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Institute for Public Relations

The Institute for Public Relations is an independent nonprofit that bridges the academy and the profession, supporting PR research and mainstreaming this knowledge into practice through PR education.

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Dispelling the Myth of PR Multipliers and Other Inflationary Audience Measures

By Mark Weiner and Don Bartholomew

Multipliers are often used by public relations professionals to factor circulation or audience figures when calculating impressions. Multipliers are generally rationalized by users to take into account pass-along circulation and/or to assign a higher value to PR impressions than advertising impressions due to a perceived higher level of credibility. The authors argue that the facts do not support the use of multipliers, and their use may actually hurt the credibility of the profession.