Generally Accepted Practices in Public Relations Departments

The Strategic Public Relations Center at USC has released its annual study of Generally Accepted Practices in internal PR departments, and it is chock-full of insights that should be valuable both to inside communicators and outside consultants.

The study looks at practices across-the-board including budgets, evaluation, reporting lines, use of outside agencies, management’s perceptions of PR, PR activities and integration with other departments. Over 500 internal communicators took part in the study, including participants from public and private companies as well as governmental agencies and non-profits.

The purposes of the study were as follows:

• Assess the effectiveness of PR techniques


• Develop new techniques


• Maximize recognition among senior management of the value of effective, ethical techniques


• Help to define the evolving role of PR


• Elevate the skills of practitioners

It’s a massive and thorough review of current best practices — so much so that I will break it down for you starting next week in a series of posts that summarize the findings and best practices in each of the categories above.

But if you want to get a head start, you can download the whole thing yourself here.