Day: May 5, 2009

The New York Times story below referenced a study by University of Southern California Annenberg Strategic Communication and Public Relations Center on the impact of the recession on PR budgets.

Clearing my inbox I realized that I had meant to blog about this study back in February… ahem!

There are some interesting findings on how PR is doing in the current economic environment….

Budgets

• 40% of the 200 organizations surveyed have had their current year budget reduced – with 27% reporting an increase in budget.
• 41% attribute this to the economic downturn (6% believe it has nothing to do with the downturn – they probably don’t read the papers);
• The average decrease was –18.8% the average increase was 16.2%
• 51% report year-on-year budget reductions (average –19.3%) – 18% report increases (average 14.2%)
• Overall PR budgets among the 200 companies have fallen 10.8%

Agency Spend

• 69% are planning to reduce agency fees and 28% have already done so

PR Staff

• 63% do not expect to reduce full-time headcount  – 15% will increase headcount

Staff Compensation

• 93% do not expect to reduce compensation while 39% expect pay freezes

You can get a copy of the results at:

www.annenberg.usc.edu/sprc

There was a strangely fluffy story in the New York Times yesterday questioning whether PR is in a “downward spiral”.

A recent study by the USC Annenberg Strategic Communication and P.R. Center at the University of Southern California, involving 200 U.S. companies and other organizations, showed that they had reduced their P.R. budgets by more than 11 percent this year.

Public relations spending is relatively easy to cut quickly, executives say, because many companies employ their P.R. agencies on a project basis; advertising deals tend to be for longer terms.

 

Which concludes:

As the center of economic gravity shifts from financial capitals to the political kind, the business of public relations is following. P.R. agencies benefit in two ways: Governments need outside help to communicate their new, larger role in the economy, as do lobbyists looking for a share of the action.

In other words, the business of spin — as one of its practitioners might put it — seems well-positioned for recovery.

Of course the irony is that its practitioners are probably the only ones who wouldn’t refer to it as spin.

There was a strangely fluffy story in the New York Times yesterday questioning whether PR is in a “downward spiral”.

A recent study by the USC Annenberg Strategic Communication and P.R. Center at the University of Southern California, involving 200 U.S. companies and other organizations, showed that they had reduced their P.R. budgets by more than 11 percent this year.

Public relations spending is relatively easy to cut quickly, executives say, because many companies employ their P.R. agencies on a project basis; advertising deals tend to be for longer terms.

 

Which concludes:

As the center of economic gravity shifts from financial capitals to the political kind, the business of public relations is following. P.R. agencies benefit in two ways: Governments need outside help to communicate their new, larger role in the economy, as do lobbyists looking for a share of the action.

In other words, the business of spin — as one of its practitioners might put it — seems well-positioned for recovery.

Of course the irony is that its practitioners are probably the only ones who wouldn’t refer to it as spin.