CHP RE-ISSUES RFP FOR PR

The California Highway Patrol has re-issued an RFP for its PR and media account with a new deadline of Sept. 8.

The CHP, which seeks a firm to support its office of community outreach and recruitment, previously released an RFP in July.

The work covers PR, media relations and public service advertising in both English and Spanish and serves the dual purpose of supporting both traffic safety campaigns and officer recruitment.

A 22-month contract is planned beginning December 1, according to the RFP. The CHP is based in Sacramento.

Ogilvy has worked with the law enforcement agency in the past. Proposals are due Sept. 8.

SS&K TAPPED TO RECRUIT TEACHERS

Shepardson, Stern & Kaminsky has picked up a seven-figure pact to guide a campaign for the U.S. Dept. of Education to recruit teachers.

The Education Dept. estimates that it needs as many as 1.7 million new teachers by 2017 and sought pitches for its recruitment effort, known as TEACH and slated to launch in September. The solicitation called for a mix of traditional and new media strategies with the goals to increase the number, quality and diversity of people seeking to become teachers and to "raise the profile of the teaching profession.”

New York-SS&K, which worked with the Obama presidential campaign, has deep public affairs experience and recently used a jobs pitch to help push through clean energy legislation in the House of Representatives. It has worked with the Rockefeller Philanthropy organization Strong American Schools in the past in the education sector.

With the Dept. of Education, SS&K won a $1.5M one-year contract with two possible option years valued at $1.2M each.

ST. LUCIA MOVES PR ACCOUNT

Redpoint Marketing PR has picked up North American PR duties for the Saint Lucia Tourist Board, following a review.

Interpublic’s Current Lifestyle Marketing was the incumbent agency for the Caribbean island.

SLTB director of tourism Louis Lewis said he anticipates a “fresh approach” in making the change. He said the firm will help train stakeholders to improve their current PR strategies to boost visibility in the U.S. and Canada.

WPP RIDES U.S. RECOVERY

WPP CEO Martin Sorrell is impressed with the comeback in the U.S. market, saying he can't remember a speedier recovery or turnaround in any region during his 25 years in the ad/PR business.

The Dublin-based conglom reports that U.S. market revenues dropped six percent in Q4 '09 and then spurted four percent and eight percent in the subsequent quarters.

Sorrell says those numbers show that “America and traditonal media are biting back.”

That performance helped power WPP to a 39 percent rise in first-half net income to $232M on a three percent revenue rise to $6.6B.

The WPP chief notes that though the current environment is “better than anticipated,” clients are pretty unanimously uncertain about “future prospects.”

Volatility remains in Europe as there is fear that "fiscal contagion from Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland" may spread to other parts of the continent.

On the U.S. front, Sorrell frets about the wind-down of the Bush tax cuts and the end of financial stimulus.

In his statement, Sorrell takes a swipe at the White House, expressing concern over the “Obama Administration's attitude toward business.”

Rather than inflation, deflation or a “double-dip” recession, the WPP chief says the “most likely scenario is slow growth or 'slog.’” That means “the recovery won’t be over for a long time.”

During the first-half, WPP’s PR operations (Hill & Knowlton, Burson-Marsteller and Ogilvy) grew revenues a modest two percent. Margins improved 3.2 points to 14.8 percent as costs were brought into line, rising at a much slower rate than revenues.

WPP's average number of people employed in the first-half was 100,008, down 8.7 percent from '09.

CIGNA NAMES FITZPATRICK

Cigna Corp. has named Maggie FitzPatrick its chief communications officer. The former APCO Worldwide executive VP reports to CEO David Cordani.

Hill & Knowlton's chief operating officer Gene Reineke had been handling Cigna's PR on an interim basis since January.

FitzPatrick spent 13 years at APCO doing PR, mergers/acquisitions, media relations and social responsibility programs for Fortune 500 companies.

Cordani praised FitzPatrick's work in diverse sectors and understanding of the global business scene as reasons for the hire as the Bloomfield, Conn.-based insurer steps up its international presence.

Cigna had 2009 revenues of 18.4B.

5W PLUNGES INTO MOSQUE MESS

Ronn Torossian’s 5W Public Relations is repping televangelist and former Presidential candidate Pat Robertson’s American Center for Law and Justice, which has filed suit to stop construction of a mosque two blocks from the World Trade Center site.

The ACLJ filed the case on behalf of retired firefighter Tim Brown. It claims the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission failed to follow its normal procedures when it did not declare the former Burlington Coat Factory outlet a landmark.

Failing to designate the structure, which suffered damage on 9/11 when parts of a hijacked jet crashed through its roof, opened the way for building the 31-story $100M Islamic cultural center on Park Place.

The ACLJ wants the Landmarks Commission decision to be put aside and then followed up by public hearings to determine the future of the site.

Torossian says he has worked with Robertson’s ACLJ on various matters in the past.

Meanwhile, New York heavyweight publicist Ken Sunshine is advising mosque developer Sharif El-Gamal on an informal basis. He heads Sunshine, Sachs & Assocs., which has repped Ben Affleck, Justin Timberlake and Michael Jackson’s family.

MIRZA PR BACKS MUSLIM PUSH

D.C. PR firm Mirza PR is handling a grassroots push of “average” American Muslims who are mounting a campaign to stem a “rising tide of fear-mongering” in the wake of the lower Manhattan Islamic Center debate.

The group, MyFaithVoice, held a press conference Aug. 30 at the National Press Club to unveil a public service announcement to “showcase” American Muslims of various ages and backgrounds.

Mirza PR is headed by Rabiah Ahmed, a former spokeswoman and communications staffer for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

David Hawa, a managing director for Fairfax, Va., ad agency Daze Studios, produced the PSA.

“This PSA will give me and other American Muslims the opportunity to talk directly to the American public - free of any fear that politics or agendas are driving the discussion,” he said. A campaign to encourage user-submitted video PSAs will follow the unveiling of the group’s PSA.

BITE TAPS WAGGED’S HERMAN

Michelle Herman, senior VP at Waggener Edstrom, has been named general manager for the three North American offices of Bite Communications, based in San Francisco.

Bite, part of Next Fifteen Communications with firms like Text 100 and Outcast Communications, has N.A. offices in New York and Toronto, as well.

Herman has moved between the corporate and agency sides of PR. She led WaggEd’s global tech practice and served as GM for San Francisco after corporate postings at Hyperion Solutions.

She was previously on the agency side as a senior managing director at SparkPR and built up Hoffman Agency’s Hong Kong office.

COLLECTION ATTORNEYS SEEK PR HELP

The D.C.-based trade association for retail collection attorneys is the hunt for national PR support with an open RFP process through early September to fight a perception of collectors as predatory.

The National Association of Retail Collection Attorneys issued an RFP this month through Sept. 3 for national consumer and business PR and media outreach support for its education programs.

“In recent years there has been an increasingly disturbing trend of portraying those who work in the legal collections profession as people who prey on the innocent consumer,” the RFP notes. “This perception, and the vilification of anyone involved in collections by the press has caused increased legislative and regulatory activity not always beneficial to the consumer making things actually worse for the consumer.”

The group wants to distinguish its members as attorneys and law firms rather than collectors and collection agencies.

The scope of works runs from an initial assessment of its PR to research, planning and implementation over the next 12 to 24 months with an eye on a new Congress in 2011. Download the RFP at odwyerpr.com/rfps.

LEWIS GETS FACETIME

FaceTime Communications, a security and compliance software developer for business that focuses on the “New Internet” of social media and VOIP, has tapped Lewis PR for the U.S., following a competitive pitch.

The company had previously worked with Bay Area-based Woolf Media.

Lewis’ San Diego office will handle media relations, product launches and “re-branding” for FaceTime, which helps secure blogs, instant messaging and social network use among employees at corporations. The company says nine of the top ten U.S. banks are customers.

Katie Eakins, Lewis’ San Diego managing director, heads the account reporting to FaceTime VP of marketing Sarah Carter.

“There is never a shortage of news or opportunities,” Eakins said of Facetime’s space providing security for social media.

PITNEY KILLED IN FARM ACCIDENT

Jack Pitney, VP marketing at BMW of North America, was killed in a tractor-related accident while working the farm at his vacation home in upstate New York. He was 47.

BMW did not provide further details.

The former head of Mazda’s PR unit joined BMW in 1995. The launch of the Mini Cooper as a small, premium and fun-to-drive car is credited to Pitney, who served as VP and general manager of the Mini brand from 2001-05.

Pitney worked at Hill & Knowlton/Los Angeles, where he headed the Mazda account. He also launched Nissan’s Infiniti luxury lineup while at GCI Group/L.A. and did stints at Ruder Finn, Hill Holliday Connors Cosmopulos Advertising and Bauer & Rosner Marketing Communications.

Pitney was to become VP-eastern region for BMW on Sept. 1.

USAT SLICES 9% OF STAFF IN REORG

USA Today is slicing about 130 jobs as the Gannett flagship decides to concentrate on online and mobile platforms at the expense of print. The cut represents nine percent of the nation’s second largest newspaper’s staff. Publisher Dave Hunke told the Associated Press the overhaul is “pretty radical” but positions USAT for the “next quarter century.”

The plan calls for elimination of editors in the news, sports, money and life sections and creating "content rings." Those content rings include environment/science, Washington/economy, travel, aviation, auto and tech. USAT also promises to "align sales efforts with content." Rudd Davis, VP-business development, is to handle print and business-side collaboration.

FOX REGROUPS IN D.C.

Fox News has tapped Wendell Goler and Mike Emanuel to handle Washington coverage with the Sept. 3 departure of Major Garrett to the National Journal Group.

Garrett served as point man for the News Corp. property in its many tussles with the Obama White House.

Mike Clemente, senior VP of news editorial at Fox, praised Garrett as a "truly tenacious reporter" and a "fact-finding machine."

Garrett joined Fox from CNN in `02. He was chief White House correspondent since Jan. `09. He worked for the Washington Times for seven years before making the jump to television.

Goler shifted to Fox in `96 from the Associated Press Broadcast Services, where he anchored its coverage of Presidential press conferences.

Emanuel has worked for Fox since `97 at stations in Los Angeles, Dallas and Washington.

LI RETURNS TO REUTERS

Kenneth Li has returned to Reuters as editor-in-chief for technology, media and telecoms.

The former global media correspondent for the wire service spent the last two years at the Financial Times.

During his Reuters stint, he launched MediaFile, which covers the intersection of media and technology.

Previously, he wrote for the New York Daily News, Industry Standard and TheStreet.com.

CJR SUES NEW YORK STATE

Columbia Journalism Review has filed a lawsuit against New York State that seeks the release of email records of Peter Kauffmann, who resigned March 4 as Gov. David Paterson's PR chief.

The former U.S. Navy officer stepped down because he said that he could not “in good conscience” remain on the job.

The New York Times, at that time, had been investigating Paterson's administration following a domestic violence case involving a top aide.

CJR believes Kaufmann's correspondence may shed light on nefarious doings in Albany or uncover the reasons why he resigned. It filed a Freedom of Information Law request for Kaufmann's e-mails with the press and deputy press secretary Melissa Shorenstein, who stepped down two weeks after her boss.

Paterson's office rejected the FOIL request, saying the emails contain sensitive information and that the release could violate the state's shield law.

Friedman & Wittenstein has agreed to take up CJR's case on a no-fee basis. It may get compensated if a judge determines that the FOIL denial was especially capricious.

VALERIE PLAME/CIA REPORTER JOINS NJG

Matt Cooper former Washington correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, Time and Newsweek, is now managing editor of the National Journal Group.

He joins from the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, where he had been senior advisor.

Cooper had been White House correspondent for USN&WR and deputy bureau chief for both Newsweek and Time.

While at Time, Cooper was a key figure in the Valerie Plame/CIA leak affair. He was held in contempt of court and threatened with jail for refusing to testify before a grand jury. After the U.S. Supreme Court refused Cooper and then New York Times reporter Judith Miller's appeal, he agreed to testify. Miller served time. He also served as editor for The New Republic, Washington Monthly, Conde Nast's ill-fated Portfolio and TalkingPointsMemo.com.

Ron Fournier, NJG editor, said in a statement that Cooper has "incredible knowledge about how this city works and combines it with a dexterity that is perfect for our rapidly changing media environment."

NJG owner David Bradley has been busy staffing up his operation that includes National Journal, CongressDaily, Hotline, The Almanac of American Politics, and Global Security Newswire.

ABC LIBEL CASE GIVEN NEW LIFE

A federal appeals court last week breathed new life into a libel suit against ABC’s “20/20” which was dismissed at trial in 2007.

The suit brought by the Rev. Frederick Price of Los Angeles church claimed that reporter John Stossel played an “out of context” clip of Price preaching about greed: “I live in a 25 room mansion, I have my own $6 million yacht, I have my own private jet and I have my own helicopter and I have seven luxury automobiles.”

Sitrick and Company is working with Price’s legal team, which claimed a victory with this week’s decision and said Price was not speaking of himself in the sermon but was preaching about a hypothetical person who had great wealth but lived a spiritually unfulfilled life.

The decision sends the Price case back to a lower court for a jury trial in which Price's team will have to prove malice on the part of ABC producers and Stossel, who is now at FOX.

The case could ostensibly have implications for former Obama cabinet member Shirley Sherrod, who has sued conservative pundit Andrew Breitbart claiming libel for editing her speech and thereforce altering the context.

(Media news continued on next page)

DEGRADING OF WOMEN FOCUS OF 'MAD MEN'

A theme of “Mad Men,” the AMC series about Madison Ave. in the 1960s, is the degrading treatment of women by word, deed and pay that went on at ad agencies.

The show has been getting plenty of ink lately including the top story in the Aug. 1 Styles section of the New York Times written by feminist author Katie Roiphe, who said the nation is “again transfixed” by a show that is a “phenomenal success.”

Roiphe, daughter of feminist Anne Roiphe and author of “The Morning After: Fear, Sex and Feminism,” teaches journalism at New York University.

Secretaries were considered fair game for ad execs, sometimes paid $100 or so for their sexual favors and forced to run personal errands such as buying Christmas presents for the execs’ families.

The Aug. 1 show (10 p.m. Sundays in New York) included the above themes.

J. Walter Thompson Co. was mentioned as an ad agency from which the $2 million Pond’s Cold Cream account had just been taken.

Roiphe, although noted for writing about feminist topics, did not discuss them much in her Aug. 1 piece.

She should read a chapter about the plight of women at JWT written by its first female creative director, Anne Wallach. It appears in “Women of True Grit,” 40 essays by women telling of their struggles for equality. It has taken some 40 years for the truth to come out about how women were treated at JWT.

Women were “making $40 to the man’s $80,” Wallach writes. They were treated like a “different species” who would have “the vapors” at a certain time of the month. They had their own floor at JWT where a nurse tucked them under a blanket for naps that lasted an hour or two.

No “girl” ever started higher than a secretary and those who advanced to copywriter or art director then donned hats to “distinguish ourselves from the secretaries and maids who brought lunches on trays to us.”

Ad Side Stayed out of Battle

Wallach would have been a great witness for Betty Lehan Harragan, PR pro at JWT who hauled it before the New York State Division of Human Rights in 1971 on charges of discrimination against women.

Harragan, waging the battle on her own, obtained records showing that in 1971 PR males at JWT averaged $20,458 in pay while women got $13,979, often for similar duties.

The Human Rights Division on Aug. 25, 1971 found “probable cause” to believe her charges. The battle raged for three years and resulted in 2,100 pages of testimony and documents.

She testified she was given no more work after she filed her complaint on July 12, 1971. She was fired in February 1972.

Commissioner Jack Sable ruled against her on July 15, 1974, saying he believed JWT’s contention that she filed the suit to delay her expected firing (after eight years with JWT).

Harragan called that a “flat lie” and also disputed many of the 47 “findings of fact” in the case.

She had been called “a superior writer and planner” in an evaluation in 1969 by PR dept. head Wallace Clayton. In 1977 she wrote “Games Mother Never Taught You: Corporate Gamesmanship for Women” which was made into a 1982 CBS-TV film starring Loretta Swit and Sam Waterston.

Oddly, the New York Times obit for Harragan, who died in 1998, did not mention the epic battle she waged.

This reporter covered the hearings in detail but there was no on-the-spot coverage by the NYT. Ad columnist Phil Dougherty told us he “didn’t have time to cover hearings.”

The NYT posted a brief item on July 18, 1974 that Harragan had lost the cast. Coverage by other press was light (Advertising Age reporter Don Grant and an AP reporter were present for one day each). Only one or two people were in the audience.

Harragan Used Division Lawyer

Harragan was represented by Division lawyer Sam Singer while JWT had a three-member team from the law firm of Breed, Abbott & Morgan led by Stephen Lang.

The team brought in witnesses from the JWT staff and executives of the National Assn. of Home Builders, the account on which she worked.

Frances Smith, retired PR account supervisor, and Joseph Honick and Michael Lenzi of the NAHB called Harragan “uncooperative…critical of associates and JWT … prone to “long rambling conversations that didn’t get to the point”… “radiated the idea that she had all the answers to everything” and had trouble “working as part of a team.”

Singer tried to bring up reported sex discrimination practices on the ad side but this was rejected by Sable.

Singer had obtained a statement from JWT executive VP John Devine but Sable would not let him read it.

“I will subpoena Devine as a witness,” said Singer.

Lang rose to say, “And I will go to the Supreme Court tomorrow and get it quashed.”

Wallach “Worked Within the Rules”

Wallach was aware of discrimination against women and their patronizing treatment. She recalled that the men would say “Good morning” to each other but compliment women on looking “pretty.”

She says she “worked within the rules because I couldn’t work without them…there was no machinery for complaining and you got into a multitude of trouble if you did. The prevailing attitude was ‘women were lucky to have a job in this wonderful place. Don’t make waves. Nice women don’t make waves.’”

She tells of her long battle to be a VP (“the worst thing that ever happened to me”). She was the only woman among 16 copy group heads and felt she had the same duties of travel, handling billing and working with big clients. “It took me an amazingly long time to get the title and I knew they would never do anything for me again,” she writes.

Wallach got “much more help from men than I ever got from women” whose attitude was, “I got here. Now you go and do your thing.”

— Jack O'Dwyer

FTC SLAPS PR FIRM FOR DISCLOSURE

The Federal Trade Commission said last week that PR firm Reverb Communications will settle a complaint that employees posed as consumers reviewing video games by game developer clients on the iTunes store site.

“Companies, including public relations firms involved in online marketing need to abide by long-held principles of truth in advertising,” Mary Engle, director of the FTC’s Division of Advertising Practices, said in a statement.

Reverb, run by Tracie Snitker, has agreed to remove any posts that don't disclose a connection between the firm and its client and has vowed not to make similar posts in the future, under terms of the settlement.

Snitker sent over this statement to O’Dwyer’s:

“During discussions with the FTC, it became apparent that we would never agree on the facts of the situation.” Rather than continuing to spend time and money arguing, and laying off employees to fight what we believed was a frivolous matter, we settled this case and ended the discussion because as the FTC states: “The consent agreement is for settlement purposes only and does not constitute admission by the respondents of a law violation.’’

The posts in question used pseudonyms that the FTC said “gave readers the impression the reviews were written by disinterested consumers.” They were published between November 2008 and May 2009 covering games published by Reverb clients.

HUNTSWORTH REVENUE RISES 13%

PR holding company Huntsworth posted a 13% rise in first-half revenue of £87M on Aug. 24, noting an “outlook that is generally more positive.”

Profit widened to £7.2M -- a nine percent rise, pre-tax -- up from only £234K for the six-month period of 2009. CEO Peter Chadlington said the market is “clearly more buoyant” than a year ago and added that a reorganization across Huntsworth's businesses last year has begun to pay dividends. He said the company benefited as some cuts to ad budgets went to PR.

Chadlington noted the “significant” global PR account of the Qatar Financial Centre Authority by Citigate and Grayling in pointing to increased cooperation among Huntsworth's four core “brands,” which also include Huntsworth Health and Red.

CHIME RINGS UP PROFIT SURGE

Chime Communications, parent of the U.K.'s biggest PR firm Bell Pottinger, reported first-half pre-tax profit surged 39 percent to $18M.

BP, Good Relations, Harvard, Insight, Resonate, ITA PR and Corporate Citizenship accounted for 49 percent of Chime’s operating profit.

The PR group chalked up $108M revenues, down from last year's $120M. Operating profit rose 17 percent to $12M as cost control measures paid off.

Public affairs, financial, technology, corporate and consumer categories turned in robust performances.

Chime chief Lord Bell noted the upbeat financials occurred during global recession, credit crunch and Euro crisis.

SYNAPTIC CREATES SOUTHEAST POST

Synaptic Digital has tapped media sector veteran Jim Moore for the newly created position of VP, sales, for the southeast, effective immediately.

Moore established the Emerging Venture Network, which later became The Equity Capital Access Program taught at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

Earlier, he held several management and business development positions at AOL and Time Warner and spent 17 years at the General Electric Company in sales, marketing, and business development.

Synaptic is the digital and broadcast PR company resulting from the merger of Medialink and The NewsMarket.

SIMON GUIDES STYLING VIDEO PROJECT

New York-based D S Simon Productions handled a how-to video project for T3 Micro and its PR firm Gear Communications to showcase T3’s styling products.

D S Simon produced and edited five videos for the designer and manufacturer of professional styling products to use in their PR efforts. The clips included step- by-step instructions on how to create certain hairstyles using T3 tools.

Doug Simon, president and CEO of D S Simon, said the project follows a trend where high quality but authentic video is being used to enhance PR campaigns.

Jennifer Gear, who heads Gear Communications, said the project had a “great” response.

NEW SOURCING SERVICE LAUNCHED

NewsBasis, is a new, free service for journalists developed to locate sources and experts for reporters in the vein of HARO or ProfNet.

Features include a searchable database of sources and news clips and the ability for journalists to post real-time requests for comment.

Founder Darryl Siry said more than 3,000 users have signed up.

Info: http://newsbasis.com.

TEXT BLAST SERVICE AVAILABLE

Iconosys, Inc., Laguna Hills, Calif., is offering a blast text messaging system that can remind staffers or clients of meetings, appointments or communicate other messages through a managed system. Integration with Google Calendar and Outlook is planned for the near future.

The service works through a phone application or in more customizable form on the web.

Jeffrey Weiss, CTO for Iconosys, said he uses the service to “talk” to more people or keep tabs on employees to save time. He added that he doesn't use it all of the time to communicate.

Pricing ranges from $3.99/month to about $60/month for the professional edition.

EVENT: Wed., Sept. 15, PRSA/N.Y. panel, “Mommy Dearest: Meet the Mommy Media,” 6-8:30 p.m., MS&L, 1675 Broadway, 9th flr., New York. Cost: $55/members, $75/non-members. Info: prsany.org.

PRSA CHARGES REPORTERS FOR CONFAB

PR Society of America has instituted a policy of charging reporters the full member rate of $1,275 for covering the annual conference that starts Oct. 17 in Washington, D.C.

Reporters can cover without charge the Assembly meeting that takes place on Saturday, Oct. 16.

The press table at the Assembly is at the rear of the meeting hall and outside the area where the delegates sit. Reporters are not allowed in the delegate area when the Assembly is in session.

Arthur Yann, VP-PR of the Society , announced the new policy in an e-mail last week. No reason was given for the policy.

The Society for years has been reducing facilities for the press at its annual conference.

It previously provided a press room with telephones, computers, internet access, fax machines and copiers. A bulletin board displayed coverage obtained in the city where the conference was taking place. Texts of a half dozen or more speeches at the conference were provided. Coffee and other beverages were available as well as fruit, juices and pastries. Society staffers were stationed in the press room throughout the day to help reporters.

An “interview” area with several seats and a table was set up so that Society officers could conduct on-the-record interviews with reporters who received full conference registrations, including all meals and the Sunday night opening reception.

The 2009 “press room” consisted of a table in a hallway with no phones, computers or copiers available. The table was staffed by local volunteers who were unable to answer questions by reporters.

Keynote speakers this year are not of the stature of previous keynoters who included Donald Trump, Tim Russert, James Earl Jones, Arianna Huffington, James Carville, Mary Matalin, Mia Farrow and Donna Brazile, among others.

QUINN AXES AXELROD’S FIRM

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has axed AKPD Message and Media, the political consulting and media shop founded by the President Obama’s top political advisor David Axelrod.

The move comes as an Aug. 12 Rasmussen poll shows state senator Bill Brady enjoying his biggest bulge, 13 percent, over Quinn in the race for top job in Springfield.

The former lieutenant governor was “promoted” in Jan. 2009 following the impeachment of Rod Blagojevich.

Axelrod worked for Quinn for more than 20 years. He cut ties with the White House when he moved to Washington.

AKPD said the split with Quinn happened because of “divergent approaches to professional communications.”

The Chicago Sun-Times noted that Quinn is “undisciplined when it comes to managing his message” and his “go-his-own-way campaign style” frustrates advisors.

AKPD handled Obama's Presidential run.

DOLBY PLUGS INTO H&K

Hill & Knowlton has picked up Dolby Laboratories' global PR account, following a review.

H&K’s San Francisco office will lead the lucrative account, which covers corporate communications in the U.S. as well as PR support for products like Dolby 3D Cinema and Dolby PC Audio.

The audio technology company tapped sister WPP unit Ogilvy PR Worldwide earlier this year to handle PR in China.

H&K offices in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, India, Italy, Korea and the U.K. will support H&K/S.F.

Catherine Ogilvie, vice president, corporate communications, said the firm showed fresh and creative thinking as well as clear counsel and media relationships.

Dolby’s third quarter revenue was up 34% to $230.3M while profit rose 24%. Licensing represents more than 80% of its revenue as its technology is used in prominent consumer electronics.

Joshua Reynolds, global technology practice director for H&K, said in a statement that Dolby is at an “exciting moment in the company’s history.”

APEX PLUGS IN SAYLOR FOR PR

Saylor Company is guiding communications for Apex Digital as the top electronics maker navigates Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Apex, which sells TVs, DVD players and other devices through stores like Wal-Mart, is based in Walnut, Calif., and shows debts and assets of $50M. The company filed for bankruptcy protection on Aug. 17 and sees its development of a green energy lighting products line as key to recovery.

Saylor Co. is run by former journalist and Sitrick and Company hand Mark Saylor.

Jason Booth, also a former Sitrick pro, and Evelyn Iritani, a former Los Angeles Times business writer, are handling the Apex business at Saylor.

PR EXEC SPEAKS FOR EGG PRODUCER

Hillandale Farms, the second Iowa egg producer to join the massive recall, is using former Perdue corporate communications VP Julie DeYoung as its spokesperson amid the crisis.

A salmonella outbreak traced to 10 states added Hillandale to its scope as 170M more eggs were recalled amid a recall that already affected 380M eggs from another Iowa producer, Wright County Egg.

DeYoung told O’Dwyer’s she is working through Kansas firm CMA consulting, which has been providing PR support to Wright County Egg, as well.

The egg industry has also mobilized a PR response.

DeYoung, who has been working as an independent practitioner out of Kansas, was VP of corporate communications at Perdue in nearly four years at the company after six-plus years in corporate comms. at ConaAgra.

Speaking to the Washington Post, DeYoung said that WCE and Hillandale have some of the same suppliers for young chickens and feed, providing a link between to the two producers at the center of the huge recall.

The e-mail debate over dropping APR as a requirement for PRSA board service has descended to the level of a “bar room” brawl marred by “demagoguery, name-calling and cheap shots,” says one participant.

APR supporters are led by former national directors Steve Lubetkin and Michael Jackson, and Jim Lukaszewski, who conducts seminars on crises for the Society.

One of their main arguments is that members show “commitment” to the Society by going through the APR process.

Kathy Lewton, 2001 president, says that in general the APRs have not proven to be leaders since the 3,910 APR community “does not seem able to turn out even 12 candidates (two for each of six board seats”) in the past 20 years.

There are nearly 400 APRs in each of the ten districts and sometimes no one will run from a district which is why the APRs want to eliminate district representation on the board.

Lewton wonders why there is “such concern about protecting this ‘right’ when so few choose to exercise it.”

APR Leadership Participation is Miniscule

The 19 candidates who showed up this year represented less than one-half of one percent of the 3,910 APRs.

Any new member, including those with no experience at all in PR, can apply for the APR process. Previously, five years of experience was required.

The debate, in which the “ethics” of APR critics are called into question, resulting in spirited responses, is in a private “e-group” of the Society that is seen by only a handful of the 21,000 members.

The 21,000 figure includes an estimated 1,000 or more PR Student Society members who can join for $65 while still five months from graduation.

The Society website has yet to mention on its front page or in Tactics Online the existence of the Committee to Promote Democracy in PRSA. The Committee has been denied use of the 21,000 member e-mail list.

This writer believes APR is a blight on the Society that has driven away almost all the major figures in PR and caused a severe shortage of candidates for national board and offices It has resulted in the Society’s membership declining to about 20,000, which is where it was in 1998 (19,600).

APRs cling to power even though they are causing possibly fatal harm to the Society.

Open Letter to APR Supporters

Here’s our open letter to Lubetkin, Lukaszewski and Jackson:

Kathy Lewton, 2001 president, correctly points out that the APRs in general are anything but “leaders” since so few of them ever show up for national board or office posts.

The small clique of APRs who have taken control of the Society have sought unsuccessfully for years to do away with district directors because so few APRs show up for office. A major reason for lack of candidates is the noxious policies of the Society including having a secret list of Assembly delegates, cancelling the printed members’ directory but not supplying a PDF of it, and failing to conduct a “PR for PR” campaign.

The debate in the Society e-group fails to mention the huge decline in interest in APR in recent years. Only 904 new APRs of the Society have been created in the six years from July 1, 2003, when the computer-based test was introduced. The average was 150 yearly.

In the previous six years, 1,623 APRs were created (average of 270) and in the six years before that, 1,782 (average of 297). The decline is at least 50% because of smaller Society memberships.

In the 1991-96 period, average membership was 15,703 vs. 21,000 in the latest six-year period. Also, five years of PR experience was required of APR candidates but no experience whatever has been required for at least five years.

Art Stevens defeats his own argument for non-APRs on the board by constantly saying APR is a “hallmark of professional accomplishment” when the overwhelming majority of members, by their avoidance of this test for 46 years, obviously believe no such thing.

Test Skips Writing Skills, Creativity

The computer test doesn’t cover writing skills or creativity while the Readiness Review consists of an applicant claiming to have created all sorts of things. Local chapters administer the RR so local politics is possible.

The APRs from 1980 to 1994 allowed the sale of hundreds of thousands of copies of authors’ materials without their permission even though the Code says members must “preserve intellectual property rights in the marketplace.”

APR subsidies cost the Society $2,926,080 from 1986-2002. Subsidy in 2000 was $1,794 per new APR.

Robert’s Rules Are Savaged

APRs disobey the most basic of Robert’s Rules which bar proxy voting and demand that any votes taken at a meeting be reflected in the minutes.

Fifty-six proxies were voted at the 2009 Assembly but only the leaders and staff know how these proxies were voted or who voted them. Proxies are again being solicited for the 2010 Assembly which leaders refuse to audiocast although it would be cheap and easy to do so.

APRs broke the basic Robert’s rule about bylaw revisions—that all articles be brought before the voting body. Robert’s also says a revision should not be done at the regular annual meeting (which is what the Society did in 2009).

Another basic Robert’s Rule is that the board of any association is “subordinate” to its assembly, a rule followed by lawyers, doctors, CPAs and psychologists.

Page 9 of Robert's says "the board within an organized society is an instrumentality of the society's full assembly to which it is subordinate." At the Society, the opposite is true--the board rules and even conducts the Assembly.

Society Out of Step with other Groups

Despite the above, the bylaws of the Society cite Robert's as its “parliamentary authority” and say that Robert’s “shall govern the Assembly in all cases.”
APRs break year after year accounting’s No. 1 rule—money is not booked until earned. They book a year’s dues as cash, thus providing misleading balance sheets.

APRs are again withholding the full list of Assembly delegates even from the delegates themselves. Any delegate who so wishes can withhold his or her name from the list.

Only delegates who make a written request (new this year) to staffer Linda Darnowski can have the list of delegates who allow their names to be used.

— Jack O'Dwyer