Public Relations and the Advertising Industry The public relations industry, the same as advertising, is concentrated in the hands of few dominant firms. Still, the striking element about corporate public relations is that PR firms are tightly related to advertising companies. Nine out of the ten biggest international PR agencies have close ties with the advertising industry. Also, looking at the largest acquisitions involving U.S. PR firms from 1997 to 1999 it is apparent that money coming from advertising agencies has played an important role. Table: Top 10 PR Firms 1998 Rank 1998 PR Firm Advertising Agency Related 1998 Net Fees (in U.S. $) 1997 - 1998 % Change 1 Burson-Marsteller yes 258,417,000 4.2 2 Hill and Knowlton yes 206,000,000 8.9 3 Porter Novelli Int. yes 183,050,000 23.6 4 Shandwick yes 170,300,000 7.3 5 Fleishman-Hillard yes 160,692,000 19.1. 6 Edelman PR Worldwide no 157,840,530 18.1 7 Ketchum yes 125,248,000 29.6 8 BSMG Worldwide yes 118,963,000 93.0 9 Weber PR Worldwide yes 83,166,000 36.2 10 GCI/APCO yes 79,667,957 28.4 With many PR agencies sold to advertising companies, the advertising industry's influence further increases; enabling them to offer their clients not only advertising services, but also know-how in marketing, public opinion, crisis and issues management and political lobbying. Table: Acquisition of PR Agencies (1997 - 1999) Acquired Company Buyer Buyers Industry Estimated Purchase Price (in millions of U.S. $) International PR Interpublic Group of Cos. Advertising 230 Fleishman-Hillard Omicom Group Advertising 85 Ketchum Omnicom Group Advertising 60 Dewe Rogerson Incepta Advertising 40 Financial Rel. Bd. BSMG/TN Public Relations 33 Weber PR Interpublic Group of Cos. Advertising 15 Alexander WPP Group Advertising 15 Charles Barker BSMG/TN Public Relations 15 Source: Odwyerpr.com.

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Public Relations and Propaganda Public relations usually is associated with the influencing of public opinion. Therefore it has subsequently been linked with propaganda. Using one of the many definitions of propaganda "... the manipulation of symbols as a means of influencing attitudes on controversial matters" (Harold D. Lasswell), the terms propaganda and PR seem to be easily interchangeable. Still many authors explicitly distinguish between public relations, advertising and propaganda. Unlike PR, which is often described as objective and extensive information of the public, advertising and propaganda are associated with manipulative activities. Nevertheless to treat public relations and propaganda as equivalents stands in the tradition of PR. Edward L. Bernays, one of the founders of public relations wrote "The only difference between propaganda and education, really, is the point of view. The advocacy of what we believe in is education. The advocacy of what we don't believe is propaganda." Also institutions like the German Bundeswehr use the terms publics relations and propaganda synonymously. After a 1990 legislation of the former minister of defense Stoltenberg, the "psychological influence of the enemy" was ceased during peace time and the Academy for Psychological Defense renamed to Academy for Information and Communication, among other things responsible for scientific research in the field of public relations.

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Proprietary Network Proprietary networks are computer networks with standards different to the ones proposed by the International Standardization Organization (ISO), the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI). Designed to conform to standards implemented by the manufacturer, compatibility to other network standards is not assured.

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Europe Online Established in 1998 and privately held, Europe Online created and operates the world's largest broadband "Internet via the Sky" network. The Europe Online "Internet via the Sky" service is available to subscribers in English, French, German, Dutch and Danish with more languages to come. http://www.europeonline.com

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Bruce Schneier Bruce Schneier is president of Counterpane Systems in Minneapolis. This consulting enterprise specialized in cryptography and computer security. He is the author of the book Applied Cryptography and inventor of the Blowfish and Twofish encryption algorithms.

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PGP A cryptographic software application that was developed by Phil Zimmerman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is a cryptographic product family that enables people to securely exchange messages, and to secure files, disk volumes and network connections with both privacy and strong authentication.

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