‘When a man marries his mistress, he creates an immediate job vacancy,” is a tongue-in-cheek quote attributed to Sir James Goldsmith, the French-British financier who also happens to have been the father of Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan’s ex-wife Jemima. The quip came to mind last week as I hung out at REPRISE 2025, the Reputation Management Conference in which I found some marks of worry amid smiles all around in engaging sessions that have significance for the public relations industry.
As a journalist, I have been an outsider to PR pros, but an intimate one, or a “PR”oxmiate one. I have watched the industry grow and shift gears alongside mine – and both have negotiated challenges thrown by technology, business environment, and changing human/social behaviour. My own profession has been rocked by an increasingly infamous tendency for biased, loud, and one-sided journalism marked by sluggish financial growth linked to the rise of social media and independent content creators. When journalists start behaving like propagandists, like a man marrying his mistress, a job vacancy is created. I am just wondering if PR people can start doing something that looks like journalism! I think thus because content credibility is common to news and brands.
The elephant in the room used to be social media. It is now artificial intelligence. There was a clear “AI-yo” tone in the air at REPRISE as a wiz-kid PR startup founder said to me: “Imagine, five years from now, you may be pitching to a bot!” That may be a bit exaggerated, but the fact is that between social media and artificial intelligence, both journalism and PR have been challenged and disrupted in unprecedented ways.
I heard Madan Bahal,an elder statesman of the PR trade, speak about how Adfactors has repositioned itself as he pointed to wage cuts and a decline in margin-to-revenues ratios in his industry, signalling a new normal in which old tricks won’t work. “Our core value proposition of ‘knowledge-driven communications’ has changed to ‘an advisory for managing reputation and critical issues,’” he had said in an interview last year. The word “critical” is a moving target – and the word “advisory” may involve bespoke/customised strategy that boosts brand value. When you blend the two, you get added profit margins.
I also heard Sanjay Arora of Shells Advertising make a brilliant presentation on the power of brands and logos, but what struck me was how a big consumer brand threatened to sue him for the mere fact that he showed how smart branding can dramatically increase profit margins. His fault: He said in a now-withdrawn Instagram reel the truth that some brands want to hide – even though such stuff is taught in every self-respecting B-grade B school! I do believe that the brand needs to think afresh. Imagine a former employee advertising its strongarm tactics in the social media –Quora or Glassdoor!
What you gain in advertising can be lost in social or independent media.
Simply put, some political parties do not want ordinary citizens to know some journalistic facts, while some big brands do not want consumers to know what they are really paying for! That explains both prime-time propaganda packaged as news, as well as lawsuits against simple brand-margin illustrations.
Here is where Bahal’s reference to “critical issues” and “advisory” strategy kick in.
I have some thoughts that might help us define a new normal and refine strategies. I will focus on PR, though journalism is somewhat joined the hip with this.
One way to think is “micro PR” – which I liken to microfinance. The world of big clients, big consultancies and big media has given way to an atomisation of industry.
You may now do reputation management for an influencer rather than through an influencer!
Sometimes, after writing a book, I thought I could do with a PR consultant to promote my work. Digital creators, high net-worth individuals, and boutiques of various kinds (financial/technological/consulting) also need PR. Think about it: as every next-door girl calls herself an influencer, the one that matters must be a trustworthy one. As a frequent YouTube watcher, I now have my shortlist of credible content creators based on a checklist.
Nurturing and managing credibility remains a key business driver.
No amount of propaganda or advertising can replace credible voices. As a journalist, I have seen that sometimes, my patient, considered perspective incidentally added value to brands – though that was never my intent. Turning this logic on its head, I would say a PR firm is its own more credible, and thereby its own clients, when the two agree that proactive credibility (as opposed to reactive crisis management) is the way to go.
What you say defines who you are in the short run. Who you are adds value to what you say in the long run.
I have, as a journalist, quietly switched off some corporate bigwigs as well as PR people from my list based on my reading of their credibility – or rather, lack of it! I also once turned down a book offer (lucrative) from a controversial corporate brand because MY brand may be hit.
Credibility is more about reality than image.
That brings me to AI. Can an AI app replace human warmth and honesty? Not in the foreseeable future. Bots and apps may automate some of the “information-centric” aspects of interactions but my own belief is that both journalism and PR begin, not end, with information. Bahal’s shift from “knowledge-driven” communications is a bit ahead of the times but there are other issues at stake.
Between information and knowledge lies narrative power. Between narrative power and reputation lies credibility.
Knowledge gaps and credibility gaps will need human persuasion of various kinds: Perspective, intuition, honesty, consistency, ethicality, and sensitivity are among them. I see AI getting better at the generation of perspective as days go by, but the other values need higher attention – especially as AI meets human conflicts of various kinds. The future of reputation management and journalism both lie at the place where the two intersect!
The views and opinions published here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher.
He is listed among the top 200 Indian influencers on Twitter. He tweets as @madversity.
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