Good Old Days

In the early 1900s, Ivy Lee and Edward Bernays, who were recognized and respected PR visionaries and are still to this day, are considered the purveyors of the PR we know and practice today. These forward-looking luminaries took the role of strategic counselors and both created and defined the art and science of modern PR—although their original motives were more aligned with strategic propaganda and manipulation. That was almost 100 years ago, but many of their tools, including the news release, are still widely used today. And although many of their early philosophies and contributions are still used to further evolve the PR industry today, we believe that right now is the time that experts recognize as PR’s greatest renaissance.

Ivy Lee initially developed the first working news release; you can praise him or dislike him for it. Lee believed PR was a “two-way street”—that is, he believed that communications professionals were responsible for helping companies listen to the people who were important to them and communicate their messages to them. This practice is absolutely critical in the twenty-first century.