

In `77, Felker teamed with Associated Newspapers to buy Esquire. He held the editor and publisher post until `81.

Felker worked at the New York Daily News, Village Voice, Manhattan, inc., and 20th Century Fox.

In `94, Felker became lecturer at the University of California’s Graduate School of Journalism at Berkeley.

The school created the Clay Felker Magazine Center in `95. Felker is survived by his wife, Gail Sheehy, author of “Passages.”

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DISNEY SEEKS TO DROP ‘MEDIA’ STIGMA

Walt Disney Co. is waging a campaign to convince Wall Street that it is a consumer products company rather than a media outfit.

CEO Bob Iger and CFO Tom Skaggs are playing up the “Disney Difference,” according to a report in Reuters.

They want recognition for the ability to expand the equity of “brands” such as Miley Cyrus, “High School Musical” and the Jonas Brothers across the full-range of its media properties.

Disney believes its stock should be considered with the likes of Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and Nike vs. Time-Warner and Viacom. Its shares trade at $32.62. The 52-week range is $26.30-$35.69.

MAGAZINE TO COVER ‘SINGLE’ LIFE

Singular magazine and an accompanying website are being planned for a fall launch to target single, college-educated professionals in Los Angeles.

Singular Communications plans to direct-mail 63K copies of the bi-monthly title to “affluent” single adults this fall. Newsstand price will be $4.95.

SC notes that L.A. has a higher population of unmarried adult households, 55 percent, than the national average of 50.3 percent.

“This growing majority, with their unique lifestyle and consumer behavior, has been overlooked by advertisers and marketers who've yet to realize their distinctive attitudes and interests,” the company said.

Freelance journalist Kim Calvert is editor.

Info: SingularCity.com.

TULENKO TAKES HEALTH PUB POST

Renee Tulenko has been named publisher of Health magazine, a property of Time Warner’s Southern Progress division.

She exited Shape in `03 for the associate publisher slot at Health, which has a 1.3M circulation. The women-oriented Health is noted for its nutrition, fitness and “beauty with intelligence and flair” content.

Earlier, Tulenko was at Country Living, Altschiller & Co. and BBDO.

SP is the home of Southern Living, Cooking Light, Southern Accents, Cottage Living, Coastal Living and Sunset.

AP REVAMPS PRICING, WIRES

The Associated Press has begun rolling out details of new pricing which it said will return up to $21M to its U.S. member newspapers.

The AP said the cuts are part of the most important overhaul in pricing and structure of its content in the history of the cooperative. Part of that “shift” changes its traditional arrangement of the AP providing pre-defined “wires” to customers in favor of allowing members open access to AP content and the ability to customize “slices” of news coverage under a new program called “Member Choice.”

Later this year, all member newspapers will get access to a real-time database of all AP English-language breaking news content. New tools will allow members to search for locally relevant stories, photos, graphics and other content from within the database, the AP said.

Under the MC plan, newspaper members can get $13.6M in reductions by 2009 and will be eligible for rate reductions up to $7.5M.

The AP’s board will vote on final approval of the new rates at its meeting in New York in late July.

WSJ’S HAYS TO BLOOMBERG

Laurie Hays, a veteran Wall Street Journal reporter, editor and bureau chief, has been named executive editor for company news at Bloomberg News, starting Aug. 4.

Hays was with the Journal for 23 years based in Moscow, Atlanta and New York. She has recently been deputy managing editor for investigative reporting.

Matthew Winkler, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg, said adding Hays to the management team allows the news service to “devote more direction to developing depth reporting.”

She previously worked as a reporter for the New Orleans States Item/Times Picayune and the Wilmington News Journal of Delaware.

AVIATION WEEK ADDS TWO

Darren Shannon, former managing editor at Flight International and U.S. editor for Air Transport Intelligence newswire, has joined McGraw-Hill’s Aviation Week as a senior editor. He has written and edited for Travel Agent Magazine, World Airline News and Middle East Economic Digest, and served as manager of media relations for Northwest Airlines.

Andrew Compart, who covered airlines and the U.S. Transportation Dept. for 10 years at Travel Weekly, has also joined AW as a senior editor. He has written for the York (Pa.) Daily Record and the Army, Navy and Air Force Times.

TEPLITZ HANDLES GOV’T AFFAIRS FOR TW

Steven Teplitz, VP and associate general counsel for Time Warner, has been named SVP of government relations for TW Cable.

He is based in D.C. and handles federal legislative, regulatory and external affairs.

Teplitz was formerly an attorney in the FCC’s common carrier bureau. He joined TW through AOL in 1997.

People _________________________

Tran Ha, weekend editor of the Chicago Tribune’s free daily newspaper RedEye, has been named editor of the Tribune’s upcoming weekly high school newspaper and website.

The publications, under the working title TheMash, will include content and images from public high school students and edited by professional staff.

Ha joined the Tribune Company in 2003 as a copy editor for RedEye and moved to the Tribune’s features department as an assistant editor two years later before later rejoining RedEye in April 2007 to launch its weekend edition.

“False beliefs are everywhere,” said an op-ed piece in the June 27 New York Times. One poll found that 18% of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth. The article was by neuroscientists Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt, authors of “Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive.”

They say false statements can easily stick in the brain because memories go from short to long-term locations and you forget the source of the message ("source amnesia"). "As the source is forgotten, the message and its implications gain strength," they write.

A false statement can gain credibility if repeated over and over, they also note. This technique was used by Hitler and became known as the Big Lie. It goes hand in hand with secrecy-keeping people in the dark. Since knowledge is power, people without knowledge feel powerless.

Campaign strategists, say Wang and Aamodt, "can exploit it (source amnesia) to spread misinformation." A message that is initially memorable "will persist (in memory) long after it is debunked," they say.

PR's charge is to avoid anything but the "highest standards of accuracy and truth," as the code of the PR Society says. Other PR groups have similar statements.

The NYT op-ed mentions the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" campaign, saying it took "some weeks" for its message to have an impact on Senator John Kerry's presidential bid.

Three days later in the NYT there was a page one piece saying many Swift Boat veterans are aghast that SB has become a synonym for lying on a massive scale.

"When someone's Swiftboated, it's like being waterboarded," said one SB veteran.

SBers want to restore luster to the term but it's going to be difficult. It would be like removing the term "spin" from the PR industry. For one thing, all the facts of Kerry's four-month tour in the SBs would have to be thoroughly researched. Were lies told about it or not? Texas billionaire Boone Pickens, who helped fund the SB campaign, offered $1M to anyone who could disprove what was said. But Pickens has "refused to pay," says the NYT, and instead refers complainants to the SB Veterans for Truth.

Where else do we find the Big Lie (or at least credible charges of it)? Whether there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is certainly a contender for one of the giant whoppers of all time.

Funding of anti-AIDS programs has exploded based on the myth that it is a threat to heterosexuals, said Michael Fumento of the American Security Council Foundation (New York Post July 3). "Easily preventable diseases kill millions of children each year" because so much money goes to the powerful AIDS lobby, says Dr. James Chin, ex-World Health Organization. Fumento admits there is an AIDs heterosexual epidemic in Africa.

The closing last week of Suffolk Life, once the "biggest circulation weekly east of the Mississippi" (545K) recalled its fight against the Shoreham nuclear plant, decommissioned on Oct. 12, 1994, just as it was certified safe for operation.

The Big Lie was that citizens were afraid of nuclear and especially the difficulty of evacuating Long Island in case of an accident. But what locals really feared were sky high utility bills caused by the bloated cost of Shoreham—$6 billion or 85 times budget. Labor/management tussles caused years of delay. Double and triple overtime was common. A duplicate plant was built in Connecticut for about $200M.

With the high cost of oil and increased dependence on foreign sources, nuclear is being reassessed.

In the PR industry, there was a battle in June between the PR Society and CBS-TV legal analyst Andrew Cohen, who said PR did not have a reputation for truthfulness.

Julin struck back at Cohen's "simplistic, erroneous" remarks, saying that "truth and accuracy are the bread and butter of the PR profession." He urged the entire 22,000 membership to attack Cohen via e-mails, which many did. Julin ignored PRS's own research---the $150K 1999 study with the Rockefeller Foundation that found "PR specialist" ranked 43 on a list of 45 "believable sources of information." We doubt this has changed. At least nine current books on PR have the word "spin" in their titles.

Professors from Duke and NYU worked three years on the study, conducting 2,500 interviews and amassing 5,000 pages of materials. Head of it was Ronald Hinckley, Ph.D., ex-research director, U.S. Information Agency.

Also in 1999, the Fellows published a two-year study of 16 PR recruiters that found negligible interest in APR. Tactics of PRS only carried a small story on an inside page about the believability study, leaving out the table. It was not allowed to report anything on the recruiters study. Similar censorship blocked any mention in Tactics when ethics chair Gail Baker suddenly quit in March 2008 after two months. No report ever appeared in Tactics about the 2006 Central Michigan governance reform proposal. Withholding important information is a form of lying.

Martin Sorrell of WPP Group, in a moment of candor to the Financial Times June 30, said WPP may have acquired too many companies (300+). He said it was "difficult" to control the "different tribes" and "warring factions" in the group. WPP and the stocks of the other two big conglomerates, Omnicom and Interpublic, have been hammered lately because of the uncertain business climate. WPP is down 38% in the last 52 weeks to $46, OMC down 18% to $43, and IPG down 26% to $8.27. IPG's all time high was $57.

WPP's 52-week high was $76. It was $50 in 1990, meaning it has gone nowhere in 18 years. It fell to about $2 in 1992 and shot up to about $100 in 2000. OMC's high was $53.50 in 1999. Debt of the three is about $10 billion. Publicis, a smaller conglomerate, owes more than $2 billion.

--Jack O'Dwyer