WALNUT INDUSTRY SEEKS PR PITCHES

The board and commission for California walnut growers and handlers are reviewing its PR and advertising accounts with RFP processes through September.

Separate RFPs for PR and advertising have been issued under a mandatory three-year review rule, both carrying a Sept. 15 deadline.

The California Walnut Board (64 handlers) and the California Walnut Commission (4,600 growers) want PR pitches for the U.S. targeting consumers and health professionals.

That includes media outreach, tradeshows, education campaigns, events, recipe development and media tours, among other tasks. Increasing consumption is the overarching goal, according to the two entities.

PR budgets are $2,225,000 for the CWB and $1.6M for the CWC. Torme Lauricella PR of San Francisco is the incumbent.

A contract running from Sept. 1, 2011 to Aug. 31, 2012 is planned with two options years.

Jennifer Getz, marketing director for the CWB and CWC, is overseeing the process. She is at 916-932-7070 or [email protected]. RFP is at odwyerpr.com/rfps.

RETIRED GENERAL JOINS SITRICK BRINCKO

Lieutenant General Steven Blum, who retired June 1 after more than 40 years of military service, has joined Sitrick Brincko Group as chief of its homeland security practice.

Blum was deputy commander of the U.S. Northern Command and before that Chief of the National Guard Bureau.

He was responsible for National Guard mobilization in the aftermath of 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, California wildfires and provided military support for the U.S. Border Patrol’s operations along the southwest border.

Blum also served as a commander for “Operation Joint Forge” in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a force that included U.S. Army personnel, Guardsmen from more than 20 states and soldiers from nine countries.

Michael Sitrick, CEO of SB, said in a statement that Blum “managed the aftermath of nearly every kind of major crisis imaginable from terrorist attacks to natural disasters for cities, states and an entire region of the world.” He adds a “critical new element” to the firm.

Blum also leads the firm's defense, government relations and PA practices.

Resources Connection, which trades on the NASDAQ, is parent of SB.

OMNICOM PR UP 7.1% IN Q2

Omnicom's second quarter profit rose 4.2% to $243M bolstered by a 7.4% jump in U.S. revenue to $1.6 billion.

The ad/PR conglomerate that owns firms like Ketchum, Porter Novelli and Fleishman-Hillard, said PR revenue was up 7.1% to $291M for Q2 and up 6.6% for the first six months on revenue of $567M.

CEO John Wren said in a conference call on July 20 that the company sees “increasing stability and improvements across all markets.”

The PR gains compare with advertising (up 4.6% to $1.4B), CRM (up 5.9% to $1.1B) and specialty communications units, including healthcare, up 11.4% to $299M.

Worldwide revenue was up 5.9% in Q2 to $3B, up from about $2.9B for the same period of ’09.

For the first six months of 2010, Omnicom said profit ticked up 2.2% to $407M while revenue is up 6.1% to just under $6B. In the U.S., revenue is up 5.7% through June 30.

Wren categorized the company's global business at three “speeds.”

Latin America, the Middle East and Asia are at “go” and producing solid gains.

Second, Europe is more tempered as Wren said he “remains very cautious” about the region.

The domestic market is “moving forward” but he said improvement in unemployment will be key to growth.

HOMELAND SECURITY’S HOWE TO USEC

Jim Howe, who handled Congressional outreach for the Dept. of Homeland Security, has joined U.S. Enrichment Corp. as director of government relations. He reports to Christine Ciccone, senior VP/external relations.

Howe worked under DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano as deputy assistant secretary for legislative affairs.

He served in the Coast Guard for 27 years. As CG spokesperson in Miami, Howe dealt with oil spills, law enforcement, migrant interdiction and was the media point man in the CG's response to Hurricane Andrew. Howe began his service as a cutterman and rose to command the 270-foot Tampa.

USEC operates the nation's only uranium enrichment facility, supplying fuel to half the U.S. market and a quarter of the world's nuclear reactors.

In May, the company received a $200M “strategic investment” from Toshiba Corp. and Babcock & Wilcox.

FLORIDA CITY CALLS FOR PR HELP

The city of Clearwater, Fla., which sits on the Sunshine State's oil spill-exposed western shore, has floated an RFP for tourism marketing that includes PR, social media and some advertising.

There is no incumbent as the RFP is a new requirement which comes as the $25M in marketing funds for the state from BP runs out.

Clearwater Beach bills itself as an international tourist destination (tourism is its largest industry) and it's also home to the largest fishing fleet on Florida's west coast.

Mayor Frank Hibbard told a congressional committee in New Orleans last week, “We’re losing bookings. Event planners aren't coming to Florida. In some areas of Great Britain and Germany, Florida has been taken off the tourism map until the threat has receded.”

The RFP, released July 16, reads: “It is the city’s intent to ‘drill-down’ in key visitor markets with a well-coordinated marketing and public relations plan that will leverage all efforts and best maximize exposure across all media platforms,” reads the RFP.

The city wants a firm to demonstrate its travel media relationships and provide a list of past tourism work as part of its pitch. Budget is $164,000.

Visit Clearwater-St. Petersburg, a tourism entity for the area aligned with a larger organization, Visit Florida, received $1.2M from the $25M allotment for Florida from BP and has been running advertisements touting clean beaches. Visit Florida said last week that it was pulling the plug on its ads as BP turned down a request for $50M more.

Deadline for the Clearwater pitch is Aug. 16.

Download the RFP at odwyerpr.com/rfps.

C&W PLOTS LINCOLN’S PR

Cohn & Wolfe has picked up the account of Lincoln Financial, the life insurer that last month paid off the $950M bailout money that it received from Uncle Sam.

Lincoln used proceeds from stock and debt offerings to buy back preferred shares issued to the U.S. Treasury Dept. under its Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Tierney Communications had the account until last year, when it picked up competing business.

CEO Dennis Glass issued a statement to note that the TARP funds were repaid with “attractive returns to taxpayers.” The Philadelphia insurer viewed the funding as a “temporary cushion” to help face “challenging times.”

C&W is to work on branding, corporate positioning and executive thought leadership. Michael Bayer, executive VP & U.S. corporate practice leader, heads the account.

Lincoln has $146B in assets. It earned $283M during the first-quarter vs. a $579M `08 net loss.

Glass, who participated in the selection of C&W, said the Q1 financials “reflect our ability to drive growth in our business with quality products and strong distribution along with the benefits of continued improvements in the capital markets.” The second quarter numbers are due July 29.

Heather Dzielak is Lincoln’s chief marketing officer.

VITRIOL HITS CORPORATE REPS

An unprecedented level of vitriol is being directed at corporations, according to research company Vision Critical, which has produced the latest rankings of its corporate reputation index.

Even companies with solid reputations like Johnson & Johnson, which topped the VC ranking, and Kraft, No. 2, are feeling the backlash sparked by companies like BP (last among the 54 companies gauged by VC) and Goldman Sachs (53 of 54).

“In forty years of studying corporate reputation, I have never seen this level of vitriol aimed at larger corporations,” said John Gilfeather, executive VP of stakeholder management at TNS who works with VC on its Reputation Plus ranking. “It is not just an erosion of positives, but also a rise in distinct negatives.”

VC drew from a pool of 10,800 interviews for the ranking across 54 companies on an index from 0 to 100.

Thirty-one percent of respondents said companies have top executives more concerned about their own compensation than the long-term health of their firms. Thirty percent said companies put profits ahead of what is good for the U.S. and 29% described the average corporation as “greedy,” 28% went with “secretive” and 26% chose “arrogant.”

VC said the top 10 companies in the ranking, mostly consumer packaged goods producers, all rated favorably on fundamentals like value, quality and trust while avoiding major scandal. But, VC noted, these darlings of reputation also attracted negative comments about executive compensation and putting profits above the good of country.

Top 10

Johnson & Johnson
Kraft
Disney
Campbell's Soup
Home Depot
Google
Procter & Gamble
Apple
Nestle
Microsoft

F-H TAPS MARCHESI FOR INTEGRATION

Stephanie Marchesi, who played a role in the integration of GCI Group in Cohn & Wolfe and led C&W’s New York headquarters office, has moved to Fleishman-Hillard in the Big Apple in a new post intended to “package” the firm’s various offerings.

Marchesi takes the new title of managing director and senior partner, global integrated marketing communications.

F-H president and CEO Dave Senay said in announcing the new post that clients in this “brave new world” need a more integrated and global approach and noted Marchesi will work to bring together the firm’s disciplines and package its offerings.

Merchesi was at GCI Group during its 2008 merger into C&W. Previous stints included MS&L Worldwide and Ketchum, where she led that Omnicom firm’s New York healthcare practice.

BASHIR SHIFTS TO NBC

Martin Bashir, co-anchor of ABC’s “Nightline,” is leaving for NBC/MSNBC. He will be an afternoon anchor on the cable channel and contributor to “Dateline.”

Bashir makes the move next month after a six-year stint at ABC News.

Bill Weir is moving to Nightline, joining Terry Moran and Cynthia McFadden as anchors. He is co-anchor of the weekend “Good Morning America.”

ABC News president David Westin penned a memo to staffers, praising Weir for covering breaking news and uncovering global trends.

He “has been at the forefront of our adoption of all that new technology makes possible, often shooting his own material in the field and embracing new forms of reporting now possible in the digital world.”

McNAMARA JOINS BOSTON MAGAZINE

Eileen McNamara, a Pulitzer Prize winner and former Boston Globe columnist, will write monthly for Boston Magazine.

In a nearly 30-year career at the Globe, McNamara worked her way up from newsroom secretary to columnist. She nabbed the Pulitzer in 1997 for commentary.

Andrew Putz, editor of Boston Mag, called McNamara “one of the most recognizable and respected voices in the region.” She is “smart” and “fearless,” he said.

McNamara says she is eager to “rejoin the public conversation.” She also wrote for the New York Daily News, News-Times (Danbury, Conn.) and United Press International.

McNamara is currently a journalism professor at Brandeis University.

PBS TAPS TECH PR PRO AS VP/COMMS.

Anne Bently, former senior VP of corporate communications at AOL, has moved to PBS as VP of corporate comms., based in Arlington, Va.

Bently had been running her own digital PR shop SocialBuzzPR since leaving AOL in 2009 after 13 years.

She is PBS’ chief corporate spokeswoman and oversees external and internal communications reporting to Lesli Rotenberg, senior VP/marketing and com2ms.

Rotenberg cited Bently’s corporate brand building experience and knowledge of the digital landscape as key to the hire noting, in a statement, that she will contribute “as we chart the future of public media.”

Bently started out handling publicity in the publishing sector, including stints at Doubleday, Rutgers University Press and Simon & Schuster.

PBS has 360 member stations with a TV audience of 118M and 21M viewers/users online.

DUNN STEPS DOWN AT N.Y. NEWS

Martin Dunn, editor-in-chief of the New York Daily News, is leaving the paper for personal reasons. His wife, Debbie, is battling cancer.

Dunn took the top spot in 2005 after serving as editorial director of the tabloid for two years.

In an e-mail to staff, Dunn said the News "has achieved many notable successes, including the ground-breaking Stadium magazine series and winning another Pulitzer for the 9/11 rescue worker campaign."

He is proud to see the paper become "one of the most modern full-color newspapers in America."

Mort Zuckerman, owner of the News, hired Kevin Convey, editor-in-chief of the Boston Herald, to take Dunn’s place. Joe Sciacca, managing editor of the Herald, succeeds Convey.

Dunn says he expects to eventually take advantage of “some exciting offers in areas of the media.”

Zuckerman is moving the News from its 450 West 33rd Street headquarters in New York to the financial district next year.

The paper will join sibling U.S. News & World Report in 100K square feet. on two floors at 4 New York Plaza, which is at the corner of Broad and Water streets downtown.

The 25-story building is currently home of American Media, which publishes the National Enquirer and Star.

ESPN OMBUDSMAN RIPS NETWORK

ESPN “made major mistakes” in planning and airing LeBron James’ prime-time July 8 announcement that he is joining the Miami Heat, the show was served up with “with ample hype in the form of an awkward, uncomfortable, staged one-hour network special,” according to ombudsman Don Ohlmeyer’s column posted on the network's site.

Billed as “The Decision,” the program “might as well have been dubbed ‘The Delusion,’” he wrote.

In Ohlmeyer’s view, the decision to air the program is a “metaphor for what ails the media today.”

The program, to the ombudsman, raised important ethical issues.

He wrote: “‘The Decision’ wasn’t a tip from a paid informant exposing a corporate cover-up, nor was it a whistle-blower revealing government wrongdoing.” It was the “saga of an athlete offering to unveil a two-word career choice -- South Beach -- on national television and a network blinded by the lure of stunning ratings that thought it could dance around what should be a revered journalistic tenet.”

Perception That Network ‘Plays Favorites’

Joining Team LeBron to air the program reinforces the “perception that the network plays favorites, even in its news, whether it’s James, Brett Favre, Ben Roethlisberger or Tiger Woods.

“Try as ESPN might to make a decision based on sound criteria, it will always be open to criticism. That is exacerbated when the network is seen to be in business with someone it's covering,” according to the column.

ESPN brushes off criticisms of “The Decision” at its own peril, warned Ohlmeyer.

“A major component of ESPN’s appeal -- a value the network has cultivated for three decades -- is that the audience trusts what it's watching," wrote Ohlmeyer. "Viewers want to believe the network is treating them respectfully, openly, fairly and honestly. If not, why should they bother watching?”

(Media news continued on next page)

GOOGLE WANTS NEWSPAPERS’ SUPPORT

Google claims that it’s focused like a laser on fostering “revenue generation models that will sustain the continued vitality of the news industry,” according to a 20-page comment to the Federal Trade Commission.

The 12-year-old company uses Yoga Berra’s famous line, “It’s like déjà vu all over again,” to address the great-newspaper-die-off-due-to-the-Internet issue.

Noting that 1890-1920 was the “golden age” of newspapers, Google says publishers predicted gloom and doom with the advent of radio and then TV. The Internet is just the latest bogeyman.

Google talks about the demand for “disaggregated news,” which is migration of information consumption from a full newspaper to a single article.

The same trend rocked the music business as digital music has consumers thinking about “purchases as individual songs rather than full albums.”

Google says the average newspaper reader spends 25 minutes a day with the paper, but the typical online reader spends just 70 seconds on even the best news sites.

Google worked on the experimental “Living Stories” format with the New York Times and Washington Post that bolstered the average user visit to nine minutes. It offers the Living Stories code to any publisher that is interested.

Google says its sends 100K visitors to news publishers every minute of the day. Each visit is an opportunity to “show user ads, register users and charge users for access to content.” It’s up to publishers to decide how to “interact with users who visit them through Google.”

The company says Google News is not designed to encourage users to linger, rather it it designed to deliver readers to publishers as quickly as possible.

Publishers “can and do charge for content while ensuring that it is discoverable through Google.” Google says to critics like Rupert Murdoch that the “future lies in embracing consumer preferences and collaborating with Internet companies.”

Meanwhile, Murdoch’s paywall experiment at the London Times is off to a shaky start.

The Guardian reported July 20 that the Times lost 90 percent of its readership since the wall went up less than three weeks ago.

But Guardian blogger Peter Robbins noted it took the Wall Street Journal, a Times sibling, a decade to build its online paid readership.

SCHORR DIES AT 93

Veteran newsman Dan Schorr died July 23 at a Washington hospital after a brief illness. He was 93.

Schorr began his journalism career in 1946. He joined Edward R. Murrow’s team at CBS and is credited with helping to create CNN.

He landed the first U.S. interview with former Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev and counted his inclusion on President Nixon’s “enemies list” during the height of the Watergate scandal as his greatest achievement.

The Bronx-born Schorr worked the last quarter century as a senior news analyst for NPR. He filed his last “Weekend Edition” report on July 10.

BARACK WHO?

Four out of 100 Americans have never heard of Barack Obama, according to a Gallup poll released July 22.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin did twice as better as Obama as she is unknown only to two percent of Americans.

Only one percent drew a blank when asked about First Lady Michelle Obama, the best recognition rate among the13 politicos and one general (David Petraeus) on the Gallup roster.

At 31 percent, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal scored the highest “never heard of” rating, despite Jindal’s exposure during the Gulf oil spill. He is trailed by Petraeus (24 percent), Mike Huckabee/Mitt Romney (18 percent) and Newt Gingerich (13 percent).

The Gallup respondents give the biggest thumbs-down to former Vice President Dick Cheney, who topped the ‘unfavorable” ranking with a 52 percent score. George W. Bush followed Cheney at 51 percent. Al Gore (49 percent), Palin (47 percent) and Barack Obama (44 percent) round out the Top Five unfavorables.

PR PROS MAKE POLITICO 'WATCH' LIST

Politico last week published a 42-page glossy magazine of “50 Politicos to Watch” and among the ranks are a handful of current and former PR pros patrolling the capital and beyond.

They include:

Ben LaBolt - communications director for then-Senator Barack Obama, he is now an assistant White House press secretary who specializes in “pushback” and is known to send images of crying mimes to reporters in his crosshairs.

Politico notes LaBolt is “responsible for baby-sitting a handful of high-maintenance columnists and several of the most conspicuous problem children in the White House press corps.”

Philippe Reines - former Sen. Hillary Clinton press secretary now a senior advisor to the Secretary of State:

“You’re deflecting the puck with your stick, your face mask, your knees,” he said about his strategy of defending Clinton from the press.

Samantha Tubman - a press wrangler for the Obama campaign, she now orchestrates White House events -- from bill signings to the Halloween parties -- as deputy director of the W.H. social office. The Washington Post last year called her the “maestra of the minutiae” behind White House gatherings.

“We have to be aware of every single detail,” Tubman told Politico.

James Courtovich - the managing partner of Kearsarge Global Advisors is well-known for his “Gaucho” parties at his D.C. home and Politico added him to its list as a top “scenemaker.”

Earlier this year, Kearsarge was handling media relations for Iraq’s former prime minister Ayad Allawi, whose coalition took more seats than current PM Nori Al-Maliki in March elections.

MARSHALL DEFENDS MAINE TOURISM PR

Nancy Marshall Communications has beat out five other firms for Maine’s six-figure tourism PR account, following an RFP process.

The $650K public and media relations contract runs for one year with two year-long options.

NMC, which specializes in tourism and economic development PR, was the incumbent and fended off challenges from Brodeur Partners, Devine + Powers, MMG Worldwide, Morrissey & Co. and Ballentines PR.

The state issued an open RFP on April 30 that called for pitches from firms located anywhere in North America as long as an affiliate or satellite office was within two hours of Augusta, Me.

Nancy Marshall, former director of communications for the Sugarloaf/USA resort, started NMC in 1991.

TEXAS WANTS MENTAL HEALTH PR

A $45M mental health center in Austin wants proposals for a PR campaign including internal and external communications following a "re-branding."

Austin Travis County Integral Care, citing desire to reflect evolving attitudes and to honor the dignity of people," dropped the name Austin Travis County Mental Health Mental Retardation Center in September. The institution, backed by local, state and federal funding, served 18,500 individuals and families last year.

An RFP was issued July 19 for PR services to “engage, educate and garner internal support for the [new] brand,” according to the document.

Specifically, the institution wants to reach the community at large, consumers, stakeholders, media and its own staff with messages that “ordinary people” have mental health problems, which are curable, and to promote “tolerant attitudes” about mental health issues.

Proposals are due August 13. Download the RFP at odwyerpr.com/rfps.

BRIEFS: Watts Partners of D.C. has a $200K contract to promote investment in Nigeria’s Imo state. The firm of former Oklahoma Republican Congressman J.C. Watts is targeting power, manufacturing, tourism, education, housing and agriculture sectors for development. The firm may also contact the U.S. government on behalf of its client. ...ICR handled the July 22 initial public offering of Green Dot, marketer of prepaid debit cards, a debut that was cheered by Wall Street. Stock of the Monrovia-based company soared 22 percent to close at $43.99. The Wall Street Journal called the offering a “high-demand deal.” The company sold only 4.6M shares, a move that contributed to the big price hike. ...Shareholders of inVentiv Health have okayed the healthcare communications conglomerate’s $1.1 billion acquisition by private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners. inVentiv, which owns the PR firms Chandler Chicco Cos. and Chamberlain Healthcare PR, said Wednesday that 74%, or 25.9M, of its outstanding shares voted to approve the deal, which was struck in May, while 80K shares were voted in opposition. The transaction is expected to close in early August.

CISION SEES REBOUND IN U.S. GROWTH

Cision said last week that its U.S. PR software operation returned to organic growth in the second quarter after falling four percent in Q1 and tumbling 10% last year.

The Sweden-based company posted U.S. growth of three percent for the quarter as North American revenue hit 203M Swedish kroner (about $27.8M). Sales of its CisionPoint platform and “stabilizing market conditions” helped in the U.S., the company said, along with a boost in sales and marketing that pinched its operating margins.

“As we continue to roll out CisionPoint in our other markets, we remain confident in the long-term growth prospects for Cision,” CEO Hans Gieskes said in a statement.

Total revenue topped 285M SEK ($39M) for the quarter, including net profit of 13M SEK ($1.7M) up from 1.3M SEK in ’09. Revenue was down from 371M SEK in ’09 as the company has divested units and streamlined its operations over the past year, including the shedding of nearly 300 employees since December, 243 of them from its divested Germany operation.

In its midyear report, the company said high-quality PR software is complex and expensive to develop and it expects the market to consolidate over the next few years. Cision sees the burden on PR professionals amid growth in social and digital media as an opportunity for growth noting “the information available to PR professionals is increasing in volume, complexity, and urgency, as consumers increasingly share opinions instantly using the internet and social media.”

CITY SEEKS PR SOFTWARE SERVICE

The City of Plano, Tex., is on the hunt for a media monitoring service and contacts database via an RFP process as it looks to award a contract that could stretch to four years.

The city wants a web-based service with analytics and output reports that can maintain three years of archived coverage across print, online and broadcast for 10 users. News in Dallas/Fort Worth area media, statewide and major national and international outlets should be included. A one-year contract with three options is planned.

Meltwater News is the incumbent but the scope of work for the contract has changed, said a contracting official. The previous contract amount was for $4,000.

Proposals are due Aug. 5. RFP is at odwyerpr.com/rfps.

BRIEF: Business Wire has introduced a “detailed media intelligence report” service called EventTrak covering more than 100 technology events that BW says will help PR pros plan more effectively for tradeshow work. For a specific tradeshow, the service provides a pre-show report up to two months prior detailing media/blogger coverage of the prior year’s show. The report includes publication name, author, date published and a direct link to the article. A post-show report is sent about two weeks after an event with updated coverage data.

GAO OUTLINES PUBLIC DIPLO EFFORTS

The Government Accountability Office said in a report last week that the U.S. State Department needs to better gauge the effectiveness of its overseas public diplomacy platforms before moving forward with a planned overhaul of such efforts.

U.S. PR efforts overseas now range from social media like Facebook and Twitter to so-called American Presence Posts all under the direction of Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Judith McHale, who wants to expand the programs.

“State lacks comprehensive information on the relative effectiveness of its platforms, such as how each platform has expanded U.S. engagement with foreign audiences,” the GAO said in its report. “Without such information, it is difficult for policy makers to make an accurate assessment of the relative benefits of each type of outreach platform and effectively allocate scarce resources.”

The State Dept. called the reports findings “accurate and balanced.”

Public diplomacy efforts overseas were scaled back significantly during the 1990s amid budget cuts and terrorist attacks against U.S. embassies. The GAO noted that public facilities like overseas libraries run by the U.S. Information Agency were visited by nearly six million people in 1991. By 2009, that number had dwindled to one million partly because of strong security restrictions.

Social Media ‘Uneven’

In social media, the State Dept. has 230 Facebook accounts, 80 Twitter feeds and 55 YouTube channels and 25 active blogs to engage foreign audiences, the GAO found. The report said staffing limitations and some technical difficulties have curbed expansion in this area, but noted that McHale has recognized “uneven” use of SM and is working to correct such issues.

Promising showings for social media outlined by the GAO include the 140,000 Facebook users who've taken an interest in the U.S. embassy page there, as well as the State Department’s Brazil Twitter feed, which has 1,700 followers and has been used to rebroadcast news stories and counter misinformation.

In some cases, host countries have limited U.S. efforts to engage the public. The GAO report noted the Syrian government closed an American Center there, while the Chinese government has refused to allow any such institutions to open in the country. The repressive Burmese government has pressured the landlord of the American Center Rangoon, the GAO noted.

The GAO said public diplomacy officials and think tanks see non-governmental organizations as a means of boosting outreach, especially as such efforts do not need occur in government facilities.

McHale issued a new framework to “revitalize” State's overseas outreach in February and convened eight working groups to develop plans – still in progress – ahead of the sector’s inevitable budget request for 2012.

The State Dept. also in 2008 created a division to measure the effectiveness of its outreach efforts, a push that is lacking and a key obstacle, the GAO noted, for the overhaul to take place.

KGA ASSUMES HOLOCAUST OUTREACH

Omnicom’s Kreab Gavin Anderson unit has picked up Holocaust outreach duties on behalf of Berlin-based German Insurance Assn., the umbrella organization of more than 450 financial services companies.

The companies say they continue to honor legitimate claims of family members of Holocaust survivors, though the official claims and appeals process negotiated by German insurers, U.S. regulators, survivor groups and the State of Israel, has been closed for three years.

KGA handles outreach to U.S. newspapers and international Jewish groups regarding claims and distribution of insurance assets. It also monitors federal legislation and related U.S. government activity.

The International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims, which was established in 1998, distributed more than $300M to nearly 50K Holocaust survivors.

The Commission shut down in 2007, but German insurers say they continue on a voluntary basis to check inquiries concerning policies of Holocaust victims, applying “relaxed standards of proof.”

KGA, according to its May 26 “letter of engagement” with GIA, is assuming the work of predecessor company Strategy XXI.

As managing director of Strategy XXI, Harriet Mouchly-Weiss inked the original $15K a-month contract with the German insurers in 2003.

KGA picked up the business on June 1 and works on an indefinite basis until either side provides a three-month notice of termination.

CRIST TAPS KNICKERBOCKER

Charlie Crist, Florida’s former Republican Governor who is running for the Senate as an Independent, is using Democratic media consultant Knickerbocker SKD for the effort.

The former Republican politico is currently leading the polls in the Sunshine State, beating Tea Party-backed Republican Marco Rubio, who was former state House speaker, and a pair of Democratic contenders Jeff Greene and Kendrick Meek.

Knickerbocker is the firm of Anita Dunn, who was President Obama communications director. She was senior advisor to the Obama campaign in charge of strategic direction and communications, research and policy. Dunn is not working on Crist's campaign and has cut ties with the Democratic National Committee until after Election Day.

Josh Isay, former chief of staff to New York Senator Chuck Schumer, is leading the work for Crist.

He advised former Democratic Joe Lieberman who ran as an Independent in the November 2006 Connecticut race against Democratic primary winner Ned Lamont.

Crist has met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid twice in recent weeks, fueling speculation that if elected he will caucus with the Democrats, as Lieberman does.

Republican Mel Martinez stepped down from the Senate in 2009. Crist appointed George LeMieux to serve the remainder of Martinez’s term.

Some 200 leaders of a half dozen U.S., U.K. and European PR groups met in Spain from June 10-18 to figure out ways to bust the chops of those who do PR.

They want proof that PR pros are bringing home any “bacon.” They have all sorts of scales, rulers, calipers, adding machines, gauges and meters—just about everything but an electron microscope—to track what PR people are up to.

We wonder if any of these measurers have a creative bone in their bodies.

Their favorite words are “clear goals” and “outcomes.”

They don’t care if a PR campaign got zillions of pickups. They especially don’t want it measured in terms of what the ad space would have cost.

Unwittingly, they have redefined PR as advertising.

The goals of PR are self-evident: help the public to understand something by providing as many facts as possible and making CEOs and other principals available for press interviews.

Editorial mentions get many times the readership and many times the credibility of ads. It’s impossible to put an exact number on such things.

Their view also ignores the fact that many fields have several or even one dominant writer whose opinion is worth thousands of times the equivalent ad space. An example is tech contributing editor David Pogue of the New York Times.

Some PR pros concentrate on such writers knowing that many other writers in the category will follow that writer’s lead.

Furthermore, if the product doesn’t sell, it’s the product’s fault in terms of price and quality and not PR’s fault.

All the big editorial contact services, including Cision ($200 million revenues), Vocus ($86M) and BurellesLuce (private) provide ad value equivalency (AVE) because their clients demand this.

The measurers, led by Katie Paine of Berlin, N.H., whom they refer to as “the Measurement Queen,” declare that “AVE is not the Value of PR” as one of the seven main principles that emerged from the eight days in Barcelona.

This begs the question: what is the value of PR? It can’t be reduced to numbers.

Paine goes even further, demanding that PR firms and companies boycott any service that provides AVEs and that PR contests toss any entries that give AVEs.

It’s time to send in the people in white coats to this crowd.

Groups taking part in the meeting included PRSA, Institute for PR, Charted Institute of PR (U.K.), ICCO (European PR firms), and the International Assn. for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC), based in London.

Want Measurable Results? Look at Lobbying

Time magazine (July 12) had an excellent feature on the power of lobbyists written by Steven Brill, founder of The American Lawyer magazine.
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,2000880,00.html

The effect on legislation of lobbying, a sister or even subset of PR, is something that can be measured with a degree of accuracy.

Headline on the article is: “On Sale: Your Government. Why Lobbying Is Washington’s Best Bargain.”

Brill, writing about financial reform legislation, figures that the money managers spent about $15 million in lobbying to head off proposed increases in “carried interest,” a form of income at private-equity funds.

The money managers got about $10B in lower taxes on $100 billion in income over the next ten years for their $15M, according to Brill.

Senator Bernie Sanders (D., Vt.) wrote in the New York Times April 24 that financial interests spent $5 billion in ten years to overturn the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 that separated regular from investment banking.

Brill gives several other examples of lobbying’s productivity, tracing its evolution from a “cottage industry” in the 1980s to its current size of 1,900 firms with 11,000 registered lobbyists.

Total size of the lobbying industry in D.C. has been estimated at about 240,000 people.

Lobbying spending went from $1.5B in 1998 to $3.49B as of 2009.

Brill says winning a congressional seat will probably cost about $1.5M in 2010 and much of this money will come from “business interests related to each member’s committee assignments.”

In a court of law, says David Arkush of Congress Watch, this would be like “lawyers and clients donating to the jury.”

Lobbyists are even more effective at the state level, says Brill. “The state legislatures are corporate-lobbying playgrounds that make Capital Hill seem pristine,” he says.

PR Pros: Get Thee to D.C.

It’s no wonder that National Capital is the biggest chapter in PR Society of America, almost twice as big as New York.

NCC has 1,143 members but has more than 1,300 members it its area. That gives it 14 Assembly delegates.

New York has 688 members and about 900 in its area.

The New York chapter had more than 1,200 members in the 1960s.

Working for a legislator at the local level and then moving the state capital and then to D.C. is an excellent career route for PR grads.

Average tenure of congressional staffers before they shift to lobbying is about two years, according to LegisStorm.

Top lobbyists make from $1M to $4M annually and the pay of senior staffers is $200,000 or more.

Some 2,000 lobbyists were working on financial reform and 1,400 of them were either congressional or executive branch staffers and 73 were members of Congress, said the Center for Responsive Politics and the Congress Watch unit of Public Citizen.

Yeatman Moves to D.C.

As an indication of the importance of D.C., Perry Yeatman, Senior VP of corporate affairs of Kraft, is shifting her office from Chicago to D.C. in September.

She said that none of her corporate duties are being reduced but that she is adding D.C. to her responsibilities.

She and her husband and daughter will move from outside Chicago to Annapolis.

Irene Rosenfeld, Kraft CEO, stressed the importance of the corporate affairs department to Kraft, saying the department had progressed to a “great corporate affairs team” and was the “secret weapon” of the company.

It played a key role in Kraft’s takeover of Cadbury of the U.K. earlier this year, she told the Arthur W. Page Society April 8.

Rosenfeld, in returning to Kraft in 2006 after an absence of three and a half years, had suspended press interviews for the first seven months while she toured corporate offices and met with staff.

--Jack O'Dwyer