Practice of Public Relations, The

Fraser P. Seitel is a veteran of five decades in the practice of public relations, beginning, he claims, “as a child.” In 2000, PR Week magazine named Mr. Seitel one of the 100 Most Distinguished Public Relations Professionals of the 20th Century.

In 1992, after serving for a decade as senior vice president and director of public affairs for The Chase Manhattan Bank, Mr. Seitel formed Emerald Partners, a management and communications consultancy, and also became senior counselor at the world’s largest public affairs firm, Burson-Marsteller.

Mr. Seitel has been a regular guest on television and radio, appearing on a variety of programs on the Fox News Network and CNN, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNBC’s Power Lunch, as well as on MSNBC, Fox Business Network, the Fox Radio Network, and National Public Radio.

Mr. Seitel has counseled hundreds of corporations, hospitals, nonprofits, associations, and individuals in the areas for which he had responsibility at Chase―media relations, speech writing, consumer relations, employee communications, financial communications, philanthropic activities, and strategic management consulting.

Mr. Seitel is an Internet columnist at odwyerpr.com and a frequent lecturer and seminar leader on communications topics. Over the course of his career, Mr. Seitel has taught thousands of public relations professionals and students.

After studying and examining many texts in public relations, he concluded that none of them “was exactly right.” Therefore, in 1980, he wrote the first edition of The Practice of Public Relations “to give students a feel for how exciting this field really is.” In four decades of use at hundreds of colleges and universities, Mr. Seitel’s book has introduced generations of students to the excitement, challenge, and uniqueness of the practice of public relations.