How is PR changing - and what lures people to join the party? We look at three different viewpoints...

Small firms must start to pay up

Ros Dodd and Lisa Piddington Scarlet PR

We were excited, yet a little scared when we launched just over a year ago: was there a market for our services?

As dyed-in-the-wool journalists, did we have what it takes to cross the line into public relations?

We agonised over these questions, yet gave not a thought to what would turn out to be the biggest agony of all - the client who doesn't pay.

Being honest sort of gals, it never occurred to us that we would have to spend precious time and energy battling to squeeze money out of companies which, for whatever reason (though not because of dissatisfaction with our work), withheld payment for services rendered.

At the time of writing, half of the small businesses we have worked for have not paid us - nor does it seem likely they will without a legal kick up their backside.

That figure may have been higher had I not phoned one non-payee and ferociously harassed him, threatening small claims court action, so that he finally coughed up.

A company overseas is withholding payment for a feature I wrote on the basis I was commissioned by a director who has since moved on.

Another company, based more locally, even resorted to threatening libel action because of a letter we sent demanding payment ( six months after the work was completed by us) on the basis of comments I made over their failure to settle the account. They owe us a few hundred pounds - a drop in the ocean compared to the amount of money it would cost them to sue us.

What is ironic is that when we started out, our aim was to help the 'little man' secure Press coverage.

Most PR companies charge a retainer on top of their fees, which effectively price many SMEs out of the press relations market. We felt this was a shame, as small companies have just as good stories to tell as large corporates.

Yet time and again, the ' little man' we were so keen to promote has repaid us by failing to pay us.

What outrages and saddens me more than being left high and dry is the dawning realisation that the small business world seems littered with people severely lacking in common decency and respect - even though they rely on the trustworthiness of others.

PR is vibrant, confident, respected profession

Claire Oliver, Midlands chair of the CIPR and managing director of McCann Erickson and Elisabeth Lewis Jones, treasurer and a director of the CIPR

The Privy Council awarded the charter to the IPR in view of the significant impact PR has on society and business.

They considered it in the public interest to have a formal body to lead the profession.

The contribution that PR makes to UK plc is clear - a recent CIPR study of the industry showed that PR employs 48,000 people and contributes £6.5 billion to the UK economy, and £1.1 billion to corporate profits.

Of those working in inhouse roles, half work in the health, not-for-profit and public sectors, changing lives, communities and society.

Today PR is a vibrant, confident, respected profession, with an industry body, a code of conduct, professional qualifications, and more graduates than ever wanting to join our ranks, attracted by a career that offers challenges, opportunity and influence.

The University of Central England is playing its part in producing the PR leaders of the future running the CIPR Diploma and Advanced Certificate as well as a PR and communications degree.

So why has everything changed?

Essentially, PR practitioners have raised their game.

They have increased their professionalism, developed their business skills, shifted up a gear from tactical to strategic communications and extended their reach from lunches with journalists to building and managing the complex web of relationships that underpins business success. And they have become more effective at measuring and demonstrating effectiveness and proving the real bottom line value they add.

Alongside this, CEOs have woken up to the importance of reputation. And as PR professionals hold the key to managing reputation, they are increasingly taken their place at the board room and at the heart of organisation strategic decision making.

The PR industry here in the Midlands reflects these changes. You just need to take a look at the shortlists for the CIPR Midland Pride awards to get a feel for the vibrancy and creativity of the communications work that is being carried out in the area.

In many respects the industry in the Midlands is polarizing.

New, small consultancies have been starting up such as Tonic PR and Liquid PR as well as an increase in the number of freelancers and independents.

This compares to the mergers of some of the larger consultancies over the last few years - McCanns with Barkers, Citigate and Key and more recently the Warman Group with Seal.

In addition, the PR sector is not just confining itself to the city centre or Edgbaston with Solihull and Henley in Arden becoming real hotbeds of talent. Bromsgrove alone now boasts five public relations consultancies all offering a variety of service and expertise.

Such diversity has to be good for the industry.

It provides clients with a choice, it helps to increase competition and above all it makes us a growing profession and one that, we believe is now taken seriously.

'Small is beautiful' for press and PR again

Ken Jackson

After a string of mergers which at long last have given Birmingham and the wider West Midlands press and PR agencies the clout to compete with some of the best in London, it would appear that "small is beautiful " has become the vogue once again.

Lots of media types are setting up on their own, quite often by taking a business in which they have become fairly knowledgeable off a much bigger agency.

Invariably this happens because a client wants a much closer interest and involvement in his business and to a point of paranoia hates the fact that he may only see the well known face he signed up to, once or twice a year.

Too often well known exponents of the press and PR business sign up big clients, some of national or international reputation, knowing that it is impossible for them to service the accounts themselves.

And those to whom the weekly tasks are given can rarely match up to the principal's skills and greater knowledge of what is required.

This is particularly the case when the client has a crisis and needs someone to field the day-to-day cross questioning, ensure that the journalist does not miss his deadline and has a credible balancing statement - even if it is a few days before the company chairman or managing director is in a position to give a comprehensive account.

More and more journalists are joining the PR ranks because I believe they are better suited to the daily rigours and requirements of growing, aspiring local and regional companies.

Having specialised, they can be food and drink to their clients because they are able to speak the same language and above all else have the strength, character and experience to respond intelligibly to any alert. Journalists are just as at home writing a speech for the chairman, writing a 2,000 word in-depth piece for a specialist magazine, or holding a press conference themselves if necessary - in short they are quickly recognised as the mouth piece for a particular company.

And over the years our region has produced a long list of well known journalists whose names became almost as household as the companies they represented.

That is why it is so reassuring that we are still producing journalists of the calibre to set up "in house" press and PR departments for local companies or form their own agencies to perform a similar service.

And the camaraderie that has always existed among journalists means that if an assignment is too big for them to handle they can always call upon a likeminded former colleague or "associate" for assistance.

I think we are still a long way from saturation point and the "one man band" trend will continue for some time to come because hacks, many of whom rail against what they term as "selling out" initially, are able to carry out such a comprehensive service.

I'm not saying purely PR types can't aspire to do likewise. But they must stop making the same mistake - starting every press release with the name of the company ( boring) and burying the real story in the penultimate paragraph.

Ken Jackson is a former business journalist and corporate affairs boss who launched his own Midlands-based press and public relations agency 12 years ago