Journalists are going into PR for more than money, reports Jenny Gibson


Bright allure of the ‘dark side’ B


efore Katie Lewis even donned her graduation gown to collect her first class journalism degree from the University of Huddersfield this summer, she was settling in to her first professional job.


In the first few weeks of her marketing role with a medical


supplies company, she flew to Madrid to meet international health chiefs and got involved in a string of creative projects. A love of fashion magazines first prompted Lewis to study


journalism – but this is no hard-luck story about hopes dashed. In the first year of university, her developing passion for PR overtook early aspirations to be a journalist and today she is just where she had hoped to be. Lewis is not alone. Increasing numbers of trained


journalists are not just leaving the profession early but are bypassing it all together in favour of PR, marketing and the fast-growing arena of content creation. According to the Public Relations & Communications


Association’s 2018 PR & Communications Census, the UK industry is now worth £13.8 billion and employs 86,000 people, following a decade of year-on-year growth. Three years ago, the NCTJ found that 18 per cent of


journalists were working in PR and communications within a year of qualifying, compared with 1 per cent in 2012. That figure is likely to be higher still when its next survey is released in September. Attributing this trend to newspaper industry woes is a disservice to PR. The attraction is at least as much about the profession’s own merits – chiefly, the levels of both creativity and power now at play, thanks to technological advances. Practitioners are getting to flex their multimedia muscles in constantly evolving ways as PR enjoys increasing influence over the news agenda as well as connecting directly with audiences to effect tangible change. And PR recruiters are actively looking for journalists. Joely


Carey, who has edited mass-market magazines including News UK’s Sunday supplement Fabulous and now works as a content director for brands, is one of them. “Before the digital massacre of publishing, landscapes outside newsstand titles tended to be shunned by creative journalists and editors who really wanted to make an impact. Not any more,” she explains.


12 | theJournalist


“The changing boundaries mean the options open to


journalists are wider than ever – they can be videographers, strategists, planners, copywriters, script writers or advertising brand executives.” She adds: “Roles outside traditional media are also exciting because they have budgets! There are great jobs around for journalists, just not in traditional media.


ILLUSTRATION: JAMES THEW / ALAMY STOCK VECTOR


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