Издательство Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002, -364 pp.
Then and now. I was a novice printing salesman canvassing the famous Brill Building in New York’s Times Square district for prospective customers. The building’s tenants were a mixed bag of song pluggers, song publishers, song writers, agents, and even a few bookies who somehow convinced the building’s management that they were legit. I didn’t care what they did as long as they needed letterheads, envelopes, and business cards, my specialty. I would start my cold canvassing on the top floor and work my way down. On one of these sales calls I came upon the painted metal door of an office that had a half-dozen names listed, so I thought it had good business possibilities. Upon entering, I presented my card to the only person in the office, a slovenly character in his early thirties. He introduced himself as Richie Roberts (his name has been changed for the purpose of this book).
When I arrived, he was on his way out and asked me to join him for a drink. It was early in the day, but I figured this was a good way to become fast friends, especially if he paid. The drink tued out to be an egg cream, a New York delicacy made of carbonated water, chocolate syrup, and milk (no egg, no cream). He ordered two for himself and one for me, then walked directly across the street to another candy store where he repeated the order for himself. Later, back in his office, Roberts told me that he was a press agent. I didn’t know just what a press agent did, but I was nonetheless impressed. He went on to explain with pride that most of his clients were Broadway restaurants. His job was to get the names of the restaurants into the major syndicated newspaper gossip columns. To accomplish this, Roberts would package a press release that included a small joke attributed to a name comedian or actor who was dining at one of Roberts’s client restaurants.
All parties benefited from this collaborative public relations. Columnists were pleased because this kind of joualism required little effort on their part. The comedian got his name in print, and Roberts’s restaurant assumed status as the home base of the celebrated.
Who could resist eating at Sardi’s if Henny Youngman or Rodney Dangerfield might be at the next table telling brilliantly funny stories? For this press agentry, Roberts was paid a small amount of cash plus free meals at the restaurant on slow Monday nights.
Roberts’s biggest public relations client was a matchmaking service owned by one Sarah Kane; her Roberts-created slogan: Don’t live in vain, see Sarah Kane. For $25 the client was guaranteed three introductions, usually from a roster of unemployed actors. If the client was an older woman, Roberts’s father was invariably one of the introductions. Roberts’s career path eventually led him to dubious Hollywood fame as a successful producer and director of B movies. His brand of PR bears only a remote resemblance to the profession as it exists in the 21st century.
Today’s PR is a diversified medium involving more than thirty practice areas or components from advocacy to strategic corporate PR, and includes such high-impact elements as crisis communications, planning, management, and recovery.
Large multinational corporations have in-house staffs of 200 to 300 people and, in addition, engage outside PR firms with inteational branches. We discuss one giant corporation’s PR activities in a later chapter.
Then there is the area of new media and Inteet PR. Many PR firms receive assignments from technology startups for which they are required to have a thorough understanding of hardware, software, online content, satellite and wireless communications, channel marketing, and systems integration.
Twenty-first-century PR is on a roll. It is replacing advertising as a corporation’s primary source for getting its message across because it is often more cost-effective than advertising in building brands and reaching customers and constituents.
The PR boom means more jobs, higher salaries, and opportunities across the broad spectrum. In this book we analyze the mode practice of PR and discuss how it serves a wide variety of institutions in our society.
A Very Short History of Public Relations
Public Relations: What It Is, What It Does
The Components of Public Relations
The Public Relations Counsel Firm: Profiles of the 10 Largest
Life on the Fast Track at a Small Public Relations Firm
An Inside Look at Corporate Affairs at the Bank of America
Public Relations for Diverse Organizations
Getting the Ink: Media Practice, Media Placement, and Media Relations
Inteal and Employee Communications, Employee Relations, and Employee Publications
Speechwriting, Speechmaking, and Executive Presentations
Public Affairs, Lobbying, and Issues Management
Public Interest, Public Service
Strategic and Integrated Public Relations and Brand Marketing
Financial Public Relations and Investor Relations
Entertainment and Personal Public Relations
Healthcare Marketing and Communications
Crisis Communications and Management
New Media High-Tech Public Relations
Colleges, Extension Programs, and Summer Institutes
The Alphabet Organizations of Public Relations
Important Publications, Web Sites, and News Services
The Job Search
The Future Face of Public Relations
Then and now. I was a novice printing salesman canvassing the famous Brill Building in New York’s Times Square district for prospective customers. The building’s tenants were a mixed bag of song pluggers, song publishers, song writers, agents, and even a few bookies who somehow convinced the building’s management that they were legit. I didn’t care what they did as long as they needed letterheads, envelopes, and business cards, my specialty. I would start my cold canvassing on the top floor and work my way down. On one of these sales calls I came upon the painted metal door of an office that had a half-dozen names listed, so I thought it had good business possibilities. Upon entering, I presented my card to the only person in the office, a slovenly character in his early thirties. He introduced himself as Richie Roberts (his name has been changed for the purpose of this book).
When I arrived, he was on his way out and asked me to join him for a drink. It was early in the day, but I figured this was a good way to become fast friends, especially if he paid. The drink tued out to be an egg cream, a New York delicacy made of carbonated water, chocolate syrup, and milk (no egg, no cream). He ordered two for himself and one for me, then walked directly across the street to another candy store where he repeated the order for himself. Later, back in his office, Roberts told me that he was a press agent. I didn’t know just what a press agent did, but I was nonetheless impressed. He went on to explain with pride that most of his clients were Broadway restaurants. His job was to get the names of the restaurants into the major syndicated newspaper gossip columns. To accomplish this, Roberts would package a press release that included a small joke attributed to a name comedian or actor who was dining at one of Roberts’s client restaurants.
All parties benefited from this collaborative public relations. Columnists were pleased because this kind of joualism required little effort on their part. The comedian got his name in print, and Roberts’s restaurant assumed status as the home base of the celebrated.
Who could resist eating at Sardi’s if Henny Youngman or Rodney Dangerfield might be at the next table telling brilliantly funny stories? For this press agentry, Roberts was paid a small amount of cash plus free meals at the restaurant on slow Monday nights.
Roberts’s biggest public relations client was a matchmaking service owned by one Sarah Kane; her Roberts-created slogan: Don’t live in vain, see Sarah Kane. For $25 the client was guaranteed three introductions, usually from a roster of unemployed actors. If the client was an older woman, Roberts’s father was invariably one of the introductions. Roberts’s career path eventually led him to dubious Hollywood fame as a successful producer and director of B movies. His brand of PR bears only a remote resemblance to the profession as it exists in the 21st century.
Today’s PR is a diversified medium involving more than thirty practice areas or components from advocacy to strategic corporate PR, and includes such high-impact elements as crisis communications, planning, management, and recovery.
Large multinational corporations have in-house staffs of 200 to 300 people and, in addition, engage outside PR firms with inteational branches. We discuss one giant corporation’s PR activities in a later chapter.
Then there is the area of new media and Inteet PR. Many PR firms receive assignments from technology startups for which they are required to have a thorough understanding of hardware, software, online content, satellite and wireless communications, channel marketing, and systems integration.
Twenty-first-century PR is on a roll. It is replacing advertising as a corporation’s primary source for getting its message across because it is often more cost-effective than advertising in building brands and reaching customers and constituents.
The PR boom means more jobs, higher salaries, and opportunities across the broad spectrum. In this book we analyze the mode practice of PR and discuss how it serves a wide variety of institutions in our society.
A Very Short History of Public Relations
Public Relations: What It Is, What It Does
The Components of Public Relations
The Public Relations Counsel Firm: Profiles of the 10 Largest
Life on the Fast Track at a Small Public Relations Firm
An Inside Look at Corporate Affairs at the Bank of America
Public Relations for Diverse Organizations
Getting the Ink: Media Practice, Media Placement, and Media Relations
Inteal and Employee Communications, Employee Relations, and Employee Publications
Speechwriting, Speechmaking, and Executive Presentations
Public Affairs, Lobbying, and Issues Management
Public Interest, Public Service
Strategic and Integrated Public Relations and Brand Marketing
Financial Public Relations and Investor Relations
Entertainment and Personal Public Relations
Healthcare Marketing and Communications
Crisis Communications and Management
New Media High-Tech Public Relations
Colleges, Extension Programs, and Summer Institutes
The Alphabet Organizations of Public Relations
Important Publications, Web Sites, and News Services
The Job Search
The Future Face of Public Relations