Of Rockefeller, Ida Tarbell, Journalism & PR

I recently finished Ron Chernow’s biography of J D Rockefeller — the richest man in the world of his time. Around the time of his death in 1937, the oil baron had an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion — equal to 1.5% of US GDP or about $29.25 bn today.

At 774 pages or 30+ hours of listening, the book is exhaustive. What caught my attention is the shifting mindset of business barons towards journalism and the evolution of corporate public relations in the 19th century. It is instructive to today’s business owners as well.?

For the early part of his life, Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil, thought engaging with media was a waste of time. Chernow writes that this is how most of the industrial barons of the 19th century thought of the media and the public at large.

“Life is short,” Rockefeller wrote to his associate Parmalee Prentice, “and we have not time to heed the reports of foolish and unprincipled men.” However, around this time, pioneering investigative journalist Ida Tarbell, one of the “leading muckrakers and reformers of the Progressive Era” entered the picture.?

Between 1902- 1904, she wrote her popular series of articles on the history of Standard Oil, in McClure's from 1902 to 1904. Through these articles, she exposed monopoly abuse by Standard Oil, which chose to remain silent in the press for the most part.?

When a friend suggested to Rockefeller that he should respond to the Tarbell articles, he pointed to a worm crawling across their path and said “If I step on that worm I will call attention to it…If I ignore it, it will disappear.”?

For the longest, Rockefeller maintained a studied silence in the media and it made things worse for him and Standard Oil which was under heavy scrutiny following the Tarbell articles as well as the rise of Trust busting in the United States.?

Chernov notes that Standard Oil’s “muted reaction appears to be a perplexing miscalculation.” There were enough mistakes in those articles that by today’s standards could have easily been used to threaten libel and question credibility.?

The rise of newspapers in the United States and unrelenting reportage on large companies led to political action and court cases. In the face of all this, Rockefeller changed his mind and hired his first publicist, Joseph I. C. Clarke, an editor of the New York Herald.

So what did Clarke do? Here’s Chernow:

A jovial, outgoing poet and playwright, Clarke would greet reporters with a quip and a cigar to warm up the trust’s image. Before long, he was lining up reporters for breezy, lighthearted interviews with Rockefeller, featuring a game of golf with the mogul, who obligingly delivered pithy observations on topical subjects. Articles began to appear with titles like “The Human Side of John D. Rockefeller,” as if its existence wasn’t taken for granted.

He invited more reporters to golf with the titan, and these festive outings, full of gags and banter, invariably produced favorable articles. “I have as my constant companions at golf, magazine writers and newspaper men,” Rockefeller wrote to Harold McCormick in September 1906. “They say they did not know me before and seem entirely friendly and well-disposed.”

Clarke resigned in 1913 and Ivy Lee, one of the founders of modern public relations took over. At the time, Lee was handling PR for the Pennsylvania Railroad. "...such a step was still a novelty in corporate America. Most businesses did not concede the legitimacy of journalists poking into their affairs and consequently had no full-time publicist on the payroll.”

In personal branding and public relations, an interesting saying is that people don’t know what to think of you unless you tell them. And in the absence of your version of the story, the human mind has a tendency to make up stories. The following passages which chronicle an exchange between Rockefeller and journalist William Hoster are illustrative:?

In June 1906, the Rockefeller party—including Cettie, Lute, Alta, and Dr. Biggar—sailed for France aboard the Deutschland, with the Rockefeller name discreetly omitted from the passenger list. When it was learned that Rockefeller was aboard, the press busied itself with speculation about his motives. Some reporters stressed his desire to avoid testimony and others his supposedly broken health. Perhaps the most outrageous theory came from a New York American reporter, William Hoster, who conjectured luridly that Rockefeller’s stomach was ruined, that he was going to consult a renowned European specialist, and that he might never return alive. Hoping to observe Rockefeller at close range, Hoster purchased a ticket for the crossing, intending to file a series entitled “How the Richest Man in the World Plays.”?

During the voyage, as he stalked his quarry, Hoster was amazed at how different Rockefeller was from the stereotype that he himself had foisted on readers. For one thing, Rockefeller had an excellent appetite and wolfed down three meals a day. “It was a distinct shock to me,” he later wrote, “when Mr. Rockefeller strolled up the plank to find him, instead of the hopeless dyspeptic that he had been painted, a tall, broad-shouldered, robust man, with ruddy complexion, clear eyes, alert step and altogether vigorous manner. Far from being aloof, Rockefeller fairly cavorted around the ship: bursting into a dance when he bested Dr. Biggar at shuffleboard; donning a harlequin’s costume the night of the captain’s dinner; and delighting small children with his antics. “One sturdy little fellow one afternoon produced two pennies, which he insisted upon sharing with his playmate Rockefeller,” Hoster later wrote. “The man of millions gravely accepted the copper and carefully placed it in his pocket, then, with his face turned seaward impulsively took up the child and folded his arms about it. This warmhearted man was a revelation to Hoster.?

With a reporter’s cheek, he asked, “Mr. Rockefeller, have you ever reflected that perhaps you yourself may be in a measure responsible for the way that you have been treated by the newspapers?” He recounted how, dozens of times, he had gone to Rockefeller’s homes to try to interview him but had never been admitted or even allowed a glimpse, which seemed to verify the reports of ill health. Turning to another canard that Hoster had swallowed, Rockefeller noted that he had not been involved in Standard Oil management for many years. “Is it possible that is not known?” he asked. “I have made no concealment of it. All my friends know it.” Yet Hoster insisted that he and other reporters were genuinely ignorant of that, and he implored him to make it public.?

For a time, Rockefeller gazed stonily at Hoster and dug his walking stick into the gravel path. Then his face relaxed and a faint smile crossed his lips. “So it is all my fault,” Rockefeller said, with a touch of sarcasm. Then, after a pause, he added more seriously, “I suppose there may be something in what you say, though I had never thought of it in that way before.” Since Rockefeller had demonized reporters, much as they had demonized him, he was surprised to find that Hoster was sincere and invented stories for lack of accurate information.

More on Rockefeller’s change in attitude towards the press:?

As he abandoned his fearful attitude toward the press, he loosened up, as if liberated by the change. It formed part of a general development away from the more severe manner of his business years.?

Leslie’s Weekly reported the following year, “At the age of sixty-seven he is growing out of his chrysalis. For the first years of his life he is beginning to enjoy himself. Two years ago he dodged newspapermen. Now he courts them.” Virtually every reporter who profiled Rockefeller was surprised to discover a courteous, lighthearted old gentleman. “Never have I known anyone who could approach Mr. Rockefeller in thoughtful little attentions,” one impressed reporter wrote. “This is the testimony of all his guests. His worst enemy would succumb to this treatment.”?

Though he had spurned many chances to respond to Ida Tarbell and declined offers to write his life, Rockefeller now decided to publish his memoirs in Tarbell-like monthly installments in The World’s Work. The magazine was an especially safe, attractive forum since its editor, Walter H. Page, was a member of the General Education Board.?

When Doubleday asked Rockefeller to meet with the magazine publishers, Rockefeller, now an old hand at press relations, replied, “Certainly. Why not? I am willing to meet and talk with anybody of men, friends or enemies.”?

It was an unlikely triumph for a reclusive man who had refrained from public speaking and had fled from the press for so long. Unfortunately, he had turned this skill to advantage much too late, since the political assault against Standard Oil now headed inexorably toward its finale.?

In 1911, the Standard Oil Trust was dissolved into 34 companies under the Sherman Antitrust Act. However, Rockefeller’s wealth, influence (chiefly through generous philanthropic activities) and public image only improved over time.?