BLUETOOTH SHOPS $400K PR WORK

Bluetooth Special Interest Group believes its short-range wireless technology is on the “cusp of new advancements” and wants to use PR to get the word out to companies, consumers and members of the media.

It is floating an RFP to firms for work valued in the $400K range for `09.

BSIG is the non-profit of 11,000 members that use Bluetooth technology as the standard format for more than 2B communications devices.

As membership has grown, BSIG sees the need for industry education, PR support for members and to actively “engage consumers, including driving traffic to www.bluetooth.com,” according to the RFP.

The work schedule includes press releases, media/analyst relations, bylined article development and placement, promotional event support, speaking opportunities, sponsorship ideas and executive briefing materials.

Bellevue, Wash.-based BSIG is “looking for creativity matched with traditional solid PR.” It may pick more than one firm, depending upon the strengths of the contenders.

Proposals are due Sept. 26. The winner/winners will be notified Nov. 5. Work begins Jan. 12.

Kevin Keating has info ([email protected]).

MOLINARI EXITS KETCHUM FOR RUDY

Susan Molinari is exiting as CEO of Ketchum’s Washington Group to join Bracewell & Giuliani’s government affairs practice.

The four-term Republican Congresswoman from Staten Island and a slice of Brooklyn will join forces with ex-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani at B&G on Oct. 6. She will be a senior principal/government relations and strategy.

Giuliani says he has known Molinari from her early political days as a member of the NYC City Council, and has watched her “develop into one of the most trusted political voices on the scene today.” Her father was S.I. Borough President.

For her part, Molinari praised B&G’s “thoughtful, bipartisan approach to government relations.” In her statement, the politico said “Bracewell puts substance first.”

The Washington-based Molinari will work in tandem with Jim Chapman, a former Democratic Congressman from Texas. She left Congress in `97 for a brief TV stint before joining Ketchum.

The B&G law firm has more than 400 staffers in D.C., N.Y., Texas, Dubai, Kazakhstan and the U.K.

MATTIA STEPS DOWN AT COKE

Tom Mattia, Coca-Cola’s senior VP-worldwide PA & communications, plans to retire in February as new CEO Muhtar Kent, 55, puts his own stamp on the company.

Kent assumed the top spot from Neville Isdell, 65, in July. Isdell plans to relinquish the chairman role at the `09 annual meeting in April. He spoke at the annual Seminar (formerly PR Seminar) meeting in May about sustainable business practices. Mattia chaired that session.

Clyde Tuggle, president of Coke’s Russian, Ukraine and Belarus operations, will assume various corporate duties at Atlanta headquarters, including Mattia’s PA/communications role. He handled global PA prior to Mattia joining Coke in `96.

The 60-year-old Mattia held key posts at Ford Motor (North American PA director), Hill & Knowlton (general manager/Los Angeles), and IBM (director of advanced workstation marketing) prior to joining the soft drinks company. Alex Cummings, Coke’s chief administrative officer, announced Mattia’s retirement via an e-mail to staffers.

GEORGIA TURNS TO GLOVER PARK

The Government of Georgia turned to Glover Park Group shortly after Russian tanks rolled through the country last month.

The Democrat-heavy GPG filed a two-month contract worth $200K with the National Security Council of Georgia for strategic and communications work beginning on Aug. 25. The pact is renewable for an additional time period that must be agreed to in writing.

GPG was founded by Joe Lockhart, President Clinton’s Press Secretary; Carter Eskew, chief strategist to Al Gore in his Presidential run and ex-Washington head of BSMG Worldwide, and Michael Feldman, senor advisor to Vice President Al Gore. GPR did not return a call for comment.

Dick Cheney visited Georgia earlier this month and pledged $1B in U.S. aid.

NO SIGNATURES SO FAR, PRS REPORTS

The PR Society said on Sept. 11 that it had yet to obtain signatures on ethics pledge forms that it sent to Jill Hazelbaker, communications director of John McCain 2008, and Robert Gibbs, communications director, Obama for America.

The two campaigns were asked to sign “formal pledges obligating them to abide by the PRS Code of Ethics in all communications…”

Although it has yet to hear from the campaigns,

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ALLIANZ STADIUM TALKS SCUTTLED

The potential sponsorship of the new $1.3B football stadium for the New York Giants and Jets by Allianz has been scuttled in the wake of a public outcry and media pressure over the German insurance company’s Nazi ties.

Mark Lamping, president and CEO of the joint stadium venture by the two teams, New Meadowlands Stadium LLC, issued a statement Sept. 12 saying discussions have been halted. “We are continuing discussions with other potential partners for the new stadium and look forward to the summer 2010 opening of this new icon for our region.”

Rubenstein Associates is working with the joint venture, which also brought in D.C.’s The Harbour Group to vet potential candidates for the naming rights.

THG was handling due diligence related to Allianz with a focus on its compensation of Jewish victims of the Nazi regime, according to an executive familiar with Harbour’s role. Allianz insured operations and individuals from the Nazi-era German government during World War II and has worked in recent years to atone for its role in the Holocaust and to compensate victims.

A call to Harbour managing director Richard Mintz, former chairman of Burson-Marsteller’s global PA practice, was not returned. Harbour has recently worked with the United Arab Emirates in the wake of the Dubai ports controversy.

The New York Giants and Jets broke ground in April on the 82,500-seat new stadium slated for a 2010 opening in New Jersey’s Meadowlands outside of Manhattan. New York Times sports business columnist Richard Sandomir wrote last week that the two teams face “moral and public-relations questions” as they negotiate the possible sale of naming rights to Allianz.

In one of several articles in various outlets panning the idea of an “Allianz Stadium,” New York Daily News columnist Gary Myers wrote: “With so many Holocaust survivors in this area and ancestors of survivors or people who lost their parents or grandparents in concentration camps, it just makes no sense.”

Allianz in 1993 set up a “Center for Corporate History” and hired a historian to detail the company’s role in Nazi Germany, which included insuring the Auschwitz concentration camp and others and paying Jewish insurance policies in cash to the Nazis.

DHILLON MOVES FROM RF TO MS&L

Neil Dhillon, a top Washington player, has joined Manning Selvage & Lee as CEO Mark Hass moves to bolster the PA capability of the Publicis Groupe unit.

The 25-year pro is moving from Ruder Finn, where he was managing director in D.C. Earlier Dhillon served six years as director of PA at Hill & Knowlton.

Dhillon’s government experience includes the slot of deputy assistant secretary of government affairs at the U.S. Dept. of Transportation during the Clinton Administration and chief of staff to Rep. Bob Matsui (D-Cal.), where he tackled tax, trade and health issues for the Ways & Means Committee.

At MS&L, Dhillon assumes the role of managing director of D.C., and chief of its national PA practice. He will lead the office’s new business development, recruitment and manage key client relationships.

EIGHT TAPPED BY L.A. FOR TRASH WORK

The Los Angeles Board of Public Works has okayed a $1.8M budget to educate people, businesses and the media about its recycling program.

Eight firms have been qualified for the work. The group includes Weber Shandwick, Englander and Assocs., Ogilvy PR Worldwide, Environmental Science Assocs., Harris & Co., R3 Consulting, Strategy Workshop Inc. and Encite Marketing.

The L.A. Dept. of Sanitation is flush with cash due to “massive increases in trash fees recently imposed on homeowners,” according to Ron Kaye, an influential blogger in the city. He predicts higher fees to help pay for the PR effort.

Kaye, former editor at the Los Angeles Daily News, is an organizer of the Saving L.A. Project, which is dedicated to rooting out corruption in city government.

He was a fierce critic of Fleishman-Hillard’s contract with the city that led to the overbilling scandal.

WALAS TO GUIDE PR, CSR FOR TIMEX

Kathleen Walas, a PR consultant who was Avon’s first corporate social responsibility officer, joined Timex Group B.V. as senior VP of corporate communications and CSR on Sept. 15.

Walas will oversee corporate comms., PR, corporate branding, employee comms. and CSR, including philanthropy for the Timexpo Museum in Connecticut.

She has been running a comms. consulting firm, Jaks Cove, after serving in several PR and CSR roles in 18 years at Avon, including president of the Avon Foundation.

She played a key role in building the foundation into a huge benefactor for breast cancer research and charities.

At Timex, she reports directly to CEO Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard.

Walas said she will work to create a strategic and proactive comms. and philanthropic platform for the company.

SV HANDLES WAMU CEO OUSTER

Sard Verbinnen is helping Washington Mutual handle the media regarding the blockbuster announcement that longtime CEO Kerry Killinger has been ousted, replaced by Brooklyn’s Alan Fishman.

62-year-old Fishman had headed Independence Community Bancorp and became Sovereign Bank COO after it acquired ICB. Most recently, Fishman headed Meridian Capital Group. He chairs the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Killinger transformed Seattle-based WaMu via a string of acquisitions from a regional thrift into a national powerhouse.

He was undone by the credit crunch and the weight of a $3.3B second-quarter loss. The bank has said it may lose up to $19B this year.

WaMu shares have plunged more than 80 percent during the past year to $5.12.

Killinger assumed the WaMu helm in `90. There also was heavy speculation on Wall Street about the future of WaMU and much talk of the need for a marriage partner.

NYTC CUTS 550 DISTRIBUTION WORKERS

The New York Times Co. is cutting 550 jobs via the shutdown of its City & Suburban distribution unit that delivers the NYT and about 200 magazines and papers throughout the New York metro region.

Distribution is no longer an economic business for the company, says Scott Heekin-Canedy, president & GM of the NYT. He says it was a difficult decision to ax such a “large number of dedicated employees.”

The impacted workers will be let go in January and will receive severance packages as negotiated with the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers Union of New York and Vicinity.

The NYTC anticipates no “effect on retail availability” once distribution is outsourced to independent companies that may employ lower-wage, non-union workers. Some NYTC drivers also will deliver the papers.

C&S distributes the Wall Street Journal and also handles some of the New York Daily News and New York Post distribution.

NYT shares rose 27 cents to $14.52 on the news. They traded as high as $21.45 during the past year.

ANTUNES TAKES CRAIN’S N.Y. ED JOB

Xana Antunes, a veteran of CNNMoney.com and the New York Post, assumes the editor slot at Crain’s New York Business on Oct. 6.

The 44-year-old Antunes takes over for Greg David, 58, who becomes editorial director.

At CNNMoney, Antunes was responsible for developing web versions of Time Inc.’s Fortune, Money, and Business 2.0. Antunes had edited the NYP from `99 to `01.

David is to continue writing his twice a-month column on the economy and politics. He also will remain host of Crain’s Breakfast Forums.

WSJ EXPANDS ‘HEARD ON THE STREET’

The Wall Street Journal is expanding the reach of its “Heard on the Street,” column that debuted in the `60s.

The new Heard column will be penned by a dozen staffers in the U.S., Europe and Asia, updated throughout the day and feature real-time info from Dow Jones Newswires.

Robert Thomson, managing editor of the WSJ, says the column will “echo around Wall Street and the world with a resonance well beyond its traditional influence.”

Heard will have its own presence on the wsj.com site with embedded charts and lines to the WSJ’s company research pages.

The Heard editorial team is headed by Thorold Barker, who joined the WSJ from Financial Times.

TRIB EX-EDITOR JOINS U. OF CHICAGO

Ann Marie Lipinski, ex-editor of the Chicago Tribune is joining the University of Chicago as VP for civic engagement effective Oct. 1.

The newly created post calls for Lipinski to manage the university’s relationships with its multiple constituencies.

Lipinski also will be a senior lecturer at the school.

PARADE TROTS OUT HEALTH MAG

Parade Publications launches Parade’s HealthyStyle on Sept. 17 with a circulation of more than eight million people reading 46 newspapers.

Randy Siegel, Parade publisher, says the new publication signals a belief in the long-time viability of newspapers.

PHS promises to feature the latest health, food, fitness, beauty and nutrition news. It will feature materials from luminaries such as Dr. Mark Liponis, author and corporate medical director at the Canyon Ranch, and Emily Listfield, former editor of Fitness.

The magazine will be included in the Los Angeles Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Miami Herald, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Seattle Times/Post-Intelligencer.

Charter advertisers are Unilever, Campbell’s and Sanofi.

GANNETT DROPS 100 DEPARTMENT HEADS

Gannett, which announced plans to trim 1,000 staffers last month, is cutting an additional 100 department heads to “flatten” its executive management ranks and realign its corporate resources, according to a memo from Robert Dickey, U.S. community publisher.

Dickey notes that most of Gannett’s papers are down at least 25 percent in real estate, automotive and employment classified.

He does not see an upturn under well in 2009.

Gannett will now rely on group directors to oversee categories such as circulation, finance, human resources, information technology, marketing and production.

Dickey expects the set-up will improve communications, streamline processes and accelerate resource redeployment.

JIMENEZ NAMED NEWSDAY COO

Terry Jimenez, chief financial officer of Newsday, was named COO of the Long Island paper that recently was sold by Tribune Co. to Cablevison in a deal worth $650M.

He had been controller of the Chicago Tribune prior to joining Newsday in `05. Earlier, Jimenez was a finance director at McDonald’s.

Newsday also announced that Ken DePaola, who was head of Tribune’s national sales effort, is now in charge of its marketing, advertising and circulation.

Tom Rutledge, Cablevision’s COO, oversees the newspaper.

CNNMONEY UNVEILS RETIREMENT CHANNEL

CNNMoney.com has launched a retirement channel on its site tailored with information suitable for people at various stages of their work lives. It is billed as a “one-stop site for all retirement needs.”

The content includes info on IRAs, annuities, pensions, self-employment plans, insurance, estate planning and retirement living. The channel also features the “Ultimate Guide to Retirement,” a searchable reference guide covering housing costs, healthcare expenses and tax planning tools.

(Media news continued on next page)

LAT IS IN FOR LONG HAUL

The Los Angeles Times is not like an endangered polar bear stranded on an ice floe, it has some smart people who are making tough decisions to insure the long-term survival of the 120-year-old paper now owned by real estate baron Sam “The Grave Dancer” Zell.

That was the message Darrell Kunitomi, public affairs representative of the L.A. Times, had for O’Dwyer’s following a tour of the newsroom and a presentation at LAT headquarters.

Change is the reality at the LAT. “The Media Group will get webbier, the newspaper will change sections, fold them, create new composites; retrain still photographers and reporters to become VJs and use video reports more and more; and the newspaper will continue to change its look,” said Kunitomi. “The graphics are changing as we speak, including the front page of the future. Don’t be shocked – it’s a new era of new ownership.”

He put the change mantra into context. “A great organization such as The Times should be one of those companies that will go on long after its original founders have passed from the scene, change its spots, adapt, and survive to prosper and grow.

“The movies survived the breakup of the studio system. The music business has dealt with synthesizers, vinyl to cds and now file sharing,” he said.

Here’s the best part for PR pros pitching the LA Times: “We still take hard information, images, commentary, entertainment, food and sports and fun and put it to newsprint every 24 hours. It might be a traditional, retro way of informing society, but at The Times it is what we know and what we do best. We’re changing. We know we must to survive. And really, we know that,” said Kunitomi.

During the tour, this writer noticed several changes. Stacks of newspapers, media kits, dictionaries and books have been replaced by more computers, high tech gadgets, high tech monitors and electronic wizardry.

But really noticeable were fewer people, almost like visiting the newsroom on a weekend night with a skeleton staff onboard.

The group tour was sponsored by PRSA-LA, Southern California American Marketing Assn., Direct Marketing Assn. of Southern California and Women in Technology International and held in one of the ‘great buildings of LA history.”

Four globalization considerations

John Longhlin, president of Targeted Media and senior VP marketing, told the audience how the LAT wrestled with globalization.

He said the LAT answered four questions:

• Which countries should we support? In which order?

• Which languages should we offer? Which should we do first?

• How much content should we offer? How deep should we go?

• Should we just market ourselves on the web? Or should we sell?

“If you want news, politics, sports, entertainment, we got something for you, so come and spend some time with us,” said Longhlin.

The Tribune Direct/LA Times event was billed as helping PR Pros learn “what the LA Times is looking for today in news coverage and how it is dealing with current changes in print media.”

However, the closest we got to any editors or writers was the distant tour of the Los Angeles Times Newsroom, which was quiet, nearly empty and almost surreal compared to even two or three years ago.

For the newspaper business, it might just be the sign of the Times.

REISS JOINS NEWSWEEK

Geoff Reiss joined Newsweek Sept. 15 for the newly created GM/Newsweek digital post. He will handle strategy, operations, technology, traffic development and design on online operations.

Most recently, Reiss headed Associated Content. Earlier he spent eight years at ESPN, handling programming, production and content for its web operation. He also worked at ESPN the Magazine.

Reiss was at Spy from `87 to `93.

CLINTON AIDE TO RLJ

Traci Otey Blunt, a deputy communications director for Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential run, has taken the VP/communications and public affairs slot at The RLJ Companies, the conglomerate run by Black Entertainment Television founder Robert L. Johnson.

Blunt was director of African American media for Clinton’s White House bid. She joined the campaign in June 2007 after serving as a VP and deputy director in Ogilvy PR Worldwide’s multicultural unit. She earlier was a senior VP at Perennial Strategy Group, a D.C. public affairs and government relations shop.

Bethesda, Md.-based RLJ’s holdings include units focused on hotel real estate investment, financial services for retirement planning, private equity, and interests in the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats, video lottery gaming and film production.

KTA GIVES PEEK AT NEW DIGITAL READER

San Jose-based tech firm Krause Taylor Associates is guiding the protracted launch of Plastic Logic’s digital reader, a portable display device aimed to display digital newspapers and compete with Amazon’s Kindle.

KTA helped Plastic Logic preview the device at the fall DEMO conference in San Diego last week. The reader, which doesn’t have a name yet, is drawing steady buzz online and being tabbed by some as a potential savior for newspapers because of its sheet-of-paper size and light weight. PL will announce a news industry partnership next month.

Betty Taylor, partner of KTA and a former Apple PR exec, told O’Dwyer’s that she and her client were “extremely happy” with the coverage last week and praised the DEMO event as a great launch platform. She said KTA picked up AOR duties for Plastic Logic earlier this year. The preview of the device will be followed by an announcement at the International CES in January.

The PR Society, by lecturing the Presidential campaigns on truth and honesty, has again stepped onto the national scene and emerged with mud on its face. The whole industry suffers.

The previous debacle occurred in June when Julin castigated CBS broadcaster Andrew Cohen for his blast at the credibility of PR.

Julin ignored the fact that "PR specialist" ranked 43rd on a list of 45 credible sources of information in the $150K study in 1999 by PRS and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Cohen took back his comparison of PR people with burglars but not much else.

He noted that journalism is also under criticism (as are lawyers, accountants, bankers, etc.).

Instead of talking to Cohen, Julin got on his high horse and urged PRS members to attack Cohen.

In this latest debacle, Julin has had the effrontery to "challenge" the Obama and McCain campaigns to sign a pledge to follow the PRS Code.

PRS, which is off in its own corner of the universe, forgets that the Ten Commandments, which are thousands of years old, covers the subject of lying quite adequately.

The PRS demand has touched off ridicule on the O'Dwyer and other websites.

Jon Greer's blogs.bnet.com captured the mood best with the headline: "PRS Pulls Publicity Stunt to Promote PR Ethics."

The best that PRS could expect out of this gambit is replies that the campaigns already have such standards, notes Greer.

It definitely is a publicity stunt. A Julin e-mail to members 9/11 asks the 32,000 regular and student members to join in the PRS campaign for truth so that PRS will have "large enough numbers to have the clout of a de facto national petition, the credibility for a solid story, and even recognition as a national movement."

PRS's attempt to co-op the Ninth Commandment will give PRS leaders and members national recognition as buffoons.

A cartoon was posted on the Greer site showing Julin spouting off about the PRS code and three PR people stuffing releases down the throat of a journalist.

PRS's problem is that it's the pot calling kettle black. PRS is the Land of the Giant Whoppers including not only issuing misleading financials by booking a year's advance dues as immediate cash, but by withholding all sorts of information from members.

Not telling someone something important is lying. PRS is withholding the transcripts of the last three Assemblies, refusing to publicize the PR professors' arguments for the printed members' directory, and blocking any discussion of governance reforms such as ending proxy voting, and moving the charter to Delaware.

When Central Michigan in 2006 proposed governance reform modeled after the ABA and AMA, and providing extensive research for this reform, not a word appeared on the PRS web or in Tactics or Strategist. PRS's strong suit is concealing things, not public debate.

It could be in a real mess if a national medium starts covering PRS's own policies and practices.

A lot of mud is flung around in political fights and a PR/press/academic panel could perform a referee's role.

Communications failures at the Society were evident in the "first ever" teleconference for APRs Sept. 10.

The group of about ten APRs who showed up (out of more than 100 invited), mostly had nothing to talk about except how great they feel as APRs and how much better they are than non-APRs ("five levels" better, said one participant).

It's obvious the APRs are a privileged subgroup in PRS (and one that has a 35-year stranglehold on its high offices).

Participant James Lukaszewski said that he has special meetings for APRs when he visits chapters and another participant said APRs find it "much easier" to get their articles published in Tactics and especially in Strategist.

Lukaszewski, the most frequent speaker (paid) at PRS seminars and webinars and who believes that truth is "15% facts and 85% perception," says APR is a "credential in an industry where credentials matter."

He's onto something there. There's a definite push to get PR people to pay thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars to earn advanced degrees and certificates.

Whether they will help them get or keep jobs remains to be seen.

What it has done is increase the "pomposity" index in PR in recent years.

The previous chatty, amusing, self-deprecating PR pro has largely been replaced by the formal, degree and certificate-heavy pro who takes him or herself very seriously.

Lots of "PR" these days is promotion and marketing and has little to do with public discourse. "PR" can only be practiced as much as management allows it.

The degrees that really matter, as a survey of PRS members by Bob Frause has found, are an MBA or a master's in communication or PR.

It found that 80% of 113 respondents feel any of these is "somewhat" or "extremely helpful" in getting a job, winning clients or getting a promotion.

About half the respondents are interested in "certification" in media relations, digital/social media, and crisis management and not much else.

Tri-State chair Douglas Fenichel of K. Hovnanian Homes, Edison, N.J., who led the APR-only session, might have had something to talk about if Frause had given him the results of the certification survey.

Fenichel should also have discussed the dismal results of the first five years of the new multiple-choice APR test.

There is no writing on this test which is like testing lifeguards without making them go into the water.

Only 550 PRS members have become APR in five years (70% pass rate).

We're hopeful that the APRs on the call (Fenichel, Lukaszeweki, Joan Capelin, Mary Goepfert, Kathy Lewton, Grace Zimmerman, Jennifer Tornetta, Anita Saunders, Laura Lindsay, and Paul Brennan), will get together again and discuss the five-year APR results; the Frause study; "decoupling"APR from national offices; putting the PR professors' arguments for a printed directory on national and chapter websites; giving members Assembly transcripts, etc.

This would make them real "leaders."

Fenichel thinks we did something "wrong" by listening to the teleconference but we told him what is really wrong is PRS selling tens of thousands of our articles without our permission; the grip APRs have on national offices; withholding Assembly transcripts; the theft of a whole day of notes at the 2003 Assembly when we turned our back; Julin's failure to appear before the big chapters (or any chapters as far as we can tell), etc.

--Jack O'Dwyer