NIH EYES COMMS. PITCHES

The National Institutes of Health has issued an RFP to assemble a roster of firms to handle various communications and public affairs assignments over the next five years.

The resulting contract, known as an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity pact, will be for a base year with four options. A handful of firms are typically selected from an RFP process to compete for assignments under IDIQ terms.

The assignments, outlined broadly in the Oct. 6 RFP, will cover tasks like research, media analysis and outreach, PR, and social marketing, among other communications assignments.

The NIH is the medical research arm of the federal government and has an annual budget of more than $30 billion and is based in Bethesda, Md.

As previously reported, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, like the NIH part of the Dept. of Health and Human Services, is planning a similar review later this month or in November. Proposals are due Nov. 17. Documents can be downloaded from odwyerpr.com.

PITNEY BOWES UNIT SHIFTS PR ACCOUNT

Shift Communications has picked up PR duties for Pitney Bowes Business Insight, a unit of the mail services giant, following an agency review. Schwartz Communications had the account.

The PBBI unit provides location data for business customers and was formed with PB’s 2007 acquisition of MapInfo Corp for $408M.

Tech-savvy Shift was hired to broaden awareness of the company's software offerings.

Matt Broder, VP of external comms. at PB, cited Shift’s reputation in PR and social media as working hard to understand the “nuances of businesses like ours.”

EDELMAN HONORS MATRIARCH

Edelman has launched “Ruth: Edelman Integrated Marketing” to honor the wife of PR firm founder, Dan Edelman. CEO Richard Edelman told O'Dwyer's that his mother is “thrilled” with the tribute.

R:EIM offers brand & visual design identity, editorial, consumer advertising, events, graphics, mobile marketing and playanywhere content to clients such as UPS, Samsung, Starbucks, Pfizer, eBay and Smith Brothers Farms. In announcing the unit, Patrick McGuire, president of Ruth, said Ruth Edelman “has been a protector of the Edelman brand for 58 years.”

LEWIS ACQUIRES VALLEY FIRM

Lewis PR has acquired seven-year-old tech firm Page One PR in all-cash deal.
Page One, which has offices in San Francisco and Palo Alto, specializes in B2B social media campaigns and has worked with clients like Cisco, SAP and Google. It has a staff of about 20.

Lewis said the deal is part of its acquisition strategy that included Belgium-based Leads United last year.

Page One was founded by former reporter Lonn Johnston and Craig Oda, a Valley veteran. Oda said revenues are up 20 percent this year on new social media business from McAfee and Polycom.

“We never set out to join another communications and marketing agency and we weren't looking for a buyer,” Oda said announcing the deal on the Page One blog. “But growing this quickly brings its own operations and management challenges.”

Page One will operate as a subsidiary to Lewis, which topped $8M in billings in 2008 and has U.S. operations based in San Francisco.

SITRICK HANDLES LOCKHEED DEAL

Sitrick & Co. is repping Veritas Capital’s $815M deal to acquire Lockheed Martin’s Enterprise Integration Group Unit consulting business.

LM put the operation up for sale in June due to new Pentagon rules on weapons purchases to prevent conflicts of interests between defense contractors and their advisory units. The defense giant believes the deal allays Uncle Sam’s concerns about perceived conflicts.

EIG has 1,800 employees providing analysis and engineering, integration and risk mitigation services to the U.S. intelligence community. Annual sales are in the $625M range.

New York-based Veritas was founded by Robert McKeon, former chairman of Wasserstein Perella Management Partners and co-chief of Wickes Cos.

Michael Sitrick, former senior VP-comms. at Wickes, is working the deal for EIG with Lewis Phelps.

PRSA President Bill Murray earned a base salary of $323,068 last year, according to the Society's just-released Form 990 federal filing. He also collected $32,500 in retirement/deferred compensation and $18,050 in non-taxable benefits. That puts the total package at $373,618.

CFO Philip Bonaventura was PRSA’s next-highest paid staffer, earning $184K in pay, $32,500 in other comp and $5,206 in benefits. Jennifer Ian, VP-membership marketing, trailed with a salary of $121,739 plus another $9,458 in comp/benefits.

McFARLANE HEADS SO. SUDAN LOBBY

Robert “Bud” McFarlane, who was President Reagan's national security advisor, registered Sept. 23 with the Justice Dept. as president of the U.S.-Southern Sudan Development Co.

Voters in southern Sudan are supposed to go to the polls in January to decide whether oil-rich South Sudan becomes independent.

Sudanese living in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Egypt will also vote.

That tally was part of a peace treaty ironed out in 2005, a pact that ended two decades of war between north and south. More than 1.5M people died.

McFarlane has been providing oral advice to south Sudanese officials on “enhancing the professionalism and readiness of the security forces,” “attracting foreign assistance from the U.S. and other governments,” and lining up private sector cash for infrastructure projects.

According to McFarlane's federal filing, he has worked to promote the interests of Southern Sudan for the past two years, receiving a payment of $700K in ’08.

MORTGAGE TRADE GROUP TAPS SVP

The trade group for mortgage bankers in Washington, D.C., has filled its vacant senior communications and marketing slot after four months as mortgages draw national interest.

Barbara Van Allen, chief marketing officer for disability employment non-profit NISH, has been named senior VP of communications and marketing for the Mortgage Bankers Association.

“I am very excited to join the MBA at such a critical time in the industry's history,” she said in a statement.

The appointment comes as the mortgage sector endures sustained scrutiny and pressure mounts on banks and regulators amid reports of shoddy lending and foreclosure practices.

She’ll join the trade group Nov. 1, taking over for Cheryl Crispen, who held the post for eight years before leaving in June for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

Van Allen was managing director of global communications at Cushman & Wakefield and director of corporate communications at ITT after a seven-year stint on the Hill.

BETTE BURSON HONORED

More than 500 people packed City College’s Grad Center auditorium Oct. 12 to celebrate the life of Bette Burson, who died Sept. 16 from an inoperable brain tumor. She was 85.

Harold Burson, Burson-Marsteller co-founder, expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support that he received for the loss of his wife of 60-plus years. Among the 700 letters of condolences are letters from Nancy Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Burson's sons, Scott and Mark, and grandchildren also spoke.

The ceremony ended with a champagne toast to Bette. She told Harold that she wanted to be remembered with “cheers, not tears.”

CHICAGO PR MAN SAYS 'NO' TO RAHM

Chicago PR man Joe Sanchez has launched the NotoRahm.com site to drum up opposition to Rahm Emanuel’s run for mayor of the Windy City.

He told O’Dwyer’s that Emanuel - as President Obama’s chief of staff - “twisted many arms” to win Congressional support for bills that are currently bankrupting the country. He worries that if Emanuel and his cronies gain power in Chicago the city would fall into financial ruin.

Sanchez conceded that Emanuel, a former Chicago congressman, is currently the front-runner to succeed Mayor Richard Dailey, but Sanchez believes time is on his side.

The mayoral election is set for Feb. 22. Sanchez is looking for a huge Republican victory in the mid-terms to build momentum for a fiscal conservative to emerge as a viable challenger to Emanuel.

Sanchez, who served as an Army PA officer in Iraq for a little more than a year, has received donations from 270 people since the Oct. 1 launch of his site. That amounts to more than $7,000. He needs at least $50K for a NotoRahm billboard on a busy Chicago highway. He's confident that donations will pour in after Election Day next month.

Sanchez was on duty in Iraq on Dec. 21, 2004 when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a mess tent in Mosul, killing 14 U.S. soldiers, four Halliburton contractors and three Iraqi soldiers. He handled media such as CNN, BBC, Reuters, AP, Agence France Press and Fox News.

He now runs PRSmart (www.prsmart.us), which offers “a la carte” services. Sanchez can be reached at 866/381-1667.

SHIRLEY TO TEACH AT REAGAN ALMA MATER

Craig Shirley, a longtime GOP communications hand and president/CEO of Shirley & Banister Public Affairs in Alexandria, Va., will be the first Reagan scholar at the ex-president's alma mater, Eureka College, in 2011, as he teaches a course on presidential campaigns.

Shirley will lead “A Survey of American Presidential Campaigns” during the May term as the first Ronald Reagan visiting scholar at the Eureka, Ill.-based college, a program developed to mark the centennial of the 40th president's birth next year on Feb. 6.

Reagan was a member of Eureka's class of 1932 and served for 18 years on its board of trustees.

Shirley wrote a 2009 book about Reagan's 1980 campaign and spoke at the college in March to promote the tome.

He also penned a 2005 book on Reagan's 1976 challenge to President Gerald Ford in the Republican primaries called “Reagan’s Revolution.”

He is currently writing “Citizen Newt,” a political biography of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Shirley’s PR firm caters to mostly conservative clients like Ann Coulter and Delaware Senate hopeful Christine O’Donnell.

AOL TO BID FOR YAHOO

AOL is exploring a takeover bid for Yahoo to create enough corporate heft to compete with Google, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The former Time Warner unit may team with private equity companies such as Silver Lake Partners and Blackstone Group.

Yahoo has been hit by executive exits, disappointment over CEO Carol Bartz’s turnaround plans and a lackluster stock price. Yahoo rebuffed a $45B takeover bid from Microsoft in 2008.

Meanwhile, Microsoft announced a data sharing partnership with Facebook in order to give its Bing search engine more buzz. The software giant owns a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook.

ABRAMS RESIGNS TRIBUNE POST

Lee Abrams, chief innovation officer at Tribune Co., resigned Oct. 15 after he was suspended earlier in the week for sending a companywide memo that had links to sites that some people might find offensive.

Randy Michaels, CEO, said last week that Abrams was suspended indefinitely without pay while the company investigates the matter.

In his “Think Piece: Encouraging Forward Movement” memo, Åbrams told of the need to localize the feel of New York TV station WPIX in order to capture the mood of the city with its “pan-ethnic and gritty reality.” One link titled “sluts” featured a fake news piece from The Onion that showed a bus-load of drunken and half-naked women wandering on a highway after an accident.

Abrams sent his own memo to personally apologize to everyone who was offended by the video link.

It reflected “poor judgment on my part and I’m sorry,” he wrote. The video was “in bad taste” and a “parody of a cable-type show. It is not something that we would ever air on our TV stations, in fact quite the opposite, we show this as an example of what not to do.”

GAP SCRAPS NEW LOGO AMID BACKLASH

Clothing retailer Gap Inc. has scrapped a new logo amid an online backlash against the new design and a decision to abandon the company’s iconic white lettering inside a blue square.

“We’ve been listening to and watching all of the comments this past week,” said a statement from Gap corporate communications attributed to Marka Hansen, president of the brand for North America. "We heard them say over and over again they are passionate about our blue box logo, and they want it back. So we’ve made the decision to do just that – we will bring it back across all channels.”

The decision came Oct. 11 and followed the company’s initial response to the criticism Oct. 6, in which it asked for user-created submissions.

Hansen penned an op-ed in the Huffington Post on Oct. 7 in an attempt to “explain the thinking” behind the change of the 20-year-old logo.

“We chose [the new] design as it’s more contemporary and current,” she explained. “It honors our heritage through the blue box while still taking it forward.”

The company said Oct. 11 that it has "learned a lot" through the episode, including that it missed the opportunity to engage with the online community.

“This wasn’t the right project at the right time for crowd sourcing,” said the statement. “There may be a time to evolve our logo, but if and when that time comes, we’ll handle it in a different way.”

The logo, created by New York agency Laird & Partners, was intended to be a long-term commitment for the brand with a nod to the future.

MAIDMENT LAUNCHES CONSULTING FIRM

Paul Maidment, who stepped down as co-editor of Forbes Media in June, has launched Bystander Media, an online content management company for start-ups and traditional publishers.

Maidment joined Forbes in 2001 as executive editor of Forbes and editor of Forbes.com. He built Forbes.com into one of the top sites in the financial/business arena.

Prior to Forbes, Maidment served as founder/editor of the Financial Times’ FT.com, which was launched in 1995. A highlight there was the integration of print and editorial staffs. Earlier, he was at The Economist, reporting from New York, Tokyo and London.

E5 GLOBAL REBRANDS

E5 Global Media has rebranded as Prometheus Global Media, a moniker that CEO Richard Beckman will give it more “weight and gravitas” in the publishing world.

The company is home to B2B magazines such as Adweek, MediaWeek and Hollywood Reporter. It made news last month with the addition of high-profile Vanity Fair contributor Michael Wolff to the post of editorial director of Adweek Group.

VIACOM DISCOVERS KLINE

Viacom has hired David Kline as senior VP technology/chief information at the corporate level and for its key MTV Networks property. He takes the post Nov. 1, reporting to Viacom CFO, James Barge and MTV COO Rich Eigendorff.

Kline is in charge of Viacom’s technology infrastructure as well as MTV’s online technology/services, content/distribution, applications development and security/compliance.

Kline was recruited from Discovery Comms., where he held the executive VP and CIO posts. He also spent ten years at Cablevision’s Rainbow Media.

AP JUNKS ‘WRITER’ TAG

Associated Press is dropping its “Associated Press Writer” byline after a run of more than 80 years for the content neutral “Associated Press” identification.

Tom Kent, deputy managing editor for standards and production, says the move reflects the fact that AP staffers “have extensive multimedia skills and work with several platforms every day.”

The change does not affect special bylines such as “AP Political Writer,” “AP Military Writer” and “AP Sports Writer.”

(Media news continued on next page)

SORRELL ADDS CHINESE MEDIA MOGUL

WPP chief Martin Sorrell has added Chinese media mogul Li Ruigang to its board of directors in a move that gives the Dublin-headquartered ad/PR combine “plenty of connections” in China, according to a report in the Financial Times.

Cultivation of the Chinese communications market is a top priority for Sorrell.

Li is president of Shanghai Media Group, which owns 15 TV stations, 11 radio frequencies, eight newspapers and magazines including China’s most influential financial publication, CNB Daily.

SMG holdings also include 30 pay TV channels and broadband/mobile TV properties, making it the largest content and distributor of Chinese language programs in the Mainland.

Li chairs China Media Capital, the country’s only sovereign private equity fund dedicated to the media. It has a partnership with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Star China entity.

WPP also added Sol Trujillo, who served as CEO of telecoms on three continents; U.S. West (now Quest), Orange (now France Telecom) and Telestra (Australia). The Wyoming-born Trujillo has served on the boards of Bank of America, Gannett, PepsiCo, Target and Silk Road Technologies.

WPP's PR units include Ogilvy PR Worldwide, Burson-Marsteller and Hill & Knowlton.

STUDY: CEOs NOT ‘SOCIAL’

Although most CEOs are quoted in news stories and use speaking engagements to reach external audiences, most CEOs at the world’s top 50 companies are not using social media and online communications for that purpose, according to a Weber Shandwick study.

Sixty-four percent of that top group of CEOs are not engaged digitally with external audiences, compared with 93 percent that used a more traditional route – quotes in major publications – and 40 percent who booked speaking engagements to non-investor audiences.

Weber Shandwick found that most CEO online visibility is limited to what’s said about the executives on Wikipedia. Only 36 percent make appearances in social media channels or on their company’s website, which most often comes in the form of a letter or “message from the CEO”-type posting.

Leslie Gaines-Ross, who studies online reputation at WS, said a CEO’s time is better spent with customers and employees during a period of economic crisis and battered reputations in the corporate sector, but she expects that paltry digital media performance to trend upward.

“As we continue to track the rise of the Social CEO and chief executives become more comfortable with the new media, we expect that this will change and change fast,” she said.

The Interpublic firm, which polled 60 CEOs from 50 companies in the U.S., Europe and Asia-Pacific and South America, said the statistics are important because CEOs at “admired” companies, or those with strong reputations, had greater online profiles than those at lesser respected corporations.

Beside letters or CEO messages on company websites, which are utilized by 28 percent of the so-called “socialized” CEOs, some have turned to video or podcasts (18%), while fewer than 10 percent use Twitter, Facebook or external blogs.

TABLET APPS ON THE RISE

Media and advertising research firm McPheters & Company said its iMonitor service is now providing evaluations of more than 626 tablet applications from publications for devices like iPads, a 10-fold increase since it began tracking the apps in late April.

M&C said the U.S. accounts for about one-third of all apps for magazines and newspapers.

Joining that group this month were Rodale's Organic Gardening, which released an iPad app for $3.99 per digital edition of the magazine. It is Rodale's fifth iPad app.

The New York Times on Oct. 15 released a revamped iPad app adding 25 sections of the paper, including more videos and photos, and enhanced navigation. The Times app is free but the paper is planning a pay model to be released next year. The company said its iPad app will then require a paid subscription.

Wedding publisher The Knot also kicked off an iPad app this month for The Knot Weddings Magazine. Cost is $4.99, half of the newsstand price.

GANNETT PROFIT UP 20.8%

Gannett reported a profit of $101.4M for the third quarter, up 37.5 percent for the same period of 2009. Operating revenues were flat at $1.3 billion.

Gannett said its publishing segment had income of $130.9M in Q3 as revenues fell 4.8% to $969.4M compared with '09. Advertising revenue fell 3.8%, including a 3.2% drop in the U.S. National ads were up 3.3%, but retail (-6%) and classified (-2.1%) adds fell.

Gannett’s broadcasting income, its strongest unit during the quarter, was $66.6M as revenues increased 22.3% to $185.3M over Q3 of 2009. Political ad spending totaled $36.3M to date this year, in-line with the presidential election spending in 2008 and ahead of 2006's cycle.

Digital operations posted $157.7M in revenue, up 10.3% over 2009 on the strength of its CareerBuilder and PointRoll units. Measuring digital revenue in its digital properties and those posted by other business segments, Gannett said it earned $255.7M, up 9.9% over 2009. That’s about 19 percent of its total operating revenue.

ADLER ADDS TW COMMS. HAND

Kyle Giunta, a communications coordinator for Time Warner, has joined former TW corporate comms. chief Edward Adler at MediaLink, which has offices in New York and Los Angeles.

Giunta will help Adler develop a strategic communications practice at MediaLink and will oversee day-to-day management of various accounts.

Adler said Giunta’s experience in new media is particularly valuable to the project.

PR FIRMS OF THE INC. 5000

Several PR agencies were named to Inc. Magazine’s 2010 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies for the second straight year.

Representing PR on the list are MarketWave, Dallas (1,441); San Francisco-based WCG, formerly WeissComm Group (1,463); Miami-based Max Borges Agency (1,656); Hellerman Baretz Communications (1,773) of D.C.; Dukas PR, New York (2,065); LaunchSquad, San Francisco (2,090); Dodge Comms., Roswell, Ga. (2,703), Lambert, Edwards & Assocs., Grand Rapids, Mich., (2,799); Voce Communications, Sunnyvale, Calif., (3,122); Nyhus Comms., Seattle (3,251); Allison & Partners, San Francisco, (3,346); Makovsky + Company, New York, (3,417); Spark PR, San Francisco (3,500); Peppercom, New York (3,627); rbb PR, Coral Gables, Fla. (3,760); Adfero Group, D.C. (3,834); CJP Comms., New York (3,847); Levick Strategic Comms., D.C. (3,875); Fraser Comms., Los Angeles (3,915); The Lavidge Company, Phoenix (3,960); Arketi Group, Atlanta (4,273); Lopez Negrete Comms., Houston (4,444); APCO Worldwide, D.C. (4,469); Meritt Group, Reston, Va. (4,509); Krupp Kommunications, New York (4,725); Vladimir Jones, Colorado Springs (4,917), and Schneider Assocs., Boston (4,946).

Said Inc. president Bob LaPointe: “The leaders of the companies on this year’s Inc. 5000 have figured out how to grow their businesses during the longest recession since the Great Depression.”

STUDY: NO COMMITMENT TO ‘GO GREEN’

Gibbs & Soell found in its 2010 Sense & Sustainability survey that U.S. consumers and Fortune 1000 executives doubt there is widespread commitment to “go green.”

G&S reports that only 29% of executives and 16% of consumers believe that a majority of businesses are committed to "going green," althoughm executives (54%) and consumers (48%) believe "some" businesses are committed to that task.

The online study was conducted in July 2010 by Harris Interactive among 2,605 U.S. adults and 304 Fortune 1000 executives.

Ron Loch, senior VP-greentech and sustainability practice, Gibbs & Soell said the “general skepticism" represents a “critical communications challenge” for business leaders.

Executives cited insufficient return on investment (78%), consumers' unwillingness to pay a premium for green products or services (71%), and difficulty in evaluating sustainability across a product life cycle (45%) as the top barriers to more businesses going green.

More than two-thirds of executives (69%) indicated their companies have people responsible for sustainability or green initiatives, but most have added responsibilities for such efforts to the primary duties of a team of individuals (35%), or a C-suite or senior level position (15%). Only about one in 10 say they have a C-suite or senior level post solely for sustainability (12%), while 31% said there is no one at their organization who is primarily or partially responsible for green initiatives.

KEF REBRANDS AS 25TH ANNIV. NEARS

KEF Media CEO Kevin Foley has rebranded his Atlanta-based broadcast PR firm as it looks ahead to next year’s 25th anniversary.

It has unveiled a sleeker logo and a redesigned website, offering “one-stop shopping” for those seeking a broadcast PR partner, says Foley. KEF Media also officially dropped “Associates” from its name.

Foley has turned over day-to-day operation of the firm to newly appointed co-presidents Yvonne Goforth-Hanak and Linda Buckley. Goforth-Hanak joined KEF in 2001 as assistant producer. Buckley worked with her in the PR department of Universal Studios before moving to KEF in 2004.

Foley will keep busy on client/creative consulting and business matters.

KEF has also appointed Julie Longino and Mark Edwards as VPs in the digital and media practices, respectively.

Longino was a freelance web designer, while Edwards worked as a sports and news anchor/reporter.

NOVITA HAS ONLINE VNR SERVICE

Ernest Landante, Jr., president of East Brunswick, N.J.-based Novita Issue Communications, has launched Online VNR, a turnkey video production unit for online VNRs.

Landante said the VNRs are reported by an Emmy award-winning TV news reporter and "look and sound exactly" like a 1.5-to-two-minute television news story. Each package includes interview sound bites of client spokespeople and B-roll of the client's facility or event. SEO services are also available.

Landante said online VNRs appear on YouTube, iTunes, Facebook, or on clients’ websites, among other outlets. Mass.-based Flimp Media is partner for the service.

PACE PRODUCES APP FOR CVB

Greensboro, N.C.-based custom publisher Pace Communications has produced a smartphone and tablet PC app for the Santa Barbara Conference & Visitors Bureau and Film Commission to tout the city's culinary and wine scene.

The app, a companion piece to the CVB's print magazine, Sip & Savor, includes listings for restaurants, wineries, vineyards, wine shops, specialty food stores, in addition to lodging and entertainment options. It also includes editorial content from the magazine.

The free app works on devices like iPhones, iPads and Android phones.

NFB SCORES WITH DIGITAL RELEASE

VNR-1 Communications, Arlington, Tex., handled a digital news release campaign for the National Federation of the Blind’s “Driver Challenge” across the Internet, radio and TV.

Anil Lewis, director of strategic communications for the NFB, said the digital release recorded millions of hits and maximized media exposure while still allowing the group to control the message.

JOELE FRANK, ABERNATHY LEAD M&A FIRMS

Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher and Abernathy MacGregor Group were the top PR firms in the U.S. M&A sector for the first three quarters of 2010 as ranked by value of deals and quantity of transactions, respectively, according to mergermarket.

Joele Frank counseled 59 deals totaling $99.6 billion during that period, including advising CenturyLink in its April $22B acquisition of Qwest Communications, and working the nearly $9 billion acquisition of Allegheny Energy by FirstEnergy Corp. in February.

Abernathy MacGregor Group, meanwhile, worked 73 deals so far this year, ahead of Kekst and Company (70), Joele Frank (59), FD (58) and Brunswick Group (47). All five of those top firms by volume posted double-digit increases from the same period of 2009, including a 32-deal increase for AMG and increase of 23 and 20, respectively, for Joele Frank and Brunswick. Deal count is up more than 25% this year over '09, according to mergermarket.

Despite those gains, U.S. M&A activity by value is down 1.6% from 2009 levels, the research company said, and U.S. share in global activity fell from 43% last year to 33.9% this year.

Sard Verbinnen & Company worked 46 deals worth $66.8 billion during the period, landing it fourth in the value ranking. The firm was also PR counsel to MetLife in its $15.5B bid for American Life Insurance Company, the second largest deal of the year behind the CenturyLink bid. Kekst repped American Life in the March deal.

Globally, Brunswick is leading M&A firm through three quarters by value ($224B) and No. 2 in deal count (131). FD leads global firms by deal count with 156 through Q3.

Global M&A totaled more than $1.4 trillion through Q3 of 2010, up 25% from the same period of 2009. Deal count was up 18% at 8,102.

STANTON GUIDES GYMBOREE DEAL

Stanton PR and Marketing is guiding Bain Capital’s $1.8B acquisition of Gymboree in a deal well received on Wall Street.

The $65.40 offering represents a 58% premium over the Sept. 30 closing when takeover speculation first surfaced.

The Wall Street Journal reported the deal signals the willingness of Bain to “pay a premium for a brand that has a loyal following.” The New York Times believes the premium reflects “how private equity firms valued debt-free, cash-rich specialty retailers like Gymboree.”

San Francisco-based Gymboree is headed by Matthew McCauley and has more than 1,000 stores in the U.S., Canada and Australia.

Its “play and music classes” are available in more than 600 franchised and company-operated centers in 30 countries. It was the success of those classes that put Gymboree into the specialty retail sector.

Gymboree earned $110M on $1B revenue for the fiscal year ended July.

Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher repped Gymboree in the deal.

KETCHUM CROWDSOURCES W/ STUDENTS

Ketchum has unveiled a four-month pilot program to “crowdsource” creative ideas for PR services for its clients from students in the U.S., U.K. and Asia.

Client Wendy's is using the service, called Mindfire, for a new product launch.

Participating schools include Bournemouth Univ. (U.K.), Univ. of Colorado at Boulder, Cornell Univ., New York Univ., Carnegie Mellon Univ. and The Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong.

“We’re increasingly seeing a desire among our clients for a steady stream of new and creative ideas, along with a willingness to accept good ideas from any part of the marketing discipline,” said chief information officer Andy Roach, who oversaw Mindfire’s development with partner and chief innovation officer Karen Strauss.

The brain trust includes a pool of 125 participants registered at the schools during a four-month pilot phase of the program, Ketchum said.

The students will receive career coaching, personalized training, job alerts and prizes provided by clients.

Ketchum said if a student's idea is adopted it will work with the individual to determine if they will help execute the program, in which case they will be compensated.

The agency also said it will donate to Room to Read, which buys books for children in the developing world, for every idea posted from the Mindfire program.

EBAY VET JOINS F-H

Richard Kanareck, ex-communications director for eBay’s European operation, is the new managing director of Fleishman-Hillard's London office.

At eBay, Kanareck was in charge of the online auction house's repositioning campaign in a dozen markets.

F-H CEO Dave Senay says Kanareck’s hire is part of his firm’s effort to offer integrated global communications packages to its clients. Kanareck will work to make sure that clients are “completely at home in the digital world.”

The ex-eBay staffer has 15 years of PR experience and reports to Kevin Bell, regional president of F-H's U.K., Africa and Middle East operations.

JUNIPER HIRES EX-HPer

David Shane, who left H-P as VP/corporate communications in August, has been named to that same title at networking products and services giant Juniper Networks.

HP brought in Bloomberg reporter Connie Gulgielmo in the VP post in August as the company was in the spotlight amid the ouster of CEO Mark Hurd.

Shane, who had been consulting, is a former Weber Shandwick VP who worked on the corporate side at ICM, Tivo and Comcast. WS works with Juniper.

At the networking services company, he handles media and analyst relations, social media and executive communications, in addition to global comms.

He reports to chief marketing officer Lauren Flaherty.

Juniper, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., posted sales of $3.3 billion in 2009.

APR Fans Routed Unbelievers at the PRSA Assembly Oct. 16.

They trounced delegates who would open seats on the national board to the general membership.

The vote was 172-104 against an amendment that would let non-APRs on the board as long as they had either 20 years in ever-higher PR posts or Society leadership posts.

Needed to achieve a two-thirds majority were 184 votes.

Delegates had buried a motion for a roll call vote on the amendment by voting 233-45 against it.

This undemocratic action blocks members from knowing how their elected delegates voted.

The Committee for a Democratic PRSA (CDP) should push for publication of how the delegates voted. The CDP needs to know where the strongholds of APR are.
Leaders can get permission from this by doing an electronic poll or having a teleconference. There is a chronic neglect of modern communications tools at the Society.

The only ones having this priceless political knowledge now are the board and some staff members.

No Compromise Was Offered

A "compromise amendment" (discussed in a e-group) that would have added one more qualification was not put up.

Parliamentarian Colette Trohan had said in a two-page memo that she would rule "out of order" any such attempt because "scope of notice" would be violated.

Delegates shut off debate after a half hour by the margin of 181-93.

Applause greeted a delegate who said taking the APR exam should not be a barrier to anyone who wants to serve. Letting someone on the national board who has only been on a local committee one year and who is not APR "does not serve the best interests of the Society," the delegate said. Non-APRs were accused of "lack of commitment."

Stevens, Lewton Lead Amendment Supporters

Art Stevens of the CDP and Kathy Lewton of the WestFair chapter led those in support of the motion.

One delegate noted that Lewton had posted more than 10,000 words in the governance e-group on the issue.

Both said it was unfair to deny full membership rights to more than 16,000 members.

Stevens, interviewed during a break in the afternoon session, said those who wanted to open national posts to all members reminded him of President Reagan vowing to tear down the Berlin Wall.

APR is the Society's own "Berlin Wall" and it must come down in order to bring democracy and freedom to the group, he said.

The delegates, he added, unwittingly insulted many corporate and agency executives by saying they are unworthy to be in national Society leadership.

"These are the very people that many in this room want to obtain jobs and accounts from," he noted. The delegates behaved "in a very short-sighted manner," he said.

20 Delegates Give Us Their Pens

While talking to Stevens, about 20 delegates formed a line and began presenting us with their pens.

Delegates were borrowing a custom from Princeton University which was portrayed in the movie, "A Beautiful Mind." Thomas Nash (played by Russell Crowe) is presented with pens at a faculty club lunch by fellow professors as a gesture of support and respect.

One of the delegates said our coverage of the Society had achieved a "flashpoint" in blogville (gone viral).

Delegates were aware that we were the only reporter at the Assembly and also that we had been denied admittance to the Assembly lunch.

We tried to enter but Society VP-PR Arthur Yann blocked the way. Delegates saw this and also our attempts to win some support from former Society President Judith Phair and current Tri-State director Lynn Appelbaum.

Both said they were helpless to do anything. Yann said it was the board's decision to block us from attending the Assembly lunch although this has happened only once before in 40 years-the 2007 lunch presided over by Jeff Julin when the Strategic Plan was being discussed.

We asked both Phair and Appelbaum, "Who is in charge of the Society-the staff or the members?"

Yann could give us no reason for being blocked from the lunch.

He had also tightened press restrictions, saying no photos at all were allowed of the Assembly, even when it was not in session. He sat close by for most of the Assembly to insure we did not take pictures or record anything.

Roll Call Vote Defeated

Making the motion for a roll call vote was Michael McDougall of Bausch & Lomb who also specified that the results be available "within 24 hours."

McDougall, a supporter of non-APRs on the board in the Society e-group, reiterated his view that the entire board of PRSA appears to be in violation of the "Usage Guidance" of the Universal Accreditation Board because it has used APR for "competitive purposes" (eliminating competition from 80% of the members).

UAB is supposed to remove APR from anyone who does that but UAB chair Anne Dubois said "competition" only refers to competition for jobs and accounts. McDougall rejected this argument.

PRSA members comprise a majority on the UAB.

Lauri-Ellen Smith, special assistant to the sheriff in Jacksonville and chair of the PA & Government Section, said that her "credibility goes up" whenever she mentions her APR in a business situation.

"APR shows I'm committed to my profession," she said.

Such remarks could be interpreted as using APR in a competitive business situation.

McCullough Sees "Emperor's Clothes"

Daryl McCullough, CEO of Paine PR, Irvine, Calif., said it was about time someone told the Assembly the truth about itself-like the boy who told the emperor he had "no clothes."

"This Assembly is in crisis of relevance," he said.

"To have 16,000 of your own members disenfranchised is not something to be proud of but to be embarrassed by. You have shown yourself to be an insular group."

McCullough said his firm has 85 staffers and he does not look for APRs. In fact, he said, APRs perform less well than non-APRs.

During a discussion on the future of APR, one delegate said that since the current test seems to target junior PR people (21 chapters of two college textbooks are recommended as study materials), there might be two levels of APR-a "junior APR" for those who take the current test and a "senior APR" for those further ahead in their career ladders who take a different test.

— Jack O'Dwyer