Public relations might seem like a modern profession, but people actually have been strategically placing stories in the media for years.

One of the earliest cases of crisis management through PR was in the 1890s when 80 baseball players left the National League. Considerably, fans and owners were in an uproar. With the help of a little media outreach, the National League was able to straighten out the management-labor disputes and secure the relationships amongst the players, fans, and owners.
This may not be the most modern form of PR and was certainly not called “public relations” at that time. It is important to be able to relate what happened: using interpersonal communication, literature, public events, and art to persuade other individuals to believe in a client’s services or programs. 
Historical figures such as Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Ford have been attributed with being the first to utilize the basic PR concepts: “positioning” and “ready accessibility.” In other words, these men were able to position themselves as thought leaders and were easily accessible to the press. But it wasn’t until 1906 when Mr. Ivy Lee came along and changed PR forever.
With the help of his exceptional skills, Mr. Ivy was able to help his client, the famous industrialist John D. Rockefeller. Mr. Ivy was successful in changing Rockefeller’s tycoon image into one of a man who was concerned for the livelihood of his workers, fixing the problem.

Through the years, PR has eventually evolved from newspaper boys yelling, “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” to now, where PR specialists focus majorly on content creation. With the development of the Internet, PR changed drastically. PR has moved from a broadcast model to an engagement model,i.e., PR professionals are in a constant two-way conversation with the media.
In the present scenario, PR specialists are focusing less and less on traditional efforts and are trying to make the engagement with the media organic. By doing so, the messages that are offered to editors seem more natural and specific to their interests, rather than a mass e-mail.
From 'award applications' and 'speaking abstracts' to 'analyst outreach' and 'media relations', the focus is to shape a certain message for clients based on underlying marketing goals.