Public affairs is less about trading on contacts and more of a profession in its ownright, a new book suggests.
Public affairs has evolved rapidly during the past 20 years, becoming less about trading on contacts and links into a Government and more professional.
Estimates by Labour’s Karl Milner have revealed the industry has doubled in size since 1991. This growth can be put down to a changing political and media environment.
Initially dominated by larger than life characters, the economic down-turn around 2000 caused a shift in the structure of the industry. Until that point, the industry remained dominated by a small number of big firms. Each of these firms had around 40 to 50 consultants, with teams specialising in areas such as local government and planning, mergers and acquisitions etc.
The economic downturn meant that there was less work available and many were forced to reduce staff numbers. Rather than leaving the industry, many consultants started firms, often specialising in particular business sectors.  Reduced fee income also left many independent companies and sole traders open to takeover.  Since then a period of consolidation has occurred, with many firms being swallowed up by big public relations companies.
Lobbying has also been one of the services offered by public relations firms. Many of these firms claim to offer full communications service capabilities and, therefore, include communicating with political audiences, lobbying, as part of that service. In this sense, lobbying is part of the wider communications service offering. What is clear is that public affairs, which brings together lobbying and other communications skills such as media relations and issues management, is increasingly recognised as a profession in its own right. Organisations no longer view the industry as the poor relation to public relations or marketing.
To understand why public affairs has grown in importance you have to look at the political and media environments.  Quite simply, there has been more legislative activity in recent years and, therefore, more need to engage with political and policy-making audiences.  Since devolution to Scotland and Wales, the emphasis is no longer solely onWestminster and Whitehall.
Organisations are more aware of the legal and scrutiny they are under and individuals are increasingly personally liable for the actions they take in the name of the organisations – both tend to sharpen the minds.  In part, this also helps explain why there are more in-house teams.  A more vociferous and ‘story hungry’. 24-hour media also means that organisations have to take increasing steps to protect their reputations with a range of audiences.
While public affairs continues to grow, challenges remain.  We have to accept that the industry still suffers from an image problem, created by outdated perceptions and we have to devise solutions. The regulatory issue needs to be dealt with by the industry otherwise solutions will be imposed by others.
Profile, January/February 2007