International PR industrys top fears -- jobs & agency survivals

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International PR industrys top fears -- jobs & agency survivals

The www.askdd.com PR Industry Monitor published today (July 9 2003) shows that redundancy and agency survival are the top two fears of people in public relations in Europe and North America.

The Monitor is an analysis of 200 questions posed on the online advice service and the 10 most frequently asked in the first six months of 2003 were:

Top 10 Questions

No 1   Redundancy fears    22%
No 2   Agency survival            15%
No 3   Job hunting             13%
No 4   Improving skills    11%
No 5   Personal relationships    10%
No 6   Working overseas    8%
No 7   Industry issues            7%
No 8   New business pitching    6%
No 9   Start ups            5%
No 10   Miscellaneous            3%
(Copyright www.askdd.com)


The Europe-North America questions were split 56% - 44% respectively and David Davis, founder of askdd.com who answers personally all of them free of charge: comments: The overall tone indicated increasing unease at the current difficult business climate on both sides of the Atlantic. Even more worrying for staff is a serious lack of confidence they have in the ability of their agencies, particularly those in the mid-size sector, to manage their way to survival.

My best and most common advice is firstly not to wait like Mr Micawber for something to turn up before taking action and secondly try hard to only retain those people and clients who will serve the agency best interests when better times return.

The one bright spot has been the emergence of new agencies and 5% of the questions sought advice on how to start up from scratch. They were from some people who had been made redundant but largely from those who had decided that they could do a better job than their present bosses."

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CONTACT: David Davis Email: dd@askdd.com     Mobile: 07831 558 745

NOTE FOR EDITORS: David Davis, former Times journalist was previously vice chairman of Edelaman Public Relations Worldwide and International President of Medialink Worldwide. He is currently chief executive of PMA Training Ltd.