Media Layoffs Mean More Misinformation for You | Opinion

Job cuts across the mainstream media are surging like never before. The Wall Street Journal To The Washington Post To time To Business Insider Vice Media has laid off hundreds of reporters and editors. Los Angeles Times The company alone cut 20% of its editorial staff.

The recent tragedies are accelerating a trend that began nearly two decades ago: employment of journalists in national and local newsrooms fell dramatically between 2008 and 2020, dropping about 26% to 31,000, and is projected to continue declining by 3% annually through 2032. Readership is declining, and once-successful newspapers and magazines are faltering or closing.

Meanwhile, another force operates quietly, behind the scenes, thriving a profession that exists primarily out of a symbiotic relationship with the press: public relations, a generally harmless entity.

The number of PR specialists in the U.S. is currently estimated at 264,000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Between 2022 and 2032, job opportunities in the field are projected to grow 6% annually, “faster than the average for all occupations,” the bureau said. In the U.S. alone, the world’s top 250 PR firms are reported to have grown 11.4% in 2022, with fee revenues reaching $11.4 billion.

In other words, while the news media business is shrinking, the hidden PR business is expanding. And the key indicator is that the ratio of PR professionals to journalists went from just 2:1 in 1980 to more than 3:1 in 2008 and more than 6:1 today. For every reporter still on the payroll, there are six PR professionals competing for his attention.

With continuing staff cuts at news organizations, the 6:1 ratio is destined to become even more lopsided.

Do these conflicting trajectories matter to the average American who still follows the news avidly?

Yes, that is very important, and it has multiple implications, some obvious, some not so obvious.

Perhaps the least expected and most overlooked consequence is that public relations professionals will become much more powerful and persuasive (as it is inevitable), and will wield greater influence over what news is reported and how it is reported.

This seismic disruption will bring some benefits, but it will also entail considerable risks.

The public rarely knows, much less understands or appreciates, a basic fact about public relations: Public relations professionals have access to most of the news before nearly anyone else, including the news media themselves.

Additionally, much of the news that gets reported comes from PR—estimates range from 25 percent to 85 percent—through email pitches, phone calls, or press releases. This means that before reporters and editors curate the news, PR works with clients to curate it first, without the public knowing.

Access to inside information is beneficial for both sides: PR pros trained to assist journalists, for one, will deliver exclusive interviews and talks with Fortune 500 CEOs that are otherwise hard to come by. And reporters, who must gather more stories than ever before and compile them faster than ever, will be more grateful than ever for such convenience.

The problem is that there are fewer journalists digging up real news and doing it independently. They feel they have no choice but to turn to public relations sources for publishable material. They want and need to maintain those valuable public relations relationships. Reporters embedded in giant corporations like Meta or Google, for example, or the elite White House press corps, will feel even more obligated to stick to what public relations people consider to be orthodox.

This gives spokespeople more influence over reporters, which is likely to exacerbate the power imbalance between the parties.

Cuts to the news media will set off a chain reaction that began long ago. Public relations departments will be in a better position to negotiate media coverage that reflects the party line in their clients’ favor. Journalists will face new challenges to remain objective and report stories that approximate the truth.

And this is just the beginning. More layoffs will make it easier for fake news and misinformation to find new outlets. Propaganda will flourish on behalf of countless sources. The PR industry will function more than ever as a shadow media, a Wizard of Oz puppet master of public perception from behind the corporate curtain.

What to do? First of all, journalists need to scrutinize very carefully which PR pitches actually qualify as news. Incidentally, the PR industry, as always, needs to do its utmost to maintain the highest ethics and take responsibility for disseminating information that is very close to the facts.

What about the general public? Be skeptical of the news you consume, as it may come from sources that represent certain interests. You might also want to try news media across the ideological spectrum to avoid becoming too tribalistic or catering only to your own partisan preferences.

You ignore this warning about the news at your peril, or you’ll miss out on more than half the news.

Bob Brody is an American public relations consultant currently living in Italy who has worked as a media strategist at Weber Shandwick, Ogilvy Public Relations, and Rubenstein Associates. He is the author of the memoir, Playing Catch with Strangers: Family Guy (Reluctantly) Comes of Age, and has written personal essays for The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.