PR New Year’s Resolutions for 2026: What does the comms industry need to leave behind in 2025?

It’s time to look forward to what the year ahead will bring, and to leave some bad PR habits behind. If you’re yet to make your own resolution for 2026, pick one or more from the list below…

And for more help with forming good habits, check out these 14 PR and comms trends for 2026.

1. Gatekeeping

‘One of my biggest bugbears is the industry’s insular nature. We talk to each other too much and there’s just an unwillingness to make comms more accessible and understandable to the wider world (I understand that there are restrictions around what can be shared given the nature of our roles, but there are ways around this).

‘There still seems to be quite a lot of gatekeeping of information and knowledge and I think if we just made some of our messages clear and more accessible a lot of issues surrounding misinformation and disinformation would improve.’

Ronke Lawal, PR Consultant, Ariatu Public Relations

2. All the rushing

‘We need to leave behind the obsession with speed over quality. AI has made it easier than ever to churn out content, but that doesn’t mean we should. Consumers and stakeholders are increasingly discerning, and brand safety has never been more fragile. The habit of prioritising volume at the expense of originality and accuracy is something we can’t take into 2026.

‘We should also move past siloed thinking. The old model of separating PR, social, creative and growth marketing belongs firmly in 2025. The brands winning today are the ones treating comms as an integrated discipline, not a set of disconnected channels.

‘And finally, we should retire the idea that you need to be everywhere. Spreading yourself thin across every platform rarely drives impact. In 2026, clarity beats chaos, pick the channels where you can be genuinely brilliant, and commit to them.

Matt Brown, CEO, W Communications

3. Celebrating fails

‘Celebrating great ideas that didn’t get any coverage or social shares. LinkedIn can be a funny ol’ place where we all see the same campaigns: clever ones, funny ones, ones that we all think are great. And they are. On paper. But all too often no one outside the industry saw them. And unless we’re the target audience, surely that’s a fail?’

Dominique Daly, Director, Hope&Glory

4. Buzzwords

‘GEO has been one of the most hotly debated topics of 2025, representing a new specialist service for some agencies – and just another example of how comms should be, and always has needed to be, integrated for others. I’ve spent many hours this year reading articles debating the point of the phrase itself, as well as what it means for the PR industry.

‘Given how many worlds now collide for brand visibility, the most important habit to embrace must be collaboration and speaking plain English to deliver maximum value for clients looking for impact and ROI.’

Emma Streets, Associate Director, Tigerbond

5. Using moldy metrics

‘As we move into 2026, the PR industry must adapt and move on from measuring success purely by coverage. Clients want clear outcomes – impact on reputation, improved stakeholder trust and ultimately business results – not just column inches or social impressions. Our clients need growth and that must be the focus of the PR & comms industry.’

Sarah Owen, Founder and CEO, Pumpkin PR

‘Over-indexing on outputs rather than outcomes. We need to stop celebrating volume and start championing impact.

‘2026 is a year to be more collaborative and future-facing. And that starts with letting go of what no longer serves us.’

Kerry Parkin, Founder, The Remarkables and The Mark

6. Being performative

‘The first habit to drop is performative adoption, so talking about AI capability while relying on shallow experimentation and misleading usage statistics. It creates a false sense of readiness and delays the governance function urgently needed.

‘We should also abandon demographic targeting as a default. Behavioural and situational segmentation are simply more accurate in a world where media habits diverge from birth and not with age.

‘Then there’s the addiction to messaging over meaning. Internal communication cannot be reduced to digital convenience; culture is built in conversations, not channels.

‘And finally, let’s retire the illusion of control: PESO binaries, top-down narratives, heroic leadership models. Influence is now distributed.’

Stephen Waddington, co-director of Wadds Inc. and co-founder of Socially Mobile

7. Burning out as a badge of honour

‘The communications industry needs to leave behind its long-standing burnout culture, where overwork is normalised, exhaustion is worn as a badge of honour, and productivity is measured by visibility rather than value.

‘For too long, success in PR and comms has been linked to long hours, constant availability and physical presence in the office, rather than the quality and impact of the work delivered. This culture not only damages mental and physical health, but disproportionately pushes talented people – especially parents, carers and those managing health challenges – out of the industry altogether.

‘The future of communications should prioritise sustainable productivity, where results, creativity and outcomes matter more than being online at all hours or sitting at a desk. By embracing flexible working, realistic deadlines and a healthier relationship with work, the industry can retain experienced talent, encourage better thinking and create more innovative, effective campaigns.

‘Moving beyond burnout culture isn’t just better for people; it leads to better work, stronger teams and more sustainable businesses.’

Charlotte Dovey, Founder, Quince Creative Communications

8. Superficiality

‘Surface-level celeb endorsements and hype without deeper brand alignment. Tokenistic celeb marketing or attention-seeking stunts without authenticity or follow-through will start to feel hollow. Audiences will increasingly care about substance over flash.’

Patrizia Galeota, PR Specialist & Podcast Host: PR LIKE A BOSS!

9. Clinging to the comfort of the mainstream

‘Mainstream press is great, but there are huge sections of the public who completely bypass it. Likewise, some social media channels reach some groups and not others, and some are best reached by other means entirely. Campaigns need to use whichever medium is best and not chase vanity metrics that won’t deliver actual results.’

David Sykes Head of PR, Carrington

10. Overdependance on AI

‘Fully outsourcing writing and outreach to AI. Journalists can tell immediately when a pitch has been generated or templated, and it damages relationships. The art is in working smartly with technology, not expecting it to do all the work for us. In the past PRs could focus on just getting coverage, but we need to leave that approach behind and work more as reputation architects, ensuring our clients’ messages are fed correctly to machines and that their identities and product details are accurate across multiple platforms. This is critical to creating long lasting future proof results for clients.’

Lexi Mills, CEO, Shift6 Studios

‘Relying on AI-generated press releases, social media posts, or pitch drafts directly to distribution channels. It’s a fad and undermines everything PR stands for. This is about Public Relations, not Artificial Relations.’

Pamela Badham, Founder and CEO, Four Marketing Agency

11. Underselling the importance of PR

‘Tolerating the narrative that it is optional or secondary to business success. PR has carried an image problem for too long, and the industry needs to be far more confident in positioning itself as a strategic enabler.

‘In an AI-enabled world where trust and genuine connection are increasingly scarce, PR’s role is becoming increasingly important. We should stop apologising and start leading.’

Marco Fiori, Managing Director, Bamboo

12. Unethical avoidance

‘Avoiding difficult conversations around ethics and transparency is no longer an option. Whether it’s AI, sustainability, or inclusivity, audiences can see through spin – so being honest will give you a competitive advantage.’

Claire Crompton, co-founder, TAL Agency

13. Spray and pray pitching… please?

‘We know it happens but we need to leave spray-and-pray pitching on the doorstep for good. Generic mass emails and one-off blasts do not build relationships or cut through in a noisy, AI-assisted world. With clients demanding a bigger bang for their buck and earned media becoming more competitive than ever, the temptation to try anything to get the wins might be there, but resist it. Yes, press are busy, yes everyone wants a piece of the publicity pie, but go deep into your research, look at where your clients need to be and seek the quality outreach and results that will lead to results that actually matters.’

Natalie Trice, Author, Media Commentator, PR & Brand Expert, Natalie Trice Publicity

‘Mass pitching and generic templates. The ‘spray and pray’ approach is dead. Journalists expect hyper-personalised, relevant outreach, not AI-generated spam. If you wouldn’t read it, why would they.’

Stephanie King, Managing Director, BlueSky PR

For more pointers on getting things right this year, check out the best campaigns of 2025, as decided by PR and comms experts across the UK.