PR isn’t facing a sunset, but a reset

Every few years, someone declares that public relations is dead. They point to shrinking newsrooms, influencer noise, performance dashboards and AI-written content and say, ‘This is the sunset of PR’.

They are wrong. PR is not in its sunset. The traditional version of PR is.

What is fading is a narrow, transactional, media-list-and-press-release view of this business. The strategic discipline behind it – shaping reputation, building trust, driving discoverability and securing license to operate – has never been more important.

As the founder of an independent communications firm in India working across sectors, I see this transformation every day. What used to be called ‘PR’ has outgrown its own name. The nomenclature hasn’t kept pace with what the work actually does. Perhaps rewording it to strategic communications might be more apt.

The strategic discipline of reputation management, discoverability, narrative architecture, and trust-building—these are sunrise business essentials across every sector.

This piece is not a farewell to PR, but a call to reimagine its heart, mandate and future.

Traditionalists shrink PR down to media relations—securing “coverage” is the holy grail. It’s useful, but dangerously incomplete.

Today, communications leaders are tasked with engineering much larger outcomes:

• Discoverability - Organisations must be findable, relevant and valued in a crowded attention ecosystem. Visibility on a social feed, a podcast, a search engine, a conference or even a closed WhatsApp group makes or breaks choices and opportunities.
• Reputation - Reputation is the compound interest accrued from consistent behaviour and authentic narrative. It determines premium pricing, partnership opportunities, talent attraction, crisis resilience and social license to operate.
• Permission - In a hyper-connected, regulated world, permission—explicit and implicit—from communities, regulators, partners and the public is crucial. PR sits at the intersection, articulating intent, responsibility and alignment.

Strategic communications now orchestrate narratives, evidence, relationships and influence that deliver these levers. PR is the architect of trust and legitimacy.

A tale as old as time

The strategic discipline of PR predates traditional labels. The Mahabharat is a testament to the timelessness of communication architecture.

Take, for example, Krishna. The chief reputation strategist, Krishna is never on the battlefield. But behind the scenes, he negotiates peace, secures alliances, shapes perceptions and aligns stakeholders. He deploys narrative and trust, not force.

Or Duryodhana, who is an example of a reputation deficit. Despite power, he lacks the social license that comes from credibility. His isolation exemplifies a leadership crisis rooted in poor narrative.

The epic itself is a battle of narratives, as much a war of stories as of arms. Legitimacy, rightfulness, and who commands allegiance—these all are triggered by narrative and reputation, shaping real-world alliances.

Strategy, narrative and trust have always shaped outcomes. The ‘PR’ label is relatively new in the human journey.

Why the old PR is fading

If PR sometimes feels threatened, it’s because the old operating system is being disrupted. It’s moving from a handful of gatekeepers to a million nodes. Once, newspapers and prime-time shows crafted public reality. Today, every stakeholder—journalists, creators, employees, communities, algorithms—builds their own narrative.

Communications has also shifted from earned versus paid to orchestrated influence
The boundaries between PR, advertising, content, digital and influencer marketing have blurred beyond recognition. Outcomes matter more than channels.

Coverage volume and impressions don’t convince CEOs anymore. The questions being asked are: Did it improve acceptance, open new partnerships, attract talent or de-risk reputation?

Even stakeholders themselves are diverse and distributed—employees, customers, investors, regulators, and digital communities. An effective communications strategy needs to resonate across these nodes.

PR as mere ‘press notes and photo captions’ is at its twilight. Strategic communications are very much at sunrise. The future belongs to PR professionals who recast themselves as:

• Strategic advisors, not dispatchers - The greatest value of communications is at the planning table. In reputationally charged decisions, the right counsel prevents crises, unlocks value and future-proofs growth.
• Orchestrators of narrative ecosystems - Influence transcends media. Employees, partners, investors, micro-communities, algorithms—every node can amplify or erode reputation. The new job: understand, equip and align every node.
• Custodians of story and systems - A compelling narrative must be matched by systems—processes, products, technology and culture—that keep it believable and discoverable.
• Advocates for meaningful measurement - The right KPIs reflect real business movement: share of voice and sentiment, stakeholder trust, lead generation, crisis prevention, hiring upticks, share price stability.

This is strategy, not activity.

The name has shrunk, the work has multiplied

Modern organisations face challenges that make the role of strategic communications indispensable. Disrupted trust spans every sector, from tech to healthcare, consumer brands to finance, increasing risk exposure and defining market advantage.

Issues like AI, sustainability, social inclusion, and governance need credible, understandable communication. PR professionals are the bridge between complexity and clarity.

Today, brands face intense scrutiny. Every action is visible, dissected and amplified. Reputation, once an abstract, is now headline news and social currency. Compounding this is a hyper-connected world. One tweet, review or video can reshape a brand’s trajectory. Navigating new geographies, communities, and regulations requires deep narrative agility.

Strategic communications aren’t a “nice to have”—they’re a non-negotiable for future-facing organisations across all domains.

Labelling all of this ‘PR’ is misleading. Today’s professionals are reputation architects, narrative and influence strategists, crisis managers, relationship ecosystem designers, and trust and social license operators.

The market and talent underestimate the scope because our nomenclature harks back to a narrower playbook. Rebranding PR without evolving it misses the point.

The real evolution is philosophical and operational.

What must change

Communications agencies and leadership teams both need to act. Agencies must sell strategic thinking, not only coverage or outputs. They must invest in sector, regulatory and behavioural expertise, and build interdisciplinary teams—data, culture, policy, writing, crisis, and analytics.

For their part, clients need to invite communications professionals into decisions early. You don’t invite the strategist after the war has begun; you bring them in when the game is being shaped.

Outcomes should be judged by reputation and business impact, and clients should reward creativity, clarity and ethical action, not just tactical output.

Organisations need to be trusted. Audiences need clarity. Societies need narratives they can believe. The work of architecting and stewarding this complex web belongs to skilled, ethical communicators.

At this moment of disruption—when tools, channels, and norms change almost daily—the strategic value of communications is expanding. The methods and the language are evolving. The impact, relevance and stakes have never been greater.

PR, as it was previously known, may be at its sunset. But the discipline of narrative and reputation strategy is facing a new sunrise.

The real question: Will professionals and organisations evolve their approach, vocabulary and ambition to meet the moment?

-Komal Lath, founder, Tute Consult