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.
|
Operating system
An operating system is software that controls the many different operations of a computer and directs and coordinates its processing of programs. It is a remarkably complex set of instructions that schedules the series of jobs (user applications) to be performed by the computer and allocates them to the computer's various hardware systems, such as the  central processing unit, main memory, and peripheral systems. The operating system directs the central processor in the loading, storage, and execution of programs and in such particular tasks as accessing files, operating software applications, controlling monitors and memory storage devices, and interpreting keyboard commands. When a computer is executing several jobs simultaneously, the operating system acts to allocate the computer's time and resources in the most efficient manner, prioritizing some jobs over others in a process called time-sharing. An operating system also governs a computer's interactions with other computers in a network.
|
TEXTBLOCK 1/1 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611652/100438658092