Many P.R. Agencies Seeing A Shuffle by Top Executives.

THERE'S a saying in the news business that if something happens three times, it must be a trend.

If that's true, then there's a turnaround trend at the top of L.A. public relations agencies. Several have gotten new chiefs in the last year, including three in the past few months.

The three are Stoorza, Ziegaus & Metzger; Ketchum; and most recently, Edelman Los Angeles.

Stoorza's new head is David DePinto, who formerly was at Ketchum's L.A. office. He was named the San Diego-based agency's president and CEO last summer, and now splits his time between headquarters and Los Angeles. Cathy Ann Connelly remains the L.A. office chief.

DePinto was replaced at Ketchum's L.A. office last month by Sean Fitzgerald, former vice president of corporate responsibility with Mattel Inc. And earlier this month, Edelman chief George Drucker announced he was stepping down and has been replaced by former Warner Home Video marketer Gail Becker.

"I can't recall seeing a year when there's been this much change at the senior-most levels of all these major agency offices," said. P.R.-industry consultant Jerry Swerling. "These are all individual stories, so you can't generalize. But there's never been so much pressure on these folks, both at the top line and the bottom line, to grow, because the business is doing so well that everyone expects dramatic growth. And at the bottom line, profit-wise, everybody's squeezing a buck."

Those pressures had a lot to do with the departure of Drucker, 51, who is leaving Edelman to pursue other opportunities.

"The typical multinational, global agency likes to see billings increase faster than the market (in Los Angeles) will allow," Drucker said.

After four years as head of the L.A. office, he got tired of working in a city that, for international P.R. agencies like Edelman remains something of a backwater.

"I kind of miss painting on a big palette," said Drucker, who was a top executive at Edelman offices in New York and Chicago before coming to L.A. four years ago.

L.A.'s shortage of Fortune 500 headquarters means continually scrambling for relatively small accounts. And despite the dearth of big clients, Drucker believes the P.R. industry here is even more competitive than it is in other markets. The result is that P.R. executives work just as hard if not harder in L.A., but they end up with less to show for it.

He's currently scouting out job opportunities, and even looking at positions outside the communications industry.

If there's pressure to perform, there's little question that the explosion of business from dot-coms is partially to blame. John Stodder, newly named deputy general manager of Edelman, says it's leading to a shift in personnel because it requires different types of experience, relationships and expertise.

"It does seem there is a new kind of wind blowing through this industry," he said. "Something happened about June of 1999. All of a sudden, all of us have a lot more business, and in an area (new media) that was really unexpected."