Promoting Monopoly

Since the invention of the telephone in 1876, publicity has been central to the growth of the industry. In its earliest years the Bell company enjoyed a patent monopoly, but after Alexander Graham Bell’s patents expired, it had to fight competitors, the public, and the U.S. government to maintain control of the telephone network. It used every means its executives could imagine, and that included constructing one of the earliest and most effective public relations programs of its time. This book analyzes the development of public relations at AT&T, starting with a previously forgotten publicist, William A. Hovey, and then including James D. Ellsworth and Arthur W. Page, who worked with other Bell executives to create a company where public relations permeated almost every aspect of work, leveraging employee programs, stock sales, and technological research for PR. Critics accused it of disseminating propaganda, but the desire to promote and protect the Bell monopoly propelled the creation of a corporate public relations program that also shaped the legal, political, media, and cultural landscape.

“"This is the book on AT&T's public relations that needed to be written. We knew AT&T was an early adopter of public relations. We knew the names of Vail, Ellsworth, Page, but little else. Karen Miller Russell fleshes out the story in a thoroughly researched and engagingly written book that provides a glimpse into the thinking of these and other men involved in promoting the idea that an AT&T monopoly was in the best interest of the American public."--Karla K. Gower, Director, Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations, The University of Alabama”

“In this deeply researched book, Karen Miller Russell advances the history of public relations and corporate communication in the United States through detailed analysis of AT&T/Bell’s launch, promotion and sustenance of telephony in a highly readable, scholarly manner. It is a major addition to the canon of communications history.”—Tom Watson, Founder, International History of Public Relations Conference
“Karen Miller Russell, the foremost historian of the profession, enlightens us about the role of PR in the extraordinary growth of AT&T. We learn that even in its earliest days, the company valued public opinion, and sought—often ingeniously—to win the trust of customers, government, regulatory agencies, even its own employees. Practitioners and educators alike will enjoy reading about the earliest known examples of institutional advertising, sponsored content and corporate publicity, all of which were conducted from the very core of AT&T’s operations, with a goal of strengthening all its public relationships, more than a century ago.”—Shelley Spector, Founder, Museum of Public Relations, New York City
“This is the book on AT&T’s public relations that needed to be written. We knew AT&T was an early adopter of public relations. We knew the names of Vail, Ellsworth, Page, but little else. Karen Miller Russell fleshes out the story in a thoroughly researched and engagingly written book that provides a glimpse into the thinking of these and other men involved in promoting the idea that an AT&T monopoly was in the best interest of the American public.”—Karla K. Gower, Director, Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations, The University of Alabama

Karen Miller Russell (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) is Jim Kennedy Professor of New Media and Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Georgia. She is the author of The Voice of Business: Hill & Knowlton and Postwar Public Relations.

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