Another day, and another article bashing the growing ranks of PR flacks. The Economist, a British publication, recently ran an article saying the media business was in danger of being overrun by PR professionals. Republican, a publicly-financed American news outlet, also wrote a similar article recently.
As someone who has worked on both sides of the media business, I am concerned about this phenomenon, but I think these articles overlook a more important point. Media critics should also be writing about the dearth of media outlets. The reason why PR pros numbers are growing is because the number of journalists is decreasing. Continue reading