Lee, Ivy

Ivy Ledbetter Lee has often been called the “father of modern public relations.” He shares that distinction with Edward Bernays, but Lee and Bernays had two quite different interpretations of the profession they supposedly co-founded. Lee, who had been a journalist for the New York Journal, the World, and the Times, thought his new profession's purpose was to inform the public on behalf of his clients and advise them how to win public approval. Bernays, who as the nephew of Sigmund Freud came from a family steeped in social psychology, was more interested in understanding and using social forces to manage the public on behalf of his clients.

Lee was born on July 16, 1877, in Cedartown, Georgia, the son of a prominent Methodist minister. After graduating from Princeton, he went to New York in 1899 to work as a journalist, starting as a general assignment reporter. He soon specialized in financial affairs, covering Wall Street and the stock market during the heyday of the anti–big business muckraking crusades.

In 1904, Lee left journalism to work as a freelance writer and publicist and then joined forces with another reporter, George Parker, to open an office they called Parker & Lee. They proposed to help business clients who were having difficulty with a critical press. During a strike by coal miners in 1906, the new firm was hired by the coal mine owners to handle press relations. That assignment resulted in the now-famous “Declaration of Principles,” a statement sent to city editors by Parker & Lee.

The declaration stated,

By 1908, Editor & Publisher wrote that Parker & Lee had “established itself firmly in the estimation of editors and publishers,” that they have “never made any attempt at deception,” and that they were “never sensational, never libelous, always trustworthy, always readable” (p. 2).

That same year Lee withdrew from the Parker partnership to work exclusively with one of his clients, Pennsylvania Railroad. One of his first and most famous actions at the railroad was to change its policies regarding accidents. The Pennsylvania, feeling that any accident publicity was bad, had always refused to allow reporters at the scene of an accident and had declined to give out any information about the situation. As a consequence, the railroad suffered from rumors as well as reporters' ill will. Lee changed the policy, taking reporters directly to the scene of any accident at the railroad's expense and giving them complete access to all the facts of the case. As a result, the Pennsylvania got better press and eventually achieved more public understanding regarding its problems.

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