Canadian PR person Ed Lee has an interesting post about whether or not social media will drive agency PR people in-house. He thinks so... a lot of people think so... and most of them make the following argument, or a variation on this theme:

Put simply, an external agency, no matter how deeply entrenched with the client, will never have the depth of knowledge nor the passion for the issues that the client needs to write about in order to produce compelling, authoritative and authentic content.

While I agree a massive transformation is in store for PR agencies, I'm not sure whether the location of an individual will identify him or her as a great producer of content. I know plenty of terrific, well-informed corporate communications people so bogged down in busy work and the details that they have a hard time getting anything done. Some are great writers; some aren't. Same in the agency world. That a person crosses a different threshold and moves to a new desk doesn't have much to do with writing excellence and strategic thinking.

Plus if Ed's assertion is true -- and it might be -- then how have external content providers written speeches at the highest strategic levels for their clients? If a CEO has on hand a team of people who know more about the company than any outsider can possibly know, why then does that CEO ever go outside? Fact is, some speech writers live happily inside corporate; some live happily outside of it. But high level writing is what they do and typically, that don't do it in great volume every day for multiple clients. If they did, institutions for the chronically burned out would be filled with these poor people.

Meanwhile, can your doctor or your therapist ever know enough to help you if he or she doesn't live with you?

What I do think is that the new social media is different because it involves very specialized, high-cranium content and it will simply exacerbate... is already exacerbating... the already wicked shortage of great strategic writers. More and more than ever needs to be written and there are fewer and fewer people who can do it, no matter if you're looking inside the corporation or the agency world. This is apt to be the ultimate problem for agencies. Most agencies live and die by the team model...various talent levels at various billing levels. An agency's economies depend on it. Great writing, in contrast, is a solitary endeavor. Great writing may be the most expensive service an agency offers. It isn't very leverageable. A really high-priced agency EVP earns his or her keep by touching multiple clients and agency teams. He or she might be involved at some level in ten or twenty clients. There's no way a great writer can produce routine social media content for ten or twenty clients. Perhaps I've talked myself into Ed Lee's position?

Maybe. But if you look at what he says he, as an agency PR person, would offer a client that is rolling its own, I think he's on to something. Basically, I think most PR firms won't be successful providers of content because 1.) they can't afford to offer it within their business model, and 2.) great writing is a lot harder to find, hire and happify than your average PR account executive.