PR Industry Does Its Own PR - But It Needs More Than PR

Despite its claims to the contrary, the PR industry is in deep trouble. Publicists have not kept up with new media; they are still mystified by blogs and bloggers; they are still sending out insipid press releases and they still have junior account execs making "didya get it" calls to journos.

The Economist.com has a love song to the PR industry, but the meat is in the last paragraph:
Dorothy Crenshaw, president of Stanton Crenshaw, an independent PR firm based in New York, says that PR remains a very inexact science, and that there are limits to the miracles it can be expected to achieve. For PR to work, she says, "you have to have a legitimate story."

Clearly inspired ("PR undoubtedly has a role to play but only if there is a story to tell. ") by the Economist story, but taking a more jaded look, The Inquirer says:
"Ultimately PR can work but companies need to approach their PR activities with a bit more intelligence. Whether it's good or bad news - the adage that there is no such thing as bad news is of course wrong - and PR has an important role in managing that information. The quality of that role comes down to experience and understanding journalism. Anything less is a conveyer belt of woolly corporate drivel distributed on newswires, where agency after agency seems to follow the same pattern, like a bunch of sheep"