About the Public Relations Industry

Q. How does PRSA define “public relations?”
A. PRSA has adopted the following definition of public relations: “Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.” For additional context surrounding this definition, please visit the “Public Relations Defined” page on our website.    

Q.Where can I find industry statistics, best practices and case studies?    
A. PRSA has recently improved the search functionality of our website, making it easier than ever before for users to find helpful industry information. Please visit the Intelligence page of our website, where you can search PRSA’s case studies, white papers, blog posts, podcasts, publications and news releases by keyword. To locate Silver Anvil case studies by entry category, campaign outcome, topic and/or industry, use Silver Anvil Search. To locate case studies in public relations ethics, visit Ethics Resources.

Some basic facts and figures on the public relations industry also may be found in the PRSA Overview section of the PRSA Newsroom. In addition, there are a variety of trade associations, universities and vendors who publish meaningful industry data and benchmarks.    

Q. Has PRSA taken a public stance on the use of advertising value equivalencies (AVEs) or audience multipliers?    
A. Today, much of the industry discussion concerning measurement is shifting away from the use of volume of clips, social media activity, AVEs, multipliers, etc., as barometers of public relations’ effectiveness, and toward outcome measures that show how public relations is driving business performance. That said, PRSA neither encourages nor discourages the use of AVEs or audience multipliers.