Posted on PR Axis

Qualifications for Public Relations Management

Pendleton Dudley established a PR agency in New York in 1909, reportedly after a suggestion by Ivy Lee who felt competition would be good for the fledgling industry. By the time of authoring the following chapter in Your Public Relations in 1948, his company was known as Dudley-Anderson-Yutzy (D-A-Y). When sold to Ogilvy Mather in 1983, D-A-Y was the world’s oldest continuously operating PR firm; the name disappearing in 1988. Described by Scott Cutlip (in...

Posted on PR Axis

London 2012 – stories of a peripatetic PR

Guest post by Peter Brill, Managing Director, Net.Mentor Ltd There are a group of people who spend their life seeking the constant change and irregular adrenaline rush of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. These are ‘Olympic nomads’ and no sooner does one Games finish, than they are already moving home and signing contracts for the next one. London 2012 was my first taste of living the Olympic and Paralympic lifestyle, joining the Press Operations Team...

Posted on PR Mediums

Closing the door on the gatekeeper role in PR

At a Sustainable Conversations event earlier this week (organised by Kantar Media), I started to think about the impact on both public relations and journalism of ongoing communications changes. In particular, it is clear neither occupation can maintain their traditionally exclusive roles as ‘gatekeepers’ in filtering and controlling the flow of information that is communicated to publics. With anyone and everyone potentially able to express an opinion and be listened to, many of the taken-for-granted...

Posted on PR Axis

PR use of statistics on trial – where’s your evidence?

Guest post by Nigel Hawkes. Healthcare reform is controversial, as both the US and the UK have found. In Britain, a chorus of protest has been generated by a Bill to reform the National Health Service. Some of the most powerful interventions have come from the Royal Colleges – highly-esteemed bodies that exist to promote and improve the practice of different medical specialties. I’ve been struck not by the positions taken, which are strongly opposed...

Posted on Classic PR Conversations PR Techster

Using Twitter for PR events

How should you use Twitter for public relations events?  This is a topic we’ve pondered among the PR Conversations team (Judy Gombita, Markus  Pirchner and Heather Yaxley).  Twitter offers potential for conferences, launches, announcements, stunts and many other PR events – and we’ve seen it used well, and badly.  We’ve used Twitter at events, and participated remotely in real world activities and those that only exist online.  So we thought it would be worthwhile sharing...

Posted on PR Motion

PR – it's a woman's world

It is nearly 25 years since the publication of Cline’s ‘Velvet Ghetto’ study of women in public relations which responded to the increasing feminisation of the occupation.  Undeniably today, the field is one dominated by women – indeed, based on my UK experience, 90% of the students on undergraduate PR degree courses and studying for professional qualifications are female. Both professional bodies here have women in senior positions: Sally Costerton (chairman and CEO of Hill...

Posted on PR Axis

Time for the truth about journalism

“Journalism is just ditchwater”, a quote attributed to Carlyle in 1881, contrasts with the claims of modern journalists who believe they play a critical role in society as the Fourth Estate following in the footsteps of the investigative power evidenced in the Watergate saga.  It is this idea of the power of the media that has appealed to PR practitioners, who have traditionally looked to journalists as influencers, gate-keepers and agenda setters.  From this lofty...

Posted on PR Mediums

Isolated on the Web

This week, five francophone public radio journalists (one Belgian, one Canadian, one Swiss and two French) are evaluating new media. Isolated in a cabin in a rural region of France, they have vowed to consult only Twitter and Facebook the entire week.

Posted on PR Mediums

2010: Battle begins for "real-time" relationships

Read the paper? Nah - that's old news. Watched the broadcast? No need, we were there when it happened. Tracked Twitter trends to spot what's unfolding? Didn't bother, we saw it coming because we know and work directly with the community. How did you tell people? We operated a Living Story.