PR Industry Predictions for 2022

In this episode, Kelly and Mary Beth discuss their PR Industry Predictions for 2022, including:How the PR agency business model's pandemic-driven shifts have impacted the industryWhy the U.S. PR industry is on a particularly troublesome ethics track -- much of it self-inflicted and further exacerbated by apathy ... particularly in light of disappointing choices and lack of truth / transparency by the domestic PR association -- PRSAWays that workforce recruitment strains between talent availability, rising payroll demands and follow-on COVID waves will impact budgetsImplications of recent industry reports:Public Relations & Communications Association (PRCA-UK) (London): https://www.prca.org.uk/PR-industry-roars-back-2021-PRCA-UK-Census International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO) World Report: https://iccopr.com/services/world-reports/download-our-2020-2021-report/  Whether the PR, media and journalism sectors will ever join forces to stave off systemic public-trust root-rot driving disinformationHow the Diversity conversation will continue as a merry-go-round until the industry and respective associations set a definitive bar between two separate metrics: 1) Having the PR industry employment base represent all of society demographically, or 2) Having the sector mirror demographics of other professional-service sectors with which PR competes to recruit workforceWays that politicization and partisanship in news rooms and across the industry drive the very divisiveness that the PR industry should be more competently taking in hand and mitigating (not exacerbating) to bring people and publics together in more positive solidarity around issuesHow the dearth of men in the PR industry workforce (minus the C-suite) is a far more complex and troubling problem than is adequately discussed ... and if the industry fails to address the gender imbalance in 2022, we can expect to slide more into "pink-collared ghetto" territory relative to compensation and share-of-voice.Mary Beth also shares a glimpse of work-in-progress currently underway via the PRCA Ethics Council, in partnership with the Ethics & Compliance Initiative (ECI) in Washington, D.C., as part of its Global Business Ethics Survey to ascertain PR industry ethics issues. Discover Fletcher Marketing PRPost your questions and comments about the podcast, via #MsInterPReted Follow Fletcher Marketing PR on Twitter: @FletcherPR Follow Fletcher Marketing PR on Instagram: fletcher.prFollow Fletcher Marketing PR on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Fletchermarketingpr Follow Kelly Fletcher on Twitter: @KDfletcher Follow Mary Beth West on Twitter: @marybethwest