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ProMarc considering acquisition by Hill & Knowlton

Greg A. Lohr

    New York-based Hill & Knowlton is negotiating a possible purchase of The ProMarc Agency.

    Hill & Knowlton, which has offices in the District and in Reston, is "wooing" District-based ProMarc, says one industry insider. Another source familiar with H&K says an acquisition would result in ProMarc shutting down, with its staffers moving to H&K's office in the Watergate complex.

    "As a company, we've been on the acquisition trail" for a while, says Tom Hoog, president and CEO of Hill & Knowlton USA.

    Hoog would not confirm talks with ProMarc (http://www.promarcagency.com), saying H&K is considering several purchases nationwide. "I wish I could say we're ready to close one," he says, "but we're not there yet."

    ProMarc President Alisa Fogelman-Beyer confirmed her agency is being "heavily courted," although she declined to name names. That sentiment was echoed by another PR exec, who says ProMarc has been looking for a buyer for a few years.

    ... Washington Business Forward soon will have a sister in Beantown.

    Business Forward Media, publisher of the executive-oriented D.C. monthly since spring 1999, plans a May launch of a Greater Boston edition. The magazine will be distributed mainly through free, controlled circulation, with some copies at newsstands and airports.

    "We'll cover the entire waterfront of Boston business, from technology to banking to insurance to manufacturing," says Jeremy Brosowsky, founder and CEO of privately held Business Forward Media.

    About 40,000 copies of the glossy Washington edition go out each month. Brosowsky -- a former financial analyst for Goldman Sachs -- would not disclose the magazine's revenue, but says its total page count has doubled to a peak 96 pages, while ad pages have tripled since the magazine's inception.

    The magazine (http://www.bizforward.com) has eight full-time staffers. Expansion to Boston is being fueled by venture capital raised in November.

    John Strahinich, a veteran of both Boston magazine and the Boston Business Journal, will serve as editor.

    ... Pepco Energy Services now has its very first advertising agency.

    PES -- a young, unregulated subsidiary of Potomac Electric Power Co. -- won't say which agency it picked. Likewise, mum's the word on how much the account is worth.

    "We've had a review process," says Don Lintvet, marketing VP for PES, "and we'll soon be announcing a winner."

    Much of the PES promotion this year actually will take place at MCI Center, through a partnership with Washington Sports & Entertainment. WS&E owns and operates MCI Center and the Washington Wizards and Mystics basketball teams.

    As part of the deal, Pepco Energy (http://www.pepcoenergy.com) will supply the arena with electricity and natural gas through 2003. And PES will promote its PowerChoice brand throughout the arena -- on goal posts, on the ice for Capitals games, during televised games and on the rolling boards during Wizards games.

    Marketing efforts by PES stem from deregulation, which is giving individual and business consumers a choice of energy suppliers.

    ... What's The American Spectator to do now that its favorite target, Bill Clinton, has left office and moved away?

    Reinvent itself, apparently.

    The Arlington-based monthly magazine -- known for its conservative bent and investigations of Clinton -- shifts focus with its March issue from politics to technology and the new economy.

    Why? Well, that's what new owner George Gilder wanted. Besides, the Clinton years had come to an end. The need for a keeper of the conservative flame dwindles, it seems, with a conservative in the nation's top office.

    "Over the past several decades the extremely rapid pace of technological innovation has become the dominant force in the economy and the culture," writes R. Emmett Tyrell Jr., longtime editor-in-chief, explaining the magazine's rebirth in the March issue. "The transition has overwhelming implications for American politics, for libertarian conservatives and for The American Spectator."

    Founded in 1967, the magazine (http://www.spectator.org) gained notoriety for aggressively going after scandals linked to Clinton. Its circulation, once more than 270,000, has dropped to about 100,000.

    The March issue puts supply-sider Lawrence Kudlow on the cover and includes everything from tech-exec interviews to book reviews.

    ... Bethesda-based Gilco Sports and Entertainment Marketing has been hired to generate sponsorship revenue for a Baltimore children's museum.

    Gilco has been hired to find four companies willing to shell out $100,000 a piece to slap their names and logos on the side of a 10-foot-high, tethered hot air balloon ride run by Port Discovery.

    The consultancy is pitching power and electric utilities, petroleum companies, fast food chains, airlines, retailers and automotive dealers about the sponsorship. The balloon will be an unorthodox, but highly visible marketing spectacle for its sponsors, says David Cope, Gilco's director of business development.

Copyright 2001 American City Business Journals Inc.

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