PR Pros Unite!
If you haven't yet seen the Global PR Blog Week site - hurry up and take a look! There are some great thoughts and recommendations from many savvy PR professionals. And there are also some folks taking the opportunity to question PR and its value in today's market. Take time to read the posts and comment where appropriate. Elizabeth Albrycht is doing a great job representing the PR agency voice and we need to get out there and help her. If you need a place to start, read the post titled "PR is dead." That should give any PR pro some fuel for a lively comment.
On another note, I'm reading Stuart Ewen's book PR! A Social History of Spin. I've only just begun but so far it provides a great history of the birth of PR in America. In one chapter, Ewen quotes an article from the New York Press titled, "House of Rockefeller Learns to Talk." The article examines Ivy L. Lee's testimony to the U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations in January 1915. This point is still very relevant today and does a nice job explaining the difference between publicity and public relations.
Publicity is not a game; it is a science. The difference between the two is as wide as the discrepancy between a press agent and a doctor of publicity. The function of a press agent is to put things across. The problem of the doctor of publicity is to induce his patient to behave in such a way as to commend himself unto the approval of a good city editor.
Thanks for the plug! Let me reiterate it. We need more voices than just the usual suspects. Come on by and join in. All viewpoints are welcome!
Posted by: Elizabeth Albrycht | July 13, 2004 at 12:06 PM