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Posted on Monday, 08.10.09

PR and advertising are at a crossroads

By CLIFFORD M. MARKS

cmarks@MiamiHerald.com

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``I don't want to be a bank, but I want to be flexible,'' Machado says. ``We try to help them out.''

Machado says he had to cut budgets across the board by 10 percent in January to keep moving forward, which resulted in nine staff layoffs. ``We did that with great pain,'' he says. ``But we had to cut 10 percent to save the other 90 percent.''

Many executives predict both industries will be forced to consolidate with some business running dry. Julie Talenfeld of Broward-based PR firm Boardroom Communications says she's already fielded two merger offers.

Advertising firms have been hit since clients often are more inclined to cut expensive TV ads than slash jobs or salaries. Ad spending plunged 14 percent nationwide in the first quarter of 2009 after a 9 percent drop the quarter before, according to TNS Media Intelligence, forcing many advertising firms to cut staff. Even Crispin Porter laid off 3 percent of its staff earlier this year.

Times have been particularly tough for those hoping to break into the industry. This spring, Jose Cano appeared to be one of the lucky few who had made it.

After summers on the PR internship circuit, he says he'd landed a job with Miami firm AMG Worldwide. But the day before his graduation, he says the company informed him that his spot had disappeared.

Cano eventually found a paid summer internship with rbb, a Miami-based PR firm, and he still says he's better off than he could be.

``One of my really good friends graduated in PR and minored in entrepreneurship,'' Cano says. ``He's still doing bartending.''

But there is one area where firms are hiring: new media. Machado's digital media group had just two people a year ago. Today, he says, the team numbers 11 associates. Despite the uncertainty over whether views or tweets will pay off, few feel they can afford to miss this boat -- wherever it's headed.

``Is there a scientific measurement for the evolving market we're in? No, that doesn't exist yet,'' Machado says. ``But we have to play in that sandbox if we're going to do the right thing for our client.''

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