Background
Arthur was born 10 September 1883 to Walter Hines Page and his wife Willa A. Page of Aberdeen, North Carolina. Arthur helped his father with the monthly magazine World"s Work, and in 1913 took over as editor from his father.
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Arthur Page
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Harvard University.
Career
He is sometimes referred to as "the father of corporate public relations" for his work at American Telephone & Telegraph Company. The company was experiencing resistance from the public to its monopolization efforts. Page established a series of public relations heuristics generally referred to as the Page Principles. In 1927 Walter South. Gifford hired Page to become vice-president for public relations at American Telephone & Telegraph Company. One of his first assignments was to prepare a speech for President Gifford to present in October that year to the National Association of Railroad and Utilities Commissioners meeting in Dallas, Texas.
In the early 1900s, American Telephone & Telegraph Company had assessed that 90 percent of its press coverage was negative, which was reduced to 60 percent by changing its business practices and disseminating information to the press
According to business historian John Brooks, Page positioned the company as a public utility and increased the public"s appreciation for its contributions to society. On the other hand, Stuart Ewen wrote that American Telephone & Telegraph Company used its advertising dollars with newspapers to manipulate its coverage and had their public relations team write feature stories that were published as if they were written by independent journalists.
In 1941, when the book The Bell Telephone System by A.W. Page was published, the Dallas speech was quoted in chapter 2: "Responsibility for such a large part of the entire telephone service of the country..imposes on the management an unusual obligation to the public.." Arthur lived until September, 1960. He is today recognized in the name of two organizations, the Page Society, an organization for senior public relations executives, and the Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication, a research center dedicated to the study and advancement of ethics and responsibility in corporate communication.
