Business has been bad all year for PR firms that represent high-tech products and internet services, and the terror attacks of September 11 made things worse. O'Dwyer's reports layoffs at PR firms including Citigate Communications, Alexander Ogilvy, Brodeur Worldwide, Cohn & Wolfe,Niehaus Ryan Wong, TSI Communications, GCI, Edelman and Ketchum. Weber Shandwick Worldwide closed its flagship Palo Alto office in September, calling Palo Alto a "ghost town." According to one executive, high-tech needs to develop PR messages "about reliability, demonstrated return on investment and practical innovations as opposed to past hype about the revolutionary concepts like buying items such as toothpaste over the Internet."