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PR industry fills vacuum left by shrinking newsrooms

avatar by Published May 2, 2011 11:32 am Updated May 2, 2011 12:32 pm

ProPublica.org || CJR.org
The dangers of that are clear, writes John Sullivan. “As PR becomes ascendant, private and government interests become more able to generate, filter, distort, and dominate the public debate, and to do so without the public knowing it.”

In 1980, there were about .45 PR workers per 100,000 population compared with .36 journalists. In 2008, there were .90 PR people per 100,000 compared to .25 journalists. That’s a ratio of more than three-to-one, better equipped, better financed.

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  • Anonymous

    Some papers are letting the PR flaks write their stories. According to The New York Times, Asbury Park Press ran a pro sports team pr writer’s stories.

    http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/flaws-found-in-asburys-team-written_27.html

    Asbury Park Press Executive Editor Hollis Towns (left) says publishing stories written by a New Jersey Devils employee is OK.

    Society of Professional Journalists compared the stories to “glorified press releases.” Towns had told The New York Times: “I think journalists get hung up on certain lines of what’s ethical more than the readers.”