Two definitions.
Traditional PR manages how an organisation is seen. It covers press and broadcast relations, launches, profiles, events, stakeholder communication and crisis handling. Its output is reputation: the right people thinking the right things about you, measured, when it is measured, in sentiment, share of voice and the quality of what was said.
Digital PR earns coverage in online publications, where two things happen that print never offered. Readers can click through to you, and the links journalists include when they cite you pass authority to your website, which search engines reward over time. Its output is coverage you can trace: referring domains, brand searches and visibility on the pages the coverage supports.
The craft underneath is the same. Both depend on a story a journalist wants and a relationship good enough to get it read. Our plain English guide to digital PR covers the discipline on its own terms.
Goals and channels.
Traditional PR is aimed at perception. The goals are awareness among a defined audience, trust, favourable framing, a successful launch or a crisis handled without lasting damage. Its channels are wherever that audience pays attention: national and trade press, broadcast, events, speaking platforms, analyst and investor relations.
Digital PR is aimed at a website as much as an audience. The goals are editorial links to specific pages, brand search growth and a wider, more authoritative link profile. Its channels are online news, the digital editions of national and regional titles, trade sites and the specialist publications that rank for the topics your customers search.
The overlap is large. A national online story serves both sets of goals at once, which is why the two disciplines are increasingly run by the same people. The difference is what each one optimises for when a choice has to be made.
How each is measured.
Traditional PR measurement has improved but still leans on proxies. Coverage volume, audience reach, sentiment, share of voice against competitors and message pull-through are the standard set. Advertising value equivalency still appears in some reports, and deserves the scepticism it gets.
Digital PR is measured against things that can be checked. Each placement is reported with its URL, whether it links, and the attribute on the link. Beneath that sit referring domains, brand search volume, share of search and organic visibility on the target pages. None of these is perfect, and all of them move over quarters rather than weeks, but they describe outcomes rather than exposure.
Neither set replaces the other. A reputation programme judged only on links would miss the point, and a link programme judged only on sentiment would never be funded. Our guide to measuring digital PR sets out a monthly report that keeps both in view.
What each costs.
Traditional PR is usually bought as a retainer for a team's time, and the range is wide: a small consultancy handling trade press costs a fraction of a national agency running a launch with broadcast. Digital PR agency retainers in the UK typically run from £3,000 to £15,000 a month, one-off campaigns typically £5,000 to £20,000, and freelancers typically £300 to £600 a day. An in-house specialist typically costs £35,000 to £60,000 plus tools, whichever discipline they practise.
We price digital PR by the batch of placements rather than by time. Starter is £2,500 a month for five editorial placements, Growth £4,500 for ten and Scale £8,000 for twenty, each batch targeted for completion within 30 to 45 days and billed month to month. That puts a placement at £400 to £500, a useful benchmark when weighing any PR spend against what it produces. The pricing page has the package detail.
When each is right, and how they combine.
Choose traditional PR when the job is reputation: a crisis, a sensitive launch, a leadership profile, broadcast, or an audience that doesn't live online. Choose digital PR when the job is search authority: specific pages that need to compete, an ecommerce catalogue, a brand nobody searches for yet. If you would measure success by what people think, it is traditional. If you would measure it by what the website does, it's digital.
Most businesses of any size need both, and the combination works best when it is deliberate. One spokesperson, one story calendar, one set of relationships. The traditional side sharpens the messaging and handles the moments that must not go wrong; the digital side turns every story into linked coverage that keeps working. Our media relations work sits across both, and a retained programme can run alongside an existing corporate agency without the two treading on each other.
Side by side.
| Traditional PR | Digital PR | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary goal | Reputation and perception | Search authority and brand search |
| Typical output | Coverage, broadcast, events, profiles | Linked online coverage |
| Channels | Print, broadcast, events, trade, stakeholders | Online news, digital editions, trade and niche sites |
| Measured by | Sentiment, reach, share of voice | Placements, links, referring domains, share of search |
| Typical cost | Time-based retainer, wide range | £3,000 to £15,000 a month, or per batch |
| Time to effect | Immediate for perception, hard to trace | Weeks for coverage, quarters for search |
| Wins when | Reputation is at stake | Pages need authority |
The table flatters neither side. Traditional PR handles the moments that decide a reputation and digital PR builds the authority that decides who gets found. If you can only fund one, choose by the outcome you would regret losing; if you can fund both, run them from one story calendar so every piece of coverage does two jobs.