Ivy Lee
Ivy Ledbetter Lee ( * July 16, 1877 in Cedartown, Georgia, † November 9, 1934 in New York, NY) was next to Edward Bernays one of the founders of modern public relations (PR). In addition, he was the author.
Work
Lee studied at Princeton, worked from 1899 as a newspaper reporter and reported, among other things, on Wall Street, the financial center of the United States of America. Together with George Parker Lee opened in 1904, the third of the U.S. public relations firm, Parker & Lee. Contrary to other PR workers who functioned primarily as a buffer between business and the media and covered up messages and veiled, Ivy Lee provided the public with information. Lee took one of the first PR - workers the press release as an instrument of enterprise communications with the public. He is considered the founder of the PR crisis management.
In 1906, Lee worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad, which stood like other railways into disrepute. Man accused the Pennsylvania Railroad especially price gouging and saving at the expense of safety. With positive press reports, lectures and other activities, Lee created in the Öffentlikeit the image of a customer-friendly company. 1912 Lee was assistant manager of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Among the most prominent customers by Ivy Lee were among the entrepreneurs John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and his father John Rockefeller Sr. After a beaten down strike by workers and their families in a coal mine of the Rockefeller Empire in Ludlow, Colorado in 1914, known become as the Ludlow massacre, improved Ivy Lee 's image of Rockefeller Jr. and the mining company. After this success, Ivy Lee boosted the reputation of the infamous oil billionaire Rockefeller Sr. Lee launched positive reports about the private lives Rockefellers, creating role models for the future home stories where celebrities give insight into her private life.
Later, Lee worked for many large U.S. companies, including Bethlehem Steel for the steel company.
Because Lee had spread massacre falsehoods in connection with the Ludlow, a reporter called him poison ivy ( poison ivy ). Next came under criticism Ivy Lee for his work as a public relations consultant to the U.S. subsidiaries in the F - circle of the German chemical cartel IG Colors, which encouraged the rise of the Nazis. Multiple Lee traveled to Germany, met business leaders and sizes of the NSDAP. In the spring of 1934, he had to answer before an investigative committee of the Congress because of it. Details on Lee's work in Germany are to this day in the dark.
On November 9, 1934 Ivy Ledbetter Lee died at the age of 57 years from the effects of a brain tumor.
Theoretical foundations
With its 1906 Declaration of Principles published Ivy Lee tried to define standards for its public relations. The first paragraph read: This is not a secret press bureau. All our work is done in the open. We aim to supply news. ( This is not a secret press office. Our work is transparent. Our goal is the dissemination of news. ) This publication was, in the opinion of the communication scientist Albert Oeckl the birth of modern public relations.