Good Publicity: The Economist takes a look at the public relations industry (U.K. media tend to take PR more seriously as a business, while remaining far more skeptical than their U.S. counterparts about its output) and comes to the conclusion that the future looks pretty good.

PR, the mag says, is “an increasingly vital marketing tool—especially as traditional forms of advertising struggle to catch consumers’ attention.” Exhibit one is the Procter & Gamble study showing that PR provided a better ROI than traditional advertising—research that may lead the company to redirect some of its $4 billion ad budget.

But to put that in perspective, the magazine draws on a study by Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a New York investment bank, which estimates the total size of the PR industry at $3.7 billion (ie, slightly less than P&G’s ad budget). The good news is that PR spending will grow at almost 9 percent a year over the next few years and should top $5 billion by 2009.

ADD: Reader Constantin Basturea provides a link to the full Veronis Suhler report here. Not sure why I didn't see this when it was released. Presumably my bad.