FREEPORT (AP) – Outdoor goods outfitter L.L. Bean is taking steps to shift its advertising strategy as it looks for a new ad agency.

Bean wants to change the emphasis from catalog sales to a growing string of stores and the Internet, a company spokesman said.

Bean hopes to find a new ad agency within a couple of months, before its peak fall and holiday season begins, spokesman Rich Donaldson said.

The company told its current agency, Martin/Williams of Minneapolis, that it’s putting its advertising account into review, meaning other agencies can submit their own proposals. Martin/Williams said it doesn’t plan to compete for the account.

“We’re looking for someone with some experience in bricks-and-mortar retail and Internet marketing, which is a slightly different emphasis than we’ve had in the past,” Donaldson said.

The spokesman said Bean’s reoriented marketing emphasis will be evident when it opens a new store in West Lebanon, N.H. It joins two stores in suburban Washington, one in New Jersey and the Freeport flagship store.

T-Mobile: Call center project not on hold

WATERVILLE (AP) – T-Mobile’s call center project in Maine is going ahead full steam, despite a published report that its owner is considering selling the company, the wireless operator’s Oakland project manager said.

Brian Brueckman called reports in the Wall Street Journal’s Europe edition speculation. “We’re going ahead as planned,” said Brueckman. “The rumors have no impact on our timeline or our project.”

Brueckman, general manager of the project in Oakland’s FirstPark, said the Aug. 8 operational date for the call center has not changed. The center is to employ 700 people.

A published report said Deutsche Telekom floated trial balloons on T-Mobile’s prospective sale. Deutsche Telekom in 2001 bought T-Mobile, known then as VoiceStream, for about $35 billion.

A rumored British suitor, Vodafone, denies its interest in T-Mobile. Investors say potential buyers are scarce.

A decision on T-Mobile USA’s future would be made by the end of the year, Deutsche Telekom’s chief financial officer Karl-Gerhard Eick said Monday.

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Information from: Portland Press Herald, https://www.pressherald.com

AP-ES-07-07-05 0905EDT