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A golden statue of a winged youth once perched on the roof of AT&T's old headquarters. But when AT&T lowered the 24-foot-high statue for regilding so that it could be placed in the company's new headquarters, the chairman was shocked to discover that the figure was anatomically correct. So he decreed that is also be gelded. The altered "Golden Boy" thus became a metaphor for AT&T's recent embattled history, and it serves as a cautionary symbol for all companies operating in today's brutal business environment, where perception can be as important as reality. While image consultants and executives work to gild a company's image, special interest groups and the media can geld a company with countless little cuts. The author, a former executive vice president of public relations for AT&T, provides an insiders's view of some of the company's most painful public-relations scrapes. They include the collapse of two apparent CEO succession plans, AT&T's inability to meet heightened expectations after Mike Armstrong was appointed CEO, and the racially charged furor over a cartoon in an employee publication. The author offers four lessons: Don't become hypnotized by your own buzz; understand the way the business media think; address the needs of all you stakeholders; and be sensitive to the possible emotional resonance of what appear to be straightforward facts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluates the public relations (PR) business in Canada. Turnover in PR companies; The International Association of Business Communicators' (IABC) assessment of the rise in communications spending; Problems that plague PR firms; Money that is used towards ineffective strategies; Costs of PR consulting; Suggestions to companies that seek PR consulting.

The Gold Quill Awards program is an annual international competition that offers professional communicators an opportunity to have their work evaluated by a Blue Ribbon Panel of expert judges. The 20 awards categories range from community relations to electronic and digital communication to marketing communication, with top entries receiving awards of Merit and Excellence. Additionally, the judges choose winners of the Jake Wittmer Award, which spotlights research excellence, and the Business Issue Award, which salutes the role of strategic communication in sustaining an organization facing serious economic or viability challenges. Maine Street Marketing receives an Excellence award in Community Relations for its work with Australia's Department of Immigration. The Jake Wittmer Award was established by the IABC Research Foundation, the research and development arm of IABC, with generous support from executive Bob Berzok, to recognize outstanding worldwide research commissioned or developed by an organizational communicator.

This article presents information on outsourced service providers. These days, outsourcing is a common practice, but that doesn't mean managers expect a rosy relationship with vendors. In a survey by New York-based Deloitte Consulting, 70 percent of executives said they have had significant negative experiences when outsourcing projects, and will be more cautious in the future. In the sales, marketing, and service worlds, having a poor relationship with vendors can be a grave mistake, because they are in roles that shape brand experience. Companies have to clue providers in on the big strategic picture, instead of viewing the arrangement as strictly transactional. Merrily Orsini, managing director of a marketing, design, and public relations consultancy based in Louisville, Kentucky, said that if someone calls them and says, just do a brochure, here's the writing, and throw some flowers on it, they do not establish that relationship. Orsini also manages her own outsourced staffers--nearly all her marketing and design members are contractors scattered across the country. To keep up communication, she holds conference calls, sends instant messages, and uses an intranet to share documents--as well as makes sure she drops in on them when she's in town.

The article reports that public relations specialists and journalists believe that the Belgian brewer InBev is doing a better job of public relations than is Anheuser-Busch in the struggle over InBev's proposed takeover of the latter company. Despite Anheuser-Busch's iconic status as a U.S. corporation, these observers note that InBev has been more transparent in discussing the proposed takeover than its target has been.

The article reports that the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) has partnered with the Shanghai Public Relations Association (SPRA) to bring IABC's accreditation program to China. IABC will conduct a training program to help SPRA members complete the IABC accreditation program. Ultimately the program will confer IABC accreditation upon qualified SPRA members and train volunteers to administer the program for other communicators in China. The program will also offer mentorship opportunities.

The article discusses crisis communication plans for business communicators. A tragic shooting at Virginia Tech has revealed the need for crisis plans that include outbound media public relations communications and internal communications. These communications should be workable with the resources at hand, be workable in real time, be able to go on auto-pilot in case communicators are too busy dealing with the crisis, be communicated in advance, and have low-tech backups in case of emergency.

When the IABC Research Foundation decided 20 years ago to fund one of the most ambitious research projects in the study of business communication, it was the start of something big. It continues to be a landmark study in the practice of public relations, backed up by examples of excellent corporate communication. Through the years, this research investment has netted the IABC Research Foundation a number of related projects and served as background for many ancillary research studies and lectures. The first book stemming from the research project rolled out in 1992. The book "Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management," provided an in-depth literature review of the discipline. The book reaffirms research as the foundation for planning and measuring communication programs. The research applications exhibited provide an audit tool for practitioners to collect data, compare their current practices to the Excellence index and sample cases, and model improved practices in communication management. Finally, the cross-cultural data from the surveys and the case studies provide insight into the applications of public relations and communication management.

This article discusses of public relations agencies for intensifying investor relations expertise in the U.S. Industry experts say that while investor relations and public relations do not always overlap in terms of their audience, with investor relations mainly dealing with analysts and institutional investors and public relations hitting a broader constituency, these two components of corporate communications must make sure to always work in conjunction. And while crisis communications also can come into the picture, it does so as a component of the public relations function. Hence, communications specialists say the main duty for public relations professionals is to encourage frequent, easy-to-comprehend messages from top management, who in many cases also must increase their exposure.