Violet PR President, April Mason, was quoted in this PR News article, sharing her views on the pay gap between public relations professionals and journalists and how it affects her media relations strategies.

We know the ranks of media members is declining, of course. Perhaps less known is that the number of PR pros also fell, at least last year.

In 2020, there were 244,550 PR pros in the U.S. That number was down slightly, to 242,710 last year. Similarly, media’s rolls fell, from 41,580 (2020) to 39,080 (2021).

As you can see from the above figures, the oft-mentioned uneven ratio of PR pros to content producers remains. It now stands at 6.2 PR pros to every one journalist. That’s a slight change from 2020, when it was 5.8 to 1.

These data seem to imply not only are more PR pros chasing fewer content people, but each media member is following a greater number of stories than previously. Several surveys reinforce this trend.

“For Violet PR president April Mason the uneven ratio of PR pros to journalists means communicators “need to be smarter than ever in how we approach” press. “We don’t want to bombard them, but instead be a resource.”

And since content producers are pressed for time, they no longer have the luxury of doing interviews on spec. As such, Mason advises delivering well-developed stories that meet audience needs and don’t require media members to spend hours on research.

Read the full article here.