I break us away from talk of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise’s “relationship” to ask us to wonder if we’ve become unnecessary.

Really, who needs us anymore?

In years past, the science of the PR industry was seen as a sham that we could put over on whoever contracted us. We did our jobs and, as long as we were charming and insouciant, clients seemed to think we were in the way or a nuisance.

Don’t look so shocked.

Keeping clients happy was once a cakewalk. Write up press releases with some good words in them, get the messages right, pick up some ink, pat yourself on the back…rinse…repeat.

Then there it went. All of a sudden, everyone became aware of the capabilities and value of real PR. The media began to tell their readers and viewers how much spin they receive. That stopped the coasting of our PR colleagues: No one can do what was once de rigueur, that “my report reads fine so I’m doing well” kind of PR. There is a need for fewer of us because so few can prove (read: provide proof of) the value-add for the profession.

Once those who employ us figure out they can do it themselves en masse, we might as well face facts: They’ll find a way to get someone who’s already being paid to do what we proclaimed only we could do. Or, to paraphrase Sandra Bernhard, without us, they’re suddenly NOT nothing. (Sorry to my Elementary School teacher who is surely grimacing.)

Like many I remember 1990 like yesterday. My easily-stunned colleagues at Columbia Business School where I was a Stepford-like public affairs director thought what I did was special and incomprehensible: ‘Richard got us on the front page of the Journal and the Times on the same day. However did he?’

No way would a cynical businessman say that now. Our media friends write about how PR fit into their stories with such fervor it’s hard to imagine why anyone who skims papers or half-watches the tube doesn’t say, “Man, this PR thing sounds pretty darn easy to me.”

Another suggestion is that we start a new type of PR-speak that only the natives understand. Marketing speaks in a foreign language—why can’t we? But I’m trying to avoid doing something that someone eventually will or wants to undo.

We damage ourselves daily by forgetting how much of our work is suspicious to the paper-pushers in our lives, but I see a way we might live again: The best, or most sensible, manner in which we can jump back into the ‘necessary’ bin is to provide, just like PBS, education with the entertainment.

Maybe it’s time for pros to hold the hands of our employers and customers, and display our wares so that we are not only great to work with but also able to provide a learning experience in a subject everyone wants to learn more about. Gee. Could we be that useful?

Could we prove value/worth by not talking about ‘found stats’ all the time and, instead, spending our daydreams imagining what it’s like to be the people we’re promoting? Another “Gee.”

As we get severely involved in the daily business happenings of C-level humans, we start to ask tons of relevant questions and provide some serious knowledge.

Here’s a two-fer: You get more for your files and you offer a more-than-cursory learning experience.

And now the businesswomen (equal time) get an acute whiff of what we do. The people who think they can ‘do’ PR discover that our business successes are hard-won via thought and sweat; that is, we bring something to the proverbial table that only PR execs are knowledgeable about. We become the visionaries those Elementary School teachers once wished for us.

One of the trade magazines spent last year saying ‘get more involved in the business dealings of all clientele/managers.’ That was a really cool way to brand us. I say ‘go one step further. Teach.’ Make the curious see that you have the keys to knowledge. By providing education up and down the line, we can put a stop to the nay-sayers from assuming what we do is obvious. That’s a step toward keeping our positions on tap, our revenue flowing and our clients engaged. It’s nothing less than a newfound sense of urgency for PR.

And oh yes. If this doesn’t work find me on an island any minute now.

Laermer is RLM’s CEO. He is trying his best to make PR relevant again. For proof see the book and Web site FullFrontalPR.com.