PR is a better business than advertising, reckoned Daniel Edelman
He never really retired, remaining chairman until the end. At his death, the
firm employed more than 4,500 people worldwide. It generated revenues in 2011 of
$615m. It is still family-owned, and run by his son Richard. (Mr Edelman turned
down many offers to buy it over the years.) He had always considered PR a
superior, more honest and nuanced business than advertising, and feared that
acquisition by an advertising-dominated group such as WPP or Publicis would
crush its spirit—the fate, as he saw it, of its old rivals when they were bought
by Madison Avenue’s Mad Men.
