For the past several decades, public relations practitioners have been seeking the “holy grail” of measurement for public relations activities. We have seen the rise of questionable research methods and the applications of “black box” approaches. However, it is quite clear that the approach to developing effective public relations measurement includes several key elements – the acceptance of measures that are valid for determining the impact of public relations and research methods that will produce reliable and replicable results. We must meld what we need to know (standards) with the best approaches of how to collect this data (best practices). In order to succeed, the industry has to go beyond soft guidelines and accept specific measures that will be universally applied.