Media Minds December 2025 Resource: The Feral State of PR

Why has it gotten tougher for journalists to get what they need from us?

As public relations professionals, our blood runs cold while scrolling social media and spotting a journalist’s post that begins, “PR People:” We know someone in our club has stepped in it and now it’s time for all of us to listen and learn.

Traditionally, the relationship between journalists and public relations professionals, or “PRs” as we’re often called, thrived on a symbiotic rhythm. Journalists needed information, PRs provided it. Each relied on the other to tell stories that informed the public and advanced science, medicine and innovation.

Recently, that rhythm has started to sound more like static.

Even in biotech and biopharma circles, reporters are having interactions with PR folks that could be described as a bit…feral – uncoordinated, overwhelming and sometimes combative.

Most research cites the ratio of journalist to PR person to be anywhere from 5 to 7 PR people to every journalist. As newsroom layoffs multiply, this crucial relationship has tilted off balance. That translates into frazzled reporters navigating inbox avalanches and anxious PR teams chasing scarce media oxygen.