Authored by Jitendra Jha, Managing Director 3M Media Works Pvt.Ltd
Public Relations is one of the most powerful and least understood tools in the high-stakes boardroom battles of corporate India. We spend our careers building the reputations of unicorns and legacy conglomerates and CEOs. But when it comes to our industry, the story is fractured, outdated and paradoxically poorly managed. The question “Why does PR need PR?” is less philosophical and more operational, it is a structural gap between how the industry sees itself and how the market values it.Let’s start with the scale. The global PR services market is estimated to have crossed USD 100 billion and is expected to grow steadily, driven by increasing stakeholder scrutiny and the rising cost of paid media. The PR industry in India has surpassed ?2,500 crore in revenues with healthy double-digit growth and projections indicating substantial growth by the end of the decade. These are good numbers on paper. But growth hasn’t necessarily translated into influence. A lot of consultancies are still battling to be seen as strategic advisors, not execution partners. Let’s look at some of the biggest problems that need a new mindset and rewiring.The Fallacy of Measurement
Measurement is one of the most uncomfortable truths of the industry. The Indian PR industry stuck to AVE (Advertising Value Equivalency) for decades, which is basically the “snake oil” of communications. PR reporting has evolved over decades but often leans heavily on impressions, media mentions and shares of voices. Studies on trust consistently show that credibility is now a defining business asset, but the industry has not fully translated these insights into universally accepted ROI frameworks that speak to senior management. Broken metrics prove our value. The result is a perception gap. PR creates intangible value but cannot tell the story in boardrooms.This is a situation many senior communications leaders have seen, where agencies win business by promising more media coverage than strategic advice. This pitch culture has quietly made the profession a commodity. That's what the race to the bottom with aggressive fee discounting, unrealistic deliverables and a focus on "output over outcome" is all about. When consultancies price themselves as vendors, not advisors, they reinforce the narrative that PR is optional, not essential.The Fallacy of “Glitter” and the Talent Drought
India’s PR talent pool is lively, but volatile. Entry level salaries are around ?20,000–30,000 a month and the gruelling hours mean annual attrition runs between 40% and 50%. New grads have energy, but they burn out a lot. Networks are more prized than merit in senior roles, which leaves leadership gaps that restrict teams’ ability to develop effective strategies and innovate. India’s PR industry is booming and employs thousands of professionals, but with growth comes mounting pressure. Agency teams often span multiple accounts and respond to media cycles in real-time, with limited bandwidth.Many mid-level practitioners privately acknowledge that the rapid pace of the industry makes it hard to engage in long-term strategic thinking. The paradox is obvious: an industry that relies on thoughtful storytelling often gives its people very little time to strategize.We are in a brutal talent deficit in India because the industry has been sold as a world of 'events and networking'. So, it attracts people who love the limelight and not the analytical rigour needed for crisis management or ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) advisory.A KPMG report from 2025 indicates that 60% of professionals lack advanced digital expertise. The industry has never positioned itself as an intellectually rigorous analytical industry, so we lose the best analytical talent to advertising or strategy consulting. It’s time to “re-PR” the profession to highlight the psychological, data-driven and sociological depth it requires.Ethical Gray Areas and Transparency Deficits
The line between “earned media” and “paid partnerships” is dangerously thin in the Indian market. The proliferation of “native content” and the pressure to produce “guaranteed coverage” have created a murky ethical middle ground that industry professionals are reluctant to discuss at conferences. When PR agencies become brokers for paid news rather than architects of earned trust, it hurts the credibility of the whole industry. “We need a PR campaign for PR that says authenticity is better than transactions.PR is all about trust, and undisclosed paid promotions break that trust. Typical practices include influencer endorsements without clear disclosures or “thought leadership” pieces that blur the lines between paid and earned media. An October 2023 survey by the PRSI found almost 40% of professionals are faced with such dilemmas but enforcement is lax. Without effective self-regulation, these grey areas are fertile ground for skepticism: if PR cannot be transparent, how can it expect it of clients?The advent of digital tools amplifies these concerns. Agencies are struggling to deal with the growth of AI-generated content and deepfakes, but guidelines are outdated, leaving ambiguity around what’s ethical and how to best leverage new technology in the industry. Result? Public distrust grows, and the whole field is tainted.The Industry’s Uncomfortable Mirror: Moving Forward: From Fixers to Founders
Technology now adds another layer of disruption. Many practitioners believe AI will change the game for campaign analytics, media monitoring and content workflows. Technology has created efficiency, but it’s also blurred the lines between PR, content marketing and digital strategy. Agencies that fail to re-position themselves as strategic intelligence partners will be at risk of becoming content factories in a platform-driven ecosystem, reducing relevance and competitiveness in the evolving communications and marketing landscape.The future of communications consultancy in India is in our ability to stop being ‘the people behind the curtain’. We need to promote PR as a preventive medicine, not an emergency room, emphasizing its proactive role in shaping public perception and managing reputational risks before they reach the crisis level. The industry needs to demonstrate its role in navigating the nuances of New India – the digital volatility, socio-political sensitivities and the hyper-transparency of the social media age are redefining the communication landscape.Time the architects of reputation started building their own house and convincing the world of their own worth. How do we expect to do it for someone else?So why must PR be PR?
Today the PR industry is at a crossroads in terms of credibility. It has scale, growth and relevance but still struggles with outdated perceptions from its own historical positioning, often resulting in misinterpretations of its true value and capabilities in the current digital landscape. What is important to remember is that there is a different aspect of PR in India. PR has historically been synonymous with media relations, a legacy from the print era of communication. Even today, too many organizations think of PR as visibility vs. reputation management. But today’s communications environment demands integration with ESG narratives, internal culture-building and leadership visibility. PR needs to become the architect of corporate meaning, not just the voice of announcements as stakeholder expectations evolve.The next evolution for agencies will be to invest in analytics, thought leadership and transparency in business practices. It will also mean uncomfortable honesty: recognizing inconsistencies in pricing, redefining talent structures, and moving from vanity metrics to impact measurement.Storytelling has always been at the heart of PR. Now the industry has a narrative problem of its own. To secure a permanent seat at the strategy table, the industry must first own its own transformation, facing uncomfortable truths often left unspoken, including the changing role of digital media and the need for transparency in communication practices.DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and theprpost.com does not necessarily subscribe to it.
