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May 29, 2000 Issue of PRWeek

Acquisition-hungry Fleishman gobbles West Coast tech shop KVO

PORTLAND, OR: Fleishman-Hillard continued its torrid acquisition pace last week, snapping up highly regarded Northwest tech shop KVO Public Relations.

IPG anoints Weber to lead dollars 1.3 billion arm

NEW YORK: Larry Weber has long hinted that he was Interpublic’s favorite son. Last week, the communications conglomerate made it official.

’99 PR growth up less than thought

NEW YORK: Double-digit growth in US fee income was no big deal in 1999, but the 30% figure that has been regularly quoted is a falsely inflated ...

PN/DC wins dollars 1.6m per year Faith in Action PR account

WASHINGTON, DC: Faith In Action, a mammoth charitable effort funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has handed its seven-year, dollars 1.6 million-per-year PR account to Porter ...

Lockhart surveys interest from PR firms

NEW YORK: White House press secretary Joe Lockhart was in New York on Friday, May 19 entertaining potential job offers from PR agencies, according to three PRWeek ...

NEWS BRIEFS

NEW HAVEN, CT: Genaissance Pharmaceuticals has lured Paul Oestreicher away from Edelman to serve as its VP of public affairs. Oestreicher, most recently EVP/GM of Edelman’s healthcare ...

Former McCain pro unveils plan for advocacy group

WASHINGTON, DC: Dan Schnur, one of the most eloquent voices for Sen. John McCain’s insurgent presidential campaign earlier this year, reemerged last week with plans for his ...

PR serves strong brands well in market fluctuations

STAMFORD, CT: PR was an essential tool for many public companies attempting to preserve the value of their brands through recent downturns in the market.

PR Play of the Week: Rick Lazio spends week on the town

Ten days ago, Rep. Rick Lazio was a virtual nobody. Today, he’s a somebody.

dollars 2m Iomega biz goes to CA’s Paine

ROY, UT: Concluding a fierce review that included everyone from top national agencies to regional players, Iomega last week handed its multimillion-dollar PR business to Orange County, ...

PR groups look outside to alleviate staffing crunch

NEW YORK: As the agency staffing crunch nears epidemic levels, industry groups are readying a three-pronged effort to recruit mid-career executives from other professions.

Excite@Home to hire firm for consumer business

REDWOOD CITY, CA: Excite@Home, fresh off a media showdown over what it called ’misleading’ TV spots for Pacific Bell’s DSL service (PRWeek, May 22), now has another ...

Agency vet opens his own NY shop

NEW YORK: Thirty-year industry veteran George Rosenberg has struck out on his own, opening his own shop after stints at Burson-Marsteller, Cohn & Wolfe and KCSA Worldwide.

DKA’s Morris lured away by LaForce

NEW YORK: LaForce & Stevens has poached Andrew Morris away from Dan Klores Associates to bolster its hi-tech presence.

Command Audio signs with Burson

REDWOOD CITY, CA: Command Audio, which claims to be the first supplier of on-demand wireless audio content (audio magazine articles, weather), has selected Burson-Marsteller’s San Francisco outpost ...

MusicMatch nabs its own Golin exec

SAN DIEGO: MusicMatch, the maker of best-selling MP3 player MusicMatch Jukebox, has hired away its agency contact from Golin-Harris’ LA office to fill the newly created position ...

W’s camp adds dad’s heavy hitters

AUSTIN: The political rhetoric may not yet be as hot as the Austin weather, but would-be President George W. Bush turned up the burner last week by ...

INTERNATIONAL NEWS: Octagon Prism wins Asian Games push

HONG KONG: The Hong Kong Government’s Asian Games Bid Committee has brought in sports and event management agency Octagon Prism to work on its bid to host ...

INTERNATIONAL NEWS: GCI, BSMG to enter Argentine market

BUENOS AIRES: The already hot Argentine market looks set to heat up even further in upcoming weeks, with GCI Group and BSMG reportedly closing in on acquisitions ...

INTERNATIONAL NEWS: Pendragon hired by Kimberly-Clark

LONDON: Kimberly-Clark has tapped Luther Pendragon to coordinate local agency activity in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS: Reuters Info hunts for Net-savvy firm

LONDON: Reuters Information, which accounts for 53% of the Reuters Group’s total revenues, is seeking a PR agency with Internet expertise for its global PR account.

Ad agency mixes PR into offerings

ST. LOUIS: Sensing that potential clients and competitors are buzzing about integrated approaches to communications, 10-year-old ad shop Geile-Rexford Creative Associates has added PR to its list ...

St. Louis Symphony seeks to hire pro, boost funding

ST. LOUIS: The St. Louis Symphony, in the midst of a dollars 100 million fund-raising campaign, is searching for a new PR director to keep the organization ...

Oral health group kicks off 10-year PR effort

WASHINGTON, DC: In the wake of a US Surgeon General report on the ’silent epidemic’ in dental care, Oral Health America (OHA) has tapped Hyde Park Communications ...

NEWS IN BRIEF

SAN FRANCISCO: In two separate reviews pitched by two different account teams, online search engine GoTo.com and its recently acquired AuctionRover.com, now known as GoTo*Auctions, both selected ...

As interest in public affairs swells, so does PAC’s membership

WASHINGTON, DC: Underscoring the increasing emphasis that companies and trade associations have begun to place on public affairs, the Public Affairs Council (PAC) has just signed up ...

DaimlerChrysler searches Web for right news outlets

DETROIT: DaimlerChrysler has launched an effort to identify which online journalists it should target with news about the automaker’s e-commerce efforts.

Jfax.com lets R&C go, seeks LA firm

HOLLYWOOD, CA: Jfax.com, one of the first companies to offer universal fax and voice-mail services to paid subscribers, has dumped agency of record Rogers & Cowan (R&C) ...

Integrative PR program debuts at CMU

MOUNT PLEASANT, MI: Central Michigan University has launched a new integrative PR (IPR) program, focusing not only on APR requirements but also on building contemporary skills requested ...

Get that PR firm a rag and an oil filter

HOUSTON: Jiffy Lube has tapped Cone as its agency of record, an assignment expected to generate fee income in the low-six-figure range annually. The company has charged ...

Ex-White House staffer Fabiani named newest Gore 2000 voice

WASHINGTON, DC: Gore 2000 has revved up into high gear with the addition of former White House staffer Mark Fabiani, a move which gives the campaign a ...

’Gay’ beer PR may work second time

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT: Gay Pride Beer, which first emerged on the scene last year, has reappeared - and has brought an interesting PR challenge with it.

Mag group reduces PR team to one

NEW YORK: As the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) mulls the future of its communications committee, the organization has halved its in-house PR team to a single ...

Pinnacle seeks to fill void in Chicago

CHICAGO: Pinnacle Worldwide, which recently lost two members of its worldwide network, LobsenzStevens and Selz/Seabolt Communications, when they were purchased by Publicis Dialog, is struggling to find ...

Bacon’s expands service with Net, b’cast coverage

CHICAGO: Bacon’s Information is expanding its repertoire, adding broadcast and Internet coverage to its print media clipping service.

Grass-roots push targets ’Talking tax’

WASHINGTON, DC: Trying to convince Congress to pull the plug on the federal excise tax for telephone service, the telecom industry is mounting a concerted grass-roots push ...

EDITORIAL COMMENT: Agency rankings bigger and better

With over 300 firms, the PRWeek Agency Rankings supplement (enclosed in this issue) is the largest, most definitive survey of its kind ever conducted - 50% larger ...

THE BIG PITCH: What should the NFL do to combat the image that its players are out of control?

DWIGHT GRAM

ANALYSIS: PR Ethics - Does the PR industry need an ethics code? Half of the pros in our industry survey support a universal ethics certification or charter, even if they could be banished from the industry for violating it. With clients and journalists sh

These are heady times for the PR profession. But as the dollars roll in, the industry is still plagued with a reputation for ’spinning,’ hyping and even ...

THINKPIECE: Forget the publicity stunts. The best way to get great press for a dot-com is cause marketing

As they are becoming more prolific, many dot-coms are finding it increasingly difficult to garner the individual media attention they once enjoyed. The challenge now is to ...

INSIDE THE BELTWAY: The current wave of corporate altruism is a fine thing, but it may not be as altruistic as it looks

Let us now praise famous companies.

ANALYSIS: Client Profile - WWF wrestles with its popularity and image. The World Wrestling Federation has grown from humble beginnings to become a wildly popular, dollars 250 million media empire. But how can a corporate PR team appeal to stakeholders whi

The World Wrestling Federation’s ’Judgment Day’ pay-per-view event at Kansas City’s Kemper Arena on Sunday, May 23, 1999 started like any other. The pyrotechnics went off; the ...

ANALYSIS: Profile - Carney: Alexander Ogilvy’s wonder pro. Her boss may be able to work a room better, but no one runs an agency like Alexander Ogilvy’s Holland Carney. Aimee Grove inspects Ms. Holland’s PR opus

If the current media-generated stereotype of Silicon Valley PR pros is that of party-hopping, money-hungry ’bunnies’ selling gullible start-up clients on the value of ’buzz,’ Alexander Ogilvy ...

WEEKLY WEB WATCH: Internet tax bill rumor sparks debate, other bills in Congress

The Internet can be a pretty surreal world at the best of times.

MEDIA: Chronicling business in the heart of San Francisco - The folks at the San Francisco Chronicle’s business section are open to pitches, but you’d better know your business - and theirs. Chris Barnett stops by for a lively visit

Kenn Altine, the San Francisco Chronicle’s business editor, roars into the parking lot on his huge Harley-Davidson Electraglide, strides through the lobby past the late, legendary city ...

MEDIA WATCH: Chinese trade bill garners widespread approval

Passage of trade legislation in House and Senate committees last week intensified debate in the media over the pros and cons of establishing permanent normal trade relations ...

MARKET FOCUS: BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS PR - B-to-B bounces back Consumer PR is flashy and grabs a lot of attention. But business-to-business is on the rise. John Frank explores the differences between the two practices.

PR veteran John LaSage can remember a time in the 1960s and early ’70s when PR firms made their living primarily by creating business-to-business campaigns. LaSage earned ...

PR TECHNIQUE: CELEBRITIES - Requirements of the rich and famous: how to deal with celebrities - Celebrities are becoming increasingly important in promotions and getting messages across. They can be difficult - and fun - to work with. Diane Clehane gets s

These days it seems that companies can’t launch a brand or host an event without enlisting the aid of a celebrity. Whether the bold-faced name is from ...