Sometimes you just have to let it all out... Here's an interesting rant about ROI by Gary Vaynerchuck. He talks directly to the marketing and advertising community, but I think what he has to say is relevant to PR.

In a stalling economy, where marketing and PR budgets may suffer, you need to get more bang for your buck. You need to maximize your Return On Investment.

Major newspapers and magazines are suffering declining readerships, though advertising in them can still cost a small fortune. Audiences are becoming more and more fragmented as the number of media outlets and formats grow: it's getting harder to reach them through traditional channels.

However, every cloud has a silver lining. The eyeballs haven't gone away, they've simply moved to other media channels. There's a major movement to online media and also of course to social media. The fragmentation of the audience actually provides those in advertising, marketing and PR with the ability to more precisely identify, target and reach the right audience.

Going online, undertaking sophisticated pr planning, carefully researching and targeting the correct audiences and focusing your spending and campaigns better will provide optimum 'bang for buck' and ultimately a great ROI.