PR agencies are certainly not immune to the current recession, and a new study shines some light on just how much things have changed over the last year. Consulting firm Stevens Gould Pincus released their "2009 Best Practices Benchmarking Report," today, which surveyed 106 PR agencies in the U.S. and Canada.

Some of the key findings:

Profitability dropped 20.8% in 2008 to 15.6% of revenues.

The average minimum monthly fee that PR agencies charge clients also fell, by 26%, to $10,332.

The average monthly retainer for NY-based agencies was $10,482, compared to $5,020 in the Midwest and $11,750 in Washington, D.C.

Crain's NY Business has additional insight here.