Despite the economic downturn, the public relations industry is still one of the fastest growing industries, and agencies still compete for top talent. The challenge to find the best and brightest is multiplied as the industry attempts to diversify its workforce. At the same time, universities across the nation have a commitment to supply qualified people to fill PR positions at entry and mid- managerial levels. I don't think either group can reach its objectives without a strong partnership that bridges the gap.

The inaugural PR jury members from this year's Cannes Lions Festival continue to fret over the minimal number of PR agency-originated campaigns that either made the short-list or won a PR Lion. It shouldn't really matter where a good idea comes from – whether from a PR agency, an ad agency or whatever discipline; but many of the judges didn't appreciate the encroachment on our "territory", and believe that we know and can demonstrate the true power of public relations better than any other type of agency discipline.

There's a crisis in public trust of business, brought on in significant part by the near-collapse of the global financial system and the Enron/WorldCom scandals earlier in the decade, and it's creating significant pressure for additional regulation of business.

The Economist recently wrote that: "Defending American capitalism these days is a thankless job," yet the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has stepped up to take it on, launching a $100 million Campaign for Free Enterprise in an effort to prevent a realignment of the historical balance of power between government and business.

By Ken Makovsky

We're all aware of the enormous growth in corporate involvement in the social media, but Fortune 100 CEOs, surprisingly, are mostly absent from the great global conversation.

While some Fortune 100 CEOs contribute to other blogs, not one had his or her own blog, according to a study conducted by ÜBERCEO.com. Eighty-two percent did not have a personal Facebook page. Only 13 had profiles on LinkedIn. Only two had Twitter accounts. Of those F100 CEOs who had a profile on Wikipedia, nearly a third featured limited or outdated information (such as incorrect titles).

Ever since I left professional journalism a decade ago to join the ivory towers, I've gotten used to working in obscurity. Readers seldom call to say they loved or hated something I've written now that it only appears in narrowly focused academic journals. So it's rewarding and sometimes surprising when something catches the public's attention. Most recently, it was a study I did with Lee Wilkins of the University of Missouri measuring the ethics of public relations professionals. The industry seemed to be somewhat surprised and certainly relieved, if not vindicated, that our scientific research showed what they knew all along – that PR people do know right from wrong and are good at reasoning through moral dilemmas.

By Robert M. Burnside, Partner, Chief Learning Officer, Ketchum

CEO's expect their communications heads to develop and execute business strategy, with over 50% saying communications is an integral and active component of business strategy. Only 40% of communicators, however, think they are integral and active in the formulation of strategy, with 60% seeing themselves as a sounding board as soon as strategies are developed...

As economic problems become increasingly complicated and the business landscape becomes more difficult to navigate, leaders of organizations of virtually all types are looking for ways to address the unprecedented (and, in many cases, ambiguous) set of challenges they face. If ever there were a time to convey a distinctive, confidence-building point of view, built on a strong, strategic and effective message platform, it's now. The bottom line: Communication is more important today than ever.

While change was a successful theme for Barack Obama's presidential campaign last year, the disruptive change in the economy has not been as kind to two big American institutions: corporations and the media.

According to a recent Capstrat-Public Policy Polling nationwide survey, only five percent of 568 respondents said they have "a lot of confidence" in the media, while half of them said they had "little confidence." And eight percent said they had a lot of confidence in corporations—while 52 percent said they had little confidence...

Spring not only signals the blooming of flowers and a brighter sun, but also the start of the baseball season. No man is happier for opening day than Alex Rodriguez, also known as A-Rod, so he can get back to the game he loves after he exacerbated the current crisis in professional baseball and put in jeopardy his own position as one of sport's all-time greats, after he admitted to taking performance enhancing drugs from 2001-2003.

From executives to managers, business leaders have often told their own employees to "learn from past mistakes." Luckily, A-Rod heeded this advice after a report from Sports Illustrated broke the news that he had tested positive for taking steroids.

In these challenging economic times, we must all strive to place our best foot forward. The current market conditions place many individuals at risk and job security is a thing of the past. While everyone copes, how can we ensure that diversity in the workforce prevails? We must devote our efforts to recruit, develop and retain talented minorities in these economic times.

Many of us are aware of the facts and shifts in our current demographics. The U.S. Labor Department projects that by 2014, ethnic minorities will account for 36 percent of the workforce. It is also stated that 45 percent of the U.S. population is racially non-white, Hispanic/Latino or foreign born.

By Jim Cowen, Vice President, Emergency Risk Communications, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide

A sense of urgency shows commitment. That logic sent me speeding down a Pentagon corridor with a folder tucked clumsily under one arm. How vital was the document to my boss' meeting? It didn't matter. He asked for it and I was trying to break a land speed record in getting it to him.

When I neared the entrance to his E-ring office, he stepped out into the hallway and calmly raised his hand. "Never run in the Pentagon, lieutenant," he said.

By George Rosenberg

In today's difficult economic times, firms that boast outstanding agency leadership will come out of this recession faster and stronger than agencies that suffer from "leadership myopia." Leadership myopia—the failure to think clearly, plan ahead and understand the new imperatives of leadership—is endemic right now in the agency world…and for some good reasons.

Budget cuts, client terminations, staff layoffs, salary and other expense reductions dominate agency thinking. Some agency heads are angry, others are depressed, some are afraid and many are simply philosophical, but almost all are doing what they can to withstand the challenges, and to simply stay afloat.

By Chris Lukach, Vice President and Co-Owner, Anne Klein Communications Group, LLC

Despite PR firms across the globe espousing the value of Web 2.0, precious few executives at these firms have actually begun dipping their toes into social networking. At the same time, many of the junior staff who already are active with social networks limit their application to keeping up with friends and family.

That's about to change, and that's a good thing. People in business have taken to scanning their rolodexes to send out "friend requests," and all social networks have blossoming professional networking audiences. I should know. Social networking for business caught me by surprise, too.

By Kathy Cupper Obert, Chairman and CEO, Edward Howard

Bank failures, frozen credit markets, massive layoffs, congressional gridlock, slashed corporate spending—the bad news just keeps on coming. No question, these are tough times for everyone and PR agencies are no exception. But while you are battening down the hatches, don't fail to recognize the opportunities that are always created by change. Those who can step up and reel in these opportunities—who are willing to go beyond business as usual—will survive, succeed, and emerge stronger.

Start at the top. We have a new administration in Washington whose mantra has been "change." They are pushing a massive stimulus bill and new set of priorities that stand to benefit some and be detrimental to others. Can you help clients better make their case and defend their interests? Are there executives you know who are about to make disastrous decisions because they still don't appreciate how radically things have changed? Are there distressed companies that need help communicating bad news? Is there a brand that is missing a great opportunity to increase awareness or build market share?

Barack Obama ran a transformational presidential campaign that soared above his rivals in leveraging the power of technology, and there are clear signs that the new Obama administration will utilize technology in new ways as part of its effort to be a transformational presidency.

Use of technology is nothing new in politics, as sophisticated databases and computer systems have been in place for decades to increase the efficiency and sophistication of polling, direct mail and other traditional tactics. But Obama's campaign set a new standard in two ways: He made online a central front in his campaign and heavily utilized new and emerging technologies to raise money to recruit, mobilize and inform supporters...

By Jeff Chertack, Vice President, Health Policy, Ogilvy PR

When looking at the potential direction of health policy in the Obama Administration, you're already behind before the ink dries on the page. But even though the situation is dynamic, there are some strong indications for the direction we'll see the new administration take over the next couple of years.

The change in administration holds much opportunity for communicators—especially one that had an unprecedented ability to connect with the American people during the campaign. The White House and Congress will be selling their ideas to the American people—as well as the interests on either side of the issue. Agencies with a mix of solid healthcare expertise and knowledge of how public policy affects their clients' business will be positioned for success in 2009.

By Abigail Gouverneur Carr, Managing Director,

If you are in senior management of an independent, privately-held PR firm, you should tell your employees how the firm is doing financially. And I don't mean vague generalities, as in, "We're holding our own, but it's going to be tough." I mean more like, "We did $649,000 in revenue in November. In December, we were down 5% to $616,500, but we will likely still hit our profit targets."

If you are already making this information known to your employees—congratulations, and you can stop reading. In fact, take the rest of the day off, because you are running your firm in an open and transparent way, which you probably know provides substantial benefits and overall reassurance—to management and employees—and it actually makes your life easier...

By Sean Martin, Manager, Human Capital Practice, Deloitte Consulting

As you approach the employee cafeteria, you hear Margaret and James, two veteran employees, talking about the economy and its effect on business. "This is not the same company it was when I started ten years ago," says Margaret.

"I know," James replies. "Leadership has done nothing to address the current downsizing."

"As soon as things improve, I'm looking for a new job," says Margaret. "My resume is already up to date."

By Melissa Waggener Zorkin, CEO, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide

With Waggener Edstrom Worldwide turning 25 last year, I and other leaders at the agency have spent some time reflecting on what a fascinating role innovation has played over the last quarter century … and what a remarkably rapid evolution it has undergone. We called out innovation as a key factor to success in our first business plan, and it's rewarding to see that it was the right bet to place. And today, we're excited to witness innovation evolving once again to help solve some of society's big problems.

The evolution of innovation reflects, in part, how the world is changing. Society is rightfully expecting and demanding more of its corporate citizens—and in turn, companies must conduct business in ways that are not only profitable, but also sustainable and beneficial on a broader scale.

By Steve Bryant, Executive VP, USA, Publicis Consultants | PR

In this economy, finding new talent may be the last thing on your mind—but not so fast. In times like these, we need to expect much more from our people, and that makes every hire a high-stakes decision.

That's why The Firm Voice asked me to describe my own background as a creative artist and the perspective it can lend to a consideration of non-traditional hires.

By Rick Jasculca, Chairman/CEO, Jasculca/Terman and Associates

At age 61, I have been in the public relations industry for 38 years and in the business of politics—mostly doing strategy, advance and press—for 42 years. Yet, when a young advanceman, fresh off the Obama campaign trail, appeared in my office recently asking how he could translate his skills into our business, I still had a difficult time answering the question.

Yes, there clearly is synergy between political campaigns and public relations—and especially public affairs, which is what our firm does. And, in many respects, we have modeled our firm to operate like a political campaign.

By Ray Kotcher, Senior Partner/Chief Executive Officer, Ketchum; 2008-2009 Chair, Council of Public Relations Firms

The Council of Public Relations Firms turned 10 this year, and I think what this organization has achieved is worth celebrating. I also believe those achievements have fortified us for whatever lies ahead.

In 1998, the Council ended its first year with 39 member firms. Today, firm membership stands over 100, and our members represent some 12,000 employees in more than 40 U.S. cities and in 70 countries. That is a testament not only to the role of the Council in our industry, but also to our industry's role in today's global business world...

It may seem counterintuitive, but it's true: The best potential employees for PR firms are often those who have never worked at agencies. While there's no doubt that traditional PR backgrounds and communication skill sets will always be valuable to our industry, more and more firms are realizing that non-traditional hires bring new perspectives and experiences that can jump-start company growth and enhance the value offered to clients.

Firms may consider looking to complement its team of communication professionals with subject-matter experts. Individuals who have worked in corporations or government are often great candidates for agency jobs...

By John Davies, Chairman & CEO, DAVIES and Chairman, Blaze PR

Managing defining issues of public debate is similar to influencing your 14 year-old son. Without reason, some days it works without conflict, and others it does not. The fun part is that every day you start over.

When issues management works, you feel like a genius. It means your narrative dominated discussion; your allies covered your flank in harmony and your opponents over-stepped...

By John Ullyot, Senior Vice President for Media Relations and Issues Management, Public Affairs, Hill and Knowlton, Washington D.C.

In today's world, digital and wireless communications have changed how to plan communications in times of crisis. The natural disasters that struck Burma and China earlier this year are instructive and offer some communications lessons.

In Burma, where a military regime tightly controls information, the rest of the world struggled to learn the extent of the impact of the cyclone.

By Jim Clarke, SVP, Public Policy, American Society of Association Executives

Regardless of who won the election yesterday, the transition from candidate to 44th President of the United States will be harried at best. New presidents have just three months to make cabinet and other political appointments; draft a first 100 days agenda; reach out to Congress, world leaders and others; and decide which campaign promises to push first.

These decisions will be crucial to defining the new Administration and its overarching messages. But much of this work may take a back seat to addressing the most precarious economy since the Great Depression.

By Mike Hollywood, Director of New Media,

Social media rule and now everybody wants to be on Facebook. In fact, our recent 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study reveals that 60 percent of Americans are using social media and of those, 59 percent are already interacting with companies online; 25 percent interact more than once per week. Expect your phone to ring any second with your clients demanding you augment their communications campaign with an innovative digital strategy.

While you're waiting for your clients to take a breath so you can interject your opinion, consider two things...

By Barb Iverson, President,

With the financial sector in a tailspin, maintaining the trust of the baby boom generation is critical for financial services firms and the agencies who work with them. Seventy-four million American boomers—people born between 1946 and 1964—will retire in droves over the next decade. Public relations professionals, especially those specializing in financial services, must tap the tremendous buying power of this group amid unprecedented market upheavals.

Last fall, two distinct trends collided. The first wave of the subprime mortgage failure emerged just as America's first baby boomer, Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, applied for Social Security benefits.

As we near mid-October and the rest of the country looks forward to cooler days, those of us who live along the waters of the Atlantic and the Gulf Coast are still mired in the heart of hurricane season. The last several years have seen almost a dozen of these monsters wash across our shores. As recent survivors of Hurricanes Ike and Gustav, we know firsthand that being prepared and communicating often and openly with employees, clients and vendors are the keys to staying operational and functional in even the worse case scenarios.

Of course, it's not just hurricanes we all need to be prepared for—tornadoes, floods, ice storms, health epidemics and the threat of terrorist attacks are just a few more things to keep many of us up at night. As a guide to those whose emergency plans may need a bit of tweaking, we offer the following lessons learned:

By Aaron Uhrmacher, Social Media Consultant, Text 100 Public Relations

There's a lot of talk about the Millennials these days. They're also called Generation Y, Echo Boomers and, sarcastically, Generation Why? (That all came from Wikipedia—the Millennials' utmost authority on everything that can't be found on Facebook.) The Millennial generation encompasses people born roughly between 1982 and 1994. This group is regularly said to be wreaking havoc on corporate life, making supposedly outrageous demands for things like "work/life balance" and "benefits."

By Larry Rasky, Chairman, Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications; Former Biden Press Secretary

In the waning days of the campaign leading up to the Iowa caucuses in January, credible political blogs were filled with speculation on the possibility of a Caucus Day surprise by Senator Joe Biden. Nobody expected us to beat Barack or Hillary, but a surprising third or solid fourth would not have shocked anyone.

Our crowds were strong in that last week, averaging around 400 to 500 people. But compared to Senator Obama's 10,000-strong rallies, the Biden crowds by themselves could not have convinced the skeptical DC political press to buy into our election eve mirage...

It's a fine balancing act to maintain senior level involvement in accounts—which clients expect at varying degrees—without overshadowing and disempowering account team leaders. I know I haven't always been as graceful or effective in this regard as I would have liked. But over the years, I have found the following approaches to be effective in both positioning and supporting account leaders as the "hero" to their clients while maintaining senior level visibility with clients:

By Jennifer Prosek, CEO, Cubitt Jacobs & Prosek Communications

When my daughter was born in 2007, I was overjoyed and terrified. Of course, I was nervous about being a first-time mom. But what really scared me was the possibility that the company I had spent ten years building might sputter, shrink and fail if I diverted my focus, even for an instant. I wasn't one hundred percent sure my management team could fill my shoes. I knew, in some respects, this was the moment of truth.

As it happened, my concerns were unfounded. Just over a year later, I am celebrating my daughter's first birthday and another year of double-digit growth. But what I am really celebrating is the fact that...

By Peter Himler, Principal, Flatiron Communications LLC

The well-intentioned, but ill-conceived New Yorker magazine cover featuring Senator and Mrs. Obama as terrorist and radical, respectively, was a powerful illustration that was meant as satire. For some, that is how it was received. For others, however, it struck a resonant sour chord prompting a maelstrom of criticism and, incidentally, robust newsstand sales.

I posted about the cover at the time, attempting to look past the controversy at the motivations of the magazine's proprietors, and how their quest for edginess — even in questionable taste — sparked a media firestorm.

Kermit the Frog summed up the current state of eco-tourism public relations when he lamented "It's not that easy being green" on Sesame Street. Public relations practitioners eager to find something positive to pitch to the media are finding that, Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio notwithstanding, it's a growing challenge generating eco-tourism coverage with a press corps increasingly suffering from "green fatigue."

The symptoms — including skepticism about claims of sustainability and cutting edge technology — are something all PR practitioners should take care to avoid with a constant reality check (and not just when tying clients to the "green" movement, but with all major trends)...

By Gerald S. Schwartz, President,

Words create perceptions. They make and break reputations. They lend resonance to our deeds — and they're the building blocks of our work in this field. As such, they can be very powerful.

No one recognized this reality more profoundly — or put it to practice more effectively — these past several months than all-American regular guy, Randy Pausch, who died July 25th at age 47. The father of two and a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, his life, and death, story has been well publicized since he was terminally diagnosed last August, after which he delivered his "The Last Lecture" speech on September 18 at Carnegie Mellon...

Earlier this year, my colleagues got a bit of a start — especially those in our firm's hometown of St. Louis — when a posting on my internal blog carried the headline: "Fleishman-Hillard Moving Headquarters..."

It had been on my mind for some time: To temporarily "move" our headquarters operations to other regions of the world. With that in mind, the CEO's office moved to Asia-Pacific in March/April; in June, Europe became the headquarters, following a varied itinerary that was heavy on visits with staff, as well as conversations with clients about their issues and priorities...

By Ed Menninger, founding partner, Communicating@CulturalContext

If I were to quickly rate and generalize about our agency business, I'd say that in managing clients most agencies get an "A" or "A-". We care. It shows and more often than not, the results go from very good to outstanding. If I were then to go on to the financial scorecard, I suspect we don't do as well—but certainly good enough to average a "B" to "B+". OK there some "A" grades. But if I were to go the people equation or, how well do we develop and retain our people, the number of "Cs" that show up wouldn't really surprise anyone.

People development is one of the hardest tasks for the agency world. A perspective: I've talked to a number of people who have come to the agency world from other disciplines and other parts of the PR world—corporation, government—nutrition—environment...

2008 may be the year that we saw the passing of an era. For the last several years, PR professionals have followed the occasional news reports of staff cuts at the nation's large and small newspapers. We have known that we are experiencing change in American print journalism.

Yet for the last several years even as staffs were cut, someone has always been at the end of the phone when we called a daily paper with a pitch. That "someone" was usually a senior beat reporter who managed to use their 20 years' experience to know a good story, report and write it to fit into an ever-shrinking news hole. My admiration grew for the daily miracle of thoughtful, well-written pieces by experienced newspaper journalists...

Perhaps one of the more nettlesome issues among public relations firms is how to handle the creative pitch process. Specifically, to what extent should an agency "give away" creative?

This issue always leads to heated discussion because it touches both emotion and the pocketbook.

Let's start with the pocketbook. As we all know, creative pitches are expensive. In a lean economy where money is tight and new budgets are rare, gambling with dollars on creative that may or may not do the trick is a risky proposition indeed...

By Lloyd P. Trufelman, President & CEO, Trylon SMR

From a new media perspective, there is little difference from the way the industry was five years ago. It's more a question of how information dissemination has evolved.

Things are moving faster and the news hole is larger. The old days of sending press releases to fax machines are long gone. Now it's all about the Internet and e-mail. The challenge with fax machines was always "the last 10-feet" — how would the paper make it from the machine to a reporter's desk. That problem has disappeared. Now it's all done by e-mail and even instant messenger.

My firm is employee owned, the result of its former leaders' interest in remaining independent and its current leaders' disinterest in taking on large amounts of debt to purchase the firm.

We created our Employee Stock Ownership Plan in 1993. For the next eight years, the company contributed the equivalent of nearly 15 percent of employee salaries to the ESOP trust. As a result, we were able to retire our previous leadership debt free.

As we approach what many believe will be an economic slide, your actions as an agency leader will determine how well you perform through the downturn and after the economy rebounds. Many agencies assume that if the economy takes a turn for the worse, it inevitably means they will also feel the pain and therefore should take measures in anticipation of the reduction of income. However, many of the steps taken by agencies will actually increase the odds they will become victims of the downturn, rather than protect them against it.

Puzzlement #1—what's the brand?
I'm a sap for musical theater--Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I is one of my favorites and always brings a tear to my eye. I even played a song from the musical at my wedding. But my favorite scene from the movie version is when Yul Brynner, the King, muses to Anna about how he's to rule his kingdom and how will he know what he's doing is right: "Is a puzzlement!," he roars.

As a growing number of companies search for revenues outside the U.S. corridors, there's an expectation for PR to provide air cover. Unfortunately, the same pitfalls handicap international PR time and time again. With acknowledgement to David Letterman, here's our top-10 list of international PR mistakes.

Lasky	Edelman	Keen

By Michael C. Lasky, Partner/Co-Chair, Litigation Chair, Public Relations Law Practice, Sara Edelman, Partner, Litigation, and Shirin Keen, Associate, Litigation, Davis & Gilbert, LLP

Every day, public relations firms distribute copyright-protected material. You may be unintentionally violating the federal copyright law when you photocopy a magazine article and share it with your clients by e-mail, post an industry newsletter on your company's intranet site or distribute a research report at a client presentation. As technology makes distributing works easier and easier, it is even more important to be mindful of copyright issues because the penalties can be severe – no matter how innocent the infringement may seem. This article provides a brief overview of copyright law and some tips about how to copy "right" and copy "wrong."

"CSR purists" tend to have a negative view of PR, seeing spin in place of substance. It is as if they fear that some will think that CSR is only PR, a nice story presented to off-set bigger problems.

To counter the image of CSR as fluff or spin, these purists proclaim the value of metrics. If it doesn't have metrics, or isn't prescribed by the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative – a standard for reporting CSR externally), then they turn up their collective noses at it. Of course metrics are important – for CSR or PR. Companies have to back up claims of environmental or social goodness.

Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross Chief Reputation Strategist Weber Shandwick	Elizabeth Rizzo VP, Reputation Research Weber Shandwick

A new and more complex corporate communications landscape is presenting companies of all sizes and types with never-before-seen business challenges. Whether mastering revolutionary technologies that instantaneously spread news and opinions to audiences across geographic borders or satisfying an ever-growing group of demanding stakeholders, the role of the chief communications officer (CCO) has changed dramatically. As one Fortune 500 company CCO said: "The function's strength will be enhanced -- not diluted by bringing together a wider range of constituents --messaging/activities to shareholders, customers, government entities, analysts, employees, media, etc. -- all under one umbrella."

An interesting thing happened when Barack Obama shocked the political world with his decisive win in the Iowa Democratic caucuses with a message of "change." Presidential candidates from both political parties claimed the message as their own. Hillary Clinton said she had been creating change for 35 years, John Edwards called himself an agent of change, Mitt Romney said he spent a lifetime making change and Mike Huckabee claimed to be the Republican's agent of change.

Recently, I posed a simple challenge to the smart graduate students in a packed college classroom: "Raise your hand if you've written a letter to someone who is important to you, with your own hand, within the past year?" Only a few hands were raised in response — and some of them were only referring to greeting cards.

The answer is largely the same among other adults – and pre-college-age youth. We don't really 'write' in our own hand anymore. We type it, text it, speak it through a portable device. Satellite, Skype and techno-hype have become today's "communications."