Results were taken from the Q2 survey of Council members. A total of 65 firms participated in the online survey, which was in the field from July 7-17, 2009.

Survey was completed by 59 interns who attended the Council's Internfest on July 17th.

Data from Council's 2009 Business Practices Benchmarking Report

What initiatives would usually be considered strategic in your organization?

60% of American respondents in a recent national survey report little confidence in today's media. 

Here are the results of a recent survey gauging employee satisfaction among PR professionals:

Survey: PR will be a lifelong career for me

Firms are demonstrating value to clients and being rewarded.

Nearly 60% of new business came from current and past clients. Just 5 percent of agency PR professionals report that the majority of their firm's new business opportunities in 2008 came from outbound marketing efforts.

In addition to overall worries about their well‐being, PR professionals face challenges on the client side.

Since Franklin Roosevelt's presidency in the 1930s and the 1940s, who do you think has been the best political communicator?

Top 5 answers from in-house communicators (61 respondents):

Survey conducted by Kelton Research for the Council of Public Relations Firms between January 15th and February 4th, 2009 using an email invitation and an online survey.

From January 21 to February 4, 2009, Kelton Research conducted 285 online interviews among PR professionals. The survey sample included 160 agency practitioners, 64 solo PR practitioners, and 61 in‐house PR professionals.

The survey was administered between November 4-10. A total of 54 firms responded, mostly HR executives.

Many people who replied to this question have been unimpressed with the leadership being demonstrated during this crisis. Here are the top responses:

Others receiving votes: Michael Bloomberg, Barack Obama, Barney Frank, Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein, SNL, Talk Radio, John Boehner

From Council's Q3 2008 Quick Survey

Taken from a survey of Council members from October 1- 10; 61 firms participated.

Social media capabilities are either extremely or moderately important to 83% of clients, according to this survey question. When this same question was asked about a year ago, that percentage was 78%. Considering the rush to all-things digital, we don't see this number declining anytime soon.

One week after we celebrated Earth Day, we recognize the growing "green" practices of America's Leading Firms, which according to a recent Council survey are springing up at a steady rate. The Council will benchmark this data on an annual basis.

Most agency leaders think that either it does not matter who wins the presidential election, or that Republican John McCain would be better for business. The two Democratic nominees finished a distant third and fourth in this survey.

This chart reveals that disclosure of compensation is undefined territory.  PR executives demonstrated virtually unanimous disagreement with the statement, "It is okay to compensate bloggers for writing about my clients, but it is not up to me to tell them to disclose the payment." A plurality of bloggers (48%), on the other hand, agreed with the statement and another 16 percent were either neutral or had no opinion. This issue clearly merits more investigation. These responses may reflect a disagreement over whether a PR professional can or should dictate the terms of disclosure; in other words, bloggers may be telling the PR industry that they alone are in charge of what is posted on a blog– or it may be a larger question of transparency.

PR executives and bloggers differ slightly on whether bloggers should be treated as journalists. When presented with the statement, "Bloggers are journalists and should be treated as such":

• 36 percent of PR executives agreed
• 32 percent of bloggers agreed
• 58 percent of PR executives disagreed
• 36 percent of bloggers were neutral

While the attitudes of PR executives show they are somewhat unclear on how to categorize bloggers, the bloggers are even less consistent on the point – 32 percent call themselves journalists, 33 percent eschew the label, and another third do not express a preference.

Based on research jointly conducted by APCO Worldwide and the Council of Public Relations Firms. 55 PR executives and 47 bloggers were interviewed for this survey. Visit www.bloggersandpr.com for more information about the study.

Survey results gathered by the Council of Public Relations Firm, January 2008 in its Q4 Quick Survey. A total of 62 firms responded to each question