Richard, this is fascinating stuff, and it stimulates me to ask a naive outsider's question. Traditionally, public relations was mostly (in very high percentages) about reaching the clients' audiences through intermediated media (journalists, etc.) There was always a lot of both standard and creative non-intermediated PR (events, direct mail, etc, etc.)but I have the impression thatthis was a lower percentage in past times.

My outsiders question (sorry if it's dumb)is this: what percentage of PR fees today (compared to yesterday) are spent on intermediated PR, and given the opportunities that hyperspace now offers, what percentage do you think it will be in three years? Five years?

Don't the trends you report mean that PR just doesn't NEED the media anywhere near as much as you did before? Are the days of "working" the journalists on the decline? What does THAT say for your business model?

Those are really encouraging and inspiring quotes!
Thank you!
=)

-Joa

Though it is an excellent question, I am not in a position to respond with any data about historical trends in PR fees.

I would like to raise another thought that I assume has already been brought up elsewhere, but occurred to me just now. Is it not appropriate to correlate the rise in credibility of bloggers with the findings of Edelman's trust survey that "a person like me" is the most trusted source?

One challenge, in addition to expanding PR practices into new media like the 2-minute mobile VNR, will be to use the growing influence of social networks like MySpace, Facebook, etc. to seek out the "person like me" credibility. The algorithms and underlying technology of these networks already do the demographic footwork, key to success will be adapting the message. Furthermore, since MySpace and Facebook have attracted millions of investment dollars, their business models are moving in the direction of sponsored initiatives.

Eric Hansen
Student (PR/IT)
Newhouse School, Syracuse University

I am a corporate communications student at Southern Methodist University, and instead of a comment, I am posting a question for you. I was wonderng what you think are the best ways to get ink on your clients. This topic came up in my advanced communications skills class, and I wanted to hear the opinion of an established PR professional.

Dear Mr. Edelman,
I am a junior at Southern Methodist University studying Corporate Communications and Public Affairs. I came across your blog today and I am really interested in your opinions on Public Relations. I am in a class right now where we are studying blogging and how it is affecting the PR world. I was wondering if you have any stories or tips you could share with me about getting clients good exposure. What do you think are the best, cutting edge ways for "getting ink"? I would love to hear from you and I would really appreciate any opinions or comments you may have about this topic or any others. You can write me back on my own blog at www.beccaburnitt.blogspot.com. Also, please feel free to check out our class blog at www.smuccpaclass.blogspot.com. Thank you so much and I look foward to hearing from you!

Below is my "Fishwrapper" column this week for our group's newspapers. It involves an Edelman client, Wal-Mart, so I thought it would be of interest. It's written for a mass audience, not communications professionals, but it addresses changing strategies.

John

Fishwrapper
Evangelist for the Church of Wal-Mart
Spokesman puts out positive spin for the mega-merchant
By John F. Sugg
Wal-Mart is … well, it’s huge. And blue. Ubiquitous, too. How big? In Georgia, 97 Supercenters, 17 discount stores, 21 Sam’s Club and nine distribution centers employ 52,728 folks, as of last month. Another 105,805 supplier jobs are created by Wal-Mart.
Each one of those Supercenters dotting the landscape churns through about $140 million a year in cash register cha-chings. Add it all up — 3,800 facilities, 1.6 million associates, and $285 billion in worldwide sales last year. Whew!
So, like it or not, Wal-Mart simply “is.” Not all of the lawsuits, not all of the union activists, not all of the “evil corporation” documentary DVDs for the MoveOn.org folks, not all of the carping liberal columnists (Who? Me?) are going to wipe Wal-Mart off of the globe.
Now that we’ve got that straight, here’s my confession: Yes, I shop at Wal-Mart. I’ve got five kids. You figure.
As Michael Mills — we’ll come back to who he is in a minute — says, “I can get my organic lettuce, have my car’s oil changed and buy a widescreen TV all at one stop. You can’t beat that.”
I’m a hypocrite, too, often chiding the world’s largest retailer for squeezing the life out of small-town businesses, for pushing its employees’ kids onto public health care programs, and even for being chintzy in spreading its advertising dollars to, um, weekly newspapers.
Taking shots at Wal-Mart in the past wasn’t much fun. The giant seldom noticed detractors’ Lilliputian darts. Sam Walton, the man who put the “Wal” in “Mart,” frequently opined from his Bentonville, Ark., Mt. Olympus that his stores were the best public relations. People could easily find out the truth about the low prices and abundant merchandise. The company’s focus was directed inward, tuning the efficiency machine to a screaming penny-pinching roar.
Times change. Wal-Mart ballooned so large, it drew attention for more than its prices.
Were wages too low, and health benefits skimpy? Did women and minorities hit glass ceilings? What about those pesky reports of illegal aliens being hired to clean stores? Were local retailers sucked dry by the blue vampiric monster skulking on the edge of town? And with shelves stocked from China, whatever happened to “made in America”?

Let’s meet Michael Mills, that organic lettuce guy I mentioned. The new “face” of Wal-Mart, Mills is 32, with twinkly blue eyes, a natty blue blazer and a never-flagging, big-tooth grin.
He talks the environmental talk, having toiled on such sacred-to-the-left issues as the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. He wants buildings constructed with more attention to energy and conservation — and actually thumped his chest when he reported two new Wal-Marts were built last year conforming to such stringent standards. He tutors kids at risk for dropping into the pit of poverty and despair. He’s been active in the League of Women Voters and has labored on get-out-the-vote drives with a group headed by Rebecca Lieberman, the daughter of Sen. Joe.
Hell, if that isn’t enough, Mills beams about his latest project: “I’m starting a record label,” he says with a bit of uncharacteristic shyness. “It’s called the Barefoot Mailman, and we’ve already got our first performer lined up.”
This is not the corporate spokesman of bygone days. Wal-Mart, until about two years ago, epitomized the worst in company communications. Responses — usually in the form of ponderous pronouncements — rumbled from faceless execs in Bentonville. Problems were always discounted, without much evidence or logic. Questions were rebuffed. And Wal-Mart became a punching bag for unions, some politicians and reporters.
Two years ago, Wal-Mart began launching return volleys. It set up a website (www.walmartfacts.com) that touts its achievements. “We gave $24 million to Hurricane Katrina relief, and when we do something like that, we’re going to tell people,” Mills says. “We did good things 10 years ago, too, but we could have done a better job at getting the message out.”
Mills earned his spurs in the piranha pool called Georgia politics. A Rochester, N.Y., native, he graduated from Georgia State University and landed a job as a legislative aide to a cabinet officer. In 1998, he signed on with Democrat Mark Taylor, who was running for (and won) the lieutenant governor’s race.
“It was a brutal time,” Mills recalls. Taylor ended up suing an opponent for libel over ads claiming Taylor had used drugs. In his first recorded response to a hardball question, Mills reacted to an opponent’s broadside by telling the Augusta Chronicle in September 1998, “Maybe, um, I don’t know ... we have no comment.” Not an awesome start as a spokesman.

Mills is no longer tentative. He’s been with Wal-Mart for six months, and his portfolio has expanded from Georgia to include seven Southeastern states.
One of his early assignments was to meet with an environmental group. “They wanted to know why we flatten so much land. It was 45 minutes of getting beat up.” But Mills and the treehuggers found some common ground. As a result of the meeting, Mills had many non-indigenous “predator” plants pulled from stores.
“It’s easy to sleep at night,” he says while sipping latte at a downtown Atlanta Starbucks — and looking like he could be the urbane, hip, wired poster child for the coffee dealer. “I know, I know that there are a lot of good things we’re doing, and to me it’s a lot of fun getting that word out, breaking preconceptions.” As an example, Mills handed out $8.5 million in charitable contributions in Georgia last year — this year, he’ll be playing Johnny Appleseed around the Southeast.
Or, he beams, “We’re expanding by 20 percent our fleet’s mileage, and we’ve put in place a program to reduce waste at stores by 25 percent. How can anyone argue with actions like that?”
Critics contend their anti-Wal-Mart campaigns are muscling the company to change. Mills shrugs at that suggestion, saying the company is responding to its own associates more than anything else.
He confronts criticism head on. What about all of the kids of Wal-Mart employees who end up on taxpayer-paid-for health care programs? Mills answers that Wal-Mart has 18 new insurance programs, beginning at $11 a month, with all a family’s kids taken care of for 30 cents a day. “Thirty percent of our associates didn’t have health insurance before they came to work for us,” says. “I like to talk about the 160,000 that have been taken off the rolls of uninsured.”
Low wages? Mills: “Pay is competitive” with other retailers, and average income is double the minimum wage. Dead-end jobs? “Our regional vice president, Tony Samples, started 30 years ago pushing carts for one of our stores. Three-quarters of our managers started as hourly associates.”
As for killing small business, Mills points to the growth of new retailers around Wal-Marts — and mixed-use residential-retail projects at many urban centers. “Retail is changing,” he says. “We’re part of that. Some people want convenience and price. Others want something else. The mix will be different than today, but there will be room for everyone.”
Mills is evangelical in his zeal. I don’t convert easily. But I’m thinking about attending Mills church this weekend for a sermon on low-priced big-screen TVs.

Senior Editor John Sugg’s blog is at www.johnsugg.com. He can be reached at john.sugg@creativeloafing.com.

Wow, impressive initiatives on Wal-Mart's behalf. Thanks for sharing the article John. So, what is Edelman's relationship with Mills? Is most of their PR done in-house, or does Edelman handle it?

Eric Hansen
Student (PR/IT)
Newhouse School, Syracuse Universit

Eric, my colleague Kevin Cook runs the Mills program from Chicago office.

Eric, As Richard noted, for Edelman this is a national account. I didn't deal with the account supervisor in Chicago. However, I did rely on the Edelman office in Atlanta, specifically Howard Lalli, a senior VP. I've known Howard for several years (I was his editor when he wrote an excellent media column for my newspaper). Without getting too effusive, the teamwork of Howard and Wal-Mart's Michael Mills was a model of how media relations should work (and I owned a PR and marketing agency in Miami for years, so I know both sides of this street). I sensed a contrarian story about Wal-Mart, called a public relations professional I know and trust (Howard), and asked him for help. Howard expedited getting me background material, and set up the meeting with Michael. I wasn't doing a "puff" piece, and Howard knew that. He also knew that I wasn't going to snooker him with promises of a smiley-face column, and then butcher his client. Michael was more than I could have hoped for -- a very likable straight-shooter. My column addressed the criticisms leveled against Wal-Mart by allowing Michael to speak directly to my readers. It was effective, I believe, for Wal-Mart because Michael came across as very real and believable. The credibility was enhanced because it was my column -- I'm known as a pretty tough guy, so if someone gets my approval, I think people will believe it. Indeed, I heard from several union friends -- who still aren't in love with Wal-Mart, but are at least conceding that the retailer is taking many positive steps.

John