ON THE RADAR SCREEN
AT&T PR Staff To Grow With TCI Merger
Given that AT&T [T] is putting the final touches on a deal to acquire cable giant TCI for $30 billion, the PR department is pretty busy and the corporation isn't predicting major PR job cuts after the deal closes.
PR executives at both companies expect to keep their jobs because the players' diverse industries require different kinds of communications expertise, says AT&T's Burke Stinson. He is one of about 200 communicators at the corporation.
Already, AT&T's communications department and the company at large have undergone a business facelift with the April departure of marcom veteran Marilyn Laurie and a series of job departures based on buy-outs affecting about 100 PR managers.
Meanwhile, the media's hot on the story. "I haven't seen coverage this intense since the autumn of 1993 when we announced we were splitting up into three companies," says Stinson. (AT&T, 908/221-2062)
More Buzz from Telecom
For those whom might have forgotten...here's a PR tip of the week: don't put a press release on the wires and then pull it 90 minutes later because the "news isn't right." Absurd as it sounds, that's what happened last week when a release about a deal between Sprint [FON] and Elastic Network, an independent unit of Northern Telecomm [NT] was posted on the PRNewswire.com site and then pulled.
The announcement concerned a joint kick-off for the trial of a high-speed Internet access system available in designated guest rooms at the Pinehurst Resort & Country Club, the site for the 1999 U.S. Open.
Sprint communications manager, Lloyd Karnes, was initially a smidgen dismissive about the foul-up and said it seemed reasonable for Sprint to request that Nortel's PR agency Alexander Communications pull the release because it hadn't been authorized by Sprint. The next morning, Karnes was more apologetic and stressed that the error wasn't the fault of Alexander who had been given the go-ahead by a Nortel staffer whose name he could not disclose. (Sprint, 913/323-4874)
MEDIA RELATIONS
Radio Direct Press Release Is Much Ado About Nothing
Speaking of absurd, last week we got one of the dullest and nonsensical press releases we've received in recent months. Radio Direct Response, Bromall, Pa., said a breakthrough radio campaign drove a record 2.2 million customers to a client's Web site in 14 days. The problem is that the release also said: "The company has asked us not to release their name publicly." In the media, that kills any angle a reporter would want to pursue unless they want to hunt down a story that might just be hype. (Radio Direct Response, 800/969-AMFM)
Living Fit Folds
Living Fit, a health magazine geared toward women ages 35 and up ceased publication on Wednesday, effective with the July/August issue. Living Fit began publishing in 1994. The bi-monthly magazine had a circulation of 300,000.
Joe Weider, publisher, was unavailable for comment. His other magazines include Shape, Men's Fitness, Flex, Jump and Fit Pregnancy. None of these other publications will be affected, says Louisa Liss, spokeswoman for Michael T. Carr, president and CEO of Weider Publications, Inc.
A "changing advertising environment" demanded that Living Fit move in a different editorial direction, in a statement released to the public, Carr stated in a press release. (Louisa Liss, 818/884-6800).