SUNSHINE STATE SEEKS ID PR

Florida is dangling a $200K/year public education assignment to get its residents up to speed on new federal requirements for obtaining identification cards like driver’s licenses.

The Sunshine State is jettisoning its “Valid in Florida only” license by the end of 2009 and this month scrapped its indefinite ID card issued to citizens over 60.

The state is looking for a firm that can reach its 16-and-over population of “wide age, race and economic diversity” through PSA ads, PR, sponsorships, events, promotional items, and “new or nontraditional media,” according to a description of the work.

Florida is accepting proposals through Oct. 16 for the public education effort. The campaign—under the working slogan “Get REAL”— centers on promoting the benefits and requirements of the federal REAL ID program signed into law by President Bush in 2005, imposing security standards for state driver’s licenses and identification cards.

A key goal is educating Floridians about what documentation they need to obtain a new state-issued driver’s license or ID card, which will be valid for eight years. A one-year contact with a year-long renewal is expected. Proposals are due Oct. 16. A copy of the bid outline can be downloaded at: http://www.flhsmv.gov/purchasing/html/bid_log.html.

KCSA CREATES NEW BRAND FOR TRIARC

KCSA Strategic Communications worked with Arby’s sandwich chain parent Triarc Companies to create a new brand identity in the aftermath of its $2.34B acquisition of Wendy’s International.

New York-based KCSA was brought in July for counsel on its “re-brand” strategy and its creative group wanted to create a logo to reflect the companies’ shared ownership yet distinct characteristics.

The result was The Wendy’s/Arby’s Group, replacing the Triarc name, and the tagline "Serving Fresh Ideas Daily."

Margaret Wiatrowski, creative director at KCSA, said the brand was designed to be an acronym as well as a “spiral continuum” to give the idea of “flexible movement forward.”

The company, now the third largest fast-food company with more than 10K stores and sales topping $13B, unveiled its new identity to shareholders last week.

Phil Harrison, 75, died from cancer Oct. 6. He had run his own Atlanta-based PR firm and served as president of Georgia chapters of PRS and Society of Assn. Executives. He is the brother of E. Bruce Harrison, the environmental PR counselor.

CISION REPLACES CEO; WARNS ON Q3

Cision’s board of directors has replaced CEO Niklas Flyborg with former LexisNexis Group CEO Hans Gieskes ahead of the release of its third-quarter results later this month.

Flyborg headed the Sweden-based PR and communications services company for 19 months, taking the reins in February 2006 from longtime president Robert Lundberg.

Cision fended off a $250M+ takeover bid from U.K. private equity firm Triton in June.

The company, which has about 2,600 employees, said in a statement that its Q3 performance has been “unsatisfactory” due to weak performance in the U.K., the “weaker” U.S. economy and “a slower development for broadcast monitoring.”

The company’s new CEO is a 20-year veteran of LexisNexis parent Reed-Elsevier and a Dutch citizen with professional experience in the U.S. and U.K. He will work out of Stockholm and Chicago.

Anders Boos, chairman of the Cision’s board, said Gieskes has a proven track record of managing “critical change processes in an international setting.”

Cision, which will release its Q3 results on Oct. 23, said in August that its CisionPoint digital PR software platform released last fall in the U.S. passed the 1,000 customer mark in July. It is in the process of rolling out the platform internationally.

AMANI LANDS $500K CONGO PACT

The Amani Group has a $500K pact to enhance U.S. diplomatic and economic ties with the Republic of Congo. Its pact is through Congo’s law firm, Trout Cacheris.

TAG is the firm of the well-connected William Gray. He served 13 years as CEO of The College Fund/United Negro College Fund until retirement in `04.

Previously, Gray chaired the Democratic Caucus and served as Majority Whip in Congress.

Elected to the House in `74, Gray played a major role in erecting sanctions against the then-apartheid government of South Africa and handled budget negotiations between Congress and the Reagan Administration.

The Congo has a population of more than four million and once ranked among Africa’s leading oil producers.

Chevron and Murphy Oil are developing Congo’s offshore assets.

Alan Eastham, former director of the State Dept.’s Office of Central African Affairs, becomes the new U.S. Ambassador to Congo on Oct. 17.

MCB PUT PALIN ON NATIONAL STAGE

MCB Communications played a big part in bolstering the national stature of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, creating a perception that she is a crusader against Big Oil right up to her selection as Republican Vice Presidential candidate, according to the Washington Post.

Needham, Mass.-based MCB worked under a $31K contract with Alaska’s Dept. of Natural Resources. It was recommended to state officials by law firm Greenberg Traurig, which provided legal services to Alaska on pipeline issues.

Kurt Gibson, a state energy official, told the Post that a PR firm was needed to raise the image on a natural gas pipeline supported by Alaska, a project said to benefit both state and country. Palin was the “best person to deliver the message.”

Marcia Brier, founder of MCB, says she worked with Palin right up until she was nominated for the Republican Vice Presidential spot. She was involved with media pitches for the Governor, including those sent to the Post with headlines such as “Big Oil Under Siege.” Brier also offered interview opportunities with Palin.

The Post received its first pitch for Palin last October after the Governor announced that TransCanada was the only firm that met bidding requirements for the pipeline.

Brier touted Palin as the driving force behind the pipeline plan. She was credited for breaking the logjam over construction of the pipeline. Another pitch called Palin “Alaska’s upstart Governor” who is pushing a project that is detested by energy companies such as BP, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.

The Post reports that Brier scheduled interviews for Palin with the New York Times, Fox News, Fortune and “60 Minutes.”

MCB has worked for victims of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandals and Saudi Prince Bader Al Saud in his plea bargain over a traffic accident that killed a pedestrian. The Prince served a one-year jail sentence in the Edgartown House of Corrections.

TIERNEY WINS ETS ACCOUNT

Tierney Communications won a competitive review for Education Testing Service’s PR account following an RFP. Tierney takes over for New York-based Connors Communications, which is focusing more on technology PR.

Lawrenceville, N.J.-based ETS is the non-profit that develops standardized tests like the Graduate Record Examination, Test of English as a Foreign Language, and California High School Exit Exam. It also develops the SAT exam for the not-for-profit College Board.

"They're going to be helping us out with getting the ETS story disseminated as much as possible," said Mark McNutt, manager of media and external relations for ETS. "We have very high expectations for them."

McNutt said the states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania are very important to ETS and that the non-profit liked Tierney's Philadelphia base and experience in the Keystone State as well as its overall approach.

ETS has faced criticism in the past that it functions as an unregulated monopoly, a charge it says is unwarranted based on its 16-member board of trustees and competitors in the field.

JPMC BOOSTS GOV’T, IN’TL AFFAIRS RANKS

JPMorgan Chase, which bought Washington Mutual last month in a $1.9B deal brokered by the federal government, has beefed up its government and international relations units with two new senior executives in Washington, D.C.

Brian Roseboro, who was President Bush’s principal economic official on domestic finance as under secretary in the Treasury Dept., has been named managing director for public policy for JPMorgan in D.C.

The company has also added Emily Beizer, a VP of the Grocery Manufacturers Association leading their international program, who joins the financial services giant as VP to oversee international affairs. The appointment comes as the New York Times reported that “there is a growing consensus that the crisis is now so fast-moving and harmful to the global economy that it demands an unprecedented degree of worldwide coordination.” She was also a former assistant trade rep in the Clinton Administration.

Both executives report to VP/global government relations Peter Scher in JPMorgan’s office of corporate responsibility. Scher said Roseboro will help address “the numerous public policy issues facing today’s economic markets,” while Beizer will help the firm “play a leadership role in the global economy.”

EBAY CUTS HIT CORPORATE COMMS.

EBay’s global corporate communications team has been consolidated by 14 percent in a “simplification” process that leaves 90 positions, according to a memo from Alan Marks, senior VP of corporate comms. Eight corporate comms. slots are open at the company.

EBay’s CEO John Donahoe said Oct. 6 that the auction and e-tail site would lay off 10 percent of its 16,000 employees.

Marks, who joined in April after serving as director of global media relations for Nike, said the cuts came as work was already underway during the summer to “evolve” the company’s global communications organization to create a more unified team. “These reductions support financial goals for the company while also maintaining appropriate communications resources through a more streamlined structure,” he wrote.

Within eBay’s corporate and North America marketplace functions in communications, six jobs were cut as 34 staffers remain. Its PayPal and Skype units were unaffected.

Marks, whose memo was posted at ValleyWag and is circulating over email, said the VP/corporate communications slot; VP, marketplace communications; senior director, corporate comms., and manager, employee comms., are among eight open slots and the company has been recruiting since August.

In the lengthy memo, Marks said it is a difficult week at eBay, adding: “Unfortunately, these changes impacted people in our team who are co-workers and friends, and who have made great contributions at eBay.”

STAR-LEDGER GETS REPRIEVE

Advance Publications says it will not sell or shut the Star-Ledger for now because it has achieved a suitable amount of buyouts from its staffers.

The cuts will reduce the staff of New Jersey’s biggest paper, which will lose about $40M this year, from 1,000 to less than 800.

Advance also picked up concessions from S-L’s Newspaper and Mail Deliverers Union, which reps 100 drivers.

The S-L is the nation’s No. 15 paper with a circulation of 345K.

HEARST TO SHUTTER COSMOGIRL!

Hearst Magazines said it will fold nine-year-old teen magazine CosmoGirl! after its December issue. The shuttering comes after Hearst pulled the plug on the weekly Quick & Simple earlier this year.

Mediaweek reported that following a 15.5 percent decline in ad pages through October of this year CosmoGirl! publisher Vicki Wellington was reassigned to head Hearst’s new Food Network magazine, launching in November.

Editor Susan Schultz stays on for special projects at Hearst.

The Mediaweek Monitor had CosmoGirl! third in ad pages behind Seventeen and Teen Vogue.

CHRONICLE, PLAIN DEALER MAKE CUTS

The Houston Chronicle said its White House correspondent and a national reporter were among 10 staffers cut as part of a layoff and buyout plan aimed to eliminate 90 posts.

Julie Mason, who penned the “Beltway Confidential” blog and covered the White House, and Bennett Roth, national political correspondent, were among the layoffs.

Mediabistro noted the cuts leave the Chronicle’s D.C. bureau at three people, down from 10 in recent years. The Wall Street Journal reported that of the 90-plus positions targeted, about 25 came from the newsroom.

The Journal also reported that the Cleveland Plain Dealer plans to cut 16 percent of its unionized newsroom jobs, 38 staffers, by the end of the year.

BUS TOUR OFFERS FINANCIAL ED

The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, TD Ameritrade and Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine are sponsoring a year-long national bus tour offering free financial advice to consumers that kicked off from New Jersey last week.

The 60-city tour, dubbed the Your Money Bus Tour, will cover the east coast from Maine down through Georgia into November and resume after the holiday season across the country.

Volunteer financial advisors will be available to the public at each stop hosting events and symposia.

“Together we hope to show Americans that they can take control of their finances and their future, despite volatile markets and an uncertain economy,” said Kiplinger’s editor Fred Frailey.

RUSSIAN ISOLATED OVER MAG INTERVIEW

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Russian oligarch who has been jailed since 2005, has been placed in solitary confinement following an interview with the Russian edition of Esquire magazine, according to his lawyers.

The 12-day confinement for Khodorkovsky overlaps a parole appeal hearing, his law firm, Amsterdam & Peroff, said in a news release issued by New York PR consultant James T. Kimer.

Esquire published the interview as a written exchange between Khodorkovsky and the Russian novelist Boris Akunin. Khodorkovsky is a co-founder of the now-dismantled Yukos oil company and was Russia’s richest man as recently as 2004. As the Associated Press noted: “His prosecution has been widely seen as a Kremlin-backed attempt to silence an opponent and consolidate control over Russia's strategic energy sector.”

NYT SHUTS IHT SITE

The New York Times Co. is shutting the website of the International Herald Tribune because it is incorporating much of its content on the nytimes.com site.

The NYTC expects the move to bolster its overseas audience. It denies the shutdown has anything to do with cutting costs.

The NYT site attracted 19.4M unique visitors in August vs. 2.5M for the IHT.

BROWN GOES ONLINE

Tina Brown of Vanity Fair, New Yorker and Talk fame, is editing the The Daily Beast website, which promises to offer a “merciless point of view of what interests our editors.”

TDB will feature the best stuff with twist, according a Q&A with Brown posted on the site.

The site will have input from satirist Christopher Buckley, historian Sean Wilentz, former John McCain advisor Mark McKinnon and Project Runway’s Laura Bennett. TDB is funded by Barry Diller’s IAC. Its team includes Wall Street Journal veterans Edward Felsenthal, executive editor, and Jane Spencer, managing editor.

Brown also boasts of a “cadre of brainiac gremlins fresh out of school.”

RALEY JOINS NEWSWEEK AS MONEY CZAR

Pamela Raley, a veteran of Hearst and Disney, has signed on at Newsweek as chief revenue officer.

She is in charge of the newsweekly’s advertising team and spearheads its push to monetize the magazine’s online offerings.

Raley served as VP-advertising sales & marketing at Hearst Digital, and held a similar post at Disney’s internet unit. Newsweek CEO Tom Ascheim called Raley a “digital native” who will exploit cross-selling opportunities.

Dawn Zier was promoted to president, global consumer marketing, for The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. She previously headed North American consumer marketing since 2005 overseeing the launch of Every Day with Rachel Ray, among other duties.

(Media news continued on next page)

‘FINANCIAL FOLLIES’ TO DRAW 1,000+

The New York Financial Writers’ Association reports that more than 1,000 seats have been sold at $350 for individual seats and $3,000 for a table of ten for its annual “Financial Follies” and that the show, which pokes fun at the foibles of Wall Street, will go on as usual.

President Steve Gelsi, of MarketWatch, said the seats were mostly sold months ago and that the impact of the current financial downturn would not be felt until next year’s show.

NYFWA is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year.

The black tie event is usually a night of fun and networking for PR people, financial executives and financial reporters.

For its first several decades, only men were allowed in the cast of the show and in the audience. Women comprise about half the audience now.

Skits in the show poke fun at whatever problems and scandals turned up in the financial markets in the preceding year.

2007 Was Record Year

Last year’s show drew a record crowd of 1,280. Among organizations taking tables was Fannie Mae, which has figured prominently in the current financial meltdown.

Sard Verbinnen & Co. and Weber Shandwick Worldwide both had four tables in 2007.

Ketchum, Manning Selvage and Lee, Sloane & Co., UBS, Edelman, Gavin Anderson & Co., Rooney & Assocs., and Bloomberg News had two tables each.

Corporations taking tables included American Electric Power, Barclays Capital, BlackRock, Deutsche Bank, Jones Day, Merrill Lynch, Novartis, MetLife, and Verizon Communications.

The record for tables purchased by a single company was set in 1999 by Morgan Walke which took 13. It had numerous mid-cap companies as clients.

MW became part of Cordiant Communications in 2002.

‘JACK FLACK’ MOVES TO NYT

Paul Pendergrass, who blogged about PR for Portfolio.com as “Jack Flack,” is now a contributor to the New York Times.

He will contribute insights about PR and the business world for the “Deal Book” and “Business Day” sections. He reports to Andrew Ross Sorkin.

Pendergrass kicked off his column on Oct. 7 with a memo to Secretary Henry Paulson about the financial crisis.

He recommended recasting the Wall Street bailout as the “Crash Prevention Bill.”
Pendergrass suggested hanging out with Warren Buffett to get some ideas and taking the lead in framing how the Bush Administration’s actions will insure that America thrives in the future.

Another tip: take a hike when the transition to the next Administration is completed. “History tends to punish those who stay too long, wrote Pendergrass.

FAIR TURNS TO RADIO

The Federation for American Immigration, a D.C.-based non-profit, has been closely monitoring the Presidential debates to gauge the impact of its annual September media blitz intended to inject the group’s signature issue into the election season.

For the third year, FAIR footed the bill for dozens of talk radio hosts from around the country to broadcast for two days from the Phoenix Park Hotel in Washington near the Capitol for an event it calls “Hold Their Feet to the Fire,” an effort to bring immigration to the forefront of the Presidential race.

The group, which wants to curb immigration to the U.S. and beef up border security, was fortunate this year to complete its event just days before the financial crisis hit and began a news-cycle domination that has continued ever since.

“It was certainly well-timed this year,” said Bob Dane, communications director for FAIR. “We had 42 talk hosts broadcasting for four hours each day – 336 hours of radio time across virtually the entire country. I don’t care who you are – Exxon, Warren Buffet, the Congress of the United States – you cannot direct the agenda of 42 independent talk show hosts for two days straight, but that’s what this event actually does.”

Shirley & Bannister Public Affairs, Alexandria, Va., managed on-air guest booking for the event, locking up Congressional guests, Senators, authors and other high-profile figures in the immigration movement.

Dane called the event FAIR’s “Super Bowl” and said six months of planning go into the radio portion, along with press conferences and rallying activists.
FAIR in the spring successfully pitched producers for CNN’s Lou Dobbs, a key media figure in keeping the immigration reform fires burning, on broadcasting from the event.

“He was a journalist more than a participant, but he covered the event,” said Dane, a radio veteran of Westwood One and CBS. “While he was airing his show he was pulling on radio hosts from the event on as guests, so it worked out well for us from a coverage standpoint.”

FAIR as a non-profit does not back a candidate in the Presidential election.

As for the presidential race this far, Dane said FAIR is disappointed with the candidates on immigration. “It’s been abject silence in the debates so far,” he said. “Candidates are not talking about it and this event is a loud reminder that we aren’t and will not be silent on the issue.”

Brief _________________________

Ann Hallock, creative director at Disney Publishing Worldwide’s U.S. consumer magazine group, is now editorial director. She is based in Northampton, Mass. Hallock takes over for Alix Kennedy, who resigned to join the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst as executive director.

She worked on the launch of Wondertime and Family Fun. Hallock edited FF and served as creative director for Disney Adventures.

The involvement of academics in a PR campaign for Hank Greenberg of AIG in 2007, as described in the Oct. 13 Fortune, was an apparent violation of academic ethics, according to the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley College, Waltham, Mass., and the Center for Corporate Citizenship, Boston College.

“Resurrecting the reputation of certain people who deserve a plaque in the hall of infamy because of past wrongdoing is not proper,” Michael Hoffman of the Bentley CBE told the Boston Globe.

Sandra Waddock of the Boston College CCC told the Globe that what academics including Richard Schmalensee of MIT did “sounds like a PR campaign and the worst kind of PR campaign.”

A lawsuit filed by the PR firm eSapience, of which Schmalensee was identified as managing director, sought $2 million in unpaid bills.

He is dean of MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Other academics involved in the PR firm were Richard Epstein, University of Chicago law professor, and David Evans, adjunct professor, University College, London.

The question is whether the pursuit of business as well as academic careers at the same time is a conflict of interest. Almost all PR professors do PR “on the side” and many have formal PR firms. The view of PR that they present to students is very positive as is the view presented by PR textbooks and the professors themselves. This view ignores a lot of the realities we see in PR.

They are in effect doing “PR for PR. Students think they’re training to be mediators of public disputes or social workers but mostly end up (if they get jobs) hard-selling products and services.

The “avoid the media” and go directly to “influencers” strategy of eSapience is familiar. It was championed by Patrick Jackson, 1980 president of the PR Society (“duck ‘em and screw ‘em”) and adopted by a portion of the PR industry.

PR grads are facing a tough job market and we wonder how well they’re being prepared for it. If they had a good dose of the realities of PR and were trained to be entrepreneurs, they would be a lot better off.

Babson, Babson, Mass., champions “entrepreneurship” and is ranked No. 1 for such training by U.S. News & World Report. The school “infuses entrepreneurial management throughout its curricula and co-curricular activities.”

We applaud the new student job-advice website set up by Robert Culp, managing director of Ketchum Midwest (www.culpwrit.com).

He answers questions from grads and gives his experiences. They ask questions such as whether careers should be started in PR firms or organizations and how long should one remain in the first job.

“Many of us who have worked in PR for a long time are eager to share our knowledge,” says Culp.

Our advice to grads is not to spend months searching for jobs or taking jobs at fast-food places but to knock on the doors of all their local businesses and ask what can be done.

PR is a catch-all job that does tasks no one else wants. Highly successful Ben Sonnenberg got personally close to all his clients and helped them solve not only business but personal problems such as helping wayward children, a spouse who wants to get into the right club, winning awards for the CEO, getting big play for a child’s wedding, etc.

Having attended at least 25 spring conferences of the PRS Counselors Academy, we heard numerous times that what counselors do is “anything the client wants.”

New business was a hot topic but counselors were loathe to reveal their own sources of business or describe new services. At “new business workshops,” members would sit around and wait for others to divulge what they were doing.

PR grads must realize that PR is a highly competitive and secretive business and hard-earned inside knowledge is not readily shared.

Since at least 40% of an agency principal’s time is spent on new business, PR grads should join all local business and charity groups and make as many friends as possible. They should be expert at web research, writing and creation and be available for any chores including floor-sweeping, baby-sitting and picking up laundry. These are invaluable bonding opportunities. The first account of many a successful PR pro was a restaurant. Free meals for PR is a good deal for both. Sonnenberg’s goal was to be the first (business) person the client saw in the morning and the last one the client saw at night.

More is going on in the “war” between PRS and the O’Dwyer Co. than a journalist criticizing an organization.

The O’Dwyer Co. competes with PRS on many fronts including news and public issues coverage, PR instructional materials, web search capability, and publishing.

The O’Dwyer website, magazine and Directory of PR Firms compete with PRS for ads from PR firms, companies and organizations, and PR service companies.

PRS therefore has a business reason for attempting to discredit the O’Dwyer Co. and its reporting. We have always been open to any factual corrections of our stories and have carried rebuttals and statements of PRS staff members and leaders (the latest being an essay by VP-PR Arthur Yann arguing that only an online directory of members is needed).

PRS’s tax-free status forbids it from being in competition with what any private business would do. It’s supposed to act like a Chamber of Commerce benefiting everyone in its industry including non-members. We find no federal enforcement of this.

Instead of fighting us tooth and nail, PRS should be telling its members about services we have that it doesn’t including nearly eight years of a searchable database of tens of thousands of PR-related stories, commentaries and nearly 100 educational essays by PR textbook author Fraser Seitel, who was editor of the Society’s Strategist quarterly.

Since PRS has stopped publishing its One Source Directory, its members would find useful the 450-page O’Dwyer’s Directory of PR Firms, which lists thousands of PRS members, and the O’Dwyer PR Buyer’s Guide, with 1,000 PR products and services in 57 categories.

A large hole in PRS informational services is the lack of a website search capability that matches industry standards.

A search for mentions of CEO Jeff Julin, for instance, brings up a dense page of 1,600 words without the words Jeff Julin being highlighted, a standard feature. Combing through committee reports, promotional releases, lists of people on boards and committees, etc., we found four mentions of Julin.

There is also a search engine for releases of the Society going back to 2002 and a third for stories in Tactics and Strategist back to March 2006. By no means are all the stories archived. We couldn’t find the essay on PR being dialogue by Prof. Tim Penning in the September Tactics. There should be one box for searches that includes the entire site rather than three. Full texts of T&S stories online and in print should be searchable by a word or group of words. If PRS doesn’t have certain capabilities, it should tell its members where they exist.

--Jack O'Dwyer