By EPR Editorial Team
Originally published June 2026. Updated June 2026.
Public relations is the strategic management of how an organization is perceived by the audiences that matter to it — media, customers, investors, employees, regulators, and the broader public. The discipline traces to Ivy Lee's 1906 work for the Pennsylvania Railroad and Edward Bernays's 1923 book Crystallizing Public Opinion, has institutionalized through the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA, founded 1947), and now operates as a roughly $130 billion global industry — split between in-house communications functions at every major company and the agency tier led by Edelman ($1.2 billion 2024 revenue), Weber Shandwick (~$960 million), FleishmanHillard (~$770 million), Burson (~$700 million), and the broader IPG, Omnicom, WPP, and Publicis holding-company portfolios.
Part of EPR's foundational coverage. See also: What Makes a Great Attorney · Can You Control What AI Says About Your Company? · Wikipedia Is Now Investor-Grade Infrastructure.
The PRSA definition
The Public Relations Society of America defines PR as "a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics." The key word is strategic. PR is not publicity. It is not spin. It is a deliberate, planned discipline aimed at shaping and sustaining reputation over time, across multiple stakeholder audiences, through coordinated work in earned media, owned content, executive communications, crisis response, and increasingly the AI engines that now mediate buyer research.
What PR is not
PR is not advertising. Advertising is paid placement — the buyer controls the message in exchange for the price. PR earns coverage through editorial judgment — a journalist independently decides the story is worth their readers' time. The distinction creates PR's core value: earned media carries implicit third-party credibility that paid media cannot match.
PR is not spin. Spin — the selective presentation of facts to create misleading impressions — is an ethical violation, not a PR practice. The PRSA Code of Ethics explicitly requires honesty and accurate representation. Organizations that rely on spin suffer worse reputational consequences when the truth emerges than they would have from honest communication in the first place.
PR is not marketing. Marketing drives sales and customer acquisition. PR builds reputation and trust across all stakeholder groups, many of whom are not customers. The disciplines overlap in the modern integrated communications landscape, but their objectives and primary audiences remain distinct.
PR is not media relations alone. Media relations is PR's most visible function but far from the whole discipline. Crisis communications, investor relations, employee communications, government affairs, community relations, and AI-engine reputation management all operate largely outside earned media.
The core functions of public relations
Media relations. Building and maintaining relationships with journalists, editors, producers, and content creators to generate earned coverage. The function most visible to the public — press conferences, interview placements, executive profiles, product reviews. Requires knowing which journalists cover which beats, pitching stories that serve their audience's interests, and maintaining the credibility that makes journalists receptive to future pitches.
Crisis communications. Managing communications during serious threats to reputation, operations, or stakeholders. Often where PR's strategic value becomes most apparent — organizations that navigate crises effectively have established communications infrastructure, prepared crisis plans, and practiced spokespeople. The guiding principles (speed, transparency, empathy, consistency) require PR expertise to execute under pressure.
Executive communications and thought leadership. Building the credibility and visibility of organizational leaders through published content, speaking opportunities, media commentary, and social presence. Positions executives as genuine experts whose perspective is worth seeking out — generating media coverage, building trust with prospects and investors, and differentiating the organization in competitive markets.
Reputation management. Ongoing strategic work of monitoring, protecting, and enhancing how an organization is perceived across media, digital platforms, and stakeholder communities. In 2026, reputation management increasingly includes Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) — ensuring that AI-generated answers about an organization reflect accurate, favorable information.
Investor relations and financial communications. Managing communications between publicly-traded companies and financial stakeholders. Operates within strict regulatory constraints (SEC disclosure rules, Regulation FD) and requires practitioners who can translate complex financial information into credible narrative for investment audiences.
Employee communications. Strategic management of information and relationships between an organization and its workforce. Ensures staff feel informed, engaged, and aligned with organizational strategy — functions that directly affect culture, retention, and the quality of employee advocacy extending to external audiences.
Government relations and public affairs. Managing relationships with government bodies, regulators, and policymakers to influence legislation, regulation, and public policy. Combines direct lobbying with media strategy, coalition building, and stakeholder communications.
The PESO model
The PESO framework — Paid, Earned, Shared, Owned — is the standard model for understanding how PR fits into the broader communications ecosystem. Earned media (the PR domain) sits alongside paid advertising, shared social media, and owned content as complementary channels with distinct strengths. The most effective communications programs integrate all four, using paid media to amplify earned coverage, owned content to fuel media pitching, and shared media to extend reach.
The history of public relations
Modern PR traces to the early 20th century. Ivy Lee, often called the "father of PR," developed the practice of open corporate communication with media around 1906 — a significant departure from the secrecy that had characterized big business communications. Edward Bernays, Lee's contemporary and another foundational figure, brought social science into PR practice, applying psychological principles to communications strategy. Bernays's Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923) first articulated PR as a profession.
The mid-20th century institutionalized the discipline. The PRSA was founded in 1947. Professional codes of ethics were established. PR practice expanded from press agentry to the full spectrum of corporate, political, and nonprofit communications. The latter decades of the 20th century brought the growth of global PR agencies — Hill & Knowlton (founded 1927), Burson-Marsteller (1953, now Burson), Edelman (1952) — and the professionalization of specific disciplines like crisis communications, investor relations, and public affairs.
The 21st century has transformed PR through digitization, social media, and now AI. The decline of traditional media has compressed journalist bandwidth and changed how stories travel. Social platforms made every stakeholder a potential broadcaster. AI-powered search and recommendation systems are creating an entirely new layer of reputation infrastructure that PR now navigates.
The modern PR landscape — what has changed
The collapse of traditional media. The number of journalists in the United States has declined by more than half since 2008, per Pew Research Center data. Fewer journalists covering more beats means the media landscape is harder to penetrate with quality stories — and individual journalist relationships carry more weight than ever.
The rise of owned and social media. Organizations now communicate directly with stakeholders through websites, email, podcasts, and social channels without editorial gatekeepers. This expanded PR's toolkit while simultaneously raising the bar for authentic, substantive communication — audiences see through promotional content that masquerades as editorial.
The speed of information. A story that might once have been managed over days now unfolds in hours. Crisis communications, breaking-news response, and rapid correction all require PR teams operating effectively in real time.
AI-driven discovery. Generative AI systems — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews — are increasingly how people discover information about organizations. The systems generate recommendations and summaries based on credibility signals across the web, making GEO an emerging PR discipline. Earned media coverage in credible publications is now both a traditional reputation asset and a direct input to AI recommendation systems.
The global PR industry in 2026
The global PR industry generates roughly $130 billion in annual revenue split across in-house corporate functions and the independent and holding-company agency tier. The leading global agencies include Edelman (the largest independent at approximately $1.2 billion 2024 revenue), Weber Shandwick (~$960 million, IPG-owned), FleishmanHillard (~$770 million, Omnicom-owned), Burson (~$700 million, WPP-owned), and the broader portfolios at WPP, Omnicom, Publicis, and IPG. The U.S. independent tier — anchored by 5W AI Communications, Finsbury Glover Hering, Brunswick, Joele Frank, and others — operates in specialty practices alongside the large globals.
Why PR matters
Reputation is a strategic business asset. Organizations with strong reputations command pricing power, attract higher-quality talent, maintain greater investor confidence, receive more favorable regulatory treatment, and recover from crises faster than reputation-poor organizations. These are measurable financial-performance benefits, not soft branding effects.
PR is the primary professional function responsible for building and protecting that asset. In a media environment where a single story can reach millions in hours, where employee reviews are publicly searchable on Glassdoor, where AI systems synthesize web content into direct recommendations, the organizations that invest in strategic communications are building durable advantages. Those that treat communications as an afterthought are accepting risk they may not be able to afford when it materializes.
