The Rise of the Publicist in 2010 and Beyond by Guest Blogger Alice Jackson

The need for public relations professionals is expected to increase by 24 percent, a greater increase than any other profession, until 2018, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Huh?

Since I came to the public relations field after more than 30 years of reporting for  newspapers, television and magazines, I re-read that prediction in case my baby boomer eyes had failed me.

As a mid-1970s journalism graduate, public relations was the opposite of what I wanted to do with my life, anticipating my career would be more about exposing graft than covering it up. Flash forward several decades, and the much-heralded death of newspapers coupled with the shrinking ad revenue of magazines left me jobless. Ditto for television as well. I’m both morally and financially opposed to facelifts. I predict the explosion of HD television will result in fewer boomer types like me on camera into their golden years.

Fortunately, I fell into a job in the best of all public relations fields—working in the public relations office of a public university. After all, promoting higher education is akin to a higher calling. It’s not like I would be promoting State Farm Insurance. (I’m a survivor of Hurricane Katrina. Two years passed before State Farm paid me for my demolished home. I would be more likely to buy a used car from former President Richard Nixon than another policy from State Farm. I would starve in a public park rather than work public relations for them.)

After four years, I’ve grown to love public relations. This is the first job I’ve had where I know exactly what time I’ll leave work each day. As a reporter, I left after all the news for my shift was reported. There is pressure in public relations, but it’s a different kind of pressure than in the news business. Everyone talks about the pressure, but colleagues don’t yell at you like city editors and copy editors do.  And, to date no colleague has stolen anything off my beat. Rather, they are beyond supportive as we work on major projects together. Finally, as a former crime reporter, I must admit I enjoy working with upbeat people rather than dissecting and reporting on people who are too often life-challenged.

Despite this upbeat change in my life, I’m pondering this government projection of 24 percent for the public relations business. With the U.S. unemployment rate the highest in decades, who needs all these public relations people? Apparently, you and I do.

The explosion of technology has turned every American into his or her own star. This isn’t about vanity. Suddenly, each of us is expected to present ourselves in the best possible light because technology is creating most highly competitive environment in history. Suddenly, the good-old-boy referral network based on friendships and nepotism no longer works as well. Those referrals may still get your foot into the door, but you’ll likely be facing a pool other people who opened the door the same way.

Also, the news media increasingly sits up and pays more attention to the story pitched by a professional public relations person than anyone, even a fellow colleague. I learned this the hard way earlier this year when my first fiction piece was published in “Delta Blues” by Tyrus Books. My telephone calls to colleagues at news outlets around the U.S.—not just in New York—rarely brought results. Yet, the same people practically swooned when public relations guru Rebecca Crowley of RTC Publicity pitched “Delta Blues” to them. When this happened time and again, the only conclusion I could draw was that nothing says professional to today’s media people like public relations representative, and while you may not agree with that perception, it is the nature of today’s news business. In fact, that scenario is so prevalent, if Woodward and Bernstein were investigating Watergate today, I suspect Deep Throat would need a public relations guru to get Woodward into that underground parking garage.

A writer friend who has written umpteen books confided lately that she detected a notable change for the better in her publisher’s attitude after she hired her own public relations representative. There was a time when book publishers employed armies of publicists, but like most things in American business, cutbacks resulted in reduction in their numbers with fewer services for authors. Hence, if you want help publicizing your work, then hire your own professional publicist. Writers need to spend their time writing, and pitching stories takes valuable time away from making paychecks. Maybe that’s why representing authors is becoming a fast-growing segment of the public relations industry.

Will the government’s growth project of 24 percent mean that your public relations people will be tripping over my public relations people?  And, what does the need for all these public relations people say for our communication abilities as individuals?

The cutthroat competition to get your offspring into the better colleges and universities could mean hiring a public relations rep to organize, present and train the kids for every step of their future. Perhaps the public relations professional will become the modern family’s version of the old-fashioned family physician. Get junior into college, find him a job, prep him for the interview and get him a decent salary to boot. While that’s a scary thought for my age group, today’s young people have always been told they should expect the best, and they may see value that we failed to recognize because we Baby Boomers were too stubborn to let anyone else do it for us. Plus, I’m for anything that keeps junior from moving back home once he leaves, and if that means getting him a public relations rep, I’m all for it.

In fact, since most of us Baby Boomers are expecting to work well into our seventies, and perhaps even our eighties and nineties, some of my friends may need a pitch or two to get into a top nursing home.

Suddenly, that government projection of 24 percent doesn’t look so far-fetched after all.

Alice Jackson is a veteran journalist who has reported on crime, politics and public corruption for newspapers, television and magazines, including Time, People and the New York Times. During the 1990s, her investigative reporting of questionable land deals and government bond issues led to the indictment and prosecution of a prominent Mississippi politician and resulted in the return of millions of dollars from off-shore bank accounts to taxpayer coffers. During more than 30 years of news assignments, she has traveled her adopted state from the Mississippi Delta to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. She resided on the shores of the Mississippi Sound until Hurricane Katrina destroyed her home in 2005. She continues to reside in the coastal arts community of Ocean Springs, Miss., where she is presently at work on a novel.

Alice Jackson’s fiction has appeared in “Delta Blues” and “Florida Heat Wave,” both from Tyrus Books.

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