The face-to-face relationships between PR counselors and clients means these jobs will probably stay in place. But lower-end public relations jobs—like the employees who perform media monitoring and evaluation tasks—could be shifted to places like India where the work can be done equally well at significantly reduced costs.

According to Anne Gregory, president of the Institute of Public Relations, “I think some of the elements of practical PR are becoming commoditised and therefore price sensitive. I could certainly see online research going out to India. Press releases could be written there if they were the sort that just required people to put words on paper—technical press releases like product updates.”

It’s already happening, according to an item on Freelance UK.