Beyond the Noise - the PRWeek podcast30 Okt 2025

PR firms must be ‘more commercial’ – PRWeek podcast

In the latest PRWeek podcast, non-executive directors Alison Clarke and Michael Murphy explain how to reposition a comms agency during difficult times.

Beyond the Noise looks at some of the biggest issues affecting communications and PR. Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or listen on your favourite platform.

On this week’s episode, PRWeek UK deputy editor Siobhan Holt is joined by two non-executive directors – Alison Clarke and Michael Murphy – to discuss how to reposition a comms agency during difficult times, focusing on client fees, restructuring and staff redundancies.

An experienced comms professional, Clarke has held senior roles at Weber Shandwick and Grayling, and now runs her own consultancy, Alison Clarke Consulting. Michael Murphy has also held top leadership roles at Grayling and Weber Shandwick and now advises We. Communications, Lodestone and Action Global.

In this episode, the pair chat about when an agency should consider increasing its fees, how to approach the topic with clients, and explain how to stop working with a client without jeopardising the relationship or their agency’s reputation.

Clarke also warned that PR agencies must avoid a ‘race to the bottom’ in relation to client fees.

The two comms professionals discuss when an agency leader should consider restructuring a team, and what frameworks to follow. They also offer advice on how best to handle redundancies and what factors the leadership team should consider.

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