How to hire a PR coordinator
for a small business (2026)

What the job pays

O*NET lists Public Relations Coordinator, Communications Coordinator, Media Relations Specialist and Publicist among the titles filed under Public Relations Specialists. The coordinator seat is the junior end of that row, so the 10th and 25th percentiles are the ones a small business will recognize from its own posting.

The six largest metros by employment in this occupation, with the median in each: New York $84,130; Washington $101,680; Los Angeles $79,860; Dallas-Fort Worth $69,280; San Francisco $102,520; Minneapolis $73,780.

Data: BLS OEWS May 2025 (released 2026-05-15); O*NET 31.0 (August 2026). National figures, self-employed excluded. Last updated 2026-09-17.

What does a PR coordinator do day to day?

O*NET's tasks for public relations specialists, read as the coordinator seat at a company with one moment a month:

• Answers journalists when they ask, or finds the right person to answer, the same day.
• Writes the press release and the other things a reporter needs: the fact sheet, the boilerplate, your bio, the list of photos you can supply.
• Keeps your news page and your social accounts current.
• Builds and keeps relationships with the people who cover your category, and with the community groups that matter to your business.
• Tells you what people are saying about you, your products and your competitors, and what to do about it.
• Prepares you for an interview: who the journalist is, what they wrote last, what they will ask.
• Reads your goals and shapes a plan for which moments to pitch and to whom.
• Edits the newsletter and any other publication you send.
• Arranges the appearances, tastings, demos and events that get you noticed.

What to look for

• Clips they earned, with the pitch that earned each one. Not a list of outlets an agency they worked at once appeared in.
• Short writing. A pitch is under 200 words. If their sample is a page, keep looking.
• Research habits: they know what the journalist wrote last month before they write to them.
• Fact discipline: every number in a release has a source, every quote has the sign-off of the person quoted.
• No promises of placement. Nobody honest guarantees coverage.
• The rules for samples: a free product is a material connection the reviewer must disclose, and the coordinator must know that.

How to write the posting

Name the moment: a launch, an opening, a new line, an anniversary, a milestone. Say what you have to offer a journalist: a story, real photographs, samples, a founder who will talk. Say which outlets matter to you (local press, trade press, podcasts, newsletters, TV) and which you do not want. Say what you will not do: pay for placement, chase awards with fees. Put the salary in.

Five interview questions

1. "Which three journalists would you pitch our product to, and why those three?" A good answer names real bylines with recent pieces and explains the fit. A bad answer starts with "I'd send it to a list".
2. "Show me a pitch you sent and the piece it got." A good answer is under 200 words, opens with the journalist's own recent work, makes one ask, and is honest about the pitches that did not land.
3. "A reporter emails about a customer complaint that went viral. What do you do?" A good answer acknowledges the same day, drafts a holding statement, brings it to you, and never speculates or comments on the facts before you have agreed what to say.
4. "How would you write a quote from me?" A good answer drafts a shape, asks for your own words, and sends nothing until you have approved the exact sentence.
5. "What should we never do to get coverage?" A good answer: pay for it and call it earned, trade samples for a promise of a piece, fake a review, break an embargo, invent a "first".

What does a PR coordinator cost a small business in 2026?

An employee at a coordinator salary is cheaper than the row's median suggests, but not as cheap as the salary line. In June 2026 wages and salaries were 70.0% of what private employers paid per hour worked and benefits the other 30.0%, by the Bureau of Labor Statistics' count (Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, released 2026-09-09, read 2026-09-17). At that split, a $52,000 coordinator implies about $74,300 a year in total cost, and a hire at the $74,750 median about $106,800.

A freelance publicist: Everything-PR puts an individual publicist at $2,000 to $10,000 a month on retainer (dated 2026-06-21, read 2026-09-17). Jennifer Bett Communications puts freelance consultants at $150 to $450 an hour, for short advisory work rather than an ongoing program (dated 2026-01-08, read 2026-09-17).

An agency: Everything-PR puts boutique agencies at $3,500 to $10,000 a month and mid-sized agencies at $10,000 to $25,000 (read 2026-09-17). Jennifer Bett Communications puts boutique firms at $5,000 to $10,000 a month, the smallest companies at $3,000 to $7,000, and notes a typical minimum contract of four to six months (read 2026-09-17).

Allying's price for this job is 30% of the salary you post, billed monthly, month to month, with a floor of $1,200 a month. A $52,000 posting is $15,600 a year, or $1,300 a month, rounded as your proposal rounds it; a posting at the 25th percentile, $56,260, is about $1,407; only a posting under $48,000 lands on the floor. A media database or a wire service, if you ever want one, is your purchase in your own account and never inside the price. The exact figure is on your proposal before you decide.

What should the first week produce?

From anyone you hire: a list of who actually covers your category, with proof; monitoring set up so you hear about a mention before a customer tells you; a release and a pitch for your next moment; a fact sheet a reporter can use; and a plan for the first ten approaches. If the first week produces a strategy deck and no names, ask why.

When not to hire a PR coordinator

• You have no moment and no news. Nothing to pitch means nothing to earn. Plan the moment first.
• You want guaranteed placements. That is advertising, and it should be bought and labeled as advertising.
• Your problem is reviews, not coverage. That is a different job.
• You are a public company, or you are in a crisis, a lawsuit or a recall right now. Those need counsel and a senior person on the phone, not a coordinator.
• You will not give quotes, photos or a yes on samples. The coordinator can prepare everything, but only you can be the source.

How Allying does this job

Before any call, from public sources only, on a private work page in your brand, the first week produces:

• The fifty journalists, editors, newsletter writers and podcast hosts who covered your category in the last 90 days, each with the dated pieces that prove it, the published professional contact route and a one-line fit note.
• A coverage baseline for you and three to five competitors over the last year, plus what five category questions return today on three AI answer engines.
• Monitoring set up and running on free alerts, with a digest template.
• A 300 to 500 word press release for the moment your posting names, with quote slots marked as needing your words.
• One pitch to the top journalist under 200 words plus two personalized variants.
• A one-page fact sheet and media kit page.
• The week-one plan with the send rule.

After hire: a morning note of mentions and what needs a decision, an end-of-day line with counts, a Friday coverage report where every piece has a URL, an outlet and a date. Nothing goes to a journalist without your okay. At first you or the named person send each pitch; once you have approved three for a moment, Allying can send the rest of that list itself, one journalist at a time, never more than five a day, and every send is in your ledger the same day. You or the named person are the voice on any call.

The work is done with AI and overseen by a named specialist who answers for it.

Mae Santos, Allying's co-founder, is the person you talk to; write to hello@allying.com and she answers. The work is reviewed before it reaches you.

What Allying refuses on this job

• Sending anything to a journalist, editor, producer, newsletter writer or podcast host without your approval or an unexpired permission that covers that recipient, that moment and that channel. A finished draft is not a send.
• Pitching in bulk, ever: no mail-merge, no distribution list, no wire release without approval. One journalist at a time, even when you want it wider.
• Inventing a fact about your business: a founding date, a customer count, a retailer, an award, a "first". You or your fact ledger supplies it.
• Writing a quote and attributing it to a real person without that person's written sign-off on the exact words. A draft quote is a placeholder until the person quoted approves it.
• Offering a journalist money, gifts or ad spend for coverage, or presenting paid placement as earned.
• Speaking for you on a recall, an injury, a lawsuit, a breach or a financing. It drafts a holding statement and stops.

Questions owners ask

Related pages

What this job costs with Allying, and the other ways of getting it done, with every figure sourced and dated.

• Pricing: the share of the posted salary, job by job
• Allying vs hiring an employee
• Allying vs a marketing agency
• Allying vs freelancers
• Allying vs doing it yourself
• Every hiring guide

Guides for owners

• What small businesses pay in 2026
• How to write a job posting that fills