With all the recession talk (it’s hard to miss it), it’s easy to fear a repeat of the Dot Com bust which resulted in a lot of downsizing in the PR world. I’ve spoken with colleagues at several PR firms in the Boston area, and it sounds like the majority of them are actually seeing more new business activity — and many can barely keep up with demand. Hopefully that trend will continue through the year.

At the same time, though, we need to face reality. Companies are definitely tightening the purse strings and reacting conservatively to the market. The PR industry needs to react, too, continually educating clients and executives about all of PR’s values. David Culver provides six great points in a Manage Smarter piece called “Recession-Proof Your Business with PR.”

David reminds us that that measuring PR is “a must during a recession.” I don’t think our industry can hear that advice enough. Ultimately, PR (along with marketing) is a line-item cost, no matter how strategically it’s approached. So if you need a reason to focus on measuring your PR program, here it is. 2008 needs to be the year of PR measurement. And I don’t mean the simplified metrics like number of articles. I mean substantive analysis that measures PR programs against business objectives. Then, perhaps, we can recession proof our industry (a bit)!

What do you think? Is the current economic uncertainty affecting how you approach PR?