In case you decided to tune out for turkey day this whole week, Citigroup had a rough start, accepting government help to stave off further instability. But the troubles at the financial institution are now affecting America’s pastime, too: baseball. It called into question the naming deal between Citigroup and the New York Mets.

A $400 million, 20-year deal gave naming rights of the new Citi Field (set to open in April) to Citigroup. But there’s the lingering question of what will happen if the worst should befall the banking group. For now, a Mets’ media relations spokesperson calls the agreement “firm,” and a told The New York Times that the organization is still “committed.” But, like everything else this year, we’ll probably have to wait and see for a definitive answer.

The Washington Times is reporting that Barack Obama has already beat his predecessors on the number of press conferences held post-election, pre-inauguration.

Say what? This is the stuff politicos live for. But more seriously, all eyes are trained on how the president-elect will transition from the text-messaging, Tweeting candidate to the commander-in-chief. Perhaps his early access is an early indication?

The Democrat held his fourth press conference since Nov. 4 in Chicago Wednesday morning — his third in as many days — an unprecedented bit of access for reporters who have grown accustomed to President Bush’s infrequent moments taking questions and already surpassing the last four presidents-in-waiting.

The Obama campaign’s , though, hasn’t been active since November 5. Although there are very real concerns about the security of a president’s communications, Obama is already proving atypical. An early report suggest he wants to keep that blackberry. Certainly his newly appointed communications team will have to come up with news ways and forms that this White House will interact with the public. Change.gov, of course, is another example.

After former MSNBC host Dan Abrams announced the launch of Abrams Research, a consulting shop that will hook companies up with PR advice straight from the mouths of journalists, the new company was immediately panned in the media community as mousetrap for conflicts of interest.

However, Abrams, the former host of Verdict with Dan Abrams, told PRWeek on November 24 that his agency will largely focus on creating a roster of bloggers, freelancers, retired journalists, or those on a leave. Abrams also responded that he has no interest in working with reporters or editors at major media institutions – both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times told New York magazine that the agreement would be a conflict of interest – that have standards prohibiting such an arrangement.

“There is going to be no one in the network who has any sort of employment agreement, standard, or contract that says they can’t do outside work. So as a practical matter, that means we wont have full-time employees of major media outlets; all the ones I know of have specific standards and practices,” he told PRWeek, adding that the company will also use its own guidelines. “I have no interest in inducing anyone to do anything that they can’t do.”

Last week, I wrote about the communications and PR behind California’s Proposition 8, but didn’t hear back from the Yes on Prop 8 side before publication. On Tuesday, I spoke to Frank Schubert, the president of  Schubert Flint Public Affairs and campaign manager for Yes on 8 about the PR for that side of the campaign.

“The campaign was really designed to broaden the issue,” he said. “There were implications beyond [the couples involved in] same-sex marriages.” Yes on 8 focused on three areas in its messaging and advertisement: the impact same-sex marriage would have on churches and other religious charities; the conflicts that can exists when individuals would be forced to accept same-sex marriage, like in the case of doctors who do not want to perform artificial insemination for lesbian couples; and how same-sex marriage would be taught in schools.

The campaign also “had a very aggressive online presence,” Schubert said, with a presence on Facebook and MySpace, online advertisements, and Web site specifically for younger voters. “The grassroots component clearly was the difference-maker for us,” Schubert said, highlighting the volunteers who helped with the campaign.

On November 6, Erica Iacono and I traveled to Philadelphia to host PRWeek’s healthcare roundtable and a panel discussion. The roundtable, which is scheduled to appear in our December 1 print issue, covered everything from the FDA’s view on social media to how pharmaceutical companies need to educate reporters about drug safety issues.

The panel, which was open to the public, featured an hour-long discussion with Laurie Hurley, MD of the New York office of Resolute Communications; Gwen Fisher, assistant VP of PR at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals; and Ray Kerins, VP of worldwide communications at Pfizer.

I’ve posted two podcasts (here and here) and a video where the three discuss the merits of social media for Big Pharma.

Despite mediation, talks between the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) have broken down and SAG look like it might strike. The union will now educate its members about the strike referendum and will vote. A must be supported by 75% of SAG’s members.

“We remain committed to avoiding a strike but now more than ever we cannot allow our employers to experiment with our careers,” SAG said in a statement. “The WGA has already learned that the new media terms they agreed to with the AMPTP are not being honored. We cannot allow our employers to undermine the futures of our members and their families.”

The AMPTP also released a statement, saying “The mediation failed for one fundamental reason: SAG continued unrealistically to insist on a substantially better deal than all of the other major Hollywood Guilds and Unions have negotiated so far in 2008. In the end, it was clear that SAG was not serious about using the mediation process to make a deal. Instead, SAG appears to have manipulated the mediation process in an attempt to achieve precisely the result it has wanted all along: A strike by SAG members.”

New York Times’ technology columnist David Pogue disclosed a few ideas for making the Web 2.0 world a more friendly, and factually accurate, environment for both people and products. Pogue spoke November 20 at the Consumer Revolution on the Web: Opportunities and Dangers for Journalism conference, sponsored by the Columbia Journalism Review and Consumer Reports.

Step one: blogs should declare that they – gasp! – take responsibility for the words printed on their Web sites, said Pogue, who compared blogging in front of thousands of commenters to his days as a Broadway musician, calling it “a return to the live performance.” Pogue also advocated that Web 2.0 sites should take action on behalf of users who are attacked and banish anonymous comments, except in sensitive, cases such as medical discussions.

The movie version of Twilight, the teenage vampire saga based on the book by Stephenie Meyer, came out today and some hard-core fans have already seen the film at midnight showings across the country. But the popular movie—no surprise here—is boosting sales for the book, and the entire series, said Twilight publisher Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

“I think it will definitely bring a bigger audience,” said Elizabeth Eulberg, publicist for the Twilight books, in a Reuters article. “We just hope the people who haven’t read the books who see the movie will read them.” Sales of the four books in the series have jumped in recent weeks, Reuters reported, with worldwide sales of topping 25 million, in 37 languages.

Perhaps hoping to ride the wave of media savvy of pirate spokesman Sugale Ali, Drum Cussac, a company with pirate expertise, has hired a PR firm. According to the UK version of PRWeek, the company has hired Media House International to help promote its kidnap and ransom services. New practice area?

Even though Jerry Yang is gone, the messages he put into place at Yahoo aren’t, according to Brad Williams, VP of corporate communications at Yahoo. “We’re focused on moving the business forward,” Williams told PRWeek.

Yang’s three strategic initiatives will still mold much of the company’s messaging, he added. Those include, making the troubled company a starting point for more users; opening the platform for more innovation; and driving interest from advertisers.

“That is not changing,” he noted. “It may at some point in the future but not now.”

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