StevenSilvers.com

Crisis? What crisis?

My post How the PR business is changed forever (and why you might be in it) got a variety of strong reactions from Flackville.

Robert French, a veteran PR guy and faculty member at Auburn University, took serious issue with my opinion that this recession will result in far fewer communications jobs and many more qualified people eager to take them. Where, he demanded, are the case histories proving that "What used to take a floor full of staff can be accomplished by one talented person with a laptop and Blackberry"?

Writing at length in his PROpenMic network, he added:

"Look, you may be right. But, when someone wants to scream, "The sky is falling", I'd really like to see some evidence. Is the economy in the tank? Yes. Is the future of PR in flux? Yes. Is much of traditional journalism on weak knees as a business model? Yes. All that is true. But, can you point out solid examples that say you're right (on a broad national scale)? I doubt it."

Others agreed with my take on the industry's future and how PR people should respond.

"Take Silvers' advice and find a niche, become an expert," wrote public affairs officer Kristina Summers in her blog. "This is no time to be a generalist. Hopefully there is something you love that you can grab onto tightly and become THE "go-to" person for that subject... The point is to become indispensable."
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How the PR business is changed forever (And why you might not be in it)

It's a tough time to be in the public relations business.

It's going to get a lot worse.

Recessions always thin out the marketing and influence industries.  This downturn will prove particularly brutal.  Companies and agencies are laying off PR people as budgets and revenues dry up.  Many struggling companies are eliminating their communications departments altogether.

When the smoke clears, there will be considerably fewer jobs for communications specialists and marketing publicists.  And there will be many more qualified people who are desperate to have them.

Here are three reasons why the market for PR people will never be the same:

The commoditization of information ... What used to take a staff can be done by one talented person with a laptop and Blackberry.  The need for general-purpose PR worker bees is dwindling faster than doing a Google search.  Companies forced to cut the fat aren't going to bring those jobs back.

Shrinking media outlets ... Newsrooms are getting much smaller.  Even National Public Radio had layoffs.  The financial crisis is exacerbating what the Project for Excellence in Journalism called "the new paradox of journalism... more outlets covering fewer stories."   That means employers and agencies have too many publicists pitching the same decreasing numbers of reporters.

Reporters at the gate ... The market is being flooded by laid-off reporters, columnists and TV anchors.  Many have excellent skills, great contacts and deep understanding of the industries they covered.  Whether they can make the transition to being PR people -- what many called flacks before they needed jobs -- is always a question.  Even so, unemployed journalists will take many of the positions that would otherwise have gone to corporate and marketing communications people.  Count on it.

How you survive the years ahead depends on how you respond to these new realities.

If you're a generalist PR staffer, hone your writing skills and become expert in something relevant. Fast.

If you're a PR student, consider changing your major.  Seriously.

Many of you are in for a big disappointment.
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Why McCain and Obama aren't answering to PRSA

Neither the McCain or Obama campaign has responded to the Public Relations Society of America's request that each sign a pledge "obligating them to abide by the PRSA Code of Ethics in their campaign communications."

That's because presidential candidates have no reason to treat PRSA as the voice or moral authority of the influence industry. The truth is that PRSA -- and I've been a member longer than I can remember -- is none of these things.

PRSA's board of directors doesn't include a single representative from the nation's largest PR agencies.

Nor has PRSA shown the courage of its convictions. Many agencies and communications departments, including PRSA members, act unethically. They talk to reporters and write editorials without revealing their interests. They design video news releases to make TV viewers think they're watching journalism. They do push-polls and sell it as real research. They create anonymous front groups and publish fake blogs. They attack critics and marginalize legitimate issues about their clients or employers.

And PRSA doesn't do much about it. In 2006, the association sent an email warning members to "avoid misleading practices" including front groups. The big PR agencies that prompted the advisory because they'd been outed in the national press weren't mentioned, much less admonished.

At the end of the day, PRSA acts like just another trade association that expects high status not for its bold advocacy, but for its good intentions.

This may be a sincere desire. But it's certainly not being true to the cause.
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• Related: PRSA: One good exaggeration deserves another.

PRSA: One good exaggeration deserves another.

Like many Americans I dont' usually watch CBS News Sunday Morning. So I didn't hear legal analyst Andrew Cohen's rant about PR people being liars.

And like most Americans I don't care what one talking head on a Sunday morning news show says about the PR industry.

TV commentators, reporters, bloggers, columnists, talk show hosts -- they make ridiculous generalizations all the time. Flacks are deceitful, lawyers are sharks, used car salespeople are sleaze, politicians pander, contractors don't show up, dentists are overpaid and CEOs are crooks.

It's a cheap way for paid pundits to make their point, even if they don't have a point except to take a cheap shot.

Which is why I'm always amazed when the Public Relations Society of America -- that's "PRSA" among us liars -- takes this stuff so personally.

In a letter and video response to CBS, PRSA's president argued that "The PRSA Code of Ethics, to which all members pledge, embodies a strict set of guidelines defining ethical and professional practice in public relations."

This is spin.  The truth is that there are plenty of PR people violating the code of ethics. They talk to reporters or publish editorials without revealing their clients. They design video news releases to make local TV news viewers think they're watching journalism. They create anonymous "consumer groups" or fake blogs.

And PRSA doesn't do too much about it.  In 2006, the association sent an email warning members to "avoid" misleading practices including front groups. The big PR agencies that prompted the advisory because they'd been outed in the national press weren't mentioned, much less admonished.

This was Cohen's ham-fisted but somewhat valid point in the first place.

Not all PR people are liars. But PRSA exaggerated the industry's integrity in response to an exaggeration about its deceitfulness.

You'd think PR people would know better.
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