PR Newswire
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PR Newswire started out in 1954 as a vendor hired by companies and agencies to send out text press releases to the media. Today, PR Newswire is hired by corporations, PR firms and NGOs to deliver news and multimedia content. Recipients include the media, consumers and investors who access the content via the Web, RSS, email, satellite, equities terminals (such as Bloomberg and Reuters), and direct feeds into newsroom editorial systems.
Public corporations in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and other nations, use PR Newswire as a method of reaching the investment and financial news community with important news and announcements, thus achieving the standard of "simultaneous disclosure" required by financial markets and regulatory agencies.
Headquartered in New York, PR Newswire has offices in 14 countries and sends news to outlets in 135 countries. The company has several brands and services that include ProfNet, eWatch, MEDIAtlas, MultiVu, U.S. Newswire, Vintage Filings, MediaRoom and MediaSense. It also has agreements with global news agencies such as Bloomberg, the Associated Press, Dow Jones, Thomson Reuters to send information directly to newsrooms worldwide. PR Newswire is a subsidiary of United Business Media Limited of London.
History
Established in New York in 1954 by Herb Muschel, PR Newswire was the first to create a system for the electronic distribution of news releases. Prior to its establishment, companies issuing press releases to the New York media had to messenger, dictate or mail individual copies of their news releases to the city’s daily newspapers and news services. With PR Newswire, companies could send a single copy of their release to PR Newswire's newsroom, where it would be simultaneously transmitted to the city's major media points.
PR Newswire was later sold to Western Union, which had provided the telecommunications lines and teleprinters that supported the service.
PR Newswire created Investors Research Wire in 1965, which disseminated corporate news releases directly to brokerage firms and financial analysts. In 1967, the company acquired the local Los Angeles wire service.
In 1972, PR Newswire began using electronic terminals for copyediting.
In 1978, the company went digital with the adoption of the Associated Press' computerized message handling and transmission system.
In 1982, the company was purchased by United Newspapers plc (today known as United Business Media Limited) of London
In 1982, PR Newswire expanded its presence through acquisitions, beginning with the purchase of Philadelphia-based Mediawire in 1983. By the end of the 1980s, many U.S. dailies and financial institutions took PR Newswire directly into their internal information systems. PR Newswire also began archiving news releases on electronic databases, including NEXIS (now LexisNexis).
In 1996, PR Newswire began releasing news directly to consumers via the Web with the launch of www.prnewswire.com.
In 2001, PR Newswire issued the first Multimedia News Release for Touchstone Pictures promoting the film, "Pearl Harbor." The Multimedia News Release was the first press release to include b-roll, soundbites, high resolution images, and film trailer [1]. Many refer to the Multimedia News Release as a [Social Media Press Release] or [Social Media Release].
In 2002, PR Newswire started MultiVu, its own broadcast and multimedia production company, to create and deliver video/audio news releases, multimedia news releases, satellite and radio media tours, public service announcements, electronic multimedia kits and Web video.
In October 2006, PR Newswire acquired U.S. Newswire from Medialink [2].
In February 2006, PR Newswire began adding social media links to every press release issued. PR Newswire began with del.icio.us and later added Digg, Reddit, Newsvine and StumbleUpon.
In January 2007, PR Newswire began including links to Technorati allowing readers to track online conversations in the blogosphere directly from press releases on http://www.prnewswire.com. [3] PR Newswire later added functionality enabling readers to blog about each press release with one click on Blogger or Wordpress.
In April 2007, PR Newswire acquired the privately held Vintage Filings company [4].
In August 2007, PR Newswire acquired Notilog [5].
In Jan 2008, PR Newswire acquired Hispanimark,LLC and its subsidiaries, Hispanic PR Wire (http://www.hispanicprwire.com), LatinClips (http://www.latinclips.com) and Hispanic Digital Network (http://www.hdnweb.com) [6].
Distribution
PR Newswire distributes news to reach mainstream outlets, over 78 categories of industry trade media, more than 4,900 Web sites and PR Newswire for Journalists, a digital media channel serving more than 85,000 registered journalists globally. PR Newswire also provides services to public companies to assist in meeting SEC and all the major exchange disclosure requirements, including distribution to key disclosure media.
PR Newswire also offers more than 688 RSS news feeds, 188 of which are public RSS feeds including geographical as well as industry/subject feeds and makes its RSS available to journalists in English, German, Spanish and French. In addition, PR Newswire also provides customers with the tools to measure the effectiveness of their media campaigns with products such as eWatch and MediaSense.
Xinhua PR Newswire
Xinhua PR Newswire (XPRN), an alliance created between Xinhua Finance and PR Newswire, assists companies and organizations in delivering their news releases to the media, individual and institutional investors, the general public worldwide, with clipping, monitoring, measurement and media intelligence services.
Founded in 1954, PR Newswire is the world's oldest and largest corporate news distribution service. PR Newswire has a global client base of 40,000 companies, organizations and government agencies, including over 60% of the Fortune 500 companies.
Utilizing PR Newswire's global news distribution network, Xinhua PR Newswire can send clients' press releases to 24,000 media points in 135 countries in 40 languages, as well as to over 1 million investors worldwide.
In China, XPRN has a network of over 9,000 journalists representing 3,000+ media agencies, which include 500 general media, 2,200 trade publications, 300 websites and 50 foreign news media.
Using Xinhua PR Newswire can help companies comply with mandatory disclosure requirements. To ensure the broadest possible distribution, every story is simultaneously delivered to the "disclosure" media designated by NYSE, AMEX, NASDAQ and LSE, including Dow Jones, Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Investor's Business Daily and others.
Meet the Media seminars
Meet the Media is a series of seminars hosted by PR Newswire in London. These events aim to give both the speaker and the audience a unique opportunity to exchange their ideas and experiences in a friendly and professional atmosphere. Over the last years, Meet the Media has featured speakers from major UK publications such as The Times, The Guardian, The Economist, The Telegraph. Recently, Meet the Media has focused on the social media trend, inviting panels of bloggers and web 2.0 specialists. In june 2008, the first ever French Meet the Media was hosted in Paris. In september 2008, Meet the Media website, [1] was launched, with all the seminars edited online.
References
- ^ Touchstone Pictures' "Pearl Harbor" Premieres
- ^ MultiVu - PR Newswire Acquires U.S. Newswire; Transaction to benefit government, private sector public information officers
- ^ PR Newswire Links Press Releases to Technorati
- ^ PR Newswire to Acquire Fastest Growing EDGAR filing firm, Vintage Filings, LLC - with video and photos
- ^ PR Newswire to Acquire Leading Latin American Media Monitoring Firm, Notilog
- ^ PR Newswire to Acquire Leading Hispanic Press Release, Clipping and On-line Advertising Services | With Video