NORTH DAKOTA TARGETS TOBACCO CO. PR

The North Dakota Center for Tobacco Prevention and Control Policy has issued a “health communications marketing services” RFP to reduce smoking in the Peace Garden State.

The Center, which has a $1M budget, says a major element of the program is to counter tobacco company PR and marketing.

The RFP says the communications effort will educate people about “how the tobacco industry perpetuates the epidemic by causing death and disease in North Dakota.”

North Dakota estimates tobacco-related costs are an annual economic drain of more than $110M a year. Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the state, accounting for the end of more than 900 lives annually.

Another communication goal is to “de-normalize tobacco use” to prevent youth from starting and encouraging users to quit. The Center also wants to eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke.

North Dakota is eager to partner with a firm with at least two years of public health experience and skilled in the PR, advertising, marketing, social media and research arts. It will not consider firms that have tobacco clients.

Donna Thronson (701/328-5131 and [email protected]) is the procurement officer. She will field questions until Oct. 5. Responses to the RFP are due Oct. 26. Finalists are notified on Nov. 9 and presentations are slated in Bismarck Nov. 18/19.

The contract will be issued Dec. 10 and expire Dec. 31, 2012. The pact will have two renewal options of 24 months each.

RFP is available at odwyerpr.com/rfps.

NISSAN REALIGNS COMMS.

Nissan Motor said it is integrating brand, marketing and communications under a new header dubbed global marketing communications and based at its Yokohama, Japan, headquarters.

The company said the move is intended to “refine and strengthen” its global brands.

Under the shuffle, Renault-Nissan global director of communications Simon Sproule will join the parent company as corporate VP for the global marcomms. team, reporting to senior VP for global planning and program management Andy Palmer.

The Japan-based automaker said the new marcomms. team will be fully operational by the start of its new fiscal year.

S&B SPEAKS FOR O’DONNELL

Shirley & Banister Public Affairs is working with Senate Republican nominee Christine O’Donnell, a media sensation and Tea Party favorite who shocked the political realm with a primary win over Rep. Mike Castle.

O’Donnell caused a media stir this month when she pulled out of a Sunday morning talk show blitz set up by S&B. The canceled appearances on Fox and CBS came after a video clip saying she “dabbled in witchcraft” surfaced online and a 1996 documentary clip of her discussing an anti-masturbation campaign became a YouTube hit.

Diana Banister, a partner at Alexandria, Va.-based S&B, told O’Dwyer’s that her firm started with the campaign in mid-August to work on national media outreach and as advisors on campaign strategy.

O’Donnell’s victory in Delaware has made some in the GOP establishment uneasy but she enjoys strong support from the Tea Party movement.

A CNN/Time poll Sept. 22 had O’Donnell 16 points behind Democratic nominee Chris Coons.

HERBETTE NAMED VC AT F-H

Guillaume Herbette, a financial whiz, has been named vice chairman/operations at Fleishman-Hillard. The 12-year F-H vet is based in New York.

Herbette joined F-H in 1998 as senior VP/finance director for Europe. He had been a CPA in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Paris office.

The Frenchman also served as F-H COO for Europe/South Africa, managing director for global standards and most recently COO for east/west and Canada regions of North America.

Herbette becomes F-H’s third vice chairman, teaming with Bill Anderson and Kurt Wehrsten.

F-H CEO Dave Senay says Herbette’s elevation ensures that F-H can maintain “operational excellence” as it continues to growth.

BOARDROOM REPORT CONTRADICTS WALTZ

Sam Waltz, 1999 PRSA president, and Art Stevens, a 1999 board member, have claimed that the board did not vote to fight the Strategic Planning Committee’s bid to remove APR as a requirement for national office.

However, the board during that period put out a “Boardroom Report” shortly after each meeting and the report for the July 30-Aug. 1 meeting in Vancouver said:

“Decoupling (APR from office-holding) at this time would send the wrong signal regarding the Society’s commitment to APR.”

(Continued on page 7)

H&K AIDS AUSSIE CANADA POTASH RAID

Hill & Knowlton Canada CEO Mike Coates has registered as Ottawa lobbyist for Australian giant BHP Billiton, which has launched a $39B hostile bid for Saskatchewan-based Potash Corp., the world's largest fertilizer company.

“I have a team working with me on a range of PR and government relations. I am the only lobbyist registered at the federal level, however,” he told O’Dwyer’s via an email.

The hostile takeover bid has sent economic and political shockwaves through the province and Canada.

After meeting with BHP executives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall said he still doesn’t see how the province and country would benefit from the deal.

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the House of Commons that the mandatory probe of the deal under the nation's Foreign Investment Review Act will include Wall's concerns.

H&K's Coates is close to Harper. He was the leader of Harper's election debate prep team for the past three elections, according to his bio on H&K's website.

Potash, which has hired Fleishman-Hillard’s Brian Klunder and John Capobianco for PR work and Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher for financial duties, filed a lawsuit in Chicago federal court to block a deal, charging BHP violated U.S. securities law.

Meanwhile, China’s Sinochem Corp. has hired Citigroup and Deutsch Bank to explore its owned deal for Potash. Reuters notes that BHP’s hostile bid to acquire Rio Tinto was thwarted by another China company, Chinalco, which teamed with Alcoa to purchase a Rio Tinto stake.

TURNER FISHES FOR FDA APPROVAL

Turner Strategies is shepherding AquaBounty Technologies through the regulatory morass as the Boston-based firm appears to be on the verge of federal approval for the sale of its genetically modified salmon.

The Wall Street Journal reported Sept. 21 on its front page that the “laboratory-tweaked salmon” could be the first genetically modified animal to appear on American dinner plates.

The AquaAdvantage Atlantic salmon carries a growth hormone from Chinook salmon to speed growth, and some DNA from ocean pout (muttonfish) to turn on the Chinook gene.

A Food & Drug Administration advisory committee met Sept. 20 to talk about whether the fish was safe and if it posed a threat to the environment.

Prior to the meeting, the FDA published a report online that deemed the gene-altered fish as safe as Atlantic salmon and risk-free to the environment.

Susanne Turner told O’Dwyer’s that her firm specializes in “promoting game-changing issues that are often controversial.”

Her shop has represented Amnesty International, Biotechnology Industry Organization, CODEPINK, Environmental Defense Fund, Human Rights Watch, Christopher & Dana Reed Foundation, Fund for the Feminist Majority, and NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Prior to setting up TS two years ago, Turner was senior VP at Fenton Communications for seven years and mid-Atlantic regional manager for The Launch Co.

AquaBounty, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, uses Britain's Corfin PR for financial duties.

LEADERSHAPE SEEKS PR PITCHES

Leadershape, the 23-year-old organization that works with colleges to “mold leaders,” is looking for PR pitches to broaden awareness of its work beyond student affairs professionals and alumni.

An RFP issued Sept. 14 calls for a trade media relations effort in the higher education sector, as well as PR targeting campus media, national and major market coverage, including stories on its upcoming 25th anniversary in April 2011 and post-program achievements of its graduates.

Google co-founder Larry Page, a Leadershape alumnus from the University of Michigan, has credited the organization with contributing to his success.

The group, which previously worked with an agency on a project basis to create a media kit and VNR, plans to award a one-year PR contract.

Affinity Connection, a fundraising and marketing firm, works with Leadershape and is overseeing the review.

Proposals are due Oct. 15. RFP: odwyerpr.com/rfps.

U. OF MINNESOTA OVERRULES PR CHIEF

The University of Minnesota will now air “Troubled Waters: A Mississippi River Story” documentary about farm field run-off pollution in the waterway, reversing a decision by its PR chief Karen Himle who wanted to kill the film because she considered it unbalanced.

The move comes as 13 environmental groups sent a letter of protest to UoM president Robert Bruininks that demanded the airing of film, a review of the school’s conflict of interest policy and resignation of Himle if she overstepped her authority.

Himle is the wife of John Himle, CEO of Himle Horner, which reps the Minnesota Agri-Growth Council. He was executive director of that lobbying group before launching the Minneapolis-based PR firm. Himle said he had “zero involvement” with the decision to ax the film

The coalition includes Land Stewardship Project, Audubon Society, Friends of the Mississippi River, Isaak Walton League and Conservation Minnesota.

Troubled Waters is set to debut Oct. 3 at the Bell Museum and then air on public TV.

Idaho has tapped Boise-based Drake Cooper for a federally funded public education campaign highlighting the state's resources for job seekers.

Drake Cooper emerged from a field of four that also included Davies Moore, Red Sky PR, and CLM Marketing.

Utah issued an RFP in May to mount the PR push.

KLEIN OUT AT CNN

CNN on Sept. 24 replaced president Jonathan Klein with Ken Jautz, who heads its HLN tabloid channel, in a move designed to shake-up the troubled news channel.

Jautz guided the shift of Headline News into more opinionated programming that features people like Nancy Grace and Joy Behar. It prime-time shows are heavy with celebrity coverage.

Jim Walton, CEO of CNN Worldwide, thanked Klein for his six years of service. “Jon has made important contributions to the CNN story, and he leaves with our respect and friendship, and with my sincere thanks,” he wrote in a memo.

Jautz, according to Walton, “is a rarity-a working journalist who is an even better news executive.” In various positions at Time Warner, “he has a demonstrated ability to collaborate and lead strong teams, and a track-record of programming successes.”

Scot Safon, who is currently the chief marketing officer for all of CNN's channels, will take over HLN.

ZUCKER GOING AT NBC

Jeff Zucker made it official Sept. 24 telling NBC Universal staffers that he will exit as CEO once Comcast receives the regulatory approval for its 51 percent takeover of the property owned by General Electric.

The 45-year-old said the decision to leave the “only place that he has ever worked” was not an easy one. “I met my wife here, enjoyed the birth of our four children in that time, worked in almost every division of the company. And forged relationships, both professional and personal, that will last a lifetime.”

He expects Comcast “will be a great new steward, just as GE has been, and they deserve the chance to implement their own vision.” The nearly 25-year stint was “a great run.”

Comcast COO Steve Burke will succeed Zucker.

GE CEO Jeff Immelt released his own statement, praising Zucker as a “tough-minded, inclusive and innovative leader” who “never blinked when it came to tough decisions.”

He praised Zucker for winning multiple Emmys as news producer, helping to establish the Today show and making NBC's Olympics coverage a rating powerhouse. The GE chief said Zucker forges the “industry’s strongest portfolio of cable networks and revamped the business to reflect changes in viewer preferences and technologies, including helping to create digital channels like Hulu.”

Immelt expects to close the deal with Comcast by the end of the year. During that time, Zucker “will focus on ensuring a smooth transition to a new leadership team and running the place with the excellence our customers have come to expect.” The GE chief did warn about the regulatory process being “unpredictable.”

CREDITORS LAND INKY AGAIN

Philadelphia Media Holdings creditor group won the second auction for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, bidding $105M topping an $85M bid by local businessman Raymond Perelman and the Carpenters Union pension fund.

PMH’s deal fell apart earlier this month after the Teamsters rejected a contract. A confirmation hearing is scheduled Sept. 30. PR man Brian Tierney fronted a group of local investors to buy the newspapers from McClatchy Cos. for $515M in 2006.

The papers filed for filed for bankruptcy in February 2009.

CUNY ON ‘ENTREPRENEURIAL JOURNALISM’

The City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism has created the nation’s first masters program for “entrepreneurial journalism.”

The $10M Tow-Knight Center is funded by grants from the Tow Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and CUNY's J-School.

The Center opens next month, offering students and mid-career reporters a menu of courses in innovation and business management.

They will investigate new business models for news and develop new media outlets. Graduates of the two-year program will be trained to launch their own media companies or work within mainstream companies to carve digital presences.

Tow Foundation executive director Emily Tow Jackson says her organization "became concerned about the fate of print journalism in the digital age and the impact of its decline and the health of our democracy."

NEWSWEEK ADDS KAUS

Mickey Kaus is moving his political blog “kausfiles” to Newsweek.

The former public policy correspondent for New Republic, Newsweek, Slate and Washington Monthly, ran against Barbara Boxer in the California Democratic primary for its Senate seat. He also was an editor at Harper's and American Lawyer.

Newsweek Managing Editor Dan Klaidman, said in a release that Kaus’ “original voice and evidence-based analysis will inspire many and, no doubt, irritate others.”

His “ability to intelligently challenge the conventional wisdom will provoke everyone who reads him to think in new ways about politics and policy.”

The Center is to be an "incubator for the development of viable economic models for the new digital media."

Jeff Jarvis, who heads CUNY J-School's interactive program, heads the Center. He reports to founding dean Stephen Shepard, former EIC of BusinessWeek.

Shepard believes the Center will nurture journalism the same way that MIT and Stanford do for technology.

LAGARDERE PICKS PARR

Steve Parr, ex-president of Primedia Enthusiast Media, is the new CEO of Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., which publishes Woman’s Day and Elle.

Alain Lemarchand gets upped to another post at parent Lagardere Active with the Oct. 1 move.

In a staff memo, Lagardere said Parr is “ideally suited to solidify the company's position as an industry leader” and will “execute the next steps of the plan, which include increasing market share and profitability.”

(Media news continued on next page)

DOWNIE RIPS AGGREGATOR ‘PARASITES’

Leonard Downie, former executive editor of the Washington Post, ripped news aggregators like the Huffington Post as “parasites living off journalism produced by others,” during a Sept. 22 speech in London called “The New News.”

Aggregators “fill their websites with news, opinion, features, photographs and video they continuously collect-some would say steal” from other news sites and are staffed by mostly unpaid bloggers” who settle for exposure in lieu of money,” said Downie.

They build an audience via publishing strong political opinion pieces and titillating gossip and sex.

“Revealing photos of and stories about entertainment celebrities account for much of the highly touted web traffic to the Huffington Post site,” said Downie.

The newsman isn't clear whether “many or any of the aggregators will become profitable” or whether any of them will “become sources of original credible journalism.”

Downie also blasted “content farms” in which freelancers are paid a little money to produce articles for pick up by search engines. “These shallow articles are not really news reporting at all,” he said.

Huffington Responds

Arianna Huffingon responded to Downe via a post on the Guardian’s America blog.

She labeled Downie’s blast on aggregators an example of the old media strategy of pointing fingers and calling names.

“It’s a tactic familiar to school year inhabitants everywhere: when all else fails, reach for the nearest insult and throw it around indiscriminately,” she said.

Huffington believes it’s “time to stop pretending that we can somehow hop into a journalistic Way Back Machine and return to a past that no longer exists and can't be resurrected.”

According to Huffington: “People like Downie continue to confuse aggregation with wholesale misappropriation, which violates copyright law.”

She also said HuffPo carries plenty of original content, including reporting and more than 300 blogposts a day.

Challenge for ‘Accountability Journalism’

Downie told the audience the future of “accountability journalism” is at stake.

That form of journalism is produced by “stable news organizations that can facilitate professional reporting by experienced journalists, support them with money, logistics and legal backing, and present their work to a large public.”

He said “credible, verifiable journalism about what is important in life is needed more than ever amidst the babble of the blogosphere and social networks, the polarizing opinion and propaganda, the tabloid invasions of privacy and the cynical audience appeal of news presented as entertainment and entertainment presented as news.”

REUTERS PRO JOINS NAT JOURNAL GROUP

Patsy Wilson, who has more than 30 years of experience at Reuters, is the new deputy editor-in-chief at the National Journal Group. She is in charge of day-to-day newsroom operations.

Wilson exits her editor-in-charge of foreign policy and national security post at Thomson Reuters.

She also worked as Washington general news correspondent, desk editor, White House/political correspondent and chief of politics and domestic policy at the wire service.

Wilson is noted for interviewing four U.S. presidents including Barack Obama.
Ron Brownstein, editorial director of NJG, lauds Wilson as the “ultimate get-it-done leader” and a person who will “keep this newsroom humming.”

Wilson also wrote for newspapers in Australia and South Africa.

AKSELRUD EXITS MYSPACE FOR BREW

Tracy Akselrud, VP of communication of MySpace, has left the News Corp.-owned social network for Brew PR.

Brew founder and former Zeno Group VP Brooke Hammerling told O’Dwyer’s that Akselrud will work out of the firm's Los Angeles outpost under managing partner Dena Cook, also a Zeno alum.

Akselrud, who takes a VP title at Brew, joined MySpace in 2006 after five years with Burson-Marsteller.

Her exit from the social network follows the April departure of global communications VP Dani Dudeck for game developer Zynga, a Brew PR client.

MySpace, which has scrambled to rework its business in the wake of Facebook’s rise, in August tapped corporate and agency veteran Rosabel Tao as senior VP of corporate communications after a search.

Brew has also worked with Sony, Stamps.com and VidMe, among other clients.

HARPERCOLLINS LAUNCHES CONSERV LINE

News Corporation’s HarperCollins book unit has launched Broadside Books to publish titles under the leadership of editor Adam Bellow, son of novelist Saul Bellow.

To the New York Times, Bellow identified himself as a “conservative in a liberal industry,” one dedicated to bring “news from the outside world -- or reality -- to the New York political cocoon.”

Bellow has worked with former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, David Brock and Dinesh D’Souza. He promises books of ideas, culture, history and biographies from the right viewpoint.

The NYT reports that Bellow is working on three titles that will begin to debut in January. They are “Death by Liberalism” (J.R. Dunn), “The Coming Entitlement Bomb (Peter Ferrara) and “The Free Market Capitalist’s Survival Guide” (Jerry Bowyer).

Harper Collins dates its founding to 1817. It has published Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and H.G. Wells. News Corp. acquired Harper & Row in 1987.

EVENT SERVICE WANTS PITCHES

EventInterface.com, an Arizona-based service for running meeting and events, wants to hear from firms to develop a PR plan, handle media relations and spokesperson training, and perform other tasks.

The Scottsdale-based company, operating as Event Interface LLC, has issued an RFP open through Oct. 15. It plans to select and interview up to three finalist firms and plans to make a decision by mid-November.

EI says it is the only company with a complete event management service, which allows clients to manage registration and event ticket sales, handle speakers, promote and sell sponsorships and exhibit space, and set up marketing and social networking.

Competitors include cvent, regionline, acteva and eventbrite.

RFP is at odwyerpr.com/rfps.

F-H, CONE ALIGN

Fleishman-Hillard has forged an alliance with sister Omnicom unit and cause marketing firm Cone.

F-H said it will be able to integrate with Cone's cause branding and corporate responsibility services, while Cone gets access to F-H's 80 offices around the world.

The firms said the deal will provide agency teams to meet the varied cultural and social needs of different regions and provide "on-the-ground" implementation.

Dave Senay, president and CEO of F-H, added that the alliance re-affirms his firm's commitment to services it already provides through an expanded set of offerings and adds opportunities for joint development of new products.

LEWIS KICKS OFF NEW CRISIS PUSH

LEWIS PR launched a new crisis management service headed by the firm's team of "in-house journalists."

Paul Charles, chief operating officer of the London and San Francisco-based firm and an ex-BBC presenter, cited BP, Toyota and Eurostar as examples of mishandled crises which have caused "lasting damage" to reputation which can be irreparable.

Clarence Mitchell, director of media strategy and PA, said each crisis team member is a former journalist, setting its capabilities apart from other firms.

BRIEFS: Bite Communications has acquired Hong Kong digital marketing firm OneXeno, which it will integrate into its Asia Pacific operations.
OneXeno founder Michael Zung has joined Bite as managing director, digital, Asia Pacific. ...Atlanta-based Arketi Group was tapped to relaunch a new website for Air2Web, a mobile customer care and targeted marketing solutions provider. The new site, air2web.com, uses Flash video, white papers and other features. ...PR firm network IPREX has added two Paris-based members: The Desk, a corporate PR specialist with emphasis on health, public services and the environment; and NewCap, which handles financial and corporate communications. Desk clients include National Agency for Urban Renovation, BBC World News and Campingaz.

SYNAPTIC PUTS S.M. ON PRESS PAGE

Synaptic Digital's new MediaCentre online press room service allows users to aggregate social media updates from sites like Twitter and Facebook alongside content such as press releases.

The company notes that audiences accessing digital press sections of company or organization websites have evolved to include consumers, bloggers, shareholders and analysts.

The MediaCentre service, Synaptic's first major launch since it was created by the merger of The NewsMarket and Medialink last year, addresses a “substantial need” by giving communications professionals “who are constantly under the gun” an ability to deliver more timely content, said CEO Jim Lonergan.

Synaptic said local hosting allows large content like video to downloaded rapidly, while settings allow embargoed content to post at specific times.

BURRELLESLUCE ORGANIZES WORKFLOW

BurrellesLuce has introduced WorkFlow, a web portal that combines the company's monitoring, reporting, outreach, and social media engagement tools.

CEO Robert Waggoner said the service combined "comprehensiveness with simplicity, and convenience with affordability."

Users assemble their own program by choosing from among five modules: monitoring (online and print), reporting (clips and analysis), outreach (contacts), social media engagement, and client service team support.

Info: burrellesluce.com/workflow.

CITIZENS, INTERNS INCREASE NEWS ROLES

Interns now contribute about three percent of on-air radio news content, according to a survey by News Generation of 100 news, news-talk and talk stations in the top-50 markets.

The company says that signals a new trend and comes as budgets have been tightened across the news spectrum. NG found "highly structured" internship programs at 95% of the stations surveyed.

NG found that the average radio newsroom includes 10 (9.6) staffers, but most talk radio stations rely on sister units and many have no news staff at all.

The study found that 35% percent of talk stations do not have a newsroom staff, while 45% employ fewer than five reporters.

Citizen journalism at the local level is also expanding, the company said, although it is not playing a “significant role” at most stations yet. There are, however, citizen journalists regularly disseminating information on some major market stations, NG found.

Asked how it is determined which stories get covered, 33% chose both news value and staff size. Twenty-three percent said they are partnering with sister stations to provide content, while 16% partner with TV stations and 8% work with local newspapers. Thirty-four percent said they have no partners.

On social and digital media, 27% said their primary focus is on the on-air broadcast, podcast and website while 7% cited social media as the primary focus. Forty-three percent said on-air is the sole focus.

REPORT CONTRADICTS APR CLAIM (cont’d)

There were three former APR chairs on the 1999 board—Roger Lewis, Joann Killeen and Tom Bartikoski.

Steve Pisinski, Strategic Planning chair, said that there should be a “full and free debate” on the issue at the 1999 Assembly. He said a petition signed by members of the New York, Philadelphia and other chapters would “insure” such a debate.

The board, which controls the agenda, did not put the APR issue up for debate in 1999. It was not until 2009 that a proposal made it to the floor of the Assembly.

Stevens said the 1999 board was deadlocked at 8-8 on whether it should even take any position on APR and therefore did not vote on the actual issue itself.
However, the board including Waltz signed the Boardroom Report that said decoupling would “send the wrong signal.”

Waltz Went on the Offensive

Stevens portrays Waltz as a detached observer at the Vancouver meeting, merely “facilitating” a discussion on APR and “maintaining his objectivity.”

Waltz was in the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps. From 1967-70 during the Vietnam War.

Counterintelligence includes doing everything possible to disrupt the enemy such as spreading lies, poisoning wells, assassinations, capturing and interrogating the enemy, and enticing enemy sources with prostitutes and blackmailing them.

O’Dwyer Boycott Was Voted Twice

A written statement was given by Waltz to PRWeek April 19, 1999 saying the board and staff would no longer have any contact with Jack O’Dwyer. Members were advised to “follow their own consciences” should any O’Dwyer staffer contact them.

Despite numerous criticisms from identified PR executives who called the policy “stupid,” “un-American,” “childish,” “ludicrous,” “preposterous” and “unbelievable,” the board in a teleconference June 7 reaffirmed the boycott.

Society chair Gary McCormick and COO Bill Murray came to O’Dwyer’s office March 19 this year and said the Society had “chosen” not to deal with the O’Dwyer Co.

The 1999 Waltz statement said, “We have attempted to provide the newsletter with facts and information which are routinely absent from the newsletter’s reporting.”

No specifics were given.

Waltz himself told PRW it was also “a matter of the resources and staff time required to communicate with the newsletter.”

Negatives Hit Society in 1999

At least five major negative developments hit the Society in 1999. These were revelation of a three-year Society study that found “PR specialist” ranked 43rd in believability among 45 types of public figures; a Fellows study found PR Recruiters generally ignore APR; treasurer Lee Duffey failed to get the nomination for chair-elect after his firm was accused of using “front groups” vs. the EIFS form of construction; a member accused the board of violating five articles of the Code in declaring a press boycott, and this NL published a ten-year study of Society finances that highlighted irregularities.

CPAs, for instance, could not understand how the “deferred dues” account dropped from $660,884 in 1989 to $350,309 in 1998 when membership rose from 14,728 in 1989 to 19,623 in 1998.

Waltz Charges O’Dwyer with “Abuse”

Waltz, in an e-mail on Leaderserve, charged O’Dwyer with “personal and professional indignities, abuse, beratement, denigration and other incivilities” that O’Dwyer supposedly “heaped” on Society volunteers and staffers.

O’Dwyer said what he “heaped” on leaders and staff were questions about the negative developments.

O’Dwyer asked Waltz for rebuttal space on Leaderserve and Waltz said he would only get such space if he first printed in the NL a 655-word letter with various charges against O’Dwyer by anonymous members.

Waltz made O’Dwyer sit behind a velvet rope at the 1999 Assembly with a guard ready to eject him if he moved out of the area.

PRSA Employee Speaks Out

The actions of the Waltz board touched off a tidal wave of criticisms including one by a Society staffer Blane Withers who quit as head of the information department.

Withers told Association Trends Sept. 3, 1999 that the Society’s “official family” demonstrated an “unusually high” level of “selfish and special interest behavior, at times risking the benefit of the members at large.”

Said Withers: “It became apparent that a group of people within the membership was always at odds. The Society acts as a whipping boy for them. The active official family demonstrated an unusually high selfish and special interest behavior…it frustrated and disillusioned me to have a senior body of practitioners not able to set personal agendas aside and put its elbow grease into getting the job done.”

He also told AT the PR industry “didn’t seem to want or expect from the Society staff what I though should be delivered.” He said he thought the Society staff wanted to deliver more.

Reporter Sees Big Change in PR

San Francisco Chronicle website contributor Hal Plotkin said March 30, 1999 that he could hardly believe what was happening in PR.

Previously cooperative PR pros had turned adversarial, he wrote. They wouldn’t even help when he asked about satisfied customers. He found PR pros intent on keeping reporters “on message.”

Plotkin attacked Cunningham Communications, saying it had become a “black hole” of non-response.

Contacting Cunningham was like “running a PR gauntlet,” he wrote. “Often it takes weeks to get a response to the most simple requests and even longer to arrange interviews with key executives if they happen at all.”

He said reporters are witnessing “the evolution of a PR bureaucracy that increasingly sees the press as adversaries. In place of information, we get spin. In place of accessibility, we get distance.”

Unseemly personal attacks are marring the debate on APR on a PRSA e-group.

The APRs are showing their true colors. They are spreading falsehoods and attacking those want to dethrone the APRs.

Bryan Campbell, president of the 150-member North Florida chapter and vocal supporter of the APR process, lambasted 2001 Society chair Kathy Lewton on the Society’s e-group, causing her to withdraw from the debate.

Lewton has posted more than 30 comments totaling at least 5,000 words, saying the Society lies to prospective members by not warning them about the “two-tier” membership system (only APRs can hold national office).

She also says APR dates back to 1964 when there were few undergraduate and post-graduate PR degrees and certificates available and that more than 80% of members have rejected the APR designation for 46 years.

Lewton fought constant complaints of the APRs that this topic had already been beaten to death and was being considered “over and over” and “repeatedly.” That was another Big Lie of the APR camp.

Only once before, in 2009, had decoupling hit the floor of the Assembly.

Lewton postings have angered the more than 30 pro-APR members whose comments dominate the debate. Only three APR reformers are regularly on the debate (Lewton, Art Stevens and Monty Hagler).

Missing are any 2010 Society candidates including chair-elect candidate Gerry Corbett whose stance is, “Let the Assembly decide.”

Campbell, who told an Aug. 18 teleconference that he was “very upset” that ditching the APR rule was even being discussed, said Lewton has made so many postings in the e-group that it should be named after her.

“Would it be possible to rename this thread?” he asked on Sept. 23.

“Perhaps call it the Assembly Amendment Sounding Board, moderated by Kathleen Larey Lewton, APR, Fellow PRSA.”

Post Is Called “Mean-Spirited”

Monty Hagler of the Committee for a Democratic PRSA accused Campbell of making a “mean-spirited post.” Lewton said the “unpleasant comment” has caused her to “refrain from adding any additional information, even when misinformation is posted here.”

Campbell retorted that the e-group was supposed to be “a discussion, not a platform” and that “when one person dominates the conversation, that discussion becomes a promotional platform. That is not the intent of a Society e-group.”

Campbell then said, having made four posts, “That is too many and I will cease to post on this thread.”

Another APR supporter, Thomas Duke of Copley, Ohio, said Campbell “hit the nail on the head with his comments.”

“This has become a promotional forum for proponents of the amendment to drop APR for officers and board members,” he said.

“This overselling has done more to crystallize opposition against the amendment than reasonable discourse would have,” he added.

Duke then said that, “Like Bryan, I won’t post any more messages.”

The Society’s anti-communication policy blocks nearly 100% of members from seeing this debate.

There’s no doubt truth and fairness are on the side of the APR reformers and lies and politics are on the other side.

Blane Withers, who quit as information head of the Society in 1999, told Association Trends that year he was fed up with the “unusually high selfish and special interest behavior” on the part of the insiders who were in pursuit of “personal agendas.”

APR fans naively keep demanding to know why the Society doesn’t do more to promote APR. It can’t.

The American Society of Assn. Executives, hired by both PRS and IABC in the 1980s to look at their accreditation programs, warned that any promotion of such programs opened each group to legal claims.

The same advice was given at an ASAE meeting Dec. 5-7, 1999 in Indianapolis.
Robert Portman, of the law firm of Jenner & Block, gave a 21-page paper saying groups that “accredit, certify or credential” members or non-members face a “host of legal issues.”

The certifying group can be liable when a client “suffers harm at the hands of a certified professional,” he said.

It’s about time Society staff and leaders told the members this and put a stop to the incessant clamor for more promotion of APR. The die-hards believe the APR program is in the doldrums (participation rate is less than half of what it was in the 1980s and 1990s) only because it is not promoted enough.

Association Offices Open to All

Another mistaken notion of the APRs is that other groups insist on certification of some type for their officers and board.

The “Leadership Briefing” on the Society website Feb. 20, 2009 said, “Most associations allow any voting member in good standing to run for their boards.” The Society had done a survey on this.

Pro-APRs ignore their own “Governance Study” of 750 members in 2008 that found that 84% of members say “Any member in good standing can run for board.”

The “elephant in the room” is the APR exam process itself.

The APR Study Guide says that anyone who studies this 150-page booklet or 21 chapters of two college textbooks will pass the exam.

What experienced PR pro wants to study college textbooks and then pay $385 to sit in front of a computer for three-and-a-half hours answering multiple choice questions? A huge weakness in the camp of the APR reformers is its leader, Art Stevens.

He keeps pulling the rug out from under the reformers by praising the APR process when it should be condemned.

Judge the APRs by their actions, not what they say, is our view. They presided over the massive theft of intellectual property from 1980-94 via sale of information packets loaded with illegally copied authors’ materials.

They have presided over two press boycotts (one started in 1999 by the Sam Waltz board and the current one described to us in our offices in March by chair Gary McCormick and COO Bill Murray).

The APR’s disdain of the press is illustrated by the “Media Center” at the 2009 conference. It was an empty table in a hallway.

Assembly delegates must demand that all votes Oct. 16 be role call so everyone (and not just a few insiders) can see immediately how everyone voted.

This is technically doable.

— Jack O'Dwyer