It is no longer enough for public relations professionals to be great at writing press releases or terrific at establishing media contacts. Today and in the future, all professionals must understand how their skills dovetail with those of other professionals.
The Public Relations Handbook contains valuable guidance for navigating the 2020s and beyond, answering for public relations professionals questions such How can they best work with a market research department or firm? How can they contribute to the sales department's efforts to open up new channels of distribution? How can they maximize the impact of the ad agency's new campaign? How can they advise the HR operation on the best ways to assure a diverse workforce, thereby avoiding the nightmare of an attack in that regard? And how will they work with top management in the event of a sex abuse scandal?
The Public Relations Handbook has always been at the forefront of the practice of public relations. The first edition was published in 1967, with updates following in 1979, 1987, and 2010. This new fifth edition examines and prescribes how to make public relations indispensable in an era facing new challenges in global public health as well as the convergence of new financial, economic, political, and societal issues.
Robert L. Dilenschneider, founder and CEO of The Dilenschneider Group, is one of the world's foremost communication gurus and leadership coaches. Dilenschneider started in public relations in 1967 in New York.
I do not work in the field of public relations but rather work with others that do. Thus, I have a vested interest in learning about their work without going through educational certifications. Further, I’m always eyeing ways to spotlight the positives of my work in an open and tactful manner to interested audiences. This compilation of articles by leading figures addresses a variety of core issues in PR and shows where the field has been, is now, and is going tomorrow.
Almost all of the topics contained in this book address important issues in PR. Everyone has to trumpet their work somehow even if we aren’t full-time personnel in the field. Most of the early articles cover fundamentals with an eye towards collecting the good ideas of the past. Then, later articles capture emerging – and sometimes niche – topics.
Is your audience a government? Chapter 6 covers that. Do you manage potential crises? Chapter 11 covers that. Are your clients international? Chapters 13, 14, 15, and 17 cover those areas. Are you into new channels like social media? See chapter 9. Or do you need to sell your organization’s internal hierarchy? Chapter 10. As you can see, this handbook is very comprehensive and needs to sit in any significant organization’s library to pull out in time of need.
To non-practitioners of PR like myself, this book provides access to the field without having to master the details of practice in the discipline. To practitioners, it presents the leading trends of the field and resources for further exploration. In any discipline, it’s hard to arrange 17 different articles by 17 different authors on 17 different topics that are all engaging and not too narrow. Dilenschneider accomplishes this resolutely and teaches us how to communicate better in the process.
Excellent reference guide in the topic of public relations. Even if you're not in the business, it has helpful information anyone can use, especially when dealing with people outside the United States. Those are my favorite chapters. My Review
This book would make a good textbook for an introductory PR course in college. For anyone practicing in the field, it's a little too basic, and too dated (by the pandemic) to be deeply useful. It's full of sound, commonsense advice, just at a level that is for beginners.