Attendees can trust that their donations will be used fully and effectively, and that translated into a $57.4 million night for the foundation on Monday.

Opinions on the issue vary. On Forbes.com, Davia Temin said that, if this was an isolated “little lie,” he should be off the hook. “Let’s hope the Yahoo board has the courage to stand up to bullying by the dissidents and not fire its CEO over a minor technicality,” wrote Businessweek’s Larry Popelka.  Jena McGregor weighed in on the Washington Post’s PostLeadership blog:

“In the end, it doesn’t really matter how great Thompson’s experience in his former jobs might have been, or who may have first cast doubt on his resume, or how disruptive his departure could be at a company that has had six CEOs (four designated and two interim) in five years. When credibility is called into question, everything else comes second.”

Interim (and likely permanent) CEO Ross Levinsohn, who previously served as its global media head, offers a new vision for Yahoo’s future. Reestablishing the company’s identity and reputation when internet hubs are declining in importance will be a daunting task, but Levinsohn appears intent on moving ahead. “In spite of the very bumpy road we’ve traveled, we are achieving genuine and meaningful successes in the marketplace every day and heading in the right direction,” he told Yahoo’s employees on Sunday.

A Passion Project

Patagonia’s beginnings can be traced back to a California falconry club, where a young Chouinard discovered his love of climbing. Unsatisfied with the equipment available for climbers, he began making his own. He and his new wife Malinda soon ventured into apparel, founding Patagonia in 1972. “The point was not to focus on making money; focus on doing things right, and the profits would come,” according to a 2007 Fortune cover story. That mentality has been a defining part of the company’s image.

Environment First

Patagonia became a leader in environmental responsibility by giving it an equal priority to profits—reportedly without sacrificing profits. In 1985 the company began donating one percent of its revenue to environmental organizations, a move that has since inspired more than 1,400 companies to join its 1% For the Planet initiative. It was also one of the first companies to switch to more environmentally friendly organic cotton, despite its higher costs.

Limitations

Following accelerated growth spurred by the unintended trendiness of its brand, Patagonia’s limits were revealed when the early 1990s recession hit. Growth skidded to a halt and the company was forced to lay off a fifth of its employees. Rather than yielding to the economic circumstances, however, Chouinard doubled down on his original mission. “I decided the best thing I could do was to get profitable again, live a more examined corporate life and influence other companies to do the same,” he told the Wall Street Journal‘s Seth Stevenson.

Beyond Transparency

Since that crisis Patagonia has placed even more emphasis on its environmental agenda. Chouinard started “The Footprint Chronicles,” a soul-searching online project dedicated to “exhaustively cataloging the environmental damage done by his own company,” as the WSJ describes it. Taking a stance against consumerism, last holiday season Patagonia even ran a Black Friday ad asking people to buy less of its products. At the same time Chouinard’s perspective is rubbing off on other larger corporations.

Through all of this Patagonia has been consistently reported as profitable, despite its large donation programs, the extra costs it imposes on its supply chain and other activities whose direct effect on the bottom line would seen to be negative. And other companies have seen the value in Patagonia’s approach. The Wall Street Journal details how even Walmart turned to Chouinard, seeking his advice and working with Patagonia to form the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, which has attracted other top brands.

As one of the largest marketers in the country, BofA will be leading the financial industry’s struggle to find a new public identity. Many other companies will be looking for cues on how to shift their own strategies as the bank’s new strategy is unveiled.

Michael J. de la Merced observes that “in March, the company hired Richard Siewert Jr., a former Clinton press secretary who was a senior adviser to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner until last year, to head public relations.” His article goes on to detail the challenges he faced.

It is a fascinating look at how the über experts are rehabilitating a controversial Wall Street image….layer by strategic layer.

Like other awards such as the Nobel Prize and the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize is important because we regard it as an authoritative and discerning arbiter of excellence. Since it is also so widely aspired to, it does more than honor extraordinary cultural achievement. It provides a quantifiable boost in sales to the sort of work that otherwise might not get the attention it deserves in the marketplace.

Strong influence leads to significant expectations

With such influence come significant expectations, though, and this year’s lack of a fiction winner has left many disappointed. Literary professionals are particularly incensed, including the Pulitzer jurors who read hundreds of submissions only see the board decline to recognize the three books they selected. “We were all shocked,” juror Susan Larson told NPR. “The Pulitzer is too prestigious and crucial an award to book lovers, authors and the publishing industry to be sporadically — and unaccountably— withheld,” wrote another juror, Maureen Corrigan, in the Washington Post.

Struggling publishers and booksellers were also understandably upset. “I can’t imagine there was ever a year we were so in need of the excitement it creates in readers,” author and bookstore owner Ann Patchett lamented in the New York Times. Many readers, too, were left empty-handed. Entertainment Weekly‘s Stephan Lee described how his “mother, whose first language is not English, would always buy and spend a painstakingly long time to read and understand the Pulitzer-winning novel each year.”

Ambiguity leaves room for negative conclusions

This isn’t the first Pulitzer-less year in fiction, but the prize’s administrators should consider the fallout. If guaranteeing a prize every year would compromise its integrity, they could consider implementing a more transparent selection process. It’s unclear whether the board deemed all of this year’s fiction finalists unworthy or merely failed to reach the majority consensus required to select a winner. Such ambiguity leaves room for too many negative conclusions.

Corrigan offers some additional suggestions in her Washington Post piece, including eliminating that majority requirement and simply letting the jurors make the call. “We were invited to serve on the jury because we’re recognized as being, in some way, literary experts,” she said. “Why, then, turn the final decision over to a board primarily composed of non-literary folk?”

New York’s literary community may find some solace in Mayor Bloomberg’s recent announcement of the new NYC Literary Honors. The silver lining for the publishing industry is that sales of all three Pulitzer fiction finalists are up. And bookworms now have not one but three great options for their next read, though none will bear that esteemed Pulitzer Prize stamp.

The most effective social media strategies are tailored to a company’s brand and audience—and they use the medium to interact with, not just broadcast to, audiences.

New York Road Runners, the organizer of the New York City Marathon and numerous other area races, is growing “by Olympian proportions,” according to the April 2 issue of Crain’s New York Business (subscription required). But as it expands and experiences “growing pains,” some members feel that NYRR’s communications haven’t been sufficient, particularly when it comes to social media. Some of its most dedicated members have come to feel ignored and alienated.

NYRR’s problems point to a larger disconnect in the way companies are using, and customers are experiencing, social media. A recent survey by the CMO Council and Lithium reveals that, while many companies believe that customers are connecting via social media because “the content is agreeable,” the majority of customers expect to be rewarded for their engagement with an additional level of interaction.

A great model for such interaction is Starbucks, which was recently named the most socially engaged company in a study by research firm PhaseOne—in addition to being named one of the most innovative by Forbes. Starbucks has “focused its Web page, Facebook page and television advertisements on the individual and his or her individualized experience with the brand,” according to the survey. Social Media Today highlights how the company has fearlessly encouraged “spirited discussion not only of its products, but also of the company’s positions.” Such engagement isn’t new for the coffee chain. It launched its popular interactive website MyStarbucksIdea.com back in 2008 and has been an “early adopter” of social media, including offering the first-ever nationwide deal on Foursquare and staging successful promotions such as Free Pastry Day and Tax Day.

Talking about the company’s social media efforts in 2010 Advertising Age report, Starbucks’ Chris Bruzzo hits the nail on the head: “This was not [built as a] marketing channel, but as a consumer relationship-building environment.” If NYRR would take a similar approach, it could harness the extraordinary potential of its members in support of its growth. Social media is most effectively used when the flow of information is in both directions.

“Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”

In addition to sparking plenty of healthy debate, the new definition provides an opportunity to reflect upon how the field has evolved from its early 20th century origins, which The Economist examined in a fascinating 2010 article. So, what has and hasn’t changed about public relations over the last century?

The importance of honesty, transparency and mutually beneficial relationships certainly hasn’t. In 1906, Ivy Lee, one of public relations’ founders, issued a “Declaration of Principles,” in which he wrote that “our plan is frankly, and openly, on behalf of business concerns and public institutions, to supply the press and public of the United States prompt and accurate information concerning subjects which it is of value and interest to the public to know about.” He also viewed public relations as a “two-way street” between clients and the public. Though Lee did stray from them, those principles resonate today, perhaps even more so with the advent of the Internet and social media.

The speed and complexity of public relations, on the other hand, have changed drastically, resulting in the free flow of information through an ever-expanding array of channels. PRSA’s updated definition aims to address such changes, but language like the phrase “strategic communications process” also reflects the prominent role that reputation management has assumed in the industry. As we mentioned last year, Elliot Schreiber, PhD, wrote a must-read PRSA blog post stressing the importance of “a formal, strategic process” for reputation management. The United Kingdom’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations also emphasizes reputation in its own definition of public relations.

 We’ll never reach a consensus on such a definition, but the debate is a valuable touchstone. It reminds us of public relations’ founding principles while also encouraging us to prepare for what its future holds.