These are the biggest changes communicators have seen in their careers

Whether you entered the field of communications last year or 40 years ago, you’ve seen some changes. From the shift to print to the shift to AI, from the fall of legacy media to the rise of social media, this industry is never boring.

More than 100 communicators shared the biggest changes they’ve seen in their time as a comms pro. These range from the funny (RIP em dash) to the thoughtful.

Responses have been lightly edited for brevity and style.

Media relations isn’t what it used to be

I no longer have to fax pitches to news outlets. Which was honestly a thrill.

Parry Headrick, founder of Crackle PR

People don’t do clips anymore! Never thought I’d see the day.

Jordan Valdés, founder of Varnum Street Strategies

Calling reporters on the phone to pitch or follow up, specifically at an office or newsroom number! My mentor at my very first agency job always encouraged me to get on the phone first to share a story for bigger impact. Those opportunities are few and far between in media relations now.

As a note, I entered the field full time in 2012.

Meg Treat, owner and CEO of Treat PR

A lot less picking up the phone and calling to pitch a story or follow up.

Monica Earle, communications professional at Tinder

Biggest change: Securing earned media is harder than ever. In the age of AI, third-party credibility holds significant weight and companies now know it. Everyone wants a piece of the pie. Combine that with shrinking newsrooms and the imbalance of the PR-to-reporter ratio, and you’ve got yourself a task that is difficult to achieve, at least at the cadence most companies want.

Shannon Tucker, senior vice president at Resilere Partners

So much has changed in PR, even compared with four or five years ago, let alone 10. Like others, I’d say it’s become much harder to secure editorial coverage, but I think one of the biggest changes is that we barely have the opportunity to really get to know reporters like we used to. Journalists are so stretched, working in smaller teams with less capacity, that those moments where you’d actually build a relationship and get to know them are few and far between now. And that makes it much harder to really understand what makes them tick, what they’re truly interested in and what will genuinely be useful to them. Bring back those journo lunches and after-work drinks!

Megan Dennison, associate director at Firefly Communications

I think the hardest thing I have witnessed is the lack of excitement. Very early in my career, the rush of getting a hit felt like you moved a mountain. Landing your client on paper and/or online felt like a huge accomplishment that influenced society. Now, that magic isn’t there. Now that everyone has a platform, it’s not as earth-shattering to see your client covered. I miss that.

Amy Nagy, fractional communications consultant

New platforms, new tools

The mass journalist exodus from Twitter. It used to be the place to get news, get pinged by reporters and put out statements. It’s been replaced by LinkedIn, Instagram and owned channels.

Linda Zebian, vice president of communications at Muck Rack

The rise of LinkedIn has changed executive and branded social, thought leadership that leads to earned coverage, and communications for the organization. Leaders can make huge waves for their companies using the platform. Also, PRs can now get reporter pitch feedback and access (dare I say friendships?) and reporters can build their personal brands and get access to sources.

Nicholas Budler, corporate communications manager at EA

For most of my career, comms was the gatekeeper to expertise. We packaged the expert, established their credentials and convinced reporters they were worth talking to. LinkedIn and search have pretty much blown that up. Reporters can find the experts themselves. Access isn’t the currency anymore. Relevance is. The job is making sure you have experts worth finding.

Michael Rowinski, vice president brand & communications at Mimecast

Social media. Trending topics on social inform a lot more of what gets covered. Its influence on media is much stronger now than it was when I first started. Vintage photo filters and tweets were more about recreation — now social informs news.

Chevonne Nash, senior vice president at Golin Ketchum

The launch of the iPhone. Smartphones brought constant, instant connectivity to everyone who had the means and access to one. Continuous, real-time sharing stopped coming from cable news and started coming directly from the device in your hand.

Allison M. Mackey, public information officer at the City of Visalia

Going from mostly print campaigns to fully digital and now print and out-of-home making a big comeback.

Blair Huddy, principal founder of Hudson Davis

One change I never saw coming: the stigmatization of the em dash. Pre-AI, I could use it in peace. Now, include just one in a byline or press release and you’re apparently committing a grave sin. I’m hoping it’s only a matter of time before its reputation is rehabilitated.

Jacob Streiter, vice president at Rosen Group

For me, the biggest change is the demise of quality writing and the ability to tell a story. I’m still astonished when I come across communications professionals who don’t like to write. That now translates into practitioners who rely too much on AI, which compounds the problem because they don’t recognize good writing to begin with.

The good news is that when everything starts to sound the same, the people who can truly write get noticed.

John Buchholz, director of employee communications and storytelling at Integral

A bigger, broader job

Communications functions are much more specialized. Comms used to mean one person wearing every hat, focused on cranking out press releases. Now internal comms, analyst relations, social and executive communications are real disciplines, each with its own strategic playbook. The people who got great at them raised the bar for everyone. I always tell people earlier in their careers to make sure they wear a few of those hats before they decide what they want to specialize in. They all feed each other, and knowing the nuance of each makes you a much more strategic communicator, whichever lane(s) you end up owning.

Becca Chambers, chief marketing officer at Scale Venture Partners

Comms isn’t a silo anymore. We’ve become integrated marketers. PR, social, brand, content, internal comms and experiences are increasingly interconnected because the audience sees one brand, not an org chart. The biggest shift has been learning to think across the whole ecosystem, not just within our own lane.

Danielle Lajoie, vice president communications, events & integrated marketing at Exos

Comms is so much more than it used to be. When I started out, our channels were the intranet, organization-wide emails and quarterly town halls. Because of the more closed-loop ecosystem, I think leaders felt more comfortable and prepared to deal with unexpected feedback or off-the-cuff reactions from employees, because the risk of their messages spreading outside the room they were in was lower. Now there are many more channels, which means messages have to get adapted in so many ways; that also means there are more opportunities for message spread, which leads to more “what if” scenarios to game out and an increased need for reactive FAQs, messaging frameworks, etc. Basically — because there are more channels, there’s so many more resources we have to create and so many new risk scenarios we have to plan for.

Morgan Baden, vice president. Communications and content, at Upstream USA

The biggest change I’ve seen is that PR no longer has the luxury of waiting for the media to tell the story. When I started, earned media was often the destination. Today, it’s one part of a much larger communications ecosystem. Brands have to know how to tell their own stories, build direct relationships with their audiences and create moments people want to talk about. The publicist’s job has evolved from simply securing attention to understanding how to build and sustain it.

Jeanne Meyer, interim communications leader

To me, the biggest change is that there was no change at all. Really.

Since I started as an intern, there have been many talks about how PR was going to be dead because of the decline of print, and the lack of journalists, etc. — but we actually keep going and keep doing the same job we did 10 years ago. It has become more difficult, yes, because there are fewer journalists, but also more valuable because of it. Think it has all become very strategic because of this change too, with PR people now being called “consultants” and having to deal with a myriad of reputational issues because of how fast-paced the internet really is. But I would say that is the bulk of it.

Aline De Oliveira, media relations manager at Workhuman

After nearly 30 years in employee communications, I’ve watched the pendulum swing from heavily performance-focused workplaces to a much greater emphasis on people and employee experience … and now back toward performance. I’ve come to believe the answer isn’t choosing one over the other. The strongest organizations find a way to make people and performance mutually reinforcing. And, of course, that balance is constantly shaped by external forces, from societal and political shifts to broader economic conditions.

Jen Saputo, vice president, communications at Elevance Health

Trust, speed and reputation

The biggest change I’ve seen is the end of the illusion that communicators control the message. We can shape it, prepare for it and put it into the world, but the audience will decide what it means to them. That’s made listening, judgment and understanding your audience just as important as what you actually say. And you better have diverse perspectives in your team when deciding what and how to say it.

Daniel Méndez Aróstica, founder of #CommsJobs

For me, the biggest change is the speed of reputation. A small issue can become a public conversation before a comms team has even finished its first draft. That has shifted the job from simply crafting messages to building judgment, readiness and trust across the organization.

Salman Siddiqui, senior manager of corporate communications at PrefabFind

The massive changes to the newsroom and the sharp decrease of consumer trust in the news media. I can remember holiday dinners had to start at 7 p.m. after my grandfather finished watching Walter Cronkite on the “CBS Evening News.” From two newspapers delivered a day and everyone watching the evening news to digital, to mobile, to the continuing shrinking newsrooms, to AI. Change is the name of the game.

Sheri Singer, owner of Singer Communications