Top 5 PR Challenges in 2025 (And How Winning Teams Are Tackling Them)

2025 Comms Report reveals the industry's biggest PR issues and challenges

Whether you’ve just started working in PR and communications or have years of experience behind you, you’ll know that the only constant in the industry is change. The world is moving quicker than ever, and we’re regularly confronted with PR challenges that simply wouldn’t have existed a decade ago.

These PR issues were on my mind during a recent conversation with Gideon Fidelzeid for The PRWeek Podcast. We discussed some of findings from Cision and PRWeek’s 2025 Comms Report, which examines some of the trends, pain points, and opportunities PR teams are facing right now.

The results show just how fast-paced and “always on” our industry can be – and give us some understanding of how industry leaders are navigating issues like AI and social media. Here’s a look at some of the public relations challenges uncovered in the Comms Report and how you can go about solving them.

1. Balancing a Proactive vs. Reactive Focus

When asked to identify the factors that challenged them the most, the leading response from the Comms Report survey was a focus that is too reactive as opposed to proactive.

This is interesting because it really underlines how many comms professionals feel they are stuck in a reactive cycle, scrambling to respond to events as they unfold rather than setting an agenda.

Yet it’s hardly a surprise. We’re bombarded by information in a 24/7 news cycle, where a social media post or news item mentioning your brand can travel around the globe in seconds. We’re also on tight deadlines, and priorities can change, making it very difficult to focus on long-term strategy.

Here are a few ways we can overcome PR issues around reactivity vs. proactivity:

• Anticipate, don’t just respond. Engaging in media monitoring and social listening isn’t just about understanding what audiences think and feel right now, but about being able to spot emerging trends to take advantage of or identify vulnerabilities you can proactively address. Use your media monitoring platforms for trend analysis and stakeholder insight reports. These will help you predict challenges and see issues before they arise. Your monitoring setup can really help you reduce the need for last-minute firefighting.
• Put comms at the heart of strategic decision making. Comms is too often looped in late on business-critical decisions, so it’s really important to align with other departments to ensure you’re playing a proactive role in shaping stories, and not just responding to them.
• Balance speed with strategy. Responding quickly matters, but this shouldn’t come at the cost of building your reputation. It’s important to establish your guiding principles that allow for both in-the-moment agility and long-term foresight.

2. Effectively Measuring Earned Media

Measuring the impact of earned media coverage has long been a challenge for our industry – and it still is, though the technology is always improving.

In last year’s Global Comms Report, 72% of respondents indicated they still struggle with that particular earned media challenge. This year, that number has fallen to 60%, clear signs of an industry getting its head around this public relations challenge.

Though that’s encouraging, it still means significantly more than half of communicators are struggling with measurement.

How can we tackle this? Here’s three things worth thinking about:

• Move away from vanity metrics. Instead broaden your measurement to focus on business impact. Impressions and reach are useful, but what the C-suite really cares about is outcomes. Tie your earned media results back to things like web traffic, sales conversions, brand sentiment, and revenue. These metrics makes PR’s value undeniable.
• Leverage technology platforms. There’s so much AI-powered tech out there to help you capture up-to-the-moment data and media coverage. However, technology alone isn’t a panacea. Don’t invest in powerful tools unless you’re able to give your team the training and implementation required to make these solutions work.
• Collaborate with other departments. Measurement gets easier when PR, marketing, and sales align on shared KPIs. A holistic view of media impact helps prove how earned media contributes to broader business goals, which will make it much easier to secure budget and resources.

3. Navigating Social Media

The Comms Report gave respondents eight choices of activities and asked which ones they are prioritizing more this year than last year. At 51%, earned social media was placed in the top three by more comms pros than any other, and paid social media was next at 41%.

This result shows that multi-channel earned media strategies are becoming the norm. Our fast media cycle is driving this trend, as well as audiences whose needs and behaviours are constantly evolving.

Add to this the growing pressure on comms teams to continuously prove value on everything they do, and you have an increased pressure to make the most of social media.

With social it’s important to remember that it’s not necessarily about doing more, it’s about doing it smarter. For me, that means:

• Breaking down silos between comms and marketing. Bring all your channels together – earned, owned, shared, and paid – so they’re working in sync to maximize reach and audience engagement.
• Using data and the right tools to work smarter. Your teams should be leveraging insights to both build and refine your social strategy, and measure the impact of your campaigns. Social monitoring tools can be key here, giving you the scope to see the full reach of your brand or story across multiple platforms.

4. The Rapid Growth of AI in PR

AI has been reshaping pretty much every industry in the past couple of years, and the comms and PR world is no different.

More teams are experimenting with the technology, and the Comms Report revealed that 37% are using it for content review and optimization purposes. It makes sense because, unlike more complex AI applications, this is a low-risk, high-reward entry point for teams to experiment with. It’s practical, easy to integrate, and delivers immediate value.

The next step in AI adoption is where media intelligence platforms like CisionOne play a key role. It’s our job to make AI more accessible and more intuitive, to integrate AI seamlessly into your current workflow. 

AI is a real opportunity to help communicators get back to what they do best – storytelling, strategy, and building relationships (not getting buried in admin and endless data analysis).

Think about these points for how AI can help solve common PR challenges:

• Find coverage faster. Building monitoring queries can be time consuming, especially if you’re unsure about the parameters to define and struggle with Boolean. AI can help generate really complex queries for you quickly, creating more accurate, well-defined searches and turn them instantly into effective brand mention streams.
• Use AI to make sense of your coverage. AI is good at summarizing a lot of information quickly. Tools like CisionOne use AI to instantly pull key insights across hundreds or thousands of mentions or alerts and flag potential risks or emerging narratives. That allows you to react much faster than a manual and time-draining trawl.
• Take action with generative AI. For most comms professionals, building relationships with journalists is crucial, but the time it takes to invest in making those connections is a luxury too many of us don’t have. AI can help here, by optimizing your pitch copy and creating compelling subject lines while you take care of personalizing the outreach.

5. Targeting the Right Influencers

According to this year’s Comms Report data, employees rank as the most effective influencer for their brands, far above social media influencers and celebrities.

I think one of the reasons for this is we’re all wiser to paid endorsements, we know when we’re being sold to and are much better at spotting it.

Trust and authenticity are so valuable, and “real” people have it in spades. Who better to advocate for a brand than the people who work there? We all know that when an endorsement feels genuine, transparent, and relatable, it’s far more effective.

So, what does that mean for brands?

• Think about how you connect with your audience. Not every brand will need to rethink their influencer strategy, and for some, celebrities will continue to play a role. But it’s important to evaluate more broadly the types of people who can really help you reach your audience in the most meaningful way. Revisit your influencer plans, and consider employees, industry experts, or micro influencers in your thinking.
• Ask the question: what do your employees want to say? Ultimately, everyone wants to feel proud of the brand they work for, so we need to hold ourselves and our leadership teams accountable for the company culture we’re creating. When the internal culture is strong, advocacy will happen naturally. 

Final Thoughts

Today's public relations professionals face obstacles in all directions, but by embracing new tools and AI-driven technologies while maintaining human-led storytelling, they'll be well placed to succeed moving forward.

By staying agile, continuously learning, and focusing on genuine impact rather than vanity metrics, communicators can transform challenges into opportunities. All of this takes time, effort, and a lot of commitment, particularly in the shift from reactive to proactive thinking. It may seem like an arduous journey, but when you reach your destination, the payoff will be worth it.

Explore more findings from the full 2025 Comms Report.

Find out how CisionOne can help you navigate the PR challenges of 2025. Schedule time now to speak to one of our experts.