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May 22, 2000 Issue of PRWeek

Edelman and Rowland deal rumored to be in the works

NEW YORK: Edelman is nearing a deal to add Rowland Communications Worldwide to its arsenal, sources told PRWeek last week.

Ernst & Young grabs H&K

NEW YORK: On the verge of selling off its consulting business to French IT giant Cap Gemini, Ernst & Young has parted ways with The Weber Group ...

F-H nabs coveted Yahoo! business

SANTA CLARA, CA: Ending months of speculation, Yahoo! officially introduced Fleishman-Hillard as its new agency of record last week.

Rudy’s woes spell opportunity to pros

NEW YORK: New York mayor Rudy Giuliani might appear to be crumbling beneath the weight of personal problems and professional tribulations. But to hear PR pros tell ...

Ruder Finn enters Boston market

NEEDHAM, MA: Ruder Finn has made its long-awaited move into hi-tech hotbed Boston, tapping former Reebok director of global PR Nancy Moss to lead the New England ...

GM drives to unify PR team with in-house restructure

DETROIT: Hoping to streamline its mammoth in-house operation, General Motors is reorganizing its PR staff.

PR Play of the Week - Red Lobster rolls out 40-ft. shellfish

A 3,000-pound lobster washed up on Manhattan’s South Street Seaport last Wednesday morning - well, sort of. Get out the lobster bibs, a vat of butter and ...

NEWS BRIEFS

NEW YORK: Law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan has named Gary Gerard as its chief marketing officer. In the newly created post, Gerard will oversee PR, ...

NTSB adopts revised post-crash guidelines, cites media pressure

WASHINGTON, DC: In the hours following a plane crash, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the affected airline often struggle independently to handle the media crush. ...

Kundred departs Weber, rejoins F-H

SAN FRANCISCO: Weber Group Bay Area GM Curt Kundred has left the firm to rejoin Fleishman-Hillard’s West Coast hi-tech charge.

Internet Wire ups service offerings

LOS ANGELES: Hoping to position itself as an across-the-board challenger to PR Newswire and Business Wire, Internet Wire has inked a number of deals to bolster the ...

Critics question PR tactics of ’Million Mom’ marchers

WASHINGTON, DC: Although the Million Mom March (MMM) on Washington received generous amounts of media coverage, critics of the event suggested last week that the PR behind ...

Glaxo Wellcome’s Lotronex account finds home at F-H

WASHINGTON, DC: Glaxo Wellcome has handed a high-six-figure assignment to promote Lotronex, a new irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) treatment, to Fleishman-Hillard.

Dodge taps two firms for NASCAR return

AUBURN HILLS, MI: Dodge is returning to the NASCAR circuit after a 20-year absence, and parent company DaimlerChrysler has taken the unusual step of asking two of ...

Cable giant lures CNBC pro for PR, IR

ST. LOUIS: Charter Communications, the country’s fourth-largest cable system, has jump-started its effort to improve its PR and IR by hiring former CNBC top dog David Andersen.

Burson launches b-to-b specialty

NEW YORK: Burson-Marsteller has formally launched its Business to Business Specialty Group, a new arm designed to address the needs of fledgling tech start-ups.

Argentine gov’t scrambles for Expo2000 PR

BUENOS AIRES: With only days remaining before the start of Expo2000 in Germany, the Argentine government has summoned six PR firms to vie for its media relations ...

Research charity taps first PR head

LONDON: The Wellcome Trust, the world’s biggest medical research charity, has tapped Trish Evans as its first head of communications.

BSMG acquires pub affairs agency GJW for dollars 12 million

LONDON: BSMG emerged triumphant in the GJW derby last week, purchasing the UK’s largest independent public affairs and lobbying shop for nearly dollars 12 million.

Home Depot drops its Argentine firm

BUENOS AIRES: Just weeks before the opening of its first store in Argentina, Home Depot has decided not to renew its contract with local PR firm Aja ...

McDonald’s hires new Turkish voice

ISTANBUL: Hoping to bolster its presence in a burgeoning market, McDonald’s/Turkey has hired Serap Gokcebay as communications and PR manager and has launched a search for an ...

Text 100 receives Sendmail’s PR biz

EMERYVILLE, CA: Just three months after hiring UpStart Communications, Sendmail has shifted its estimated dollars 500,000 corporate and product PR account to Text 100’s San Francisco office.

WeberMcGinn, Weber PR Worldwide attempt to silence rumors

ARLINGTON, VA: While the shift of WeberMcGinn litigation practice chief Don Goldberg over to Weber PR Worldwide’s hi-tech group has been interpreted as a sign of trouble ...

Government seeks agency for laundering campaign

WASHINGTON, DC: The US government is trying to make it harder for the bad guys to launder money - and is turning to the PR community ...

DC-area firms combine hi-tech, IR capabilities in strategic alliance

SILVER SPRING, MD: Hoping to take advantage of the rich hi-tech climate in and around the nation’s capital, the Strategic Communications Group (SCG) and the Investor Communications ...

Woolf CEO leaves, firm seeks head

WOBURN, MA: Following last Friday’s departure of president and CEO Larry Moulter, sports and entertainment marketing shop Woolf Associates has been left scrambling for a replacement.

Ford issues environment ’mea culpa’

DETROIT: Ford’s environmental mea culpa at its annual shareholders meeting earlier this month has left many automotive observers crowing about the company’s commitment to the environment - ...

Coke admits to bungling Euro contamination crisis

DETROIT: Admitting publicly for the first time what the company’s critics have been saying for over a year, a top Coca-Cola PR exec has conceded that the ...

Weber spin-off Red Whistle blows into Boston PR fray

BOSTON: Just when it looked as if the Interpublic Group had enough PR agencies in Boston, Weber Group spin-off Red Whistle Communications has decided to enter the ...

IN BRIEF

HOUSTON: Hill & Knowlton has named Max Watson as GM of its Houston office. He replaces Sarah Peterson, who left to become VP of corporate communications at ...

Low-Power Radio Coalition turns up PR volume in its fight against NAB

WASHINGTON, DC: Attempting to mobilize support for the continued existence of low-power stations, PR pros for the Low-Power Radio Coalition (LPRC) have revved up a guerrilla PR ...

Excite@Home hits media trail to combat PacBell ad

SAN FRANCISCO: What can a company do when a competitor’s high-profile TV commercials shred the image of its flagship product? And what can the competitor do when ...

Editorial: Cancer, infidelity and a PR windfall

From afar, New York mayor Rudy Giuliani might look like a nuclear meltdown in progress. He has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, his marriage is crumbling in ...

The Big Pitch: How should Giuliani maintain his reputation in the wake of his personal turmoil?

Hank Sheinkopf

BIOTECH PR: The battle of biotech arrives on US shores - Bruised and battered in Europe, the biotech industry is desperate to fare better in the US. The major players are in a race with public interest groups that pits education against activism

Pledging not to repeat past mistakes, the biotechnology industry has amassed its forces for an extensive PR campaign in the US. Bolstered by bipartisan political support, its ...

THINKPIECE: As PR graduates enter the workplace, remember this: your real education is only just beginning

Because many among them will graduate soon, I recently spoke to members of the University of Nevada PRSA Student Society about what I thought they should expect ...

INSIDE THE BELTWAY: The most we can hope to learn from Giuliani’s mess is that the time for media restraint is here

For all this time people were wondering how she could go through a long campaign for the Senate seat in New York (of all places) with ...

CLIENT PROFILE: The NTSB takes Flight 800 lessons to heart - Many PR pros consider themselves crisis experts, but a stock’s plunge is child’s play compared to a 747’s. The public affairs staff at the National Transportation Safety

On the evening of July 17, 1996, TWA Flight 800 soared above the coast of Long Island. Seconds later it was gone, exploded in mid-air.

PROFILE: For Spaeth, all the world is a stage (for PR) - Child actress, White House PR operative, crisis guru - Merrie Spaeth has played many roles. But as she will certainly tell you, it’s not so much what you say when you’re on stage but

Merrie Spaeth may not have done it all, but Lifetime would have trouble squeezing her biography into a two-hour TV movie. Then again, her life might lack ...

WEEKLY WEB WATCH: Athletes Direct virtually allows fans to touch their sports idols

Remember that quote from bright young tennis star Anna Kournikova, along the lines of ’topless players are the future of women’s tennis’?

MEDIA: Literate’Company’ keeps New York tuned in - WNYC’s New York & Company may not have high ratings, but its high- culture subject matter attracts the right demographic for many publicists. Claire Atkinson reports

New York’s WNYC-AM attracts just under a half-million listeners per week, making it the highest-rated public radio station in the country. The station carries the usual mix ...

MEDIA WATCH: Downloadable music debate heats up in the media

Downloading music directly over the Internet is quick, easy and free. It’s said to have become one of the Internet’s most popular activities, with software companies like ...

MAKING CHARITY PAY: Companies such as Microsoft are becoming more strategic in the way they donate money, goods and services to charity - But is it worth the effort? Can charity buy a corporate image? Steve Lilienthal investigates

Quick. Name a company today grappling with severe image issues.

MARKET FOCUS: SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco’s moment of truth. San Francisco has a PR market to envy, not to mention skyrocketing costs, a revolving-door labor pool and hyperactive account churn. Aimee Grove reports

As the epicenter of Internet enterprise and home to many of the world’s corporate leaders, it’s not surprising San Francisco has emerged as one of the most ...

PR TECHNIQUE: MEDIA RELATIONS - Attention! How to get on journalists’ radar screens. With the proliferation of media outlets, there are more places than ever to place stories. But that doesn’t mean getting journalists’ attention ha

If knowledge is power and time is money, few professions endure greater imbalance than journalism. Reporters wielding the might of the pen suffer acutely from information overload, ...