There is a quiet migration underway in Indian media houses, and it is not driven by ambition or boredom. It is driven by exhaustion. More and more experienced journalists, reporters with decades of institutional memory, editors who once set the news agenda, are exiting newsrooms and taking up roles in public relations, corporate communications and “strategic advisory”. This is not a temporary churn or a mid-career experiment. It is a structural exodus, and it says uncomfortable things about the state of Indian journalism today.
For years, this shift was spoken about in hushed tones, as if moving to PR was a personal failing rather than a professional necessity. That stigma has now worn off. When senior journalists quit, nobody asks why anymore. The reasons are obvious.
Start with money, because pretending otherwise is dishonest. Journalism in India has always been poorly paid relative to the hours, the stress and the risks involved. But what was once manageable has now become untenable. Salaries in many mainstream newsrooms have stagnated for over a decade. Annual increments are tokenistic, if they exist at all. Promotions come without pay hikes. Senior journalists, often in their forties and fifties, find themselves earning salaries that barely match middle-management roles in corporate India. Meanwhile, PR and corporate communications offer two or three times the pay, predictable work hours and medical insurance that actually works.
Survival, not greed, is what drives this move. A journalist with children, ageing parents and EMIs cannot live on “passion” and bylines alone. The romantic idea of journalism as a calling collapses quickly when school fees are due and newsroom layoffs loom every quarter.
Which brings us to job security, or the complete lack of it. Indian media houses today run like start-ups in permanent crisis mode. Cost-cutting is constant, and senior journalists are often the first to be shown the door because they are “expensive”. Newsrooms have normalised sudden exits, forced resignations and opaque performance reviews. Entire teams are dismantled overnight in the name of “restructuring”.
In such an environment, loyalty becomes a liability. Journalists learn the hard way that decades of service do not translate into protection. PR firms and corporate roles, in contrast, offer contracts, notice periods and at least the illusion of stability. For someone who has survived multiple newsroom purges, that illusion is powerful.
Then there is political interference, the elephant permanently parked inside the newsroom. Experienced journalists have seen this space shrink year after year. Stories are spiked without explanation. Headlines are softened to avoid discomfort. Prime-time debates are choreographed with a precision that leaves no room for genuine questioning. Editorial independence, once defended fiercely by senior editors, is now negotiated daily with owners, advertisers and political interests.
For journalists who entered the profession believing in speaking truth to power, this erosion is deeply demoralising. Many don’t quit because they disagree with a particular line. They quit because the space to disagree itself has disappeared. When every sensitive story requires internal clearances and external signalling, journalism stops feeling like journalism.
PR, ironically, is more honest in this regard. Nobody pretends it is neutral or adversarial. You are paid to represent an interest, and the terms are clear. For some journalists, that clarity is preferable to the hypocrisy of being told you are “independent” while being nudged, subtly or otherwise, in a particular direction.
The digital disruption has added another layer of pressure. The demand for constant content has turned journalism into an assembly line. Experienced reporters, trained to verify, contextualise and question, are now expected to produce multiple stories a day, optimise headlines for search engines and track real-time traffic. Depth is sacrificed for speed. Nuance loses out to virality.
This environment is particularly alienating for senior journalists. Their value lies in judgment, not just output. But newsrooms increasingly reward volume over wisdom. Younger, cheaper hires are preferred because they can be worked harder and paid less. Experience, once the backbone of editorial credibility, is now seen as a cost centre.
PR firms, on the other hand, value precisely what journalism is discarding. Writing skills, source networks, narrative sense, crisis management instincts. Former journalists are prized because they understand how newsrooms think. The irony is hard to miss: the skills honed in journalism are now better rewarded outside it.
There is also the question of dignity. Journalism used to offer social capital. Being a reporter or editor meant something. Today, journalists are routinely trolled, abused and threatened online. Legal intimidation has become common. Defamation notices and police complaints are no longer exceptional. Media organisations rarely offer robust legal or emotional support. Many journalists feel exposed and expendable.
Corporate communications roles, in contrast, offer distance from this hostility. The work may be less idealistic, but it is safer. That trade-off becomes easier to accept with age.
None of this is to suggest that PR is an ethical downgrade by default. Many former journalists do good, transparent work in communications. The real issue is what journalism loses in the process. When experienced professionals exit en masse, newsrooms are hollowed out. Institutional memory disappears. Younger journalists are left without mentors. Mistakes increase, credibility erodes, and the profession becomes even less attractive to serious talent.
This creates a vicious cycle. Weak journalism drives audiences away, revenues fall, cost-cutting intensifies, and more journalists leave. The long-term casualty is not just the media industry but public discourse itself.
The migration from journalism to PR is not a betrayal by individuals. It is an indictment of a system that has made staying on feel irrational. If Indian journalism wants to stop this bleed, it needs more than lectures about ethics and passion. It needs fair pay, editorial autonomy, job security and respect for experience.
Until then, the exit doors will remain busy. And every time a seasoned journalist walks out, the newsroom grows a little quieter, a little poorer, and a lot less capable of holding power to account.