President's Word

Ending the year on a Hot note!


Pam Nulman, APR, CPRC, President

 Yes, you heard right.

I said ending the year on a Hot note, not your typical high note. And, I’m not talking about the weather in Southwest Florida either.

I’m talking about the fact that public relations has been named one of the Best Business Careers for 2011 by U.S. News and World Report. Our profession earned this distinction based on the U.S. Labor Department’s projection that employment for public relations specialists is projected to increase by 24 percent, or more than 66,000 jobs, between 2008 and 2018.

At the same time, in a parallel universe, public relations has become a hot story line for television shows. It all started in the late 1990s when actress Kim Cattrall portrayed PR agency owner Samantha Jones in Sex in the City (and the number of students enrolling in undergraduate public relations programs skyrocketed).

Interest has hardly waned in our profession, indeed just the opposite, as universities are graduating record number of students majoring in public relations and, earlier this year a number of new TV reality shows based on public relations were announced.

• In early 2010, Kell on Earth premiered, based on the life of Kelly Cutrone, founder of the public relations, branding and marketing firm, People’s Revolution.

• The Spin Crowd followed this past summer. Produced by reality star, Kim Kardashian, the show is based on the lives of her PR pals Jonathan Cheban and Simon Houck of Command PR. (Warning - these are seriously beautiful people.)

• And yet another reality PR show is rumored for next year. Shonda Rhimes, the creator of Grey’s Anatomy is said to be planning a show about crisis management, based on the career of PR consultant Judy Smith, who has helped high profile celebs and politicians such as Bill Clinton, Michael Vick and New York Governor David Paterson.

I don’t for a moment profess to believe that television shows remotely do justice to promote the realistic worklife and contributions of the majority of PR professionals, in fact, they do just the opposite. But I, for one, don’t mind riding the wave of working in a profession receiving a little buzz.

We may not have our own television show anytime soon here in Southwest Florida, but we are part of the thousands of hard working professionals who sustain the reputation of our profession, mentor students and young professionals, and continue to deliver the communications results required in a global economy and digital world. And that, I believe qualifies us as working in one hot profession.

Happy New Year!