PR professionals now have access to a range of various channels that they’re able to use to communicate to key stakeholders, giving them more potential when developing creative ideas. It’s worth thinking about whether this is a factor that has attracted more to the profession.
According to the Office of National Statistics, the 2015 Labour Force Survey found that there are 55,000 PR professionals in the UK, almost 50% up on previous years. However with the number of journalists reportedly dropping 9% to 64,000, could it mean that PR professionals are about to outweigh the journalists? This is already the case across the pound in America as the US Bureau of Labour Statistics claim that there are now 4.8 PR professionals to every journalist.
So what do this mean? Well PR professionals are going to have to get creative. With an increase of people entering the industry, there will be more pitches than ever before to contend with. It’s important that agencies keep a track of the media and are aware of what stories and topics are doing well at any given time, be it in the nationals or within a particular industry.
As a B2B PR agency with clients within a range of different industries, we know only too well of the importance of keeping a track of any relevant hot topics. With a few more years to wait to see if the PR professional will outweigh the journalist and an ever evolving media industry it will be very interesting to see what happens.
Katherine Wilding is a PR apprentice and a regular contributor to the Skout blog
