The Virginian-Pilot
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, September 20, 1994            TAG: 9409200356
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   94 lines

CITY, REGION GET FREE PR IN FORBES FIRMS AND ORGANIZATIONS FOOT THE BILL FOR AD SUPPLEMENT

How much does it cost to advertise in one of the country's most prestigious business magazines?

Nothing - if you're the city of Norfolk.

Norfolk was splashed across 18 pages of a special advertising supplement in the Sept. 26 edition of Forbes magazine, which hit newsstands Monday. It was part of the city's huge promotional efforts to entice businesses to its borders and the region's.

The spotlight has shone on Norfolk recently with media attention from various sources. Willard Scott, the exuberant weatherman on NBC's ``The Today Show,'' gave the city a plug when he gave a forecast from Nauticus. Newspapers and magazines have featured the city as a great travel destination. Sunday's New York Times included an real estate article on Norfolk that ran in its Pittsburgh edition. The Forbes supplement is only the latest of a growing list.

Forbes, among the nation's largest and most distinguished business periodicals, publishes five to eight special advertising supplements a year touting cities, counties, states or countries as good business environments. The promotionals are free to the locations featured. Local companies, mostly Norfolk-based, like Norfolk Southern Corp., and institutions such as Old Dominion University paid for advertisements in the Norfolk-Hampton Roads supplement.

Norfolk officials were elated by the coverage, which amounts to at least $350,000 in free publicity based on the magazine's advertising rates. Forbes has a circulation of 765,000 and attracts an elitereadership of chief executives and national and international leaders.

Despite Norfolk's good fortune, its sister Southside municipalities were feeling slighted Monday.

Titled ``Norfolk and Hampton Roads,'' the special advertisement section frames Norfolk as an incubator for development and business. ``Hampton Roads'' is bannered in the supplement's headline but gets little attention in the promotional. The other Southside cities are barely mentioned.

Although other Southside cities were invited to participate in the advertisement supplement, officials from neighboring cities understood the Forbes section as a Norfolk project. And some officials disliked the portrayal of their municipalities and the slight nod to the region.

``I didn't exactly agree with how they described their sister cities in the part about Hampton Roads,'' said Donald Z. Goldberg, Chesapeake economic development director. ``To describe Chesapeake as a rural city was a little questionable.''

``It was the city of Norfolk's initiative, and I give them credit for that,'' said Robert Ruhl, business manager of economic development in Virginia Beach.

``I'm sorry that Norfolk and the (Forbes) editors elected not to name the other Southside cities - Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk,'' he said. ``I think that Hampton Roads needs quite a bit of visibility to attract national and international businesses.''

Matthew James, Portsmouth economic development director, said he and the area's other economic development directors were encouraged to participate in the supplement through an ad under the heading of Forward Hampton Roads, the regional economic development arm of private Southside companies. He and the others said they declined to participate because it was too expensive and they had no control over the editorial product.

Norfolk city officials expressed nothing but enthusiasm for the project. The supplement hails Norfolk as ``the gem of the mid-Atlantic.'' The text describes the successes of the city's waterfront and redevelopment plans, as well as the challenges facing particular neighborhoods or sections of the city. They include mention and pictures of downtown, Granby Street, Nauticus, the Chrysler Museum and Eastern Virginia Medical School.

Robert B. Smithwick, Norfolk's economic development director, and other city leaders courted Forbes and its core representatives to establish a working relationship with the business magazine. Malcolm S. Forbes Jr., known to friends as Steve, brought his yacht - the Highlander - to Norfolk this spring for a party with public and business leaders.

Peter Malloy, in charge of economic development supplements for Forbes, said the 18-page advertisement for Norfolk was ``no cost to the city or the taxpayers. This was completely dependent on corporate and institutional sponsors.''

``I think there's a very strong story to be told about Norfolk, Hampton Roads and the Hampton Roads region,'' Malloy said. ILLUSTRATION: Color Illustration

[color pages from Forbes]

The 18-page spread in the prestigious magazine is one of the fruits

on Norfolk's campaign to win national exposure for itself and for

Hampton Roads.

Color photo

Norfolk economic development director Robert B. Smithwick and other

city leaders courted Forbes and its core representives<. by CNB