Evolution of Publicity Agencies

As did other corporate specializations during the 19th-century industrial revolution, the evolution of publicity agencies progressed naturally, organically. Practitioners who innovated publicity agencies learned their practice and its distinguishing characteristics in the service of various employers or individual clients. These often were politicians, but they also included large companies and nonprofit organizations that were just beginning to learn the value of professional communications. The evolution of mass media, competitive industries, government programs, war, and industry led to many specializations as activities became routine, named, and professionalized.

Practitioners for many enterprises learned and honed the skills necessary to make their employers and clients “public.” In 2010, Kirk Hallahan (2010) emphasized how organizations need to be known; publicity is a strategic function for accomplishing that goal. The skills, opportunities, and abilities that characterized 19th century industrial changes demanded publicity. Professionals were increasingly willing to meet that need.

P. T. Barnum honed the skills of publicity and promotion in the mid-19th century. He needed a large market to sustain his spectacles. He needed to create awareness for what he offered and differentiate his show from his competitors who also were engaging in publicity.

The same was true of railroads. They were perhaps the most important industry of most of the 19th century. Owner and investors were often granted land to create rail systems. They needed to publicize the potential profits of such investments. They also needed to attract populations to areas opened by the railroad. That provided revenue from passengers as well as freight to and from new towns.

Thus, what came to be called public relations was a developing professional practice by the onset of the 20th century. The skills developed in many countries and for various reasons were now being bought and sold as professional services, through what came to be called publicity agencies. The standard tactic of the practice was press agentry.

Professional publicity and promotion occur in two forms. The practitioner either works in an agency-client relationship or as an employee. The person or team is employed and charged with the responsibility of attracting attention, forming positive or negative attitudes, and motivating individuals to move toward outcomes sought by the sponsor.

This model of publicity and promotion was not unique to the 19th century, but became tailored to the societal and commercial interests and the available means of communication unique to the era. What became well-established professional agencies in abundance in the 20th century started as in-house operations or one-person services in the 19th century. Thus, to understand the practice as it is known today, we need to know how agencies began and evolved.

The first publicity agency in the United States was formed in Boston under the name Publicity Bureau. It was the amalgamation of the talents of George V. S. Michaelis, Herbert Small, and Thomas O. Marvin. The exact history of the firm is clouded in mystery, but it formed in the first years of the 20th century. Its client list included Harvard University. The men who forged this agency, like previous decades of peers in the trade, had come to publicity through the experience of newspaper work. Knowing the wiles and ways of journalism, they understood how journalists looking for stories wanted individuals to interview and copy that could be readily incorporated into the next newspaper edition or magazine issue.

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