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August 09, 1999 Issue of PRWeek

Lighthouse: dollars 65m for Financial Dynamics

CHICAGO: In a deal that adds PR and investor communications to an already stacked financial consulting operation, Lighthouse Holdings has bought Financial Dynamics, a British strategic communications ...

Texas schools diffuse bomb threat with PR

ALLEN, TX: A North Texas school district plagued by bomb threats following the Littleton, CO, tragedy has hired a PR firm to avoid repeating the media relations ...

Four finalists fight for tobacco work

WASHINGTON, DC: As the American Legacy Foundation marches towards the selection of a marketing agency for its dollars 300 million per year anti-tobacco campaign, the short list ...

Virgin PR team down to one assistant

WESTPORT, CT: Virgin Atlantic may have struck marketing gold with its Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me tie-in, but its US communications department has quietly weathered ...

Agnew on verge of global buyout

BOSTON: Agnew, Carter, McCarthy (ACM) is apparently set to become the next Boston PR firm to be swallowed up by an international agency.

NEWS BRIEFS

ALBANY: Sawchuk, Brown Associates has strengthened its corporate and technology practice group with the hiring of Jo Ann LeSage as a senior counselor. Previously, LeSage was communications ...

SmartAge seeks shop to ’tell its story’

SAN FRANCISCO: Internet start-up SmartAge.com, which recently made Upside Magazine’s list of the ’Hot 100 Private Companies,’ is on the hunt for a full-service PR firm.

KVO leaves Boston due to slow growth

BOSTON: KVO Public Relations has pulled out of Boston, confirming that while the hi-tech PR market may be booming, Boston remains a tough nut to crack.

AtCall grabs Aker in four-way pitch

WASHINGTON, DC: AtCall, a Virginia-based telecom firm that provides long-distance phone service and prepaid telephone calling cards, has hired The Aker Partners for publicity and corporate communications.

Have fax? Your press release will travel

NEW YORK: If you want to get your clients onto the international business pages, be sure not to abuse journalists’ e-mail addresses.

Anti-drug effort starts next phase

WASHINGTON, DC: PR found its way into the Oval Office last week, as President Clinton held a White House briefing to unveil the third phase of the ...

Kearney looking to hire super pros

CHICAGO: Golin/Harris alum Paul Raab, recently named director of corporate public relations for consulting giant A.T. Kearney, is searching for two senior level PR pros to help ...

Grubman pro out, opens own shop

NEW YORK: Lizzie Grubman, one of the publicists profiled in the now-infamous New York magazine article about young PR pros, has lost one of her own young ...

Manning secures Motorola business

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA: Manning Selvage & Lee has won a major PR assignment from the Networking and Computing Systems Group of electronics giant Motorola.

FitzGerald beats out West Coast trio for hi-tech work

SAN FRANCISCO: Just months after snagging Fleishman-Hillard’s John Berard to head up West Coast operations, Cambridge-based FitzGerald Communications has hit the West Coast business jackpot.

Lobby-group PR head departs as work visa expires

WASHINGTON, DC: A work visa is causing a shakeup in the communications office of Public Citizen (PC), the citizen’s lobby founded by consumer activist Ralph Nader.

PN scores dollars 750k literacy job under new state head

SACRAMENTO: In what could be a promising sign for California pros gunning for government marketing contracts, the California Office of the Secretary of Education has selected Porter ...

Expo hall preps to give dollars 100k work

BOSTON: Six Boston-area agencies are vying for a PR contract with a new convention center that isn’t expected to open until 2003.

Siemens PR picks win over 19 firms

AUSTIN: Siemens, the dollars 26 billion communications giant, has chosen the team of Nashville-based Ackermann PR & Marketing and Dallas-based Hopkins & Associates over a host of ...

Sloane gains a VP via Edelman staff

NEW YORK: The personnel shuffle has continued in Edelman’s New York office, with exec Whit Clay leaving the agency to join Sloane & Company.

dollars 4m pet-rescue project kicks Corsi out of PR nest

SAN FRANCISCO: Famed baseball manager Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation has pulled the plug on the Corsi Agency’s PR campaign for its two-month-old Pet Rescue Project ...

Republican reps go home with PR mission on minds

WASHINGTON, DC: Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives will be back home in their districts this week implementing the latest PR plans of the House ...

StarMedia steals away an IR head

NEW YORK: Web portal StarMedia Network has hired Gina Sorice away from Citigate Dewe Rogerson (CDR) to lead its IR department.

Redskins lose no time replacing VP

WASHINGTON, DC: The Washington Redskins moved fast to fill a void in the team’s PR staff, naming John Maroon as VP and director of public and community ...

SCG adds pair of vets for tech work

SILVER SPRING, MD: A spokesperson for the Strategic Communications Group (SCG) recently called Washington, DC ’one of the major hot spots for hi-tech PR.’ And to keep ...

Brigham wins two clients for dollars 100k

WOODLAND HILLS, CA: Brigham Scully, which specializes in PR for the security and factory automation industries, has landed two new accounts worth more than dollars 100,000 in ...

IN BRIEF

ARLINGTON, TX: Texas Health Choice, a managed care organization with more than 130,000 members in Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth, has chosen Blanchard Schaefer as its agency of ...

Ogilvy’s dollars 1m work windfall spurs 16 hires

WASHINGTON, DC: The last days of the second quarter were kind to Ogilvy’s DC office, which brought in more than a million dollars in business from new ...

USPS ’education effort’ for financial freedom irks UPS

WASHINGTON, DC: The United States Postal Service (USPS) has no defense against a federal law preventing it from lobbying, but it’s using some ingenious methods to get ...

Disney Interactive adds to its PR department

BURBANK, CA: Disney Interactive has added another Mouseketeer to its PR department. Leslie Oren joined as director of PR last week from Cohn & Wolfe, where she ...

Springbok launches new hi-tech e-health division

DALLAS: Springbok Technologies last week announced the formation of a healthcare division that will serve two existing clients and reach out to prospects attempting to make their ...

NYS tax office on hunt for director

ALBANY: The New York State Department of Taxation & Finance is scrambling for a director of communications in the wake of Chris McKenna’s departure.

North Sky selects Politis for IPO job

PROVO, UT: North Sky, an Internet holding company for FreeServers.com and Global Servers, announced the selection of Politis Communications as its first-ever full-time PR agency. The account ...

EDITORIAL: Still smashing at the glass ceiling

Trying to find the top 50 most powerful women in PR has proved a fun exercise. As with all such lists, it was, of course, difficult, ...

ANALYSIS: Media Relations - McDonald’s: winning back the media’s love. - McDonald’s has had a lousy relationship with the media for years. Now the Golden Arches is working to change that. John Frank reports

When the discussion of PR’s brand-building power comes up, McDonald’s invariably surfaces as a classic illustration. McDonald’s used PR before advertising to build its image as America’s ...

THINKPIECE: Agencies need to get tough on training their juniors in ’block-and-tackle’public relations

My first boss in PR was a former Marine Corps drill instructor and radio newswriter. He made me rewrite press releases over and over, as many as ...

BELTWAY: The proliferation of media sources has led to news saturation - trouble is, it’s all the same

Old (and some not-so-old) Washington hands who watch the news beats and try to assess where and when the coverage is coming from, are having a harder ...

THE POWER OF PR: POLITICAL PR - LBJ and his power of personal persuasion

The TV camera and Lyndon B. Johnson weren’t always friends. The rough-hewn, yarn-spinning Texan could never measure up to his youthful, martyred predecessor’s video charisma.

WEEKLY WEB WATCH: WWW - E-mail is a cost efficient way to send press releases, but keep your eye on the real target

One of the most obvious uses of the Internet for PR pros is to distribute press releases. There are very few journalists who are not online. And ...

PROFILE: Advocate for a healthier US. An advocate of issues including women’s rights, this pro is waging a war for better nutrition in America. Steve Lilienthal has a healthy lunch with Colleen Dermody

At a Chinese restaurant in Washington’s DuPont Circle, Colleen Dermody is preparing to order from a menu packed with high-fat, salty dishes.

MEDIA PROFILE: A fast guide to your working life. Fast Company is an irreverent companion for the modern worker. Claire Atkinson looks at this rapidly growing title

Fast Company looks like lifestyle magazine Wallpaper, reads like an online advice column and is described by its founders as ’Harvard Business Review meets Rolling Stone.’ Established ...

MEDIA WATCH: Sexual assaults threaten to sink Carnival’s image

The revelation of numerous sexual assaults on board Carnival Cruise Lines’ ships has produced waves of bad publicity for both the company and the industry. Beyond the ...

The 50 most powerful women in PR - Women outnumber men in the PR field, but there are still few at the very top. Just how long will it take for the glass ceiling to shatter? Rebecca Flass investigates

Women dominate men in PR. At least statistically they do, with twice as many women joining the profession as men, according to the 1998 Bureau of Labor ...

MARKET FOCUS: SEATTLE - Northwest explosion. Once better known for forestry and flannel, Seattle is experiencing an unprecedented boom driven by coffee, computers and cash. Aimee Grove reports

Seattle is the city of the moment. The rise of companies like Microsoft, Starbuck’s and Amazon.com and the growing influx of ex-Californians eager to escape clogged freeways ...

PR TECHNIQUE: INFORMATION SERVICES - Beeline to target media. Can media information suppliers help you run the perfect press campaign? Jan Jaben-Eilon discusses the pros and cons of PR pros seeking specialist support

Once, media information services simply provided thick directories of contacts or extensive mailing lists. Now thanks to the growth of technology, directories are evolving into vast electronic ...