The Great Recession was a tough time to be in any business, especially in a start-up in a field like PR when new platforms were emerging and fees were hard to collect while companies themselves, on top of the jobs inside them, were disappearing before our eyes. But at least it was a universally shared experience and some good old fashioned commiseration could lead to relationship building and business development.
2020 was a year like no other with a global pandemic and all of us trying to work through significant problems, for the first time, from our own homes, then trying to communicate them to audiences, in their own homes. But for a while anyway, “we’re all in this together” wasn’t just a throwaway line.
When it comes to degree of difficulty, I’ve been telling contacts 2025 has been the toughest year of my career. That’s because clients, who we promise to support on the toughest days of their careers, have come with challenges they never expected, didn’t ask for and can’t easily communicate because 30-40 percent of the public is rooting for them to happen.
Federal government policy drove this year’s biggest challenges. Like the organization that had to cease operations of one of its most successful human service programs after it was essentially outlawed by executive order. Or the client that has to replace 15 percent of its budget because of something previously unthinkable called a “rescission” by Congress, when previously appropriated funds were reversed. Or an industry group that worried about the collapse of its membership because of tariffs. Or professional service firms that had to stay quiet lest they become a target. Or organizations that had to rewrite all of their communications to avoid words now verboten. Or higher ed institutions that lost revenue because certain students were deemed “national security threats.” Those are just a few of many examples that our clients faced in just a few months.
That made the type of PR we largely do harder than ever this year, because it’s so difficult to communicate in an environment in which segments of audiences, even those who support our clients financially and otherwise, embrace, on some level, the sudden change if only for political reasons. It was, at times, downright exhausting as nothing from past experience could serve as a roadmap. All we could do is listen and help guide using the best communications fundamentals possible.
Compounding the difficulty, there are challenges facing our sector that have little or nothing to do with federal policy. The contraction and consolidation of the media business that has been underway for more than 20 years continue at full speed, accelerated by technology-driven changes in consumer behavior to how both traditional and social media are absorbed. It is more challenging than ever to establish or protect reputation, let alone change it. At the the same time, AI looms over everything.
2026 will likely offer more of the same. Which is why we so deeply appreciate our clients, so many of whom have had to make unexpectedly difficult decisions to pivot and persevere. In so many cases, they gave us the best stories of all, those of innovation and inspiration that, despite the high degree of challenge, made this exhausting year, somehow, simultaneously fulfilling.
What I know now that I thought I knew a year ago but couldn’t actually grasp: In this business, in 2026, it’s about being ready for anything, every day.