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February 14, 2000 Issue of PRWeek

Gateway adopts new grass-roots strategy

SAN DIEGO: In a move that shatters the traditional hi-tech client/agency model, Gateway made its long-awaited choice of PR firm last week, appointing Stoorza, Ziegaus & Metzger ...

Yahoo! surveys contenders for coveted dollars 2m account

SAN JOSE, CA: Yahoo!, the bluest of Internet blue-chips and one of the most coveted accounts in Silicon Valley, has been shopping all or part of its ...

Siegel, Grubman in merger rumor

NEW YORK: New York-based media and gossip columnists may soon have to update their Rolodexes. Two of the city’s best and best-known PR women, Lizzie Grubman and ...

Industry shows a rapid rise in pros

WASHINGTON, DC: The number of US PR pros is rising at a far faster rate than other marketing disciplines, according to figures released this week.

News Briefs

WASHINGTON, DC: Mike Hardiman, formerly a press secretary and policy director for Rep. Richard Pombo, has moved over to the agency side of the business, forming Hardiman ...

Hard Rock Cafe reviews PR strategy as industry sags

ORLANDO: Hoping to distinguish itself within the sagging theme-restaurant industry, the Hard Rock Cafe is midway through a review of its dollars 1 million PR account. A ...

Della.com swaps Ogilvy for Red Whistle

SAN FRANCISCO: Della.com, the online bridal and gift registry formerly known as Della & James, has shifted its nearly dollars 500,000 account from Alexander Ogilvy to Red ...

BSMG elevates LA prez to new post

LOS ANGELES: BSMG has promoted Joseph Kessler to spearhead the firm’s US western region operations.

Nexgenix devotes dollars 10m to branding

IRVINE, CA: Nexgenix, an Orange County-based Internet business-to-business consulting and services provider, has launched a dollars 10 million integrated branding campaign - more than dollars 500,000 of which ...

NASCAR hires Danielle Humphrey as manager of communications

DAYTONA BEACH, FL: NASCAR is revving up its PR engine once again.

Gavin Anderson in top brass shuffle

NEW YORK: Gavin Anderson took a big step towards streamlining its upper hierarchy last week, promoting Richard Constant to CEO.

BellSouth merges PR under VP Pate

ATLANTA: Following the layoff of nearly 3,000 employees, BellSouth has finalized its long-rumored centralization of all internal and external communications.

Mid-level pros scoop up 35% salary hikes as industry explodes

NEW YORK: Mid-level PR job-hoppers garnered salary increases of as much as 35% in 1999, but the salary explosion should ease somewhat this year.

eLogo.com lures GCI marketing star Stanmyre to tech hub Austin

NEW YORK: Another agency marketing maven has flown the coop to join the dot-com parade.

Dot-com pros enter crisis mode as hackers hit sites

BOSTON: The PR departments of some of the nation’s top Internet companies were forced into full crisis mode last week as hackers attacked their sites, leaving some ...

Powell Tate executive exodus shadows Shandwick

WASHINGTON, DC: Last fall’s acquisition of the Cassidy Companies by Shandwick has has resulted in something of a staff exodus, with at least eight senior execs - ...

State Department top voice Rubin to step down in April

WASHINGTON, DC: The State Department’s PR operation is preparing for a changing of the guard, with top voice James Rubin last week announcing his intention to step ...

Duffey picked to hype Atlan-tech

ATLANTA: The Atlanta Chamber of Commerce has tapped Duffey Communications for a dollars 250,000 media relations campaign designed to hype the city as a hi-tech hotbed. Duffey ...

Euro RSCG acquires Dutch firm Bikker

ROTTERDAM: Euro RSCG Worldwide instantly became a major player in the Dutch market last week by acquiring Bikker Communications, one of the Netherlands’ largest independent shops.

Group raises dollars 80m, eyes PR agencies

LONDON: A consortium of venture capitalists that includes both private investors and High Street banks has raised more than dollars 80 million to finance what will likely ...

Gavin goes dot-com with Alibaba

HONG KONG : Alibaba.com, a business-to-business web site backed by Japan’s Softbank Corp., has handed its six-figure global corporate PR account to Gavin Anderson after a three-way ...

H&K ups Lat Am presence

MEXICO CITY: Hill & Knowlton/ Mexico has upped its Latin American tech presence with the acquisition of PREMIO.

CA tech vet shuts door of chip shop

CAMPBELL, CA: Dumping the decidedly unsexy world of semiconductor PR to jump on the dot-com bandwagon, Silicon Valley veteran Susan Cain has closed Cain Communications, a firm ...

Studies analyze automakers’ Web PR efforts

DETROIT: The Internet sites of auto manufacturers do not have to be a PR wasteland.

Library group’s DC branch taps first pro to fight back

WASHINGTON, DC: Facing heat from conservative critics, the American Library Association (ALA) is searching for its first-ever press officer in its DC outpost.

In Brief

NEW YORK: New York City Transit has tapped Albert O’Leary as VP of public affairs. O’Leary, who joined NYCT in 1987, will manage all public and employee ...

Discovery’s top voice quits, joins start-up

HERNDON, VA: Discovery Communications’ PR operation was thrown into flux earlier this month when longtime communications chief Jim Boyle jumped ship to an Internet start-up.

Epinions takes on Alexander Ogilvy

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA: Epinions.com, a months-old start-up recently graduated from SparkPR’s dot-com stable, has tapped Alexander Ogilvy as its new PR firm of record.

Arthur Andersen embarks on dollars 2m rebranding effort

CHICAGO: The ’Big Five’ consultancies have not traditionally been known for the way they market themselves. Last week, Arthur Andersen gave another sign that this is about ...

QuickTake offers Internet surveys

WILTON, CT: Companies searching for a way to gauge consumer opinion and measure the impact of PR now have another option to costly, time-consuming surveys.

Access to cable system spurs an Internet battle in Massachusetts

BOSTON: The debate over open access is heating up in Massachusetts, where two coalitions with similar names and very different stances are going head-to-head.

Walt & Company seizes NEC PR biz

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA: NEC, which axed its Packard Bell brand in the US and laid off 1,400 employees last fall, has finally hired an agency to handle ...

Compuware taps PR newcomer to fill top position

FARMINGTON HILLS, MI: Compuware has looked outside the PR profession to fill its top communications slot. The software giant appointed Beth Chappell as EVP, a post in ...

Military medical provider recruits Dittus for PR push

WASHINGTON, DC: The Uniformed Services Family Health Plan (USFHP) has put its PR trust in Dittus Communications, handing the agency dollars 150,000 for an awareness campaign.

Gore gets positive press for new style

NASHUA, NH: Smart shifts in campaign strategy have begun to pay off for Al Gore in great PR that advertising can’t buy.

Editorial: Can Straight Talk avoid a spin out?

When John McCain arrived in South Carolina in the wee hours of the morning earlier this month after his upset victory over Gov. George W Bush, a ...

The Big Pitch: Which presidential candidate is doing the best job of public relations so far?

Gene Reineke

Analysis: Campaign 2000 - Can McCain’s PR spoil a party’s coronation?/John McCain scored a stunning landslide upset in New Hampshire, and many Beltway insiders credit his PR strategy as a major factor. But will the ’Straight Talk E

The promise that ’the last shall come first’ may guarantee admittance into Heaven, but not victory in the New Hampshire primary.

Thinkpiece: The ’genetically modified’ food industry needs some savvy PR to reverse negative perceptions

A coalition of consumer activist and environmental groups are targeting genetically modified (GM) foods, with the goal of severely restricting their use. I have spent more than ...

Inside The Beltway: Is the fine line between advertising, marketing and entertainment to be erased once again?

It begins to look as though advertising and entertainment - Madison Avenue and Hollywood - are embarking on a new adventure, not Back to the Future, but ...

Client Profile: UPS delivers on plan to restructure its PR - Now a publicly traded dollars 27 billion transportation powerhouse, UPS is well aware of the power of PR as a corporate tool. But it endured a rather rough lesson to reach that realization. Tony

Sometimes the tortoise does win the race. A little more than a decade ago, few companies would have seemed less prepared for 21st-century dominance than United Parcel ...

Analysis: Profile - Conafay: Shandwick NY’s healthcare tonic/Watching Stephen Conafay adjust the straps of his crowing rooster suspenders, it becomes clear that the big hitter doesn’t take himself too seriously. But he’s the man wi

Stephen Conafay has worked in the healthcare business for most of his business life. And when he took over Shandwick’s New York offices in May of 1998, ...

Weekly Web Watch: DoubleClick faces reputation challenge over privacy issues

Just when you thought it had gone away, the issue of privacy is coming back to haunt the online industry. Over the past few weeks the Internet ...

InStyle celebrity mag revels in its solid success

InStyle magazine is on top of its game and being taken very seriously as a credible source of positive Hollywood and celebrity news. Claire Atkinson reports.

Media Watch: Super Bowl advertisers ’dropped the ball’ Sunday

Last year, only three dot-coms advertised during the Super Bowl.

Asian Americans: an untapped gold mine - Asian Americans are more affluent than any other group in America. But marketers - and PR pros - still tend to ignore them. As Kris Oser reports, that’s a mistake

The Asian-American market is a gold mine, say the public relations professionals who tap it. But for most, it is still an untapped treasure.

Market Focus Tennessee: The New Twang of Tennessee PR - Tennessee is home to Elvis, barbecue and Music City. As Alan Salomon reports, it also has an eclectic PR market being energized by the new sports scene

Tennessee’s economy is in its eighth year of unprecedented growth, job creation is strong, unemployment is less than 4% and confidence among consumers is at an all-time ...

PR Technique: Newswires - Working with the wires - and their newfangled offerings [SH] Newswires now offer countless ways to slice and dice your message. As Craig McGuire reports, the first step in working with them is knowing who you need to reach.

When Herbert Muschel launched PR Newswire in 1954 and Lorry Lokey started Business Wire in 1961, having such ready access to newsrooms was a big deal for ...