CIPR welcome 1,800 new members in record-breaking year for training

Some 1,800 new members joined the CIPR in 2017, according to the Institute’s Integrated report published ahead of its AGM this evening. A record number of PR professionals (1,970) attended CIPR training last year, which 2017 President Jason MacKenzie said shows, ‘a passion for learning and a hunger for PR to be recognised as a strategic management function’.

In total, CIPR membership at the end of 2017 was made up of 9,750 PR professionals. Its retention rates rose to 83%.

The report also details the Top 10 CPD resources of 2017, which shows how keen the level of interest in GDPR is. The CIPR’s GDPR webinar: Reputation matters – new data protection act is top of the list. Other CPD resources that were popular in 2017 include content focusing on industry trends, such as open data, Brexit and ‘Making movies with iPhones and iPads’.

More people accessed CIPR news in 2017, another record, with articles attracting 64,019 views – an increase of 23% on 2016. The report highlights the success of Influence, which featured articles on George Osborne and Arianna Huffington, and acknowledges its respected reputation within the industry.

In the UK, there are more Chartered Public Relations Practitioners than before. Numbers have risen from just 46 in 2013 to 223 in 2017.

The report, which you can download here, follows the 2017 financial report, which showed a profit of £4.3m leading to the CIPR’s biggest surplus in five years.