Pennsylvania Railroad accident

One of the first documented examples of this new practice took place in 1906 when Lee was retained by the Pennsylvania Railroad and soon after a train wreck occurred near Gap, Pennsylvania. Rather than trying to suppress the facts, as they had been used to doing, Lee advised the company to invite reporters to attend the a scene at their expense and report the facts as they saw them.

Against the protests of some senior executives, the company took Lee’s advice and soon found itself enjoying good press coverage in spite of the unfortunate accident (Cutlip, 1994).

But not all journalists saw it this way and Lee also found that some of the press releases he sent out were met with hostility by the reporters who received them. Completely unused to receiving such factual, rather than publicity-based, material many of the reporters that the press release was sent to accused Lee of putting out advertisements under the guise of facts and of trying to manipulate them by writing their story himself (Jenkins, 1995).

Perhaps Lee should not have been surprised by this negative response from journalists who could see that if he was successful then he might manage to cut them out of the picture and even do them out of a job.

In any event, Ivy Lee refused to give up at this first sign of opposition and in 1906 published his first book, the Declaration of Principles, in which he set out very clearly the philosophy that he was trying to adopt. In his Declaration Lee promised the transparent supply of prompt and accurate information about clients to the press and public of the United States (Lee, 1906).