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November 15, 1999 Issue of PRWeek

Ogilvy adds biotech to its capabilities with Feinstein purchase

NEW YORK: Ogilvy continued its buying spree last week with the acquisition of Cambridge, MA-based Feinstein Kean Partners, a healthcare and biotech agency with annual billings in ...

85% of CEOs trumpet rising influence of PR

NEW YORK: More than 85% of the nation’s chief executive officers believe that public relations will become more important in the next five years, according to a ...

Publicis tops BM and H&K for dollars 30m Euro job

FRANKFURT: Publicis Dialog has emerged as the victor in a three-way race for the European Central Bank’s dollars 30 million-plus PR campaign to explain the new euro ...

IR specialty shop Abernathy tipped to be on the block

NEW YORK: Investor relations specialist Abernathy MacGregor Frank has reportedly revived talks aimed at selling all or part of the agency. If rumors that surfaced in New ...

NEWS BRIEFS

WASHINGTON, DC: BET Holdings, a black-owned and operated media conglomerate, has added Michael Lewellen as VP of corporate communications. Lewellen, who joins the company today from his ...

Tyson beefs up PR in wake of accusations by union

SPRINGDALE, AR: Tyson Foods has launched a PR offensive in response to a union call for a federal investigation of working conditions at its poultry plants.

GCI launches new branding formula

NEW YORK: The GCI Group has launched DynaBranding, a consumer branding approach that aims to quantify a process normally dominated by guesswork.

Credibility row a PR disaster at LA Times

LOS ANGELES: The Los Angeles Times’ financial involvement with the city’s new Staples Center sports arena has become a serious PR headache for the newspaper, giving both ...

Marketing program designed for WPBA

NEW YORK: The Women’s Professional Billiard Association (WPBA) won’t be shooting from behind the PR eight ball any longer. The group has tapped Sumner Rider & Snyder ...

Start-up lures former Edelman boss

PALO ALTO, CA: The former head of Edelman’s hi-tech practice has joined the exodus of PR pros to Internet start-ups.

Text 100 sees 94% hike in US revenue as flotation nears

SAN FRANCISCO: UK hi-tech import Text 100 has nearly doubled its US revenue as it prepares to float on the London Stock Exchange next month, the firm ...

BM euro chief fills global COO post

NEW YORK: Burson-Marsteller’s European chief has returned to the US to fill the vacant COO role at BM Worldwide.

Internet forces record companies to cease advance-copy CDs

LOS ANGELES: The relatively new phenomena of Internet music downloads and online auctions has forced a shift in how music labels promote artists and new releases.

Publicis Dialog closes in on acquisition of Chicago’s Selz-Seabolt

CHICAGO: Talk that Publicis Dialog is close to acquiring Selz/Seabolt Communications surfaced anew in Windy City PR circles last week.

Microsoft rallies in wake of judge’s monopoly verdict

REDMOND, WA: Microsoft’s damage control crew sprang decisively into action last week following U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield’s ’finding of fact’ that the company is a monopoly.

When spending money, Gen Y trusts classic sources

NEW YORK: A Ketchum study of teenagers released last week has revealed that Generation Y trusts traditional sources when it comes to making purchasing decisions.

NEC cuts PR team, pros hunt for jobs

SACRAMENTO: The recent announcement by Japan’s NEC Corp. that it is discontinuing its Packard Bell brand in the US and laying off 1,400 employees has left the ...

Sloane tops dollars 1m, snags dot-coms

NEW YORK: Sloane & Company announced last week that it has topped the dollars 1 million mark after its first year in business and is on track ...

INTERNATIONAL NEWS: GM Korea beefs up PR for Daewoo talks

SOUTH KOREA: General Motors Korea, which is in merger talks with debt-ridden Korean car maker Daewoo Motors, has hired PR firm LG Ad to smooth its possible ...

INTERNATIONAL NEWS: Ketchum, Aussie shop align forces

SYDNEY: Looking to beef up its international presence, Ketchum has teamed with Recognition Public Relations, a leading Australian firm.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS: IPREX plots an aggressive Latin American expansion

BUENOS AIRES: Independent PR agency network IPREX has announced plans for aggressive Latin American expansion in 2000.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS: Barclays slashes PR staff

LONDON: Barclays bank last week overhauled its high street division, slashing 20 of 90 communications jobs.

Ketchum plucks Mattel pro to head up LA, Sacramento outposts

LOS ANGELES: Filling a post vacant since July, Ketchum has signed a corporate communications executive at one of its clients as director of the Los Angeles and ...

Building supplier DAP grabs RM&D

BALTIMORE: DAP, a dollars 250 million supplier of caulks, sealants and wood preservatives, last week formalized its relationship with Richardson, Myers & Donofrio, a firm with which ...

Women support firms that aid breast cancer causes

BOSTON: Women are more likely to support companies who support breast cancer issues, according to the 1999 Cone Breast Cancer Awareness Trend Tracker.

MetLife publishes older-market tips

NEW YORK: With the US population aging rapidly, insurance giant MetLife has issued a new compilation of PR and marketing tips to help companies orient their communications ...

Trump set to woo webmaster from Ventura for key PR

NEW YORK: While the specter of a Donald Trump presidency may be terrifying to many Americans, the real estate developer and would-be Reform Party presidential candidate started ...

CarterTodd’s pro bono PR program invests in future

COLUMBIA, SC: Hi-tech agency CarterTodd & Associates is attempting to get in on the ground floor with Internet start-ups by offering a pro bono program for companies ...

H&K selected for new Tylenol med

NEW YORK: The McNeil Consumer Healthcare Division of Johnson & Johnson has chosen Hill & Knowlton over a host of suitors for the launch of its new ...

To conquer big US and NIH accounts, Ogilvy hires 20

WASHINGTON, DC: Ogilvy’s Washington, DC outpost has gone on a hiring binge, adding around 20 staffers to accommodate the renewal of a large federal account as well ...

MTV pegs pair of pros in post-Tseng PR shake-up

NEW YORK: Following the departure of Viacom international PR veteran Amelie Tseng, MTV has stirred up its staff by hiring two new PR execs.

Police group hires Klores for dollars 120k NYC image work

NEW YORK: The Patrolman’s Benevolent Association of New York City has turned to PR not only to tweak public perception of the city’s officers, but also to ...

Spark lures away Applied tech pro

PALO ALTO, CA: SparkPR, a Silicon Valley boutique firm featured this month in Wired magazine, has snagged one of Applied Communications’ Oracle account directors to join its ...

GM promotes Saturn boss, shifts vet to vacated spot

DETROIT: General Motors has promoted the former head of PR at Saturn and moved another company veteran into the vacated post.

RF brings health to Chicago office

CHICAGO: Hoping to up the profile of its healthcare clients in local and major media markets, Ruder Finn has launched a healthcare media department in its Chicago ...

BU upgraded PR research center aids students, firms

BOSTON: Boston University, one of the nation’s leading communications schools, has upgraded its communications research and education facilities, a move that will affect PR students as well ...

EDITORIAL: Our first birthday, only a beginning

This is a rather special issue for PRWeek. It’s our first birthday today. Some doubted we would still be here 12 months on, when we launched on ...

THE BIG PITCH: How should General Electric position itself in wake of CEO Welch’s retirement?

Tony Fox - Comedy Central, New York

ANALYSIS: Corporate profile - PR keeps Bear Creek success story going. Catalog concern Bear Creek doesn’t advertise, but each year its products find their way into thousands of American homes. How? A take-no-prisoners PR program from savvy pro Bil

When the Great Depression threatened to wipe out Bear Creek Orchards in the 1930s, the company’s two owners turned to public relations for help. They hired a ...

THINKPIECE: Search for reputation management standard is a noble one, but keep figures in perspective

I applaud the ’hot ticket’ status of reputation measurement that has engulfed PRWeek’s pages. It moves this realm of PR into top management circles, and helps fortify ...

INSIDE THE BELTWAY: Alas! Political reporters are concerned with trivialities instead of focusing on key issues

Just when you thought it would be safe to start reading the papers again, and start watching the television news - for information, that is - along ...

ANALYSIS: Corporate Reputation - Are we close to ’holy grail’ of reputation? Reputation measurement tools are now a dime a dozen, but which one will the PR industry rally behind? With rival firms all pushing their own systems, can a consen

The news that Fortune magazine and research firm Roper Starch have teamed up to create a new corporate reputation tool, while no doubt significant, turned few heads ...

ANALYSIS: Profile - Roger Fischer: healthcare’s tough cookie. Roger Fischer always knew he was going to be a star, so it’s a good thing he ended up in Los Angeles. He’s described as having a laser-like intensity about the healthcar

Straight out of the trenches and decompressing over beer and quesadillas at a Los Angeles sports bar, the senior staff of Fischer & Partners collectively inhales at ...

WEEKLY WEB WATCH: Online hoaxes both irritate and fascinate, but please don’t fwd

Last week’s story about the phony auction of human eggs from ’beautiful, intelligent women’ was just the latest in a proud tradition of Internet hoaxes. It took ...

MEDIA: In Digital City, you’re just one click away from it all - Online community Digital City offers everything from job ads to movie guides, personal ads to political forums. Claire Atkinson tells how to reach the site’s 4.4m monthly vis

The Internet will be more important to the US population than the telephone or the television. That’s the vision of Jim Riesenbach, VP of programming and marketing ...

MEDIA WATCH: Pharmaceutical merger receives clean bill of health

The pharmaceutical industry has caught the merger bug yet again with the announcement that American Home Products and Warner-Lambert are set to join together - despite an ...

CEO REPORT: PR takes center stage with CEOs - We asked the nation’s leading CEOs to assess the importance of PR in today’s business age. And for an added bit of fun, we asked them to rate the PR skills of their fellow CEOs. Adam Leyland ex

The public at large may be suspicious of PR. Journalists may underplay its role. But try telling that to the new-age CEOs. The annual PRWeek/Burson-Marsteller CEO survey ...

OUR FIRST YEAR: We were told it couldn’t be done. We were told it wouldn’t work - Twelve months later, PRWeek is still here - and what’s more, we’re here to stay

Seven weeks to launch a national weekly magazine. We were told it couldn’t be done. We were told it wouldn’t work. ’There’s not enough to write about.’ ...

MARKET FOCUS HI-TECH: Which way now for hi-tech PR? Clients are asking hi-tech pros to take on new tasks. But not everyone thinks that’s such a great idea. What is the future of tech PR? Rebecca Flass reports

From Silicon Valley to Silicon Alley and points in between, public relations professionals are chanting the same mantra - the Internet changes everything. It changes the speed ...