Campaign to define ‘public relations’ delayed

The Public Relations Society of America pushed back the timeline of its Public Relations Defined campaign, which aims to crowd-source a new meaning of the term. Participants entered their submissions for a definition online, from Nov. 21 through Dec. 2, after which time the organization collected the entries and began whittling them down to determine a group of finalists to present to its 12 partner organizations for the campaign.

According to the original schedule, finalists, for which the public would vote, were to be unveiled in December after the partner organizations offered their feedback. The PR trade group had planned to announce the new definition by the end of 2011. Instead, it’s shooting for an unveiling in late January.

“Because of that unprecedented response and interest, PRSA’s Definition of Public Relations Task Force is taking additional time to analyze the data collected,” said PRSA CEO and chair Rosanna Fiske in a blog post. “We are also providing more time for our 12 global partners to offer their feedback.”