PR in 2025 and Beyond: Will it Evolve?

I’ve been thinking a lot about how the media landscape will continue to evolve in 2025, and consequently, what PR will look like. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been hearing some version of “traditional media is dead” since I started my career in public relations in 2012. But for some reason, the situation feels a bit more dire these days.?

Consider New York’s annual “Power Issue”, published last month, which examined the state of the media and was aptly named, “Can the Media Survive?” Answers collected from interviews with dozens of editors and journalists all shared a similar theme: the future looks bleak.?

I can’t say I’m surprised. For more than 20 years, the Edelman Trust Barometer has studied trust in media, business, governments, and NGOs, and media has consistently been the least trusted institution. In the 2024 report, 64% of respondents reported worrying that journalists and reporters are purposefully trying to mislead people (up from 59% in 2021 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic), and only 49% of respondents reported trusting journalists to do what is right (compared to 77% who trust scientists to do what is right and 69% who trust their CEOs to do what is right).?

Then, this month, we saw a mass exodus in viewers from MSNBC and CNN. According to TheWrap: “From the day after the election to date, MSNBC has averaged a total day viewership of 521,000 — down 38% from its 2024 average through election day — while CNN averaged 367,000 total viewers — a 27% decline from before the election.” MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” has fared even worse since the show’s hosts revealed they met with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago with “Wednesday’s [November 20] episode ranking as its lowest-rated program since 2021, with just 51,000 viewers in the key cable demo among adults 25-54.”

[I’d be remiss not to mention that I first learned of these stats on TikTok from Aaron Parnas (@aaronparnas1), a rising star on the platform with a goal “to provide you more accurate news updates under 90 seconds”. Parnas, 25, believes there aren’t enough young voices in media today and that “the current structure of news media isn’t necessarily the most trustworthy.” Since the election, Parnas has seen his follower count increase by nearly 400,000, and as of Wednesday, November 27, sits a little less than 40,000 shy of hitting 1M followers.]

And yet…a resistance to change

The media landscape is indeed undergoing a significant transformation, one that I think will come to a head in the next few years. As traditional media outlets struggle with declining trust and viewership, alternative news sources will continue to gain prominence and influence.

But what is most surprising to me is the fact that I still see PR-focused news sources promoting strategies and recommendations that I remember using in 2015 – at least on the B2B side. A recent article I read regarding thought leadership strategies for B2B PR recommended “leveraging online platforms” and using social media to lead customers to your website. I’m sure AI is responsible, but I’ve used ChatGPT plenty, and if the inputs aren’t good, the output won’t be either.

I’m not just seeing these recommendations in written content, however. A little over a year ago, I informally started conducting a search for a new PR agency partner, and I was shocked at how little innovation I saw in the proposals I received. Most suggested some version of high-volume media outreach to a much-too-broad list of media targets. Oh, and of course they all referenced my favorite line, “We hold close relationships with reporters at outlets like CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, and Fortune.”

I’ve been trying to understand why we’re still here and operating this way. Part of me thinks it’s not coming from the agency side, but the client side. A lack of understanding of PR and its purpose is most likely driving clients to request their agency partners follow the same tactics and strategies that they’ve always employed – regardless of how drastically different today’s media environment is. I’m guilty of this myself. I want to try new things, but the risk isn’t always worth the reward. Fear of losing control of the narrative or putting an executive in an uncomfortable situation are some of the reasons I’m inclined to maintain the status quo.

But not every PR agency is stuck in the twenty-tens. Brunswick has been vocal about the rise of the “Newsfluencer” and their growing impact on news distribution and public opinion. Like Aaron Parnas who I mentioned above, these newsfluencers often rely on traditional journalism as a foundation for their content, while presenting information in a more engaging way for younger audiences – often reaching larger demographics than traditional news channels. And my current agency partner recently delivered a fantastic approach for building a presence in the podcast space.

A call for innovation

I hope in 2025, we start to see a bolder reimagining of B2B PR, one that embraces change and pushes clients towards more experimental approaches. I don’t think the answer is to abandon traditional news outlets entirely, but the rise of alternative news sources – like TikTok, YouTube, Substack, and podcasts – demonstrates that audiences are hungry for fresh perspectives and new ways of consuming information. I’d love to see more PR professionals, myself included, seize this opportunity to encourage their clients and executives to step out of their comfort zones and explore unconventional methods of storytelling and engagement.

Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.