Is information the currency of the new economy? If you read Super Crunchers, by Ian Ayres, that is the conclusion you will be pointed to. In fact, the book argues that data crunching is having an impact on everything from daily personal decisions to public policy. This can have a serious effect on how companies attempt to influence public opinion.

According to Newsweek, the new book argues that data mining constitutes "a powerful trend that will shape the economy for years to come: the replacement of expertise and intuition by objective, data-based decision making, made possible by a virtually inexhaustible supply of inexpensive information. Those who control and manipulate this data will be the masters of the new economic universe."

The Economist weighs in saying that, "Super Crunchers presents a convincing and disturbing vision of a future in which everyday decision-making is increasingly automated, and the role of human judgment restricted to providing input to formulate."

So what does this mean for public relations professionals? While highly structured publicity plans may seem appealing, an over-reliance on metrics can crush originality and risk-taking.

As we previously reported in Ad Age, a metrics-only mindset tends to inhibit innovation because it can rely on looking backward and taking a status-quo-approach based on the numbers. If you base your new campaign on what worked for the last two quarters, you'll only be recycling past successes instead of initiating new ones.

There is no doubt that we currently live in an information economy. However, not everything can be determined by crunching numbers. While public relations practitioners can use data analysis to tailor campaigns more effectively, media relations is still a qualitative medium.