22 min
What recent media layoffs mean for PR agencies Agency Leadership Podcast
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- Marketing
In this episode, Chip and Gini discuss the recent wave of layoffs in the media industry and its implications for PR agencies.
They explore the challenges of securing earned media in a landscape with fewer journalists and offer insights on evolving strategies to effectively reach target audiences through alternative channels.
Emphasizing the importance of setting realistic client expectations and embracing creativity, they highlight the need for agencies to adapt and innovate amidst industry changes.
Key takeaways
* Chip Griffin: “You need to understand where your client’s audience exists.”
* Gini Dietrich: “How are you going to pivot the work that you’re doing so that you can still get the earned media in different ways?”
* Chip Griffin: “The hard part is educating the clients.”
* Gini Dietrich: “Prospects are saying PR doesn’t work. So it is our job to change that perception and set expectations correctly.”
View Transcript
The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy.
Chip Griffin: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin.
Gini Dietrich: And I’m Gini Dietrich.
Chip Griffin: And Gini, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a lot of members of the media who are getting laid off.
Gini Dietrich: I have noticed. It’s not good.
Chip Griffin: It is not good. We’ll talk more about that right after this.
That was kind of a boring intro. I didn’t, I didn’t even, I feel like I didn’t put any effort into it at all.
Gini Dietrich: I always wait, I held my breath to see what you come up with. It’s great.
Chip Griffin: You held your breath hoping that, well, I mean, the good news is this isn’t live. So, you know, it won’t be career ending for either of us, even if I go crazy, cause we just won’t publish it.
So, right. So there’s really no need to hold your breath. If it was live, then I’d be holding my breath because since I make it up on the fly, you just never know what might come out of my mouth.
Gini Dietrich: You never know.
Chip Griffin: You never know. It’s true. But it, it does seem like, you know, just, you know, reading the media coverage these days, there’s a lot of members of the media who are finding themselves out of work, whether it’s the LA Times, the Wall Street Journal, Tech Crunch, you know, so it’s not just old school media Sports Illustrated. Yeah. I mean, just, almost across the board, real problems for traditional quote unquote mainstream media.
Gini Dietrich: Yeah. I mean, I did the math the other day just because I was curious and it’s close to a thousand people who have been laid off, who were laid off.
Journalists were laid off in January, which is not insignificant. And when you have an agency that focuses on media relations, it’s gonna be a little challenging coming this year. A little bit, you know, you don’t, we’re already having challenges with getting responses from journalists and now there’s significantly less.
I mean, it’s probably 20 to 25 percent less journalists than there were at the beginning of 2024.
Chip Griffin: Right. And, and,
In this episode, Chip and Gini discuss the recent wave of layoffs in the media industry and its implications for PR agencies.
They explore the challenges of securing earned media in a landscape with fewer journalists and offer insights on evolving strategies to effectively reach target audiences through alternative channels.
Emphasizing the importance of setting realistic client expectations and embracing creativity, they highlight the need for agencies to adapt and innovate amidst industry changes.
Key takeaways
* Chip Griffin: “You need to understand where your client’s audience exists.”
* Gini Dietrich: “How are you going to pivot the work that you’re doing so that you can still get the earned media in different ways?”
* Chip Griffin: “The hard part is educating the clients.”
* Gini Dietrich: “Prospects are saying PR doesn’t work. So it is our job to change that perception and set expectations correctly.”
View Transcript
The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy.
Chip Griffin: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin.
Gini Dietrich: And I’m Gini Dietrich.
Chip Griffin: And Gini, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a lot of members of the media who are getting laid off.
Gini Dietrich: I have noticed. It’s not good.
Chip Griffin: It is not good. We’ll talk more about that right after this.
That was kind of a boring intro. I didn’t, I didn’t even, I feel like I didn’t put any effort into it at all.
Gini Dietrich: I always wait, I held my breath to see what you come up with. It’s great.
Chip Griffin: You held your breath hoping that, well, I mean, the good news is this isn’t live. So, you know, it won’t be career ending for either of us, even if I go crazy, cause we just won’t publish it.
So, right. So there’s really no need to hold your breath. If it was live, then I’d be holding my breath because since I make it up on the fly, you just never know what might come out of my mouth.
Gini Dietrich: You never know.
Chip Griffin: You never know. It’s true. But it, it does seem like, you know, just, you know, reading the media coverage these days, there’s a lot of members of the media who are finding themselves out of work, whether it’s the LA Times, the Wall Street Journal, Tech Crunch, you know, so it’s not just old school media Sports Illustrated. Yeah. I mean, just, almost across the board, real problems for traditional quote unquote mainstream media.
Gini Dietrich: Yeah. I mean, I did the math the other day just because I was curious and it’s close to a thousand people who have been laid off, who were laid off.
Journalists were laid off in January, which is not insignificant. And when you have an agency that focuses on media relations, it’s gonna be a little challenging coming this year. A little bit, you know, you don’t, we’re already having challenges with getting responses from journalists and now there’s significantly less.
I mean, it’s probably 20 to 25 percent less journalists than there were at the beginning of 2024.
Chip Griffin: Right. And, and,
22 min