Delegates to PRSA’s 60^th Assembly, and the inaugural PRSA Leadership Assembly, turned their attention toward the Society’s strategic planning as they met prior to the start of PRSA’s 2010 International Conference, “Powering PRogress.”

Delegates were provided with a vision for PRSA’s future as part of the annual State of the Society Report, given via a joint presentation by Gary D. McCormick, APR, Fellow PRSA, 2010 PRSA chair and CEO, Rosanna M. Fiske, APR, chair-elect of PRSA and William M. Murray, CAE, PRSA president and CEO.

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The attention being focused on accreditation as a result of the debate about PRSA governance and the requirements for national board service has overshadowed the work being done to raise awareness of the credential and enhance its value. This already has been a particularly active year for accreditation, and it is about to get busier in the coming months.  Here’s a quick status report.

Updating the current APR Examination. The Policies and Procedures of the Universal Accreditation Board (UAB) — the multi-organizational body that maintains the accreditation program — require that an analysis of the public relations profession be conducted every ten years. The 2010 practice analysis was completed earlier this year, providing perspective for the new roles, methodologies and technologies that the profession has adopted over the past decade.

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I am a dinosaur — the kind who likes paper. All right, I’m grateful for the speed, ease and access that the digital age has brought (even though I hyperventilated when I had to kiss my IBM Selectric goodbye for a computer). I like my computer and enjoy the portability and access of my BlackBerry. But, even though technology has its benefits and my brain works hard to adjust to all the technological changes, especially as they affect the public relations profession, my heart belongs to the last century.

Continue reading " The Paper Chase "

Like many in our profession, I remember my early days in public relations fondly. I was a wide-eyed, high school sophomore when I first started working with the sports information staff in the athletic department at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss to anyone from the South). At home football games each fall, the press box at Hemingway Stadium was packed with sportswriters and columnists representing many of the major newspapers in the South — The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal, The Jackson Clarion-Ledger, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to name a few. Those writers were rock stars in my eyes and handing play-by-play sheets and halftime statistics to such legends as Furman Bisher and Hubert Mizell was truly a thrill.

Fast forward 35 years to today, when the 2010 college football season unofficially begins with the convening of Southeastern Conference (SEC) Football Media Days outside Birmingham. Ala. There are still many newspapers represented at Media Days, but the cast of characters has definitely changed. More than 850 media outlets, ranging from local newspapers and radio stations to television networks and bloggers, attend this three-day feeding frenzy for interviews with coaches and players from the 12 member schools. My good friend, Charles Bloom (who currently serves as president of the PRSA Alabama Chapter), is associate commissioner for the Southeastern Conference, and he has the daunting responsibility of wrangling the media circus that follows “southern fried football” from Gainesville, Fla., to Fayetteville, Ark. Contrasted with those laid back teenage years in the Ole Miss press box, today’s media horde covers SEC football with fervor once reserved for political conventions or natural disasters.

Continue reading " The Shrinking Newsroom: Frustration or Opportunity? "

As a public relations professional, I was impressed by the very strategic outreach to persuade citizens to respond to the 2010 Census. This year’s campaign exemplified a formula for fool-proof communications — prepare the audience, make a connection, be brief,  remind them and, if you still don’t get a response, go out and find them.

Much has been written about the extensive, integrated communications campaign built around the Census. The campaign engaged a full spectrum of tactics, including paid media, earned media, partnerships, a host of special initiatives and a persistent workforce. And yet, the Census is a case study of good old fashioned communications — getting a compelling sender to meet a receptive receiver, resulting in targeted results. 

Continue reading " Lessons from the 2010 Census Communications Campaign "