Business & Tech

San Bruno Consultant Helps Lead Effort to Redefine Meaning of PR

Gerard Corbett, of San Bruno-based Redphlag, is the chairman and chief executive of the Public Relations Soceity of America, which led the initiative to find a modern definition of public relations.

A San Bruno public relations consultant was recently featured in the New York Times for his organization's effort to redefine the meaning of public relations for the 21st century.

Gerard Corbett, chairman and chief executive of San Bruno-based Redphlag, is the chairman and chief executive of the Public Relations Soceity of America, the industry's largest organization in the country, and helped lead the effort to find a new definition for what public relations professionals do.

It was sparked by a desire to update the organization's definition of public relations, which was last changed in 1982 but didn't fit the changing process of communications created by the Internet and social media sites, according to the organization.

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The New York Times reported that the organization launched an initiative in November called Public Relations Defined, which took suggestions from public relations professionals, academics, students and others.

The votes came in on Friday, when the new public relations definition was announced.

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According to the organization, the new definition of public relations is:

a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.

In an interview about the process, Corbett told the New York Times, “Maybe the best way to capture it is to say it was a very transparent and open process. It was basically an exercise in making sausage.”

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