A recent story in Crain’s New York Business is of particular interest to us because it highlights a theoretical PR industry of the future in which specialization is the key to success.

As we all know, the recession led many big-name clients to take their PR operations in-house–and some of New York’s smaller, more ambitious firms responded by tailoring their services more specifically to businesses within certain fast-growing industries like health care, education and technology.

In short, while these blink-and-you’ll-miss-them firms aren’t yet established leaders of the PR pack, their portfolios filled with marquee clients, they are posting impressive revenue totals at time when many businesses have yet to loosen their recession-era belts.

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Today in Always Look on the Bright Side news (thanks to Eric Idle): Despite a US economy that can’t seem to find its way out of the rabbit hole, the PR business is doing quite well, if we do say so ourselves.

While we can’t quite back up Everything PR’s prediction that the industry “may well be the barometer of hope many people are looking for,” revenues are clearly rising in 2012 with no slowdown in sight.

What changed? Well, after five years of declining recession-era budgets, businesses and public figures seem to have rediscovered their favorite hobby: spending lots of money to make themselves look good! In case you haven’t heard, corporate profits have emerged from the downturn in excellent health despite the fact that millions of Americans continue to struggle. It’s really common sense: An era producing record-low levels of trust in government, media and big business entities makes PR services more valuable than ever.

Now that you’ve got money to burn, you can pay for the full report here.

In addition to all the hubbub about Sir Martin Sorrell’s pay, WPP also announced its earnings for the first four months of this year. Overall, revenue is up seven percent in British pounds to £3.2 billion, up nearly five percent in U.S. dollars to about about $5.1 billion, and up nearly 11 percent in Euros to €3.9 billion. Profits and operating margin are ahead of the budget.

PR and public affairs revenue was up seven percent. WPP PR firms include Ogilvy PR, Burson-Marsteller, and Hill & Knowlton.

The company says 2012 is shaping up to be much like the previous two years but with less like-for-like growth. And 2013 looks to be even more challenging with the slow down in Europe and trouble on the horizon involving Iran. For more on the quarterly earnings, click here.

The company has also released its sustainability report for 2011. More about that here.

MDC Partners reported Q1 revenue of about $236 million, an increase of 9.7 percent versus 2011. The company also reported organic growth of 5.4 percent. However, the company also reported a number of losses for the quarter.

Operating loss was at about $11.7 million versus a profit of $2.56 million year-over-year. Net loss was about $24.6 million compared with $7 million in 2011.

Adweek also notes the Q1 drop in EBITDA of 51 percent, from $15.4 million last year to $7.5 million this year. The company has purchased or taken a stake in a number of firms over the past couple of years, including Kwittken & Company, Allison+Partners, London’s Epoch PR, and ad agency Anomaly.

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Vocus‘ Q1 earnings announcement shows a 29 percent year-over-year increase in GAAP revenue to $34.9 million. Non-GAAP revenue was up 31 percent to $35.5 million. GAAP operations losses totaled $10.4 million versus $3.1 million in 2011. Non-GAAP operations income was $854,000 versus $2.3 million in 2011.

In February 2012, Vocus acquired iContact for $169 million, which sent the company’s stock price lower, down from about $22 to $14. The stock price closed today at $13.25.

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WPP reported a like-for-like revenue increase of 1.9 percent in the public relations and public affairs area for Q1 2012. Revenue for the sector totaled £225 million, or about $365.6 million. In constant currencies, that percentage goes up to 6.8 percent. The company said Burson-Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe showed the strongest growth. B-M this week announced leadership changes at Proof Integrated Communications and in its consumer and brand marketing practice.

Overall, that means PR and public affairs make up 9.4 percent of total revenue for the company.

Revenue for WPP as a whole totaled about £2.93 billion (about $4.76 billion), up 7.6 percent in pound sterling and 5.5 percent in U.S. dollars. Like-for-like revenue was up four percent.

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Interpublic Group, home to Weber Shandwick, GolinHarris, and other PR and advertising agencies, reported first quarter revenue of $1.51 billion, an increase from $1.47 billion in 2011. Organic growth was 2.8 percent.

The company’s operating loss was $39.4 million, a decrease year-over-year from $45.3 million, showing improvement. Net loss was $45.9 million versus $48.1 million in 2011. The Wall Street Journal reports that  ”in February Standard & Poor’s raised its rating outlook on Interpublic to positive from stable, citing the company’s progress toward improving profitability and credit metrics.”

Harris Diamond, the CEO of IPG’s Constituency Management Group (CMG), housing the company’s PR firms, says its figures were strong with organic revenue at 8.6 percent and overall growth at 10 percent.

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Havas, home to firms including Abernathy McGregor Group, Cake, and Euro RSCG Worldwide, reported 3.5 percent organic growth for Q1 2012 with revenue totaling €387 million (about $511 million by today’s conversion rates). That’s a year-over-year increase from €361 million in revenue.

The company called its new business results “robust” with that figure totaling €605 million (about $799 million) for the quarter. That far exceeds the new business number from 2011 – €384 million.

Even with the positive numbers, the results fall short of the competition. Havas’ European figures were sluggish with organic growth actually going negative in the U.K. and the rest of Europe, with the exception of France, its home turf.

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Publicis Groupe announced its Q1 earnings today, reporting a 12.9 percent year-over-year increase in revenue to €1.45 billion (about $1.9 billion). Organic growth was 4.1 percent, down from Q1 2011 when it was 6.5 percent, but up from Q4 2011.

The Specialized Marketing Services (SAMS) group, which houses the company’s PR units like MSLGroup, represented 19 percent of total revenue, down from 21 percent last year.

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Omnicom earnings announcement for Q1 2012 showed an overall 6.5 percent revenue growth for the company’s PR business during the quarter, totaling $306.9 million. Organic growth was 4.4 percent for the quarter. PR accounts for 9.3 percent of Omnicom’s total revenue. Omnicom’s PR firms include Ketchum, Fleishman-Hillard, and Porter Novelli.

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