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September 27, 1999 Issue of PRWeek

Globalization, image dominate ICO summit

LUCERNE, SWITZERLAND: The challenges posed by a global economy was the hot topic as leaders of the top PR firms gathered for the ICO Summit ’99 last ...

Shandwick edges closer to buying big gun Cassidy

WASHINGTON, DC: Shandwick is nearing a deal to buy DC powerhouse Cassidy & Associates, an acquisition that would render the firm one of the top public affairs ...

Dole fills director vacancy

WASHINGTON, DC: Kathleen Harrington has been named the new communications director for Elizabeth Dole, a post that opened when Ari Fleisher abandoned ship a few weeks ago.

PRWeek acquires German PRReport

LONDON: Haymarket Group, PRWeek’s parent company, has acquired PRReport, Germany’s oldest weekly PR title.

Subpoena served to PR agency of basketball widow

BOSTON: Morrissey & Co. has become involved in the high-profile legal battle between Donna Harris-Lewis - widow of deceased Boston Celtics star Reggie Lewis - and Lewis’ ...

NEWS BRIEFS

BOSTON: Miller/Shandwick Technologies has promoted Helen Dragoon to the newly created position of senior counsel for industry analyst relations.

Bank index culls customer feedback for PR overhaul

WASHINGTON, DC: The American Bank Association has developed a new index to measure the overall satisfaction of banking customers.

Kirshenbaum nabs dollars 12m dot-com work

NEW YORK: Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners has picked up a dollars 12 million account to launch a web site for car enthusiasts, ExpressAutoparts.com.

PR helps politico bridge racial gap

BALTIMORE: PR knew no racial boundaries in the successful campaign waged by city councilman Martin O’Malley in Baltimore’s September 14th Democratic mayoral primary.

Joint venture born for merging firms

HARRISBURG, PA: A Pennsylvania PR agency has teamed up with an employee benefits consulting firm to start Change Management Associates (CMA), a new venture for companies undergoing ...

FutureSource kicks off dollars 200m shopping spree to build network

NEW YORK: Another start-up company is in the market for PR firms, planning to spend as much as dollars 200 million to build an integrated marketing communications ...

Arnold pros form tech-centric firm

RESTON, VA: Three former executives of Arnold Communications have formed Solven.com, a tech-centric shop designed to ride the wave of new business in the booming DC hi-tech ...

GCI dot-com wins combine for dollars 1m

NEW YORK: The GCI Group’s corporate practice closed out the summer with well over dollars 1 million in dot-com wins.

Veterans enlist Bonner to heighten political profile

WASHINGTON, DC: The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) is turning to PR to help the three-million-member organization become a more potent political force.

Shandwick top gun to build global-trade coverage

NEW YORK: Shandwick has loaned one of its top public affairs staffers, Michael Holtzman, to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Angelino PR executives do the job shuffle

LOS ANGELES: Southern California’s top PR talent has been playing musical chairs over the past few weeks, with several senior-level pros changing places at competing top-tier agencies.

Ketchum names account planner

NEW YORK: Ketchum has named Carol Cotton to the new position of director of global research and account planning.

Drug client takes C&W off retainer

THE WOODLANDS, TX: Zonagen, a biotech development company trying to get a Viagra-like drug to market, has taken Cohn & Wolfe off retainer and dismissed nearly a ...

INTERNATIONAL: Global alliances fail at intra-shop communication

LONDON: Poor communication between agencies is the biggest source of problems when running international PR campaigns, according to a survey of 70 senior Edelman consultants.

INTERNATIONAL: Shandwick ends IPR relationship

NICOSIA, CYPRUS: Shandwick has terminated its relationship with its Gulf-region partner, International Public Relations (IPR), as part of a global restructuring process.

INTERNATIONAL: British censorship board hires first PR boss

LONDON: As part of a new effort to explain its censorship decisions, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has hired its first PR chief.

INTERNATIONAL: Burson beefs up Asian presence with buyout of Korean partner

SEOUL: In a move which sees renewed confidence in the Asia-Pacific region, Burson-Marsteller has assumed full ownership of Korean partner Merit Communications.

INTERNATIONAL: PR Princess begins review of practices after scandal

LONDON: Sophie Wessex, the so-called PR Princess, is reviewing her business practices in light of media criticism that she is exploiting her royal connections.

INTERNATIONAL: New Ogilvy service fosters relations between offices

NEW YORK: Hoping to ease communication between companies’ international offices, Ogilvy has developed Global.comm, a new global communications model.

INTERNATIONAL: Boston agencies benefit from big Israeli tech boom

BOSTON: As Boston increasingly becomes a hotspot for Israeli technology companies looking to establish a US presence, area PR agencies have begun to reap the benefits.

Medialink boosts tracking service

NEW YORK: Medialink has launched an enhanced version of its TeleTrax service, allowing more specific tracking of video broadcasts.

Orthopaedic group launches publicity department, names head

ROSEMONT, IL: The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) is embarking upon its first-ever PR push, creating a department of public and media relations.

Mass transit investigates pro ties in wake of scandal

BOSTON: A mid-August outing by several members of the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) consulting team - a ’booze cruise’ on taxpayer dollars - has done more than ...

In Brief

SEATTLE: Hoping to increase its presence in the hi-tech sector, CE&P PR has opened an outpost in Seattle. Existing clients to be serviced from the new office ...

Social Security launches retirement-planning push

WASHINGTON, DC: The Social Security Administration is sending a message to the American public - and not just the elderly - that better financial planning is needed ...

Shandwick taps physician to lead health practice

NEW YORK: Shandwick has named Steven Merahn as industry practice group leader for its national healthcare practice and promoted him to executive VP.

’Walker, Texas Ranger’ lassoes film vet

DALLAS: CBS’s Walker, Texas Ranger is gaining a new sidekick next month when a veteran film commissioner takes over the PR reins.

Qualcomm pegs C&B to promote Eudora globally

SAN DIEGO: Qualcomm, developer of the world’s secondmost-popular cellphone technology, has chosen Copithorne & Bellows to head up global PR for its Eudora Products Group.

Messner lures away Medialink exec

NEW YORK: Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer, one of the nation’s top ad agencies, has hired former Medialink exec Greg Jones to run its PR operation.

Ogilvy’s DC office woos Clinton aide

WASHINGTON, DC: Clinton administration aide Steve Cohen has joined Ogilvy as a VP in its Washington office.

MJC enters Boston to tap hi-tech talent pool

BOSTON: Pittsburgh-based Michael James & Company (MJC) has thrown its hat into the crowded Boston hi-tech market.

API axes 71% of pros in PR facelift

WASHINGTON, DC: The American Petroleum Institute (API), a trade association representing the nation’s petroleum industry, has overhauled its communications operations and slashed its PR staff by more ...

Freelancing pros keen to stay solo

CHICAGO: Only 13% of the communications freelancers queried by Paladin Staffing want to work full-time for an agency or corporation, according to a recent survey.

Biotech alliance grows PRN links

NEW YORK: In a bid to increase industry visibility, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) has expanded its relationship with PR Newswire.

EDITORIAL: Perplexing world of spin, part two

In last week’s Spin Special Issue, PRWeek pointed out the apparent naivete of journalists in their attitudes to and understanding of spin.

The Big Pitch: Was the announcement to discontinue Beanie Babies a PR boon or blunder?

Diana Haytko

ANALYSIS: Political PR - Reform Party benefits from new media rules/Coming on the heels of Jesse Ventura’s gubernatorial victory in Minnesota last year, pundits are wondering who - if anyone - will emerge as a third-party presidential candidate. B

Last year, Minnesota jarred the country by electing a former professional wrestler governor. Adding juice to the jolt was the fact that Jesse Ventura was neither a ...

THINKPIECE: There’s no time to lose if dealing with the press and media training will help you win each time

’What is media training?’ After years of serving as a trainer, I am still surprised by the number of times I hear that question, often from those ...

INSIDE THE BELTWAY: In today’s sound-bite culture, the line between politics and showbusiness has become blurred

People who went to the movies a lot in the old days, and who talked about movies and assessed them for friends and (occasionally) the public, could ...

Publishing PR: New rules of the road for author book tours - The age of the blockbuster book tour is over. These days, publicists have to do more with less. Jonathan Bing gets a read on new, creative tactics

When Linda Greenlaw arrived at the Los Angeles independent bookstore Book Soup on May 18, only two customers showed up to hear her read from her new ...

ANALYSIS: Sheri Benjamin proves you can have it all - Sheri Benjamin enjoys life in the PR fast lane, but her speedster comes equipped with a room for her kids. For the past decade, Benjamin’s family-first principles have garnered a stellar reputa

As the president and CEO of a dollars 10 million PR firm that recently merged with one of the world’s leading agencies, and as a noted female ...

Weekly Web Watch: Fan web site runs ovals around auto giant Ford’s PR party line

Your most dedicated followers can sometimes cause you more headaches than your competitors. At least, this is what Ford must be feeling following its failure to get ...

MEDIA: San Jose Mercury News: the voice of Silicon Valley - The ’Merc’ has long enjoyed a reputation for being tops in tech. Aimee Grove investigates what the daily is doing now that nearly every media outlet is covering that beat

Situated in the heart of Silicon Valley and in the backyards of such hi-tech pioneers as Hewlett-Packard, Apple and Intel, the San Jose Mercury News is more ...

MEDIA WATCH: CBS-Viacom merger: bigger doesn’t mean better

As the Internet and cable industries create new consumer choices, the traditional media titans continue to concentrate their power. The announcement that Viacom was planning to buy ...

Fashion’s fixers: It’s no longer enough to get just editorial coverage for fashion or cosmetic products. Diane Clehane discovers that publicists are turning into talent scouts to ensure their clients’ creations are photographed on

There’s always one defining fashion moment at the Academy Awards that endures long after the names of the winners have been forgotten.

MARKET FOCUS ATLANTA: Atlanta PR is on fire - Atlanta is hot and it’s not just the summer heat. Kimberly Krautter explains how hi-tech and other emerging sectors have expanded its PR market 31.2%

As soon as headlines shouted, ’It’s Atlanta!’ in 1990, an Olympic boom hit the city, capping an already cresting wave of growth that began in the 1960s. ...

PR TECHNIQUE CLIENT RELATIONS: Dealing with the difficult client - All agencies have them: clients who are tough to work with. How do you deal with those situations? Claire Murphy takes a look at the variety of difficult clients you may come across

’Difficult clients? Oh no, we don’t have any of those - all our clients are lovely,’ Mike Clifford, president of New York-based Mike Clifford PR, says and ...