The Father of Modern Public Relations

On October 30, 1906, the first press release is said to have been issued. This is the day Ivy Lee, while working with the Pennsylvania Railroad, made a public statement regarding a train catastrophe that caused the untimely demise of 50 passengers. The piece was published in its entirety within New York Times.

Ivy Lee established his own public relations agency, “Parker and Lee” a year prior with George Parker, making it the third one in the country at that time. He is heavily associated with the four models of public relations.

Ivy Lee’s contribution to public relations was a major turning point in the history of public relations. Lee's goal in sharing details about the train crash to news reporters rather than burying it like other firms have done in the past was to highlight the raw facts. This is a great early example of the public information model that takes on a one-way communication approach similar to press agentry and publicity but instead revolves around one distributing information in a clear and convincing manner while acting as your own channel of media. (Freberg, 2020). Previously, journalists had a tendency to focus on publicity-driven narratives rather than genuine happenings. Lee had a unique perspective on the situation. He persuaded Pennsylvania Railroad to give funding for reporters to capture, analyze, and shoot the tragic train wreck.

The main thing that stood out to me when analyzing this press release was how straight to the point and unbiased it was. The language within the press release was professional but still clear to understand and captured the emotion of the story perfectly. It didn’t try to shield anything about the story. I think Lee pointed out the lack of fault within the drawbridge to inform readers as that would most likely be their first assumption as the cause of the accident. It also eliminates any chance of the company sweeping the wreck under the rug without conducting a thorough investigation.

Lee made a monumental decision in the world of public relations. Lee was a trailblazer who profoundly changed public relations and reporting as a whole. He chose to try a different direction and present the truth rather than hide them. Providing the media with a captivating and accurate report on the train catastrophe was a risk, but he thought the public was at the step where they should hear the truth rather than what sounds good.

October 30 would then go on to be National Publicist Day. A day that recognizes the trailblazing work and risks publicists take to deliver important news to the public.

Lee entered the world of public relations years after on a much larger scale working with huge entities such as American Red Cross, the Nazi regime, the Rockefellers, foreign relations with the Soviet Union, and more.

Sources:

Freberg, K. J. (2021). Chapter 2. In Discovering public relations: An introduction to creative and strategic practices. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.