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Growth of government PR
- 1. Good news! Why Government Public Relation Specialists should be happy 1.31.2012 Public Relations Society of America, San Diego
- 2. 2003 2005 2007 2009 2010 Reporters 60,080 52,330 51,000 45,490 44,770 Gov't PR Specialists 16,420 17,510 19,210 20,680 20,830 15,000 25,000 35,000 45,000 55,000 65,000 Jobs Employment -25% +27% 4-to-1 2-to-1 Are we headed for 1-to-1? Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics1.31.2012 Public Relations Society of America, San Diego
- 3. Government’s growing PR premium 2003 2005 2007 2009 2010 Reporters $40,103 $40,088 $42,696 $43,225 $43,480 Gov't PR Specialists $50,050 $53,090 $56,800 $60,880 $61,860 $30,000 $40,000 $50,000 $60,000 $70,000 Medianpay Pay +8% +24% +25% +42% Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics1.31.2012 Public Relations Society of America, San Diego
- 4. The shift toward managed information 2003 2005 2007 2009 2010 Reporters $2,409 $2,098 $2,177 $1,966 $1,947 Gov't PR Specialists $822 $930 $1,091 $1,259 $1,289 $- $500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 $2,500 $3,000 $millions Total investment (pay) 3-to-1 1.5-to-1 -19% +57% Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics1.31.2012 Public Relations Society of America, San Diego
Editor's Notes
- Thank you for having me here today. I know you have questions, but before we get to that I wanted to share with you some reporting I did one afternoon last week to prepare for this session. I have three slides to show, each of which is a different slice of the same phenomenon, and it is something that effects all of us in this room. I have titled this part of the session “Good News,” even though most news really isn’t bad or good. It’s just a matter of your perspective. Which I guess is where all of you come in. So, this is just may way of teasing all of you in a good natured way. OK, then. Why should Government Public Relations Specialists be happy?
- Because as a profession, government public relations work is doing really well. Since, 2003, which was the first year I pulled from the BLS site, the ranks of government PR specialists have increased by 27%. The ranks of reporters in the same period have thinned significantly, down 25%. So, in total, there are about 15,000 fewer reporters and 4,400 more government PR people. One conclusion that I draw from this chart is that the work of informing the public, which once sat more with the reporters, is now borne to a much greater degree by government PR people. In relative terms, I take this chart to say that the influence of the government PR side has doubled. You and I might have a different perspective on whether that is a good thing. So, while we once had one government PR specialist for every 4 or so reporters, we now have one government PR specialist for every 2 or so. Remember, this is all reporters in the BLS report, not just government reporters. So, in reality, we’re probably closer to 1-to-1 than this chart shows. Imagine that: We appear to be getting into the range of one government PR person for each reporter who actually covers the government.
- This slide is really interesting to me. It shows that government PR people make more money than reporters, which isn’t too surprising. Since there are fewer government jobs, maybe they can be more selective – just take the best of the best. Some of that might be at work here. Another idea I have is that the news media get a bit of a discount because they attract idealists, whereas the government has to pay people to promote the agency line. So, the media get an integrity discount. In that reading, the charts says, you can either speak freely or be well paid, but don’t expect both. The part that I find interesting, though, is that the pay premium for PR increased so much during the period in which the market was flooded with unemployed reporters. To me, that signals that either reporters are not part of the same talent pool as government PR specialists, or that government pay in this area is not responsive to the usual market conditions. Or maybe there is some other factor that accounts for government needing more and more highly paid PR people in this era – maybe all the work they have had to take on as the independent media has diminished. I believe that this chart tells us we have a bubble in the government PR market. So, is that is good news for government PR specialists, because a bubble implies you are getting more that the fundamentals suggest you deserve? Or is it bad news, in that bubbles tend to come to uncomfortable ends? Like I said, the good news/bad news question usually just depends on your perspective.
- Finally, here is a way of putting the other two charts together, so we can see the total societal investment in reporters and in government PR specialists over this period. What the numbers say is that our society’s investment in government PR specialists increased by 57% from 2003 to 2010, while our society’s investment in reporters shrank by 19%. So, now we have the total investment in each heading toward par, which to me is a pretty extraordinary situation. If there were a market in this sort of thing, I think it would be time to short the PR specialists, and we could all cash in on this analysis. But I don’t know how to do that. In all seriousness, I consider this is a troubling data set. I pulled it together hastily, and I hope there is someone out there who can get into the numbers a little more deeply, and maybe find that I have missed something. These government counts are not always reliable. Nonetheless, I suspect this is troubling data for some of you PR specialists, because it suggests harder times ahead. I also think it is troubling for the rest of us, because it suggests our access to the not-always-happy truth about our communities and our government is probably not what it ought to be.