Yes, We Are Seeing PR Budget Cutbacks

Here's a quick report on the poll we did a couple of weeks ago on possible PR budget cutbacks in 2009.

We didn't get a robust response, but the trend was unmistakable:

• 73% of agency respondents said they had heard about client-side PR budget cutbacks
• 53% of client-side respondents said they were cutting their budget going into 2009; 32% said no, they weren't, and 16% said they hadn't decided yet.

As a contractor myself, I'm cheered by the fact that about 1/3 of internal budgets aren't dropping going into 2009. That's at least a glimmer of hope. And I think as an industry indicator, it could mean that industrywide budget cutbacks may not be as severe as some are predicting.