PR: Fifty Years in the Field

Sidney Allinson is a Victoria-based communications consultant, Canadian
news correspondent for Britain’s The Army Quarterly and Defence, and
author of The Bantams: The Untold Story of World War I.

Say what critics may about public-relations work, it does get
practitioners into a lot of interesting places and situations. PR
persons often sit at the right hand of those in authority, whether
royalty, government, industry, or the military.

Jack Donoghue, who has served all of those sectors, provides in this
book many practical insights into the publicity trade, and into methods
of PR management. He does so by describing his involvement in numerous
public-information campaigns, many of which revolved around crises—for
example, Manitoba’s polio epidemic, the 1977 Alberta nurses’ strike,
various federal governmental kerfuffles, and a politically sensitive
park in Calgary.

Donoghue’s problem-solving techniques should interest students of the
profession or people in management roles. His reflections on PR and the
abuse of political power could be read with profit in any legislature or
social science class. Above all, this book warrants a place in
public-relations course studies.