MARYLAND SEEKS TOURISM PR PITCHES

Maryland, which previously handled tourism PR in-house, is requesting proposals from firms through early November in an effort to boost its media and consumer outreach.

The state’s Dept. of Business and Economic Development encompasses five units, including the Division of Tourism, Film and the Arts, which will be the primary focus of the PR firm selected from an RFP process.

The Old Line State’s Office of Tourism Development currently handles PR internally but it wants to increase the “level of activity,” according to the RFP. That includes increasing consumer and travel agent awareness of the state as a destination, boosting traffic to its telephone hotline and visitmaryland.org, coordinating press tourism promotions/events, as well as overall media relations.

Maryland also wants to improve the average duration of a visitor stay (1.8 nights) and average spending ($313).

A one-year contract beginning on January 1, 2009 with a year-long option is planned. Proposals are due Nov. 5.

The RFP can be downloaded from Maryland’s procurement website, https://ebidmarketplace.com.

Ad agencies Trahan, Burden & Charles (Baltimore), which has a PR unit, and MediaWorks (Owings Mills, Md.) handle the state’s multimillion-dollar advertising and media buying accounts. Maryland does have tourism PR firms in the U.K. (KBC PR & Marketing) and Germany (Claasen Communication).

SEC CHAIR BOOSTS PR

The Securities and Exchange has bolstered its PR staff after the agency and its chairman Christopher Cox have been criticized during the financial crisis.

Brought in to provide communications support are Andrew Weinstein for VP of corporate communications and chief spokesman for AOL who runs his own D.C. firm, Ridgeback Communications, and Erik Hotmire, a former Bush Administration and Senate communications aide who has left his recent post at Clark & Weinstock to join the SEC staff.

Weinstein is a former spokesman for ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich and directed media relations for Bob Dole’s presidential run.

Bloomberg reported that Cox also hired a former head of the Congressional Budget Office as a senior adviser after lawmakers criticized the agency's actions in handling the financial turmoil.

PB INKS INDIA PACT

Patton Boggs has signed a $350K six-month contract with India to serve as its public policy representative on issues coming before Congress and the Administration.

Tommy Boggs and Graham Wisner, the firm’s lead on international litigation, homeland security, defense and technology matters, work the account.

The U.S. and India signed a landmark nuclear treaty on Oct. 11, a pact that allows India to purchase U.S. civil nuke technology for the first time in 30 years.

The Confederation of Indian Industry says the deal could result in business worth $27B to American companies as India plans to build up to 20 nuke plants during the next 15 years. Secretary of State Condi Rice says the agreement “reflects the transformation of our relations and recognition of India’s emergence on the global stage.” PB reports to Ronen Sen, India’s Ambassador to the U.S.

ROSS REPLACES DHILLON AT RF

Ruder Finn has named Jessica Ross executive VP/managing director of its Washington, D.C. office. She replaces Neal Dhillon, who exited to Manning, Selvage & Lee last month.

For the past seven years, Ross had been running her own PR firm. Earlier, she had been PA practice director at Hill & Knowlton. Ross has counseled Siemens, Barnes & Noble, Qualcomm and Amtrak.

At RF, Ross is charged with expanding its health & wellness practice and stepping up the independent firm’s technology and legislative affairs activities. Ross reports to Richard Funess, president of RF/Americas.

BLJ SETS UP PR SHOP IN LIBYA

PR firm Brown Lloyd James says it is helping to end a dark chapter in global affairs with the opening of an office in Tripoli, Libya.

Ethan Wagner, who recently completed graduate work in Beirut and worked in media relations for the State Department and as a journalist, joins the firm as managing director of the new office. He said Libya has “enormous potential as a market.”

The firm has key operations in London, New York and Doha, Qatar, and is affiliated with Italian firm SEC for work in the Middle East and North Africa.

BLJ noted the Tripoli outpost comes only weeks after a legal settlement between the U.S. and Libya paved the way for normalized relations.

Regional clients of the firm include Al Jazeera English and the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

OGILVY GUIDES CHICAGO/N.Y. MERC

Ogilvy Government Relations is repping CME Group, which bills itself as the world’s most diverse derivatives exchange. CME is parent of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and New York Mercantile Exchange.

Jimmy Williams, former advisor to Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Joe Biden (D-Del.), and Gordon Taylor, ex-aide to Louisiana Congressmen Jimmy Hayes (R) and Chris John (D), are helping CME on investigations involving energy commodities and reauthorization of the Commodity Exchange Act.

CME officials have been busy in Washington, D.C., talking about the financial meltdown and the role of credit default swaps.

Terrence Duffy, executive chairman, testified Oct 14 before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry about the role of financial derivatives. He said the CDS market requires “product structures, rules and regulatory oversight that are suited to the needs of all participants.” That may not occur if the products “must be fitted within regulatory frameworks that were developed for different markets or to meet different policy goals.”

Kimberly Taylor, president of CME’s Clearinghouse, addressed the House Committee on Agriculture on Oct. 15.

The Clearinghouse holds more than $100B of collateral on deposit and moves more than $5B per day. Taylor said CME’s “long experience is a tremendous asset in the fight against systemic risk in the CDS market.”

SHARPTON SPEAKS AT 5W

Ronn Torossian has lined up Rev. Al Sharpton as speaker for 5W Public Relations’ morning sessions with movers & shakers in the political and financial world. A Q&A session and networking opportunities follow.

The former Democratic Presidential candidate and New York City civil rights leader will speak Nov. 21 about how the election of a new president will affect race relations and business.

The New York Daily News (Feb. `07) called Sharpton the “most prominent civil rights activist in the nation.” He heads the National Action Network.

Torossian recently feted conservative political strategist Roger Stone at the speaker series.

RSVP for the Sharpton talk to [email protected].

LOIS PAUL ADDS AIA’S O’SHEA

Lois Paul & Partners has added Tiffany O’Shea to its Austin office. She spent the last half dozen years as director of PA at the American Insurance Assn.

Earlier, O’Shea did stints at Fitzgerald Communications, which was acquired by LP&P’s parent Fleishman-Hillard, and The Weber Group, which is now Weber Shandwick. She handled Fujitsu Softek, 3Com and SkyStream Networks.

Carol Hanko is the Austin head of Woburn, Mass.-based LP&P. Lois Paul’s shop is noted for work on behalf of Level 3 Communications, Freescale Semiconductor, Restore Medical, CommVault Systems and Cognos.

CRYPTGUARD UP FOR GRABS

CryptGuard, an identity verification vendor, is looking for outside PR counsel for its encryption and data protection software that not only services businesses but also is designed to prevent kids from e-mailing and instant messaging with online predators.

“How do you know who you’re talking to on Facebook and MySpace?” asks CryptGuard CTO Brian Pederson. The Canada-based firm’s “Guardian Angel” software produces a digital certificate that proves who you are on the web, like a digital passport, according to Pederson. The idea is to only let your child instant message or e-mail with someone else who has a digital certificate.

Pederson notes that the certificate cannot be traced back to the user and only age and gender is embedded for others to see.

Parents have to apply for the certificate and must download forms online and get them signed by a school administrator and a family physician. Cost is $20/year with discounts available for multi-year certificates.

The RFP can be obtained from www.tschidakabat.com.

RUBENSTEIN PITCHES TO GET FDR PARK

Rubenstein PR has been engaged to restart momentum to build a long-planned memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt in New York City.

The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute brought in Rubenstein to support its latest push toward creation of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, which was designed in 1972 to be built on Roosevelt Island in the East River between Queens and Manhattan.

The firm is charged with gaining press coverage of the design and plan media tours of the site. Richard Rubenstein, president at RPR, called the park a “symbol of America’s leadership.” He said the firm will create a “multi-layered” campaign to reintroduce the project.

The 2.8-acre park is named for the four freedoms outlined by FDR during World War II – freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear.

In September, the FERI was granted “conditional designation” to proceed by the operating corporation for Roosevelt Island, an early step toward formalizing an agreement between the two entities on construction.

CAPLAN WORKS TO DERAIL YUCCA

Caplan Communications is working with Friends of the Earth’s “Don’t Dump on Nevada” group to thwart rail shipment of nuclear waste to the proposed Yucca Mountain repository, 90 miles from Las Vegas, via a new “Caliente Line.”

The effort is the latest wrinkle in the 20-year-effort to block Yucca, which is to store the nation’s waste from nuclear, military and private research reactors.

President Bush, in `02, accepted the Energy Dept.’s recommendation that Yucca become the final resting place for 77K tons of high-level nuclear waste.

The Energy Dept., on Oct. 10, fomalized its intent to ship waste via a 330-mile Caliente rail corridor to Yucca. Legal challenges to Caliente are on tap.

MACROVISION UNLOADS TVG FOR BUCK

Macrovision Solutions Corp. has unloaded venerable TV Guide, which has a circulation of 3.2M, to OpenGate Capital, a private equity firm, for $1 or one-third of its newsstand cover price.

The Santa Clara-based digital home entertainment company also is lending OpenGate $9.5M at three percent interest.

Macrovision announced in January with the acquisition of Gemstar-TV Guide its intention to unload the magazine in order to concentrate on interactive program guides, and connected services.

CEO Fred Amoroso says the TV Guide divestiture, which should be completed by Dec. 1, “marks a significant milestone towards achieving this goal as the streamlined business model improves the company’s ability to execute its strategic plan.”

Beverly Hills-based OpenGate founder Andrew Nikou calls TV Guide an “entertainment industry icon” and a “powerful media brand.” It is to serve as the core of OpenGate’s newly formed media and entertainment platform.”

Text 100 handles PR for Macrovision.

PALM BEACH POST TAPS MAGID

The Palm Beach Post has hired Frank N. Magid Assocs. to "reshape" the paper and help it grow in "new ways," according to a memo from publisher Doug Franklin.

Magid has been hired to a six-month program covering strategic planning and research. The work will entail intensive meetings with readers, advertisers and members of the staff, which was reduced by 300 people earlier this year.

Franklin expects Magid's effort will help "shape our product offerings on multiple platforms next year." The recommendations, if accepted, will go into effect by the second quarter of next year.

Magid is noted for being an advocate of short bites of "happy news."

CHANGES MADE AT SOUTHERN PROGRESS

Time Warner's Southern Progress unit has shifted Eleanor Griffin from the editor-in-chief post at Cottage Living to the same job at flagship Southern Living.

Lindsay Bierman, founding executive editor of CL, takes over for Griffin.

Griffin is stepping into the void created by the departure of John Floyd, Jr. who is retiring at the end of the year at SL after 18 years in charge of the No. 7 monthly magazine in the U.S. with more than 16M readers.

Griffin began her career at SL, and was e-i-c of CL since its launch in `04. Birmingham, Ala.-based SCP also publishes Cooking Light, Coastal Living, Southern Accents, and Sunset.

RDA IN DIGITAL DEAL

The Reader’s Digest Association said it will contribute 50,000 articles to HowStuffWorks.com over the next five years in categories like home and garden, science and nature, and how-to content like sleeping better and reducing stress.

The articles have only previously been available in print editions of Reader’s Digest.

HSW, which was acquired in late 2007 by Discovery Communications and recently began integrating DC video clips, counts 15M unique visitors per month.

Mary Berner, president/CEO of RDA, called the deal its first major digital play and said the company is committed to aggressively growing in the space.

BUCKLEY QUITS NATIONAL REVIEW

Christopher Buckley has resigned as columnist of the National Review – which his father, Bill, founded – following his endorsement of Barack Obama for President.

Buckley blogged Oct. 10 on TheDailyBeast, “Sorry Dad, I’m Voting for Obama.” He wrote “it’s a good thing my dear old mum and pup are no longer alive. They’d cut off my allowance.” Bill supported various liberal Democrats over the years, according to the blog posting.

Buckley has known John McCain since 1982 but feels the senator is not the man that he once was. "A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly: his positions change and lack of coherence, he makes unrealistic promises,” he wrote.

Obama, meanwhile, has a “first-class temperament,” so for the first time in his life Buckley will vote for a Democrat.

Buckley offered his resignation to NR editor Rich Lowry following his endorsement. It was accepted “rather briskly.”

He said he retains the “fondest feelings” for NR but admits to “a certain sadness that an act of publishing a reasoned argument for the opposition should end in acrimony and disavowal.”

Buckley maintains he has been “fatwahed” by the conservative movement. He says mail flooding into National Review Online is running 700-to-one against him: “The only thing the Right can’t decide is whether I should be boiled in oil or put up against the wall and shot. Lethal injection would be too painless.”
Buckley wrote one of the best books about PR, “Thank You for Smoking.”

LACK JOINS BLOOMBERG

Andrew Lack, former president & COO of NBC, has joined Bloomberg LP to run its multimedia operations in charge of radio, TV and interactive divisions. He is to coordinate activities with Bloomberg News founder and editor-in-chief Matthew Winkler and chief content officer Norman Pearstine.

Bloomberg, according to president Dan Doctoroff, has the “opportunity to redefine the 21st century news organization, fully integrating our wire service, TV, online, radio and online operations.”

Most recently, Lack served as chairman of Sony BMG Music Entertainment. From 1993 to 2001, Lack was president of NBC News. Before joining NBC, he was with CBS, where he helped create and then become executive producer of “60 Minutes.”

(Media news continued on next page)

INVESTORS BUY WEEKLY WORLD NEWS

American Media Operations sold the Weekly World News and the related trademarks and copyrights to a New York investor group under the name of Bat Boy LLC, a reflection of a popular character covered by WWN.

The WWN ceased print publication and went exclusively online last year. Neil McGinness, former VP of entertainment at IMG Media and a TV producer close to “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels, takes the reins as CEO of the publication. “The Weekly World News is a powerful brand in publishing, entertainment and online,” he said in a statement. “The [WWN] brand and its characters have inspired musicals, books, feature film projects and television shows over the years. We see tremendous potential for growing the brand and significantly expanding the business.”

American Media didn’t disclose the selling price. It continues to publish so-called supermarket tabloids like the National Enquirer.

CALLENDER EXITS HBO FILMS

Colin Callender is leaving HBO Films after a 20-year run to launch his own entertainment company.

He was responsible for HBO’s highly acclaimed “John Adams” mini-series and social commentaries such as “Recount” about the 2000 election mess in Florida.

Callander is being replaced by Kary Antholis, who becomes president of HBO Miniseries, and Len Amato, who takes the president of HBO Films position.

The Time Warner unit is currently working on “The Pacific,” a $200M WWII drama from Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

COMEDY CENTRAL HITS ROAD

Viacom's Comedy Central unit has created a live entertainment unit to participate in stand-up tours, comedy festivals and performance DVDs.

Mitch Fried, who was senior VP-promotion marketing, heads the operation.

The initial venture is a tour with comedian Stephen Lynch, star of Broadway's "The Wedding Singer" and star of two Comedy Central half-hour specials.

The tour will cover major U.S. markets as well as cities in U.K., Ireland, Sweden and Holland.

Briefs ____________________

USA Today is raising its newsstand price 25 cents to $1 to cope with the 12-year high in newsprint costs. The hike takes effect on Dec. 8. One-third of USA Today – the largest circulation paper – sales are hotel-guest copies.

The Sacramento Bee has revamped its website to put an emphasis on “top stories of the hour” and breaking news. There is now more space for reader comments and the capability for a reader to create a profile and blog.

Blaise Zerega, deputy editor of Conde Nast Portfolio, has been named president and CEO of Fora.tv, the venture-funded video startup looking to be a type of C-SPAN online with a broader coverage area. Zerega takes up the lead role in further developing Fora’s editorial strategy. The site aims to stream speeches and events by “thought-leaders and agenda-setting organizations” and has inked deals with C-SPAN, The Aspen Institute and the Commonwealth Club.

Zerega was previously managing editor of Wired and editor of now-defunct Red Herring.

Bobbie Halfin, who was senior VP, strategy and product development for Steve Case’s Revolution Health Group, has been named VP and director of interactive operations for American Media in New York. She heads operations, sales and marketing of the company’s web properties like Shape.com, Mensfitness.com and fitnessonline.com.

She had a key role in the launch of Everydayhealth.com while a VP at Waterfront Media and previously was managing director of the interactive group at Meredith Corp. She has also held print posts at Parade, Sassy and Rolling Stone, among others.

The Financial Times said it is shifting its marketing plans and turning its attention to the current economic climate and the strategies that can help businesses weather an economic downturn or recession. The paper, with DDB London, kicked off posters across London on Oct. 20 that are designed to appear stripped back to bare boards with only a small copy panel asking "Global downturn. What's the first mistake businesses make?" A micro site, ft.com/budgets, supports the campaign, which also includes trade print ads.

Meredith Corporation has inked licensing agreements to extend Parents, More and Diabetic Living to seven international regions, collectively.

The new deals put Parents in Turkey, Brazil and the Middle East and North Africa; More expands to Thailand and a French version for Canada, and Diabetic Living now stretches south to Mexico and to Italy in Europe by early 2009.

MCCORMICK FDN. SEEKS PR COUNSEL

The McCormick Foundation, the billion-dollar non-profit set up by a longtime Chicago Tribune editor and publisher, is reviewing PR proposals to boost its public profile.

The foundation, formerly the No. 2 shareholder in the Tribune Company, dropped Tribune from its name in May after Sam Zell took over the media company.

An RFP issued this month called for pitches to achieve two key external goals: distinguish the foundation from others to attract new donors and opportunities to serve the public, and create a “level of goodwill” that promotes and protects the entity.

“We believe that, from a reputation management perspective, this is the perfect time to engage in a more robust, proactive and integrated approach to communications and marketing,” reads a copy of the RFP.

The foundation, with $1.2 billion in assets, has five grant programs in citizenship, communities, journalism, education and special initiatives, and runs a 300-acre golf course outside of Chicago and three museums.

PR Society leader communication with Assembly delegates, rank-and-file members and the press is at a near standstill in the few days before the Assembly in Detroit this Saturday.

Assembly delegates still do not have the minutes of the last Assembly nor a list of the other delegates.

Financials have not yet been received and delegates still have only the skimpy “agenda” passed out a month ago.

Leaders, ignoring numerous pleas of delegates in previous years, have scheduled several hours of presentations in the morning (reports of CEO, president, treasurer, member research report, and leadership task force report).

These reports should have been e-mailed to the delegates in the week before the Assembly so that delegates could spend the time on the one day they meet talking among themselves. That, apparently, is what the leaders want to keep to a minimum.

The Assembly shapes up as a rally in support of leadership policies rather than a chance for chapters to question the leaders.

Last year’s tightly-scripted rally put the mike in the hands of leaders about 95% of the time. Reporters were barred from the “working” lunch of the Assembly which became a 2.5-hour secret meeting.

Jeff Julin, then chair-elect, spent the last 35 minutes of the Assembly reading off nearly 300 suggestions for the Strategic Plan and allowing no questions. That part of the day was supposed to have been a “town hall.”

Art Yann, the new VP-PR of PRS, won’t promise that reporters will be allowed to cover a scheduled “Think Tank” discussion.

The big issue before the Assembly is ridding the national board of the APR requirement, a democratizing reform that leadership has been dodging since 1999 when the first Strategic Planning Committee recommended this.

Julin told a meeting of the Universal Accreditation Board earlier this year that he would not push this year for removing the APR rule for national posts.

Major opponents of this reform are the PR academics who have become increasingly dominant in PRS. Nine of the 24 candidates for board/Assembly posts this year are from the academic side.

Three from the community are joining the 2009 board—Prof. Deborah Silverman of Buffalo State College; Prof. Lynn Appelbaum of CCNY, and Steven Grant, senior PR manager, National Education Assn.

PR professors and APR-supporters feel that if APR is decoupled from leadership posts, it will spell the end of the program which is on life-support now. They do not want to lose about the only credential for PR in the business world. Only 550 new PRS APRs were created in the first five years of the new multiple-choice test, a microscopic average of 110 a year.

For the academics, PRS is a cornucopia of local, district and national titles, awards, board and committee appointments and most importantly, places for their articles since they are under the “publish or perish”gun. Tactics, Strategist and the new online PR Journal provide ample opportunity for this.

PRS titles are proudly featured in the bios of the professors that are used for career purposes and displayed to students. Many of these are “inflated” because most national boards and committees never meet in person and chapter volunteers are often in such short supply that board and committee titles can be had for the asking. Many chapters have well under 100 members or even 50 members and only a handful of “actives.” Because of politics, professors will almost never say anything critical of APR, PRS, or its leadership.

Indication is that they have blocked, since 2002, the proposal for at-large student membership (any student in the U.S. could join PRS directly without having to belong to any of the 290 PRSS chapters).

Since there are 4,200 colleges and universities (enrollment of 16 million), students at 93% of the colleges are barred from putting “Member, PR Society,” on their resumes, which might help in jobseeking. PRSS only has 10,000 members.

Yann refuses to answer a host of questions.

We don’t think this is fair to Yann. Three other PR directors of PRS quit just before the annual conference because they got tired of being used as a battering ram (Steve Erickson, Richard George and Libby Roberge). Such usage is at its peak during an annual conference when leaders become almost hysterical about press coverage.

We have been warned that if we dare speak to a delegate during the Assembly, we will be ejected for the day. We’re allowed to take photos for five minutes at the start of the Assembly. Delegates tell us they don’t take orders from national and will speak to us whenever they like.

Among the questions Yann won’t answer is whether electronic voting devices, in use since 1999, will be used again. We’re against these devices which neither the ABA nor AMA use in their Houses of Delegates because of the expense (at least $10,000) and many other reasons.

Votes are totally hidden unless there is a request for a roll call vote and there has been only one in nine years—when decoupling the Assembly from APR was voted in 2004. It then took us a month and a half to pry the printout from leaders. The ABA told us that when a voice vote sounds close, delegates are asked to stand up. Other delegates can see who voted for what.

In the case of PRS, there is a block of 47 leader votes (board, sections and districts) that, in all fairness, should not be allowed since it’s a case of leaders voting on their own initiatives. Leader aims may be different from member aims. The Houston chapter argued unsuccessfully in the 1980s for removal of the leaders from Assembly voting.

Rank-and-file members should know whether the leaders are voting as a block and also how their own chapter delegates are voting. This is the practice followed by the U.S. House and Senate and other legislative bodies and should be followed by PRS if the voting devices are used. Otherwise it is just another technique of leaders to keep delegates and members in the dark.

The way PRS leaders use these devices is manipulative. Delegates get 20 seconds to vote and then the results are flashed for a few seconds on the screen. There’s hardly time even to copy down the vote totals and percentages. No one knows who is voting for what.

A rushed, coercive atmosphere is created, leaving no time for reconsideration of votes or requests for a roll call vote. The use of these devices adds to the impression that the delegates are regarded as a herd of sheep. The inexperienced delegates (none are supposed to have more than two years’ experience as a delegate) think, “Wow, we’re so modern,” but actually they have been led to the “slaughter” (of member rights).

--Jack O'Dwyer