This year was all about digital, digital, digital. Agencies big and small expanded, re-branded, and staffed up to meet client demand, while also performing triage on their traditional business. A number agencies made deep staff cuts, while some closed altogether. Journalists fled crumbling mastheads to join the PR world. Flat became the new growth for those reporting earnings.

Here are a few posts remembering the year that was in public relations agency trends…

Firms create and name their digital divisions:

Levine opens LCO 2.0, Morris + King opens SeisMK; Ogilvy PR calls theirs 360° Digital Influence.

Big hires, mostly in digital:

David Patton leaves WSJ for WagEd’s Studio D; Stephanie Agresta gets a big bump at Porter Novelli; Chad Latz joins Cohn & Wolfe; Ogilvy adds several; Marian Salzman re-joins EuroRSCG; Cristina Lawrence leaves Fleishman Hillard for Razorfish; David Armano joins Edelman.

Digi-gurus leave their jobs to start their own consultancies, including:

“PR” Sarah Evans launches Sevans Strategy; “Key Influencer” James Andrews leaves Ketchum to start Everywhere; Chris Brown leaves “America’s Most Wanted” to run his firm full time.

Flat is the new up:

Richard Edelman predicts gloom at Davos; Omnicom, MDC (with up earnings), WPP all report revenue slips; Martin Sorrell already saying 2010 will be rough; The Council of PR Firms called it.

Firms and offices closed or shrank:

The mega-firm Enfatico, created to service Dell, has layoffs; Fleishman cuts deep in hometown Kansas City office; Taylor makes cuts; Catevo closes; LP&G closes office, goes virtual; Paul Wilmot exits L.A. after less than a year.

Remember when James Andrews, then a vice president at Ketchum went to go visit his client FedEx in Memphis? Upon arrival, he tweeted of the city that he would “die if he had to live” there. Needless to say, the comment created a firestorm in the blogosphere, the client was not happy and Ketchum had to issue an apology. Andrews has since left Ketchum to start his own agency.

Did the gaffe leave lasting marks? If it did, it didn’t hurt him, Andrews told BusinessWeek. “It helps me today,” he said. “I use it as a case study. It creates authenticity.”

So, the next time the social media mob comes after you for a mistake, remember: they’ll forget about it in a few months anyway, and it may even help your cred.

Just 16 months after joining Ketchum’s KIC division and one Twitter gaffe later regarding the FedEx account, James Andrews launches social media consultancy Everywhere with three clients and two partners.

According to his PitchEngine press release, Andrews and partners Danica Kombol, former VP, Ketchum, and Tamara Knechtel, formerly SVP, Operations at Radio One, are launching with Delta, legendary actress Jane Fonda and Hip-Hop producer Jermaine Dupri as clients.

Andrews kicked off the launch with some time with Don Lemon on CNN this weekend, talking Iran, Michael Jackson and the new, Now media.

Good stuff but why didn’t the Atlanta-based Andrews drop by CNN headquarters to do the spot in person?

Embedded video from CNN Video

Andrews …