Fee incomes inches up slightly for P.R. firms.

L.A.-based companies look outside area for profits

Fee income at the 25 largest public relations companies in Los Angeles County inched upward about 1 percent last year, to an aggregate of $89.5 million from $88.6 million in 1993 (see page 24).

By contrast, the 25 biggest P.R. firms in the county boosted their fee income grow by 4 percent in 1993, and 9 percent in 1992.

But the Los Angeles County picture can be deceiving, warned Thomas Tardio, CEO and president of Rogers & Cowan in Century City.

While industrywide fees from Los Angeles County business - the fees considered in the compilation of The List - remain flat, business in other areas of the nation is increasing, Tardio said. Companies with a broader presence that are able to go out and get that work are therefore in a better position to compete in the marketplace.

"The Los Angeles economy is soft, but it is not disastrous," Tardio said. "We've had to look outside Los Angeles for business, and we've been successful doing it."

Types of accounts that are especially hot these days are high-tech, multimedia, health care and government/public affairs, industry sources said.

Service stations

The general slump in new business opportunities also puts an added emphasis on servicing the customers an agency already has, said Maureen B. Crow, executive vice president and general manager of Golin/Harris Communications in Los Angeles.

"Ten years ago, you had to know a lot about public relations," Crow said. "Now you've got to know a lot about the businesses your clients are in as well."

As usual, Rogers & Cowan, whose clients include AT&T and Seagram as well as Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone, topped The List this year. The company's reported fee income for L.A. County operations in 1994 was $9 million, the same as it reported for its 1993 business.

Moving up one slot to No. 2 on The List was Manning Selvage & Lee in Universal City, whose fee income grew from $6.9 million to $7.3 million in 1994.

Hill & Knowlton Inc.'s Los Angeles office, in turn, dropped one spot to No. 3 with income falling from $7.3 million in 1993 to $6.7 million last year.

Fleishman-Hillard Inc. increased billings in 1994 to $6.2 million, and subsequently moved into the No. 4 spot on The List. Golin/Harris Communications, whose billings increased from $5.5 million in 1993 to $6.2 million in 1994, took the No. 5 spot on The List.

Rand Richardson, executive vice president of No. 6-ranked Pacific/West Communications Inc., said there is still plenty of work to be had in the Los Angels area, but the nature of the work is changing. Clients now need far more than just an agency that will get them media coverage, Richardson said.

"For example, there's more and more work to be had out there in areas of crisis communications," he said. Public affairs work is also a growing field, Richardson said.

New and improved

"Agencies have to take advantage of the whole scope of public relations, and then offer that to their clients," he added.

This year's List saw several newcomers as well.

Financial Relations Board Inc. showed up in the No. 15 spot with fee income of $2.7 million. Also on The List for the first time is No. 17 Dolphin Group Inc., with Marriott Corp. and Philip Morris Inc. as clients.

Other newcomers include No. 20-ranked Vista Group, a single-office Burbank-based agency; entertainment specialist Bragman Nyman Cafarelli in Beverly Hills (No. 24), and the Phelps Group in Brentwood, which rounded out the top 25 with 1994 fee income of $1.4 million.