Daniel J. Edelman

"Rediscovering the Meaning of Public Relations"

Thank you very much for naming me to the Arthur Page Hall of Fame. I am honored to be among the stellar leaders of the public relations field who have preceded me.

I am committed to the basic principles of public relations set forth by the late Arthur Page. I've always felt it's uncanny that a public relations executive so long ago could create a concise and riveting short list of fundamental precepts that have served as guideposts for all of us in public relations ever since.

I look upon my talk here this evening as something of a valedictory. It is exactly 50 years since I began to practice public relations. It will be 45 years on the first of October since I founded our firm.

When Jack Koten called to advise me that the Arthur Page Society Awards Committee had granted me this honor, he mentioned some of the factors that were taken into consideration. Jack indicated that my life-long commitment to public relations as a profession and the fact that I've underscored that devotion to our field by keeping our firm independent represented important positive points in my favor. Other Board members have cited my contributions in helping to establish the standards of public relations practice in the post-Second World War period.

I see three distinct phases in the evolution of public relations. The first was marked by our founders John Hill, Ivy Lee, T.L. Ross, Ed Bernays and Arthur Page. We're coming to the end of the second phase now which has seen a virtual explosion of the field from 1946 to the present. We've reached new high levels in terms of recognition of the importance of public relations and its contributions. The numbers of people working in the public relations field in companies, public relations firms and other institutions and the budgets reach higher record levels each year. We're now entering our third phase marked by globalization; our emergence in the interactive era as a direct communications vehicle to the media, consumers and selected audiences; and entry into the field of highly educated, bright, enthusiastic young men and women who are committed to careers in public relations.

Through my long history in practicing public relations, I've been involved in every conceivable kind of assignment in the various facets of public relations. Our accomplishments in behalf of our clients clearly represent an important element of what brings me in front of you tonight.

Perhaps my pioneering work in consumer marketing public relations will be my legacy. I recognized in my first corporate position at Toni/Gillette that public relations could play a major role in building a company and building a brand. The story had to be told in the context of the benefits that a given product or service would bring to the public. I was able to achieve success on that assignment. I opened our office with the strategy of bringing my concepts to many more companies.

In a talk in Chicago last month to the Arthur Page trustees and invited guests, Ed Block provided a significant overview of the meaning of the Page Principles. What struck me most forcibly was Ed's emphasis that corporate PR in the Page concept is about being a counselor, an adviser and not about communications.

I believe we need both elements. We are looked to for our communications skills. That's a given. But it's just one factor in our role as public relations counselors.

Our evolution to playing a major counseling role is more apparent now. Our work is increasingly related to corporate problems and crises. PR professionals are relied upon to come up with strategies and operational programs to help companies win these battles.

We've talked for years about being brought to the head of the table to work with the CEO and other senior corporate officers, to be there from the start so that our counsel in PR is considered along with input from other senior executives. I submit to you tonight that I think we've arrived. As I review the major work done in our company in the past year, I see it involves mergers and acquisitions, a product recall, strikes, workers' rights in less developed countries, dealing with new governmental regulations and influencing legislation. Our standard range of activity is still the base. But we make our mark in crisis situations.

This kind of responsibility brings us job satisfaction and financial rewards. It also will represent the hallmark of successful performance by public relations professionals.

Public Relations Is a Separate Discipline

It is, in my view, an unfortunate accident of business history that public relations firms were acquired by advertising agencies. I wish it had never happened. We're a separate discipline. We meet with advertising in the marketing area. But all the other avenues of our practice involve activities totally unrelated to advertising - whether financial/investor relations, public affairs, government relations, employee relations or crisis handling. Public relations belongs at the top of the organization table. Any objective analysis would position advertising under that heading in its role in marketing products and services to consumers and other publics. It is painful to see us characterized as "below the line activity," as part of specialty advertising and positioned under Diversified Agency Services. This is just wrong. We're a force to be reckoned with as a separate professional entity. As our image is blurred as one of 10 fingers in the hands of advertising conglomerates, our future prospects are diminished. We'll be less desirable as a field that can attract the best young men and women. To me this represents an impending crisis that affects all of us whether in corporate public relations or a public relations firm.

A check of O'Dwyers Directory shows that only six of the top 50 public relations firms carry public relations in their title - and just two of the top 10. There's a continuing reduction in the number of executives in companies who identify themselves as public relations directors. Only two of the trustees in the Arthur Page Society refer to public relations in their title.

How can we possibly reinforce, defend, advance and project the importance and major role of public relations if the leadership in our field in companies and firms doesn't carry the term public relations on its business card, on its letterhead and in any public references?

I am aware that to many corporate executives, public relations had become synonymous with publicity - even press agentry, flackery or more recently "spin." I learned from Larry Speakes this afternoon that the US Government forbids use of the term "public relations" in its departments. With all that, I am convinced our mission is to perform in such a way that we bring honor and respect to the term public relations rather than discarding it.

I would point to the memorandum just received from Jim Arnold, chairman of the Business School Task Force. Jim states that the effort of his committee is to work with the Harvard Business School "to position the importance in use of public relations strategies and issues in the curriculum mix of business schools in the future." We're talking about public relations. But again I must point out that we're not identifying ourselves as professionals engaged in the practice of public relations.

Our professional trade association is the Public Relations Society of America. The young people looking forward to careers in our field belong to the Public Relations Student Society of America, an organization that is very active on dozens of campuses throughout the country. What kind of model do we provide to them when we cover ourselves with a veil of other definitions and fail to fly proudly under the flag of public relations?

PR Should Be in Journalism Curriculum

It's been my view for some years that public relations should find a place in the curriculum of the major journalism schools. I recruited five of the leading corporate public relations executives of major multinationals based in New York to join with me for a panel presentation at my alma mater, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. To my great disappointment, it was an optional session. About two-thirds of the class showed up the first time. It dropped to half of that the next year and I abandoned the effort. I've pressed every dean over recent decades on the importance of including public relations in the curriculum. I pointed out that within five to 10 years and certainly after a couple of decades following graduation, a very substantial percentage of graduates would be working in public relations rather than in pure journalism. I'm trying again right now with the new dean, Tom Goldstein, who was dean at Berkeley for the past 10 years and has a background with The New York Times and other major media. He has promised to investigate. I've pointed out it's a very important responsibility of the School to prepare students for the possibility of a career in public relations if not in journalism where there are fewer job openings every year. Beyond that I feel it's important to educate all of the students on the values and the role of public relations. Thus, in whatever position they may hold in print or broadcast after graduation, they will have a better understanding of our work.

I think this is a task that each of us should undertake with universities in our respective parts of the country. Let's commit to meeting with deans of journalism schools and business schools to see if we can get public relations included in their curricula. I believe this would be a major development, supplementing public relations courses in current communications curricula at a number of universities.

As we enter the third phase in the history of public relations, the interactive revolution is well underway. About 40 percent of all homes in the US have PCs, many linked to the Internet directly or via MSN or AOL. The majority of journalists check the Web for information regularly. It's a new world of opportunity for public relations. As better-educated and more curious consumers reach out for information, public relations assumes a much more equal position vis-a-vis advertising. We have the advantage of flexibility, rapidity of delivery and, for the first time, an opportunity to go directly to consumers and other publics without the screen of the third-party reporter. The public now has a customized newspaper delivered via PC. Public relations people serve as news creators providing end product. We post information on treatment of disease on a pharmaceutical company home page. We create promotions that track directly to sales. We sell by advertising, direct mail and phone marketers. We take the story directly to an interested audience. Now public relations people are the new reporters and editors. The consumer constructs his own newspaper and is able to stay up-to-the-minute with sports news in the LA Times, editorials in The Wall Street Journal and op-eds from The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Information Explosion Worldwide

And it's not a US phenomenon only. The information explosion is a worldwide happening. Last month in Chicago we had about 20 young computer specialists from our international offices participating in an interactive university at which they were developing Websites and honing their skills for the interactive era that lies ahead.

PRSA honored our firm with its Best of the Silver Anvils Award on our program last year on the Odwalla crisis that had already led to one death from polluted apple juice and caused considerable illness. A crisis Website was set up within hours. The media was notified that it would provide them with up-to-date information. They responded almost universally. The problem was solved without further death or illness and with the company reputation intact.

This technological revolution clearly represents the most important new opportunity for public relations to assume leadership in dissemination of valued information. It positions us in the forefront in the news business enabling us for the first time to deal directly with our target audiences.

International PR Services Growing

Our annual international managers' meeting is taking place this week in Paris. In my notes for my opening remarks at the managers' meeting in Chicago a year ago, I find that I put considerable focus on internationalization of the public relations field. I had no idea then that it would accelerate at such a rapid pace in the following 12 months. There are more multinational clients than ever seeking international public relations services. And it's not just the blue-chips from our country. Shares of privatized companies from Russia, Brazil and India are now listed on the New York Stock Exchange. US companies are not only exporting but increasingly putting plants into China and India. The three major US automotive companies are manufacturing in many of the developing countries and have long since been in business worldwide. Japanese auto plants have been in the US for some years now and will be followed by auto makers from Korea.

Our services are essential to meet the public relations needs of global companies. Clearly the US is the pioneer in public relations. We've created and built the field followed closely by the leading countries in Europe and in English-speaking countries such as Canada and Australia. PR is still in development in Asia and South America. But the roots are planted and it will be happening quickly.

Improved education and a higher standard of living will bring tens of millions of additional people into the market for every kind of product. They will make their own choice with regard to products and services. Public relations will keep them informed through traditional media and the Web. Business news has come to the forefront for extensive coverage in print and broadcast media. This is the information age and we have a great opportunity and responsibility to play a lead role. We're in the unique position of still providing story suggestions, op-ed columns and news releases to the traditional media while at the same time developing Web pages that go directly to target audiences at home and in the office without the filter of big media.

The question of terminology for our work notwithstanding, I'm confident that there will be enormous growth in public relations in the years ahead. We're already attracting more of the most intelligent and talented young men and women.

I feel that large and mid-sized companies will continue to have a public relations department headed by a senior experienced executive. But staffs will be smaller than in the past. It's uneconomic to have people sitting on the bench. Increasingly, public relations firms will be called upon for special needs. We've already seen that there are more project assignments than retainers in Asia. And that's increasingly happening in Europe. It's beginning to be more of a factor in the US as well. I foresee public relations firms operating more or less like law firms with retainers but an increased number of special assignments.

It's been quite remarkable to see the dramatic growth of public relations firms in recent years. I believe that will continue. There'll be even greater concentration in the top 10. Specialist firms in technology, investor relations, health and government relations will continue to play an important role. And, of course, there always will be strong local and regional firms.

In these times of cynicism about politics and morality in general, it's critically important for us to demonstrate our commitment to the highest standards of ethical practice in word and deed. We want to make sure that we and our clients are doing the right thing and that we're telling the truth. We have to be bold in insisting on immediate and thorough disclosure on the part of our clients. We have to constantly emphasize that it's what you do rather than what you say about what you do that really counts. We have to remember that we're carrying responsibility for molding public opinion. We owe it to ourselves, to our clients and to our duty as intermediaries between institutions and the general public to treat the public honestly and to recognize that we have to be accountable for our actions. If that sounds like Arthur Page, it's not an accident.

Those of us who are gathered here at the Arthur Page Society meeting are early participants in what is still a new, rapidly changing and developing field of work. We've had the unusual opportunity of helping to mold the basic rules by which we operate. It's not yet firmed up and our actions affect the way public relations will evolve in the future. I'm personally very gratified to see that we've come this far. We've gained stature. We're recognized for our good work. We're important enough to be subjected to criticism, whether deservedly or unfairly. We play a major role in business and society.

I feel fortunate that I found my way into public relations. I'm sure you all feel the same way. Let's assure that we make every effort to take ourselves to an ever-higher standard of performance in the future.

Vitae: Founder and chairman of Edelman Public Relations Worldwide - the largest privately held independent and fifth largest public relations firm in the world - Daniel J. Edelman has been involved in public relations for 50 years. He is the 13th inductee into the Society's Hall of Fame.