PR Manager
A PR Manager gets other people to say things about the company, and manages what happens when they say the wrong ones.
Updated August 2026
The role at a glance
- Also advertised as
- Communications Manager, Digital PR Manager, Press Officer
- Sits in
- Comms, marketing, or reporting to the founder
- Works closest with
- Executives, content, SEO, legal
- Remote friendly
- Mostly, though relationships are built in person
- On call
- Crisis work does not respect a calendar
- Portfolio matters
- Coverage you earned, with the pitch behind it
Public relations is earned attention: coverage, quotes, commentary, and the relationships that make those possible. It is the oldest discipline in this list and the one most changed by the last decade, because the media landscape it was built around shrank while the number of surfaces that matter grew.
Two versions dominate. Corporate communications is about reputation, executives, crisis and internal messaging. Digital PR is a growth function: earning links and mentions that make a brand more visible in search and, increasingly, in AI answers. They use similar skills for different scoreboards, and the second is where most of the new hiring is.
What does a PR Manager actually do?
The recurring work is finding a story worth telling, matching it to the people who would want to tell it, and making their job easy. Journalists are overloaded; the winning pitch is the one that arrives with the angle, the data and the quote already usable. Most of the discipline is in the preparation, not in the sending.
The other half is defensive. Preparing spokespeople, agreeing what the company will and will not say, and moving quickly when something goes wrong. Companies rarely value this until the week they need it, and then they value nothing else.
Story development and pitching
Finding the angle, building the assets, and pitching to specific journalists rather than to a list.
Media relationships
Knowing who covers what and being useful to them when you want nothing, which is what makes the ask land later.
Data-led campaigns
Original research and surveys built specifically to be citable. The engine of modern digital PR.
Crisis and issues management
Holding statements, spokesperson prep, and a plan that exists before it is needed.
What does a normal day look like?
Morning
Media monitoring. A trade publication mentioned a competitor in a story you could have owned, so you note the reporter and the angle.
Late morning
Build a data story from internal numbers. The interesting finding is the one nobody internally thought was interesting.
Afternoon
Pitch eleven journalists individually. Two reply, one of which asks for something you do not have yet.
Late afternoon
Brief an executive before an interview, including the question they will not like.
Representative rather than literal. The mix shifts a lot between agency and in-house.
Would this job suit you?
This suits you if
- You can spot what an outsider would find interesting about your company.
- You handle rejection at volume without taking it personally.
- You write quickly and cleanly under time pressure.
- You are calm when things are going badly in public.
Look elsewhere if
- You need predictable, attributable results.
- You dislike chasing people who do not reply.
- You want firm boundaries around your evenings during a crisis.
Which skills and tools do you need?
- News judgement
- Knowing what is genuinely a story and what is a company announcement. The core skill.
- Pitching
- Short, specific, tailored. The difference between a five percent and a thirty percent reply rate.
- Writing under pressure
- Statements and releases that are accurate, quotable and fast.
- Judgement in a crisis
- Knowing when to respond, when to wait, and what not to say.
Tools you will be expected to know
- Prowly, Muck Rack or Cision
- Media monitoring, from Meltwater to Google Alerts
- Survey tooling for data campaigns
- Ahrefs, for measuring earned links
- A carefully maintained contact list
What does a PR Manager earn?
| Level | Experience | Indicative range |
|---|---|---|
| Junior | 0 to 2 years | 34,000 to 45,000 EUR |
| Mid | 3 to 5 years | 45,000 to 62,000 EUR |
| Senior | 6 to 9 years | 62,000 to 85,000 EUR |
| Head of Comms | 10+ years | 85,000 to 125,000 EUR |
- Indicative gross annual ranges for Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and EU-remote roles.
- Corporate communications pays more than agency PR at every level, and considerably more at the top.
- Digital PR roles inside growth teams often pay above traditional PR, because the results are measurable.
How do you become a PR Manager?
- From an agency
- Still the standard training ground. High volume, many clients, poor pay for the first years, and a fast education in pitching.
- From journalism
- The strongest instinct for what is a story, plus the relationships. A well-worn path in both directions.
- From content or SEO
- The route into digital PR specifically, where link and mention outcomes are the measure.
Where does the job lead?
- 01
Senior PR Manager
You own the narrative and handle the sensitive briefs.
- 02
Head of Communications
Reputation, executives, internal comms, and crisis ownership.
- 03
Freelance or consultancy
A well-established market, particularly for people with a strong contact book in one sector.
How do you get hired?
What to show
- Coverage you personally earned, with the pitch that produced it.
- One data-led campaign end to end: idea, research, outreach, results.
- A crisis or difficult moment you handled, described carefully.
Questions you will be asked
- What story would you pitch about us next month?
- What they are testing: Tests news judgement and whether you researched the company. Vague answers end the interview.
- A journalist is running a negative piece tomorrow. What do you do?
- What they are testing: Process under pressure: verify, decide whether to engage, prepare the spokesperson, agree the line.
- How do you measure PR?
- What they are testing: Modern answers involve share of voice, message pull-through, earned links and referral traffic, not advertising value equivalent.
Is it a good bet for the next few years?
Traditional media keeps contracting and there are fewer journalists to pitch, which makes the craft harder. At the same time earned mentions have become more valuable, because they feed search visibility and increasingly the sources AI assistants cite. PR people who can prove a commercial effect are in a better position than they have been in years. Those still measuring in clippings are not.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need an agency background?
- It is the most common route but not required, particularly for digital PR inside growth teams, where measurable results matter more than a client list.
- What is digital PR exactly?
- Earning coverage and links specifically to build search and brand visibility, usually powered by original data. It is measured like a growth channel rather than like reputation work.
- Is press release writing still a skill?
- Less than it was. Pitching a specific journalist a specific angle works far better, and most releases are read by nobody.
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